The courageous white blood cells in Cells At Work! spend a lot of time fighting disease, but how much do we know about diseases out here in the real world?
On Thursday, Kodansha will release the Cells at Work! Virus & Bacteria Encyclopedia. Amazon Japan has a listing to pre-order the Kindle edition. The illustrated book uses a mixture of real-life illustrations and scenes from the popular anime series to demonstrate how your body fights disease. White blood cells in the real world don’t wield knives, and there are no tiny sneeze rockets inside your nose. But there is plenty of other stuff going on inside a human body.
The new book will be aimed primarily at elementary school students. But grown-up anime fans might also learn some interesting facts and useful information about these germs, how to identify them, and hopefully, how to deal with them.
Viruses featured in the book include the novel coronavirus, rhinovirus (common cold), influenza (flu) virus, mumps, and dengue virus.
Bacteria mentioned include Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumonia), Streptococcus pyogenes (pharyngitis, tonsillitis, scarlet fever, etc.), Streptococcus aureus (skin infections), and Staphylococcus aureus (staph infections). The book also includes Acne (yes, that’s a specific type of bacteria), Mutans (tooth decay), Vibrio parahaemolyticus (gastrointestinal), Campylobacter (contaminated food), and Helicobacter pylori (stomach). Of course, not all bacteria are bad, and the book also talks about Gut flora (the good bacteria in your stomach).
With the entire world fighting against a pandemic, now is probably a good time for books (and anime and manga series) which can help us better understand bacteria, viruses, and disease.