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YSPH Researcher Develops Museum Exhibit on Infectious Diseases

Magnified 100 times, this blood-sucking tick helps animate Lyme disease at Yale's Peabody Museum.

Wriggling larvae, jars of ticks and a larger-than-life mosquito devouring a blood meal are some of the ways the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History is de-mystifying infectious disease through an exhibit “Solving the Puzzle: Lyme Disease, West Nile Virus, and You,” developed with guidance from Leonard Munstermann, senior research scientist at the School of Public Health.

Munstermann, who serves as the Peabody’s associate curator in the Division of Entomology, is seeking to give museum-goers a better understanding of vector-borne diseases, especially how humans exert an impact on their spread and prevention.

“‘Solving the Puzzle’ reduces the complexity of the information so a lay audience can easily absorb it, and play a role themselves in combating these diseases,” said Munstermann.

The exhibit’s Columbus Day opening featured a puppet show and games for children, who studied ticks and mosquitoes as both jarred specimens and stuffed-animal-size replicas. Placards define such public health terms as “pathogen,” “host” and “vector,” explain the “blood-meal” transmission of the diseases and advise visitors on how to protect themselves against infection. The exhibit runs through Jan. 31, 2010.

A companion exhibit, “Disease Detectives,” also explores public health issues by inviting visitors to examine three patients with diseases such as E. coli and the flu, swabbing a mannequin’s nostrils and noting the DNA of fake stool samples, among other interactions, to detect microbes and bacteria.

Though the topic of vector-borne disease receives only sporadic media attention, visitors to the museum gathered several tips to contain the spread of illnesses that have caused millions of deaths worldwide.

“We learned that even the smallest ticks can carry devastating diseases,” said Jim Gehrer of Hamden, as his daughter Alexandra peered at writhing mosquito larvae through a magnifying glass. “Now we know how to adequately cover ourselves and how to remove a tick, if need be, next time we’re walking in the wilderness.”

-- Story by Melissa Pheterson