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Christmas Quiz

22/12/2015

 
Throughout my career I have struggled to remember lists relating to specific bits of knowledge I wanted to learn, and this was especially true when it came to sitting my MSc and FRCPath exams. For some reason mnemonics never really helped as I couldn’t remember the mnemonic, let alone what it was meant to represent. It was my wife, who had the brainwave of making up stories to help me remember my lists… for some reason I have always had a passion for stories and this method definitely works for me.
 
So here’s the Christmas challenge; can you work out what the following Christmas story was meant to remind me of, both the overall topic and the seven specific items in the “list”? WARNING: it’s not easy!
 
If you’re working over the Christmas period and want to take up the challenge send me your guesses and the first correct answer will at least get an honorary mention on the website.
One day Mr Happy and Mr Small went to an old fashioned fancy dress Christmas party.  The theme for the party was Ancient Rome.
 
“What shall we wear” asked Mr Happy.
 
“I have an idea” said Mr Small, “hand me those bed sheets we’ll wear Togas”.
 
The party was a great success. Mr Small particularly enjoyed the new flavour of mulled fruit juice.
 
Mr Happy was over joyed when his costume was voted the best and he was crowned Emperor of the Christmas Party.
 
As the Party finished Mr Happy and Mr Small stood together under the stars finishing their drinks. “What a great party” said Mr Happy, “I do hope they do the same again next year”.
 
I’ll give the answer in the New Year...so you haven’t got long to work it out.

Have a great Christmas!
Picture
Abdel-Halim Yousef
23/12/2015 07:03:21 am

It seems a nice story about VIRUSES!

Abdel Halim
25/12/2015 05:00:02 am

HAPPY for DNA viruses : Herpes, Hepadna, Adeno, polyomavirus, poxvirus
Small for picornaviruses
Toga for togaviruses

David
25/12/2015 12:41:50 pm

HAPPY for DNA viruses : Herpes, Hepadna, Adeno, polyomavirus, poxvirus,
Small for picornaviruses, Toga for togaviruses

Close.... BUT....

Not close enough! (Great guess though :-))

Keep guessing... Merry Christmas!

Abdel-Halim Yousef
26/12/2015 05:46:05 am

the topic is viruses and I can't go beyond!
I can add
crowned for coronavirus
Flavor for Falvivirus
Rome for Rotavirus
Waiting for the answer!

Abdel-Halim Yousef
27/12/2015 03:39:17 pm

RNA viruses
In such case I can guess
Mr Happy as Hepevirus
Mulled as Myxovirus
Rome for Reovirus

Abdel-Halim Yousef
29/12/2015 11:28:02 am

Well, if they are only for positive polarity, so myxov. will be a wrong one. And if they are common so claciv. (Norwalk) will be a good choice though I can't find a match!
Hope I "PASSED" the quiz :)

David
31/12/2015 05:55:14 pm

Okay last chance... no one has got the answer completely so still the chance to shine! I'll post the answer tomorrow...

Happy New Year!

Susie wookey
31/12/2015 11:31:37 pm

I'm having a guess here...is under the stars astroviruses? To add to what has already been confirmed!!

David
1/1/2016 12:10:37 pm

Okay, so I told you it was tough!!

Here's the answer:

The story helped me remember the positive sense single strand linear RNA viruses of which there are seven common ones:
1. Mr Happy – Hep E or Hepatitis E
2. Mr Small – Picornaviruses e.g. Enteroviruses, Rhinoviruses (Pico is the international prefix denoting one trillionth or 10−12 or 0.000000000001...e.g. something very small
3. Old fashioned – Retroviruses e.g. HIV
4. Togas – Toga viruses e.g. Rubella
5. Flavour of drink – Flaviviruses e.g. Yellow fever, Hepatitis C
6. Crown for best costume – Coronaviruses e.g. SARS, MERS-CoV (Corona means crown)
7. Stars – Astroviruses, causes of diarrhoea and vomiting

Well done if you managed to get any of these: Susan Wookey got the astroviruses at the last minute and Abdelhalim got a number of the others.

Now, I can't remember why I particularly wanted to remember these viruses but it seemed important at the time!?

Happy New Year everyone!

Abdel-Halim Yousef
2/1/2016 05:04:04 pm

Well done
I think adding Rome for Reovirus would help!

Abdel-Halim Yousef
1/1/2016 01:05:41 pm


So I got 5 out of 7! I am preparing myself for a "second" trial in FRCPath Part I microbiology. Hope I would get the same score!
HNY

susie wookey
1/1/2016 11:14:33 pm

Yay! Good quiz. I remembered Astroviruses from a lecture in my final year at Uni. ☺


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    Blog Author:

    David Garner
    Consultant Microbiologist
    Surrey, UK

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