Dec 21, 16 / Cap 20, 00 18:09 UTC

I am a parasitologist  

If and only if we decide to relocate to outer space, which will be awesome like we see in space movies, what is the plan to protect citizens from possible space infections? Since we will need some adapting to space microfauna. Any proactive epidemic plan?

Dec 22, 16 / Cap 21, 00 03:42 UTC

To prevent sickness do to bacteria and viruses on the ship itself and along with other planetary bodies/ asteroids, areas of interest should be carefully investigated through a team of specialized individuals (wearing a sheet of protective material around their suit) for any potentially lethal substances. After going through investigation, and if not cleared of any lethal substances any others going through the area would be required to wear protective clothing as well. Once those individuals where to leave the infected area they would need to properly dispose of the protective cloth and immediately rinse off their space suit and if on the ship, to clean off their bodies. To prevent sickness itself on Asgardia, all the individuals would need to do is to keep sanitary and clean up after themselves and if sick to not leave the confines of their home. If an epidemic where to break out, the infected should be quarantined and tested for cures while the ship is scrubbed down to prevent any further infection.

Dec 24, 16 / Cap 23, 00 04:59 UTC

Great! But maybe we will also need to take samples of potential pathogenic organisms, passage in lab animals, study their biology and prepare vaccines or drugs as a way of proactive preparation against epidemic.

Jan 5, 17 / Aqu 05, 01 22:13 UTC

I think your biggest problem in the whole of this is microgravity. You can use vacutainer collection for blood, but unless a machine is doing the phlebotomy, I would assume it hard for the phlebotomist to draw from anyone that is an especially hard stick.

A lot of parasitology is recognized through stool specimens. How would one be able to collect said specimen? As far as I am aware, going to the bathroom on the ISS is no picnic. You could do a colonoscopy, looking for worms, but again, due to microgravity, that might be interesting. I do not know the protocol for laxatives in space.

I am a laboratory technologist by trade, and a lot of what we do is based on gravity. Immunology, Chemistry, Hematology, Urinalysis, Microbiology and even Blood Bank all deal with some sort of aliquoting. I know there is an analyzer on the ISS for some blood work, but it is limited. You would have to implement a lot of vacuum based technology, or something completely airless. In the second case, you might dilute specimens, and in the first case, a lot of your weight would go to pumps. Weight is a premium in getting things into space. With 3d printers, I can see some of it being solved (maybe a 3d printed set of channels to run specimen through so you won't have to worry about tubing) but I think technologically, we are still too far away for some of that stuff.

Also, in the case of parasitology, you would need to deal with microscopy...some of those buggers are small (i.e. plasmodium) and who knows what space might give us. We would have to figure out a way to deal with staining specimens so that artifact could be found.

I guess I could see a proactive approach just being someone in quarantine. Have a full alcohol bath to destroy most fauna (probably a towelette based system, or oversoaked towels). Afterward, have a robot run a phlebotomy procedure to extract blood to be put on a slide. Check a slide under the microscope for artifact. Lastly, do an ultrasound on the bowels to check for worms and the like.

Jan 10, 17 / Aqu 10, 01 05:53 UTC

Nice one at CLemmons