That’s sick! Humans identify infected peers from a photo
Paris, (MILLAT ONLINE):Human beings can spot a sick person, on a photo, a mere two hours after he or she was infected by a germ, researchers said Wednesday.
Such an ability to detect infection early, and from the subtlest of facial clues, has never been demonstrated before, but is presumed to be part of a crucial survival skill called “disease avoidance”, they wrote.
“An ability to detect sick people would allow people to avoid being close to sick people, and hence minimise the risk of becoming sick if the person is a carrier of contagious disease,” study co-author John Axelsson of Stockholm University told AFP.
The research team experimented with 16 healthy volunteers, all Caucasian.
Each was given a shot of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) — molecules taken from bacteria.
The LPS molecules are sterile, meaning that no live bacteria is injected. But they cause a strong immune response and flu-like symptoms that lasts a few hours — mimicking someone who is “acutely sick” and fighting off infection.
It is a method commonly used to cause infections in humans and people for experimentation purposes.