• Question: Do you ever feel ill after you had made a deadly superbug?

    Asked by tommymiddleton to Anna, Jonathan, Samantha, Sam on 3 Jul 2012. This question was also asked by renhares1.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Yes – unless you are naturally immune or have developed a vaccine for it. A couple of scientists deliberately infected themselves with a bug to show that it caused stomach ulcers (it wasn’t a superbug).

    • Photo: Jonathan Kay

      Jonathan Kay answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Tell us a bit more about you mean… pathologists don’t make bugs. They might help the bug make more of themselves…

    • Photo: Samantha Weaver

      Samantha Weaver answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      I don’t make superbugs – but we have to be very careful when dealing with samples infected with ‘superbugs’ such as HIV, Hepatitis B, ‘mad cows disease’ (CJD) and TB so that we do not get infected too.

    • Photo: Sam Chilka

      Sam Chilka answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      I don’t work with bugs. There are pathologists who work with bacteria and viruses, and yes you would have to be very careful when handling these samples – there is a risk of getting infected and you could end up getting very ill indeed…

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