 Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. And we're back live. We are young talents making way all here on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Andrea Gabrielli. I'm your host. And every Tuesday we keep an eye on the future with our most brilliant school students as we talk about their science project. And joining me today is Jenna Kim from Roosevelt High School who will help us to understand more about very common but yet not so well-known disease which can affect people here in Hawaii. The long-worm infection. Welcome to the show Jenna. Thank you. It's very nice to have you here. Thank you for having me. So this is a very current piece of news if you want. We've been hearing about this in the news and also the University of Hawaii at Hilo got some funding about this. But why did you actually get interested in this topic? As we said, it's not very common. I chose this particular topic because I noticed an increased prevalence of rat lung disease cases all across the state. There's more news reports, commercials on TV. So I immediately understood that this was a serious topic. So I wondered if people actually knew about this disease and I wondered if there was a possibility that maybe if more people knew about it then there wouldn't be as many cases. Can we hear today exactly to bring awareness regarding this? So just to get us more familiar with this disease, can you tell us more about what actually is this long-worm disease? And I believe we have a slide that you brought us here. Okay, so yeah, what is it? Right, so rat lung disease is caused by a roundworm parasite called angiostrongilus cantonensis. That's the one we're looking at, the long one. So it originates in rats who are the definitive hosts and the parasite replicates in the rats and is passed through their feces. And then when slugs or snails either pass over them or ingest them, the feces, the feces from the rats, they become infected. And humans are accidental hosts who become accidentally infected when they consume raw or undercooked snails or slugs, as well as some paratonic animals such as crabs or freshwater shrimp that might also be infected. What are the symptoms of this disease? So people usually present with headaches, neck stiffness, nausea, but in more severe cases can have neurological disorders, coma, and even death. And so that's a serious concern and you mentioned that the problem here in Hawaii is that we have an increasing number of cases every year. And I think we have a slide to actually show this increase in numbers that you brought us. Okay, here. So yeah, we are looking at this increase. Yes. So you can see that over the past 10 years or so, the numbers have been increasing. And in 2017, we had the most number of cases with 16 or 17 cases just last year. So this seems to be a problem as these numbers increase, but so you mentioned your project, your science project for the Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair was to try and see whether people are aware of this problem. Yes. So I wanted to know whether people had heard about this disease as well as how much they actually knew about this disease. So I designed a survey of 10 questions and asked 150 people how much they knew about this disease. And let's see another slide for more information regarding this project. Okay, so here we're looking at the demographics of your study. Yes. So basically, we got 150 people with 50 people, I mean, sorry, excuse me, 30 people per age range. And so we also were able to get a generally even amount of males and females, and most of whom lived in Hawaii. In Honolulu. Sorry, excuse me. Yes. Okay, that's what we're okay. Let's see another slide so we can understand more about them. Okay, so here we're looking at the two graphs regarding two questions that were part of your survey. Yes. So these questions asked, do you regularly consume locally grown fruits and vegetables, as well as where most people get their fruits and vegetables? And I asked these questions because I wanted to know what people's normal habits were, because this could give us an idea of who rat lung or disease could affect the most. And a majority of people said that they do regularly consume locally grown fruits and vegetables, which makes this a pretty significant topic, because I feel that rat lung or disease could is more easily transferred by locally grown fruits and vegetables. So how do we actually, how do people get affected with this infection? Yes, so you mentioned it's for snails and slugs. So besides other than eating the snails or slugs themselves intentionally, most people get infected by consuming basically vegetables, produce vegetables or fruits that have the slugs or snails on them themselves. And when you don't wash them or cook them enough, then sometimes you actually have snails or slugs or parts of them on the vegetables, and you accidentally ingest them. Oh, okay. So that's how humans come in contact with this. Yes. Okay. Let's see some more slides so we can understand more about the questions that you were asking them. Okay. So here we have two more. Yeah. Yes. So these are two more questions. I wanted to know in one question whether people actually take preventative measures towards becoming infected. And what I found was that a majority of people do believe or do say that they actively take preventative measures towards this, which is great. So then I wanted to know, okay, how are they preventing their rat lung or disease, basically. So then I asked, how do you wash your fruits and vegetables? That's the key question. Yeah. So a majority of people said water, which is just soaking mainly, but only about 35 people correctly specified running water as their method of washing. Why is running water the most effective? So running water is the most effective method of washing, because basically the force of the water is what dislodges any slugs or snails from your produce. And that's how you prevent from becoming infected. And it's not only salad, though, so leafy vegetables, but any really... Anything, yes. But you should pay more attention to leafy vegetables. To leafy vegetables. Yeah. And if we could visit the slide again, something that's interesting is that a handful of people specified soap or salt, some kind of solution to wash their vegetables. Yeah. So you can maybe disinfect. Right. So this is a popular, I guess, notion that most people think would be effective. But in actuality, I believe that it's not actually proven to be effective. So I think you should absolutely do it if it makes you feel more comfortable with eating your produce, but just know that running water is the most effective. So you should do that. Okay. But this is something that some people, you know, we're bringing awareness to everybody about this disease. But I guess one question might be, you know, for lunch, for example, if I go outside and, you know, I have a salad, or should I really have it, you know, in terms of... No, absolutely you should. Most restaurants and basically anywhere that serves food should properly wash their vegetables. It's more just at home. If you want to be extra cautious, just make sure you rinse your vegetables, inspect them. And if you have a home garden, just be careful to make sure that there's no slug-sourced nails on them. What about shrimps or crabs you mentioned? We should not eat raw fish. Is it more... So it's not fish. Fish don't actually carry the parasite, but it's more freshwater shrimp crabs, as you mentioned. But those are paratonic animals, so they don't actually... The parasite doesn't actually live in them, or they're not supposed to. It's just if... They might come in contact with... Right, exactly. So for those, you should just carefully cook them, make sure they're thoroughly cooked. And yeah. What about the vegetables? Would it be this raw vegetables, actually? Can we cook them? Absolutely. That would give in of all the snails or slugs that might actually carry this parasite. Okay, so let's have some more look at your slides and your questions for your survey. Okay, so what are we looking at here? So in order to answer my initial hypothesis that a large majority of people do not really know about this disease, I wanted to know first of all whether they had heard about rat lung disease, and a majority of people, 82% out of the 150 people, said that they had heard of it, which is a good thing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What's interesting, if we move to the next slide, is that a majority of people that had heard of it got their information from the TV or news. So the TV or news, they are reporting about this, and so people get curious about this, and they go and read? Right. No, it seems that most people are getting their information from the TV or news. It's the news that is actually reporting the information. And then followed by internet and social media. So this is important because maybe it gives us a better idea of where to focus our efforts in informing people about this disease. In Hawaii, you mentioned we had 17 cases last year. What about this year? Do we have cases? Yes, I believe there's already been one confirmed case in February, which shows that it's still a problem and it's not really going away. Which parts of the state are more prone to this disease? Is it the whole state or the more rural areas? I believe Big Island is a major place where route-longer disease cases are found. It's also spread to Maui and Oahu, I think. And Oahu as well. So it affects, I think, everyone on the islands. Let's see one more slide so we can see. So this is about how people are knowledgeable about this disease. So after asking whether they were familiar with the disease, I asked a series of questions, including what they thought the disease was, how it's transmitted. So are people aware of this? Yes, exactly. What I found was that a majority of people had little to no knowledge of the disease with moderate errors in their responses, and only about 11% of people had minor errors or were very accurate in their responses. And it seems that the very knowledgeable was very little, I guess. I'm looking at this graph, correct me if I am getting this information wrong, but it seems 61 plus of age are more knowledgeable for the very accurate group? Yes. That's what I found. But for the rest of the, I guess, knowledge abilities, they were very generally even in age range. Okay. What are some suggestions that you may want to give to people to actually be more aware of this disease and also try and prevent it? Yes, I think just inspect your vegetables, produce especially, and use running water to wash them thoroughly. And I think also just find out more about this disease, because it's a pretty important health issue in my opinion. So I think it would be great to just spend a few minutes looking it up on the internet or something, pay attention to the TV commercials online, because they have good information as well. And it seems very easy in terms of prevention, because it's really about washing vegetables with running water. So it's really, thank you, Jenna, for this very nice conversation. We're learning today about this rat-longworm disease, and we're going to take a short break, but we'll be back soon. Stay tuned. I'm your host of New Japanese Language Show on Think Tech, Hawaii, called Konnichiwa, Hawaii, broadcasting live every other Monday at 2 p.m. Please join us where we discuss important and useful information for the Japanese language community in Hawaii. The show will be all in Japanese. Hope you can join us every other Monday at 2 p.m. Aloha. And we're back live with young talents making way here on Think Tech, Hawaii. And today we're talking about this rat-longworm disease with Jenna Kim from Roosevelt High School. Thank you for being here with us. Thank you. Yeah. And so before our break, you were mentioning about the age groups of people who are aware, not so aware, with knowledge about this disease. And I believe we have one more slide as part of your survey, which breaks them into, okay, this is the... Yes. So this is basically a breakdown by source, so where most people got their information. And what was interesting is that a lot of the people that had little to no information or knowledge about this disease got their information from specifically TV or news and the internet and social media. And that's in part due to... Because most people do, in fact, get their information from those sources. But what's also interesting is that in the very knowledgeable range, most people use a variety of sources. So maybe they use more than one source to get their information, which is kind of important because then maybe you get a better understanding of rat-longworm disease. So regarding the people that are not very aware of this, who do you think should bring more awareness of this based on your study? Yes, I think it would be great if more... Just everyone in general maybe raised awareness about this disease. So the TV commercials and the news reports are great. And then people just in the community can talk to one another and share about this disease as well. Yeah, how did you find out about this in the first place? In the news or...? Yes, in the news. And then you decided to do this science project at Roosevelt High School for the Fair. You got to the state level in the contestant. How was being there and sharing these results of your survey and bringing awareness of this disease to the community? How was this experience? It was a great experience. I think being able to talk to judges as well as just the general public on the public visitation day was great because I could have a conversation with people in the community and see what they thought about this disease. And some people were like, oh, I never knew that, which was great. Well, so you had really people that came to you and said, I never knew about it. Yes. Okay. Yeah, and then they would come to my board and say, oh, what is this? So it was great being able to tell them about it. Did you get any comment or suggestions from any of the judges that particularly struck you or stayed with you? Yes, all of the judges gave me really good feedback. They gave me ideas on how to, I guess, improve or further continue with this project, such as maybe looking into different parts of the island or and see how people are aware of this disease on those places. On Oahu, but even the other islands. As well as other islands. Right. This experience basically is a wonderful experience because you get feedback from a variety of people and experts in the fields and judges. Yes. And now you got feedback. Yeah. What do you see ahead for next year? Are you going back with the same project? Are you going to carry out more research about this disease or? So I definitely like to go back to the science fair next year because it's just really fun and I love going through the process of doing a research project. I'm not exactly sure what my topic will be. Maybe I'll stick with it. I'm not sure yet. But I definitely would like to do it on the side, like rat lung disease research on the side, whether I do it for the science fair or not, just because I really enjoy this topic. Okay. For people who have guidance, for example, one, people may think that getting rid of the slugs would, you know, for people who, for example, grow vegetables in garden or something, might be actually helpful. What are some methods that people could use to, because would it be possible to eradicate the problem or with the slugs, removing the slugs? Or do you think it's more in terms of prevention that really we need to work on this? I think on a smaller scale, such as in your home garden, it is possible to maybe like try to eradicate the problem just by setting out traps for slugs or snails, controlling rat populations in a small area. But I think on a larger scale, it's not very possible to eradicate rats as a whole, or slugs as a whole. From the whole, yeah. Right. So, which makes prevention really important and just knowing about how to prevent it and what to do about it. Let me ask you, is there a cure for this disease? Because so that we can, yeah. I don't believe there is a cure for this disease, which makes it really a significant issue. But I do think they're trying to work to find some possible solutions. So, in terms of detection of the disease, is it easy to detect? Because you mentioned some of the symptoms, but is it easy for a doctor to actually recognize that the nextiveness or something is related to this? So, yeah, it's actually pretty hard to detect. There's no readily available blood tests for this. So, most people have to go based off of symptoms. And so, I believe that there might even be some people that have not been diagnosed yet, but still have the disease. So, just knowing about it is important. The worms, just reading, can even go into the spinal fluids. That's where they live, that's where they reproduce. So, it's really a serious disease that we don't want to get involved with. This is really nice to learn from you about this. But let me ask you, what do you see for your future head? Because this is a very current piece of event here in Hawaii, but even in the tropics as well. What do you see ahead in your future? This medical science field. Yes, I'm really interested in medicine, just the human body and diseases and things like that, as well as science as a whole. So, in the future, I definitely like to just find out more about this field, see if I'm interested in becoming a doctor. And maybe try to pursue a career in that. Wow, that's exciting. And it's very exciting that you get to work with professionals, the judges at the state fair, with the community as well, sharing this research. What was the most, I guess, the moment that really, really was stuck with you for the science fair. What was the moment that really impressed you the most? So, just in terms of the journey to get to science fair and doing the project itself, what stuck with me was conducting the survey, with the general public and talking to them. Talking to the people. Yes, and then at the science fair itself, I really enjoyed talking to the other participants and getting to know their projects because everyone has great projects there and I really enjoyed talking to my neighbor and seeing what their project was about. And most of them I didn't even know anything about, so it was great to learn from them. Why? It's a really wonderful and fine experience, as you mentioned, for the whole community. Yeah, absolutely. That's the state of Hawaii Science and Engineering Fair. Let me ask you some more questions now regarding this long worm disease, basically. We mentioned prevention. This is for worms that get into our bodies and can cause these symptoms and all that. We mentioned about washing vegetables thoroughly. But people might get scared, you know, because they hear about what we're talking about with this particular disease and everything. Can we still eat vegetables? Because they are absolutely needed for health and everything. Yes, you definitely can still eat vegetables. I think you shouldn't be scared of buying local foods at all, because some people think that maybe it's more possible to get it. I think that as long as you are aware of this disease, then you shouldn't be scared at all. If you are scared, just find out more about it, and then you can be more comfortable. Yeah, because we remember that eating fruits and vegetables is very important for our body as well. So just, you know, what are some, we have about now two minutes left for our conversation today, but what would be some summary recommendations that you would like to give to our audience today regarding this? I think the main takeaway is that rat lung disease is a serious issue. I don't believe it's going to go away anytime soon. So just wash your vegetables, fruits and vegetables, inspect them thoroughly for slugs and snails, and just find out more about this disease and raise awareness for it. The rat lung worm disease. Thank you very much, Jenna. Thank you for being with us here. And so you've been watching young talents making way here on Think Tech. Hawaii with Jenna came from Roosevelt High School and her brilliant project regarding studying awareness about the lung worm disease. Thank you very much for watching us, and we'll be back for more next week. Stay tuned.