Emerging Infectious Disease ISSN: 1080-6059

Ode to Rickettsiae1

Another Dimension
Suggested Citation

Veranja Liyanapathirana

Author affiliation: Author affiliation:University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Suggested citation for this article

Oh! dear Rickettsiae.

Why did you become such a difficult bug?

You and your cousin (once removed) Orientia,

So tiny: yet so powerful

I cannot grow you, because you need special care.

My poor home can not offer a cocoon for you to grow

My poor home has no safety nets to contain you.

You are an illusion to me.

I see you in the darkened room, indirectly as a bright green star,

Illuminated on the glassy shrines.

I try to look for you, for your DNA

You still manage to evade me.

Some day my dear, some day,

I will build a house, with walls so strong,

So I can grow you and nurture you within.

Some day my dear, some day soon,

I will find a little DNA, amplify and see.

Till then, let us meet, in the darkened room, you dressed in your finest green,

Brightly illuminated like the Milky Way.

Dr Liyanapathirana is a lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Her research interests include rickettsial infections and molecular microbiology.

Suggested citation for this article: Liayanapathirana V. Ode to Rickettsiae [another dimension]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2011 Feb [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1702.AD1702

DOI: 10.3201/eid1702.AD1702

¹This short poem describes my frustrations at trying to establish laboratory diagnosis of rickettsial infections in a place where there is no cell culture facility and no class 3 containment facility.

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Veranja Liyanapathirana, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

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