The image is the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine (phot credit to Sue Myers Smith) but just imagine a case study where you – as a vet student – are part of that group being investigated for a disease incident.

I present a real (2015) case for your consideration: Pneumonia, cause unknown – South Korea (03): (SO) VET STUDENTS [Sourced from PROMED [Date: Sat 31 Oct 2015] Source: South Korea Ministry of Health]

The Korea Center for Disease Control & Prevention [KCDC] (director, Yang Byung Guk) said as of 31 Oct 2015, a total of 44 cases are currently being investigated, and there are confirmed pneumonia radiological patterns in 41 cases who are identified as suspected patients. They are distributed in 7 hospitals receiving treatment.
* Suspected patients: people who visited Konkuk University Animal Life Sciences Building after 8 Oct 2015 with fever of 37.5 C [99 F] and chest x-ray findings of pneumonia.
* The remaining 3 are being monitored at home (currently they have mild symptoms; if there are any unusual symptoms, they will take chest x-rays).
The 41 suspected cases show fever, muscle pain, and mild pneumonia symptoms; and respiratory symptoms show relatively rare pneumonia findings that there are no severe cases.

Hmmm a cluster hey! Well what do you know – a cluster of vet students….

You have to wonder what they were exposed to? When they were exposed was it one lucky class room full over in a one day session – or was exposure shown to have occurred over a week – or between 8-31 October?

What exactly are they housing in the ‘Konkuk University Animal Life Sciences Building’? {ed. are they doing testing for influenza virus? and in which case who exactly are they targeting?]

Is it just a vet school hospital with a sick dog as a patient with an unknown fever and respiratory disease? and if so what tests are they doing on this dog? What are they looking for in the cohort of 44 students? Whats come up negative and whats come up positive?

Aren’t we a lucky bunch that not only can we diagnose animal disease that occasionally (and maybe more often than we realise) we can also share it?