Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites

We had a number of great arthropod cases in the past few weeks! Here's one that had us stumped for a little while: The following live ...

Answer:  Fly larvae; most likely representing involvement of the tampon in the environment rather than in the patient. As described by Flo...

This week's case is a blood specimen from an elderly gentleman from Arkansas. He is asplenic and has received multiple blood transfusion...

Answer: Babesia sp. Interestingly, this case was identified as  Babesia divergens/ MO-1 strain by PCR testing. The currently unnamed MO-1 s...

This week's case is a peripheral blood smear from a 52 year-old businessman from India. Identification?

Answer:   Plasmodium vivax Thanks to everyone who wrote in on this case. As nicely described by Florida Fan, Yasir and Antonio, the infect...

This lovely little family was submitted by Florida Fan. Identification?

Answer: Cimex lectularius , the common human bed bug. The other human bed bug is Cimex hemipterus, the tropical bed bug. While C. lectulariu...

Happy Lab Week everyone! This week's case was generously donated by Miranda D., and is a bit of a challenge. The following objects wer...

Answer: Ciliocytophthoria (a.k.a. detached ciliary tufts) This case is interesting in that detached ciliary tufts (DCTs) are uncommonly se...