Concurrent infection by multiple parasites can shape the trajectory and outcome of infectious diseases. For example, coinfections with parasitic worms can affect the progression and severity of microbial infections, including many viral and bacterial infections.
Although an increasing number of studies are investigating the consequences of worm-microbe coinfections in laboratory settings, we still know very little about the repercussions of coinfection in natural environments. This is despite the fact that a majority of hosts (including humans), are simultaneously infected with multiple parasites.
Ongoing work in my laboratory is using experimental and observational studies of wild animal populations to understand how coinfection with worms affects the host response and population dynamics of microbial pathogens. Nearly a third of the world’s human population, as well as most wild and domesticated animals harbor worm infections, and the geographic distribution of parasitic worms often coincides with the distributions of key microbial pathogens that threaten human and animal health.
Our work is revealing that both active infection with worms, and a host's constitutive response to worm infection, have profound implications for the outcome of microbial diseases such as tuberculosis.
