The Case of the Elusive Infection

Illustration of male doctor in a white coat. Text below reads: “Michael Wilson, MD, Rachleff Professor, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.” Speech bubble reads: “By the time I learned about the patient, she’d been very ill for years. Her problems started when she was 26.”

Three panels. Top left panel, illustration of young woman sweating and in distress with a speech bubble reading: “What’s happening to me?” Text to the right reads: “2002, Neck pain, Back pain, Fatigue, Fever.” Middle panel, right panel, illustration of male doctor in a white coat. Speech bubble reads: “She had taken antibiotics and was better...until she had a baby.” Left panel, illustration of young woman taking two pills. Bottom panel, illustration of young woman, sweating and in distress, holding a baby with a speech bubble reading: “The chills and fevers are back, and the pain is even worse!” Text to the right reads: “2006.”

Three panels. Top panel, illustration of silhouette a doctor next to the woman, who is hunched forward in pain. Speech bubble reads: “We’ve tested for infections...” Text to the right reads: “2007” Middle panel, illustration of silhouette another doctor next to the woman. Speech bubble reads: “autoimmune conditions...cancers...” Text to the right reads: “2008.” Bottom panel, illustration of silhouette yet another doctor next to the woman. Speech bubble reads: “but we just can’t find the culprit.” Text to the right reads: “2009.”

Illustration of the male doctor in white coat looking through a magnifying glass. Text in upper right corner reads: “2017.” The panel background features a DNA strand, the body of a tapeworm, and other small creatures. The magnifying glass is focused on small creatures with text reading: “Bacteria.” Two speech bubbles read: “Her case was so perplexing that the National Institutes of Health got involved. That’s when they emailed me about a new infectious disease test my UCSF colleagues* and I had developed. *Including Charles Chiu, MD, PhD; Joe DeRisi, PhD, the Gordon Tomkins Professor; and Steve Miller, MD.”

Same illustration of the male doctor in white coat looking through a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass is focused on more small creatures with text reading: “Parasites, Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi.” Two speech bubbles read: “Standard tests look for only one infection at a time, but our test searches for thousands. It decodes pieces of DNA from a patient’s spinal fluid and then looks for matches in a database of all known infections. It’s like using fingerprints to catch a criminal.”

Illustration of hand holding magnifying glass on a panel with DNA strands and small creatures. The magnifying glass is focused on a tapeworm’s head. Text above the head reads: “We ran the test for the woman. Just days later we had a match. She had a tapeworm!”

Illustration of the male doctor and the woman with a tear on her cheek, hugging her young son. Two speech bubbles read: “Luckily, there was a treatment. At long last, the end of her arduous journey was in sight.”