Should You Get Antibiotics for that Upper Respiratory Infection?

“The waiting is the hardest part.” -- Tom Petty

Over 100 million doctor visits in the US each year result in a prescription for antibiotics. Over a third of those visits are for respiratory infections. A large fraction of the antibiotics prescribed yield absolutely no benefit to the patient. The issue is much more severe than just unnecessary spending on ineffective medication. As I’ve written before, antibiotic overuse is a major cause of More

CDC Issues Travel Warning due to Zika Virus

Here’s a fun question to float at your next cocktail party: Which animal bite has killed the greatest number of people? It’s the mosquito. By far. Because mosquitoes transmit malaria, which has killed more people than any other germ. And now, as security guards are coming to remove you from the cocktail party, let me remind you that mosquitoes also spread West Nile Virus, Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever and lots of other dangerous infectious diseases. Our eternal foe, the mosquito, was in t...
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Measles Makes a Comeback

I haven't written about measles in over two years, but unfortunately it's in the news again. Measles is a very contagious viral illness that causes a high fever, rash, cough, and a runny nose. Complications include pneumonia, brain inflammation and death. Prior to 1963 there were hundreds of thousands of measles cases in the US annually, causing hundreds of deaths. In 1963 the measles vaccine was introduced, leading to an immediate decrease of measles cases in this country. In 2000 mea...
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A Second Vaccine against Pneumonia Recommended for Seniors

If you're over 65, there’s a new vaccine you should know about. But before I explain the vaccine, let me introduce you to the bacterium that the vaccine protects you from. The little blue ovals in the above picture are Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria. You might have guessed by its name that S. pneumoniae is a leading cause of pneumonia, and you'd be right. Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs, usually manifested by fever, productive cough, and shortness of breath. Pn...
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Sorting Out the Different Flu Vaccines

The best way to avoid the flu is spending the months from fall until spring in a solitary bunker, communicating with other people only electronically. The second best way is getting the flu vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the flu vaccine for everyone over 6 months who doesn't have a specific contraindication to it. Because of the increasing number of different flu vaccines that are now available, this post highlights the three most commonly used fl...
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Why Ebola is not a Major Threat in the US

I have written twice this year (links below) about the increasingly severe Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The news in West Africa is still mostly bad. Over 7,000 have become ill and over 3,300 have died. This is by far the worst Ebola outbreak ever. This week marked another first, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the US. This news is likely making many of my regular readers wonder “Should I freak out?” This is a reasonable question, and I will attempt to answer it. But first, let’s go...
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Largest Ebola Outbreak in History Continues to Spread

Given the myriad horrors happening around the world this week you could be excused if West Africa has fallen off of your radar, but from a health perspective, it deserves some attention. I wrote in April about an Ebola outbreak in southeastern Guinea that had spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. (Browse that first post for a history of Ebola, its symptoms, and how it’s transmitted.) By April the outbreak had a...
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