or, Malaria Makes a Bad Souvenir
or, I Went on Safari and all I Got Was Hepatitis A
We Americans take for granted much of what keeps us healthy. We expect our food and water to be uncontaminated. We expect the neighbor’s dog to have had all his shots. We expect that if we get sick we will receive prompt and excellent care. Then, when we travel to the developing world, we forget that none of our expectations apply. We plan our itinerary, our meals, even our web access, but we forget to plan...
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Would You Like Some Salmonella With That?
Our modern hyper-efficient means of producing, processing and distributing food has made hunger virtually extinct in the developed world. (In fact obesity is a much more pressing problem.) But our modern food production network is revealing an increasingly dangerous cost. Because food from any one farm or any one plant is frequently distributed nationally or even internationally, contamination with a foodborne infection can sicken thousands before the source is identified.
Two years ago Esc...
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The Flu: Good News, Bad News
The good news about this flu season is that so far, both nationally and in California, it has been a mild one, with a relatively small number of people infected. The weekly trends are still increasing, so the worst is still ahead of us.
The bad news is that one of the major strains of the flu virus this season is resistant to Tamiflu, the most frequently prescribed and safest anti-flu medicine. In response, the CDC has issued an Interim Antiviral Guidance statement, which recommends which ant...
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Get Your Flu Shots
The first day of fall is three days away. The kids are back in school, temperatures are dipping lower and the leaves on the trees in LA are doing nothing. In this magical season a doctor’s thoughts turn to flu shots.
The flu shot is recommended for the following groups:
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- Children aged 6 months until their 5th birthday,
- Pregnant women,
- People 50 years of age and older,
- People of any age with certain chronic health conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or ...
Gamma Rays are Good for Your Veggies
Last month the Food and Drug Administration allowed food manufacturers to irradiate fresh lettuce and spinach to kill bacteria. The decision resulted in some controversy and much press coverage. (See link to LA Times article, below.) The process involves shooting gamma rays through the produce in an amount enough to kill most bacteria but not enough to wilt the leaves or affect the taste.
Though food safety advocates have been recommending food irradiation for many ...
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A Family of Antibiotics Linked to Tendon Rupture
This week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested a new warning on a family of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. This family includes ciprofloxacin (Cipro), levofloxacin (Levaquin), moxifloxacin (Avelox) and others. The warning has to do with the increased risk of tendonitis and tendon rupture due to these antibiotics.
This information is not new. The increased risk has been known for a few years, but as additional cases have been reported, the FDA chose to act.
This complicatio...
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Patients Want Education, Not Just Medication
I've written before on the increasing danger of bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics. This resistance is a side effect of the use, and frequent misuse, of the many antibiotics physicians have at our disposal. I've also written about the pressure that physicians sometimes face from patients to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics.
Last week Slate published an article by Dr. Zachary Meisel, an emergency department physician who recounts facing a very common dilemma. He took care of...
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U.S. Measles Cases at Highest Numbers Since 2001
I almost never write about children's health. I'm not a pediatrician, and most of what I know about kids' health I learned as a dad, not in training. This topic, however, is important enough to concern all of us.
Measles is a very contagious viral illness that causes high fever, a rash, cough and a runny nose. Complications can include pneumonia, brain inflammation and death. In 1958 there were 763,094 cases of measles reported in the US. The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, and wid...
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The Flu, Part Two
I'm sorry to write about the same topic on two consecutive weeks, but this really deserves the attention. Last week I wrote about how we're still not past the peak of this flu season and how the flu shot this year has been less effective, and I linked to a few authoritative web sites that I thought would be useful.
This week, allow me some personal observations.
This year's flu is hellish. I've had young healthy patients who've...
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Still In the Middle of the Flu Season
The recent news about this flu season has all been bad. As reported in this Reuters article, the match between the strains in this year's flu vaccine and the strains that are actually making people sick in North America are not as close as in previous years, meaning the flu vaccine this year is giving patients less protection than it has in the past. There are documented cases of vaccinated patients s...
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