Dr. Lina Pernas

And then there's been very interesting work from predominantly driven by a Czech scientist, Dr. Jaroslav Fleger, that has investigated how toxoplasma impacts human behavior.

And I think he won an Ig Nobel Prize, so these are the prizes that make you laugh and then make you think, for showing that they make men who are infected with chronic toxoplasmosis are more likely to be, I think, indolent and scruffy and take less care of themselves, whereas women are more likely to be intelligent and sexier and risk-taking.

Most men I know are a bit like that.

Well, I don't know what the rate is in Australia, but...

It's usually not a problem for immunocompetent individuals.

So for healthy folks, toxo will stay in its chronic stage and it won't cause any overt symptoms.

It becomes a problem in two scenarios.

One is when an individual becomes immunocompromised.

So it became a huge deal during the AIDS epidemic because all these individuals who had had chronic toxoplasmosis and who were fine

started presenting brain lesions and started dying because now this parasite could replicate with impunity.

And the other severe problem is for pregnant women.

So if a pregnant woman already has toxo, it's not thought to be an issue.

But if a woman becomes pregnant, then becomes infected with toxoplasmosis, this can have profound consequences for the fetus.

So it can infect the fetus and lead to all sorts of brain deformations and eye problems.