• Typhoon@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    6 hours ago

    A sexually transmitted form of roundworm is making a gross splash in the United States.

    The first sentence is wrong. It’s not roundworm. Roundworms are actual worms. It’s talking about ringworm which is a fungus.

    • phx@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 hours ago

      Isn’t it also transmissible by skin contact and not just sexual contact?

      • frongt@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        45 minutes ago

        Yes. And not just skin-to-skin, but also things like bath towels.

        But it’s gizmodo, which has always been trash.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        4 hours ago

        The skin infections it creates spread outward and leave a ring-shaped scaly red welt that looks like a ring just under the surface of the skin, but it’s actually an inflammation boundary. I assume at one time people thought it was an actual worm under the skin because the welts tend to look very regular and more like a “round thing” than a skin infection.

        (A very similar pattern of reaction boundaries was seen and sampled on rocks on Mars recently and appear exactly like the marks left by microbial life on Earth, and so far is one of our best bets for possible evidence of life beyond Earth ever having existed, and the mission to retrieve those samples was canceled as Trump slashed NASA’s budget, you know, so that money goes back into your pocket. Did you get it yet? How about now?)