TOXO CAUSES BRAIN-MANIPULATING SUACIDAL DISEASE

What happens to a fearless mouse facing a cat? Death.

The mouse must be crazy to be that casual in front of the potential killer which is 20 times bigger than it is. Something must be off.

In this case, it really is. The parasite, Toxo, is the answer.

It manipulated the mouse’s brain into feeling what-are-you-going-to-do kind of suicidal attitude.

A Czech evolutionary biologist Jaroslav Flegr found this out a few years ago.

Since then, it became infamous among scientists. The shocking survival mechanism was the reason.

The mouse jumped from one cat to another by infecting rats.

The infection got rid of the crucial responses for survival.

All that was left of it was death by complacency.

Flegr discovered infected humans also exhibited the same behaviors.

They knew it was Toxo, but they couldn’t figure out how.

The mystery was solved two months ago.

It was found out by Antonion Barragan and his fellow researchers at the Center for Infectious Medicine at Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

The key was white blood cell. To travel to the brain, Toxo hijacked them.

The very cells designed to fight foreign invaders were doing the exact opposite.

It was just like a Trojan horse.

Toxo also turned the white blood cells into tiny chemical factories.

The infected mouse was left with the following symptoms: reduced fear or anxiety, lethargy.

Dr. Barragan and his team draw the conclusion by examining the Toxo in mice’s blood.

Toxo usually lives in cats. But humans can’t be complacent.

Contact with litter boxes, contaminated water, or undercooked meat infects people.

The parasite can be disregarded most of the time.

Pregnant women, however, are the exception.

If infected during pregnancy, they face increased risk of miscarriage or birth defects.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention explained.