Expert: Walter Hintz - 12/16/2009

Question
Hi! Hearing that you are a science teacher, I am almost positive you want students to do their own work. But, I need help finding a topic for my project. My assignment is to look through newspapers or find an article on the internet that talks about a disease or sickness caused by bacteria, virus, fungi, or a protist. And, since I'm in 6th grade, it can't be anything from a medical journal with big hard words no one will be able to understand. Now, what I was really wondering is if you could send me a link about an article under on of these things. Thank you for your time.

Answer
I have just the thing for you Jenna.  There is a protozoan parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. 60 million people in the US carry this parasite. It spreads through rats and cats and most cat litter boxes contain the parasite. Go to this web sute to learn more;
http://www.cdc.gov/toxoplsmosis/  or google Toxoplasma