Flaws in prediction of presence of "beneficial" microbes from sequence

Made a Storify that may be of interest

PLOS Pathogens at 10 Years

Editors-in-Chief Kasturi Haldar and Grant McFadden highlight 10 years of PLOS Pathogens research in celebration of past accomplishments and future endeavors. As PLOS Pathogens turns 10, we are excited to assemble a collection of primary research articles that reflects the … Continue reading »

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Research Matters

Research Matters is a new article series in which active scientists speak directly about why basic research in their field matters. It bridges the gap between academic research and the public by explaining how diverse fundamental research assures real and … Continue reading »

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The Oral Microbiota Affects More Than Just the Mouth

For World Oral Health Day, Lily Berrin, daughter of a periodontist and dental hygienist, highlights recent PLOS Pathogens content to remind us that oral pathogens do more than just cause cavities. There is more going on behind that smile than … Continue reading »

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What’s the Buzz on Bee Pathogens?

US National Honey Bee Day is August 16th. Read below for a selection of papers from PLOS Pathogens on honey bee decline in the world of pathogenesis. 

Given the current issues affecting global health— the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, …

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Discussion of new pathogen discovery papers

Interesting discussion yesterday with authors of new pathogen discovery papers. I will try to write more about this later but am heading out the door so this Storify will have to do for now.

Love work of @billgates but "mosquitoes kill more people than people do" is just wrong

I truly love the work Bil Gates and the Gates Foundation have been doing over the last years.  Absolutely wonderful stuff.  But I have a bone (or perhaps a proboscis) to pick with this latest effort: The Deadliest Animal in the World | Bill Gates.  The article discusses some "facts" about how many people different animals kill.  And it uses this to argue for the need for more attention to be placed on mosquitoes.  I agree with the conclusion.  Mosquitoes are a big deal and need much much much more work and attention.  But the data is just, well, not sound.  Here is the problem I have

1. Many of the animals, including mosquitoes, are on the list are there because of the diseases they transmit.  For example, dogs are there (for rabies), and tsetse flies are there for sleeping sickness.  That is, they do not kill people directly but indirectly because of a disease they transmit.

2. If we follow that logic, which I am fine with, then we need to add a whole lot of deaths to the "human" column.  After all, humans transmit a whole heck of a lot of diseases that kill humans.  One source I found has the following #s
  • HIV/AIDS: 1.78 million per year
  • Tuberculosis: 1.34 million per year
  • Flu: 250-500,000 per year
  • HAIs: >100,000
  • Syphilis: 100,000
  • Measles: 600,000
and many many many more.   The totals are probably greater than 5 million per year that are killed by infectious diseases where it was humans who transmitted the agent to other humans.  Way more than the mosquitoes.  Again, I agree with the conclusion.  We need lots more attention on mosquitoes.  But there seems little doubt to me which animal is most responsible for the spread of deadly pathogens to humans.  And that animal is us.


UPDATE 5/3

Am kind of annoyed at the press coverage of this Gates - mosquitoes are the deadliest animal - concept.  Here are some examples where people just ate up the idea without really asking any questions about its accuracy
And many many more.  It is a cute concept.  And an important one.  It just happens to be wrong.

UPDATE 5/4. Some Tweets of relevance






UPDATE 5/5
See Vox post: No, mosquitoes aren't deadlier than humans

Also see these posts which run with the Gates meme
UPDATE 5/6

Quick post: nice #openaccess review: Insights from Genomics into Bacterial Pathogen Populations

Just a quick post here.  There is a new review/commentary that may be of interest: PLOS Pathogens: Insights from Genomics into Bacterial Pathogen Populations.  By Daniel Wilson from the Wellcome Trust Centre at Oxford.

Full citation: Wilson DJ (2012) Insights from Genomics into Bacterial Pathogen Populations. PLoS Pathog 8(9): e1002874. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002874

It is a nice and useful review ...