[HN Gopher] The Curse of Konzo (2018)
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The Curse of Konzo (2018)
Author : CobaltFire
Score : 32 points
Date : 2022-07-10 15:37 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.damninteresting.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.damninteresting.com)
| Terr_ wrote:
| > For most of us, the distinct odour of bitter almonds is indeed
| the scent of cyanide, but up to 40 percent of the population
| --presumably including a few unfortunate detectives --have a
| complete genetic inability to smell the poison.
|
| Now I'm curious whether I'm one of them--I suspect it might be
| difficult to order some bitter almonds to test, IIRC they aren't
| generally sold in their toxic form in the US.
| baxtr wrote:
| Well... if you can't immediately taste a bitter almond after
| reading the above, I'm afraid you're part of the 40%. (Assuming
| you have had almonds before)
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _The Curse of Konzo_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16979456 - May 2018 (5
| comments)
| nerdponx wrote:
| > Early in the investigation, an elderly man in one of the
| affected villages told the doctors, "This disease has happened
| because the rain has not washed our cassava." Perhaps
| understandably, investigators initially ignored him. The practice
| of disease outbreak investigation involves an established
| sequence of steps concerned with relating cases to "time, place,
| and person." Heeding advice from grizzled old locals does not
| feature prominently in field epidemiology manuals.
|
| This is so incredibly frustrating. Why _wouldn 't_ you at least
| take this as a clue? The arrogance of Western medicine and
| science is astounding sometimes.
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