Historical Note 1

Fighting Killer Worms

By Patrick Skelly, Scientific American May 2008

“Bloodsucking worms called schistosomes are among the world’s most worrisome human parasites. A new genome sequence and powerful genetic tools promise to help crack their secrets.”

As I skimmed the article this historical nugget jumped out.

“The worms, also known as flukes, once brought down an army. They spread in water, and in 1948 they incapacitated large numbers of soldiers from the People’s Republic of China who were preparing for an amphibious assault on Taiwan (formerly Formosa). One histor-ian thus dubbed the worm ‘the fluke that saved Formosa.’”

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