Infectious disease

2,187 articles · Since 2008

Articles, page 104

Chickenpox, herpes zoster, and understanding the shingles vaccine

October 20, 2012Oct 20, 20128

Chickenpox was all the rage back in the day. Oatmeal baths with your siblings, unexplained weekday sleep-overs with pox-laden, peripheral childhood friends. Even the sweet but short-lived relief of itching and scratching made the week-long infectious endeavor, if anything, a…

Unfortunately for a handful of us unsuspecting chickenpox veterans, the infection that we so fondly include in our potpourri of childhood nostalgia will …

Conditions and diseases

Take your flu vaccine as soon as it is available

Steven Reznick, MD

October 13, 2012Oct 13, 20127

As school bells ring out announcing a new school year and pigskins fly through the air announcing the arrival of a new football season, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) begins its annual influenza vaccine campaign. “Flu” or influenza is a viral illness associated with fever, severe muscle aches, general malaise and respiratory symptoms. Most healthy children and adults can run a fever for 5 – 7 days …

Drugs and prescribing

Compounding pharmacies need stricter FDA oversight

David Pittman

October 13, 2012Oct 13, 20123

The current fungal meningitis outbreak has put a spotlight on compounding pharmacies, and regulators and stakeholders say Congress needs to clarify exactly who should regulate these entities. The practice of compounding, which has been around for decades, was intended to…

The current fungal meningitis outbreak has put a spotlight on compounding pharmacies, and regulators and stakeholders say Congress needs to clarify exactly who should regulate these entities.

The practice of compounding, which has been around for decades, was intended to give pharmacies the ability to produce a product under a doctor’s orders when a particular drug wasn’t available. …

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How a drug addicted scrub tech changed my life forever

Kate O'Reilley, MD

October 10, 2012Oct 10, 20128

It was a cold winter day in 2009 when my life changed forever, however, it would be months before I figured that out. On that fateful day, a drug-addicted surgical scrub tech assigned to my operating room stole syringes of fentanyl, a potent intravenous narcotic, from my anesthesia cart. According to news reports, investigative summaries, and the scrub tech’s confession, once she took the syringes, she used them on herself.

It’s …

Conditions and diseases

ACP: Make flu vaccination a team effort

American College of Physicians & Yul Ejnes, MD

October 10, 2012Oct 10, 20122

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Fall is the time of year when the CDC, CMS, insurance companies, and professional societies bombard physicians with reminders to vaccinate their patients against influenza. I will do…

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

Fall is the time of year when the CDC, CMS, insurance companies, and professional societies bombard physicians with reminders to vaccinate their patients against influenza. I will do these groups one better and not only remind you, but also share a couple of ideas for improving your immunization rates. These are strategies that I use in …

Read more…

ACP: Make flu vaccination a team effort

Conditions and diseases

The CDC recommends hepatitis C screening: Should they be followed?

Kenneth Lin, MD

October 5, 2012Oct 5, 2012

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finalized new recommendations for one-time screening for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in all persons born between 1945 and 1965, a generation better known as the "Baby Boomers." The CDC's new recommendations…

The CDC’s new recommendations were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Previously, the CDC only recommended that persons with behavioral or medical risk factors for HCV be routinely tested. Its rationale …

Conditions and diseases

Talk about hepatitis C screening at your next scheduled visit

Steven Reznick, MD

October 4, 2012Oct 4, 2012

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has requested that all individuals born between 1945 and 1965 be tested for the presence of the hepatitis C virus. This is a clear cut change in their policy which had previously…

Hepatitis C is a viral infection usually transmitted by blood to blood transmission. High risk patients include intravenous drug users who share needles, …

Physician voices

5 things that I want my patients to know

Leana Wen, MD

September 26, 2012Sep 26, 20127

Today's healthcare consumer is constantly barraged with conflicting information. Does wine prevent or predispose to cancer? Should I eat certain foods or avoid them? Is this new medication going to hurt me or help me? Many issues are still controversial,…

Today’s healthcare consumer is constantly barraged with conflicting information. Does wine prevent or predispose to cancer? Should I eat certain foods or avoid them? Is this new medication going to hurt me or help me? Many issues are still controversial, but there are some things that have a large amount of evidence behind them.

1. Antibiotics will not help the common cold. Colds are caused by viruses, and antibiotics kill bacteria, which …

Conditions and diseases

The impact of West Nile Virus on survivors

Wendy Station

September 22, 2012Sep 22, 20122

Since 1999, when most people in North America first heard about West Nile Virus, we’ve been measuring the impact of West Nile by looking at its fatality count. It’s time to take note of the impact on the survivors of…

As of August 2012, an outbreak of 1,590 cases of West Nile virus in 2012 was confirmed by the CDC. This is the highest number of …

Drugs and prescribing

Antibiotic overuse: Physicians and patients enable each other

Michael Kirsch, MD

September 11, 2012Sep 11, 20124

With regard to antibiotics, physicians and the public have each been enablers of the other. Patients want them and we doctors supply them. There’s nothing evil about this arrangement. Antibiotics are one of medicine’s towering achievements and have saved millions of lives. Shouldn’t we prescribe them to patients who need them? Of course we should. But why do we prescribe them to patients who don’t?

Before you race to the comment …

Physician voices

The only thing I had to do was to help Jerry and I failed

angienadia, MD

September 10, 2012Sep 10, 2012

I have failed Jerry, and now I'm replaying every word I ever said in my head, over and over, the whole exercise consuming my being. Jerry was not old. He just turned sixty, a good few decades of retirement awaiting…

I have failed Jerry, and now I’m replaying every word I ever said in my head, over and over, the whole exercise consuming my being.

Jerry was not old. He just turned sixty, a good few decades of retirement awaiting him. Then, he was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer. It seemed that he had spent his entire life working up to that moment, only to be stolen away unjustly, by …

Conditions and diseases

A surgeon gets infected with West Nile virus and tells his story

Don Read, MD

September 10, 2012Sep 10, 20126

Adapted from an interview from Me and My Doctor. I will never be normal like I was before I got sick. I couldn’t run if it was an emergency. I cannot ride a bicycle, although I can sort of halfway…

Adapted from an interview from Me and My Doctor.

I will never be normal like I was before I got sick. I couldn’t run if it was an emergency. I cannot ride a bicycle, although I can sort of halfway dance with my wife. I can’t carry my grandchildren up the stairs.

I am never sick. I was a perfectly healthy surgeon, working 88.7 hours a week on average. I had missed …

Physician voices

What health care can learn from the military

John Lee, MD

August 26, 2012Aug 26, 20126

While the typical physician is now accepting of the IT changes that are intruding into their work environment, he often does not understand the reasons or the strategic underpinnings for the push for the digitalization of health care. Being a typical modern consumer, he understands smartphones, online shopping, and email, but doesn’t understand concepts such as clinical data repositories, data warehouses, decision support and business intelligence. Analogies can help, but …

Drugs and prescribing

Doctors who prescribe too many antibiotics: It’s not that simple

Anonymous

August 15, 2012Aug 15, 20123

Physicians who liberally prescribe empiric antibiotics are often maligned as irresponsible or unthinking by condescending colleagues and policy wonks. But are these doctors actually courageous and prudent, saving countless thousands of lives every year by refusing to bend to misguided…

As antibiotic resistance has emerged, many hospitals have begun requiring physicians to provide a rationale for every antibiotic dose prescribed. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) …

Conditions and diseases

Do I need the shingles vaccine? A doctor explains

James C. Salwitz, MD

August 14, 2012Aug 14, 20124

What if there was an infection that can cause permanent nerve damage and pain? What if the virus could affect the eye and cause blindness or affect the brain and cause meningitis? What if the burning rash attacks almost half of all Americans sometime in their life? If you knew there was a vaccine which could protect you from that malady, would you get the shot? The disease is called …

Physician voices

Is the death of Rory Staunton really the result of a simple mistake?

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

August 8, 2012Aug 8, 20122

If you pay attention at all to news about medicine, you must have heard about the tragic death of a 12-year old boy who was seen and discharged from the emergency department of the prestigious New York University Medical Center. He had developed sepsis from what appears to have been a small cut and the diagnosis was missed. When he eventually returned to the ED and was admitted, it …

Conditions and diseases

MKSAP: 38-year-old man with bilateral lower extremity paralysis

mksap

August 4, 2012Aug 4, 2012

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 38-year-old man is admitted to the hospital for a 12-hour history of bilateral lower-extremity paralysis. The patient is an injection drug user. Over…

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 38-year-old man is admitted to the hospital for a 12-hour history of bilateral lower-extremity paralysis. The patient is an injection drug user. Over the past week, he developed lower back pain, which progressed to pain and numbness radiating down both lower extremities. On the day of admission, he was unable to walk but …

Physician voices

The questions in medicine never change, but sometimes the answers do

Jim deMaine, MD

August 2, 2012Aug 2, 2012

As doctors in training, we learn to think in patterns of symptoms and can often use "clinical judgement" to fit a patient's presenting symptoms into a diagnosis. This generally works well, until we are presented with an unfamiliar pattern. For…

As doctors in training, we learn to think in patterns of symptoms and can often use “clinical judgement” to fit a patient’s presenting symptoms into a diagnosis. This generally works well, until we are presented with an unfamiliar pattern. For example, in the early 80’s I saw a 60 year old shoe salesman with fatigue and a low grade fever. He had general malaise and some muscle weakness. His exam …

Conditions and diseases

The HIV vaccine does not promise the end of AIDS

Satyam H. Veean

July 28, 2012Jul 28, 20122

In a recent report released by the UNAIDS, the number of new HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infections has fallen by 19% since 1999. And of the 33.3 million people living with HIV, only a little over 5 million people are receiving HIV treatment. That is, roughly 15 percent of the world’s population. Ghastly, some might say, but improving, optimists would say.

According to the 2010 UNAIDS Report on the Global Aids …

Physician voices

The dramatic change in the causes of death

Stephen C. Schimpff, MD

July 26, 2012Jul 26, 20126

Most of us will not have the opportunity to just die of “old age” or to simply fall to sleep one night never to wake again. Most often, we develop an illness which causes our death. These have changed markedly over the years. For the pioneers, accidents, infections, childbirth were times and causes of great likelihood of death. A century ago, infections were the leading causes of death. Today, we …

Infectious disease

Articles, page 104

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