Infectious Disease

Infectious disease physicians and clinicians writing on KevinMD about outbreaks, antimicrobial resistance, vaccines, and the ongoing challenge of preventing and treating infection. Contributors include the physicians who treat infectious disease and the public health physicians who track it. For a maintained record of what physicians have said about vaccines and vaccine refusal since 2004, see Vaccines: what physicians say, in their own words. For what clinicians wrote during the COVID-19 pandemic as it happened, see COVID-19: what physicians wrote as it happened.

Our health system is stealing a free ride on the broken backs of the nurses

Rachel Basham, RN, CCRN

Health Policy

July 17, 2020

Nursing has always been my passion. The idea of spending hours at a patient’s bedside, putting in blood, sweat, and tears to save a life. Now that is living! I was made to be a nurse. I’m not afraid of hard work. I have worked 13 consecutive hours without as much as a bathroom break; more often in my career, this is the case than not. I’m not afraid of …

How the pandemic created an opportunity to support families

Lauren A. Houdek VonHoltz, MD, MPH, Danielle Cullen, MD, MPH and Ashlee Murray, MD, MPH

Physician

July 17, 2020

Working within the nation’s poorest large city, our pediatric emergency department (ED) serves as a safety net for the most vulnerable. We are witnesses to parents stretched beyond their limits – juggling raising a family amidst the stress of work, financial strain, community violence, social injustice, and the many other heavy weights they quietly bear when they bring their children to the hospital. These social needs powerfully influence …

The COVID-19 pandemic reveals gaping holes in locum tenens contracts

Koye Oyerinde, MD, DrPH

Physician

July 17, 2020

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brings to the fore many health system weaknesses that we always knew were there, but not too bothersome to be addressed. The media has focused on paid sick leave as a public health policy to permit infected workers to stay at home to avoid infecting their colleagues and clients. As many health workers crisscross the country to contribute to the pandemic response, my recent experience with …

Debunking false arguments about COVID-19 racial disparities

Max Lauring

Health Policy

July 16, 2020

Black Americans are dying at disproportionate rates from COVID-19. In Chicago, nearly 70% of deaths involve black individuals, who comprise only 30% of the population. At a closer look, these deaths were initially concentrated in just five neighborhoods on the city’s South Side. In Louisiana, 70% of deaths involve Blacks, who represent only 32% of the state’s population. As more data is …

In the age of misinformation, don’t be a contributor to the problem

Alicia Billington, MD, PhD

Physician

July 16, 2020

There are two battles waging from the COVID-19 virus this year: the obvious fight for human life but also the attack on science. During philosophical and political debates, one steadfast weapon has been the scientific method. Opinion doesn’t matter. State the facts. The thing about facts are, though, that one has to be willing to change previously held points of view with new information. One of the most devastating things …

The unseen debt of the pandemic

Camille Spears, MD, MPH

Conditions and Diseases

July 16, 2020

Some images stick in the mind as unreal and incandescent things, despite their lived experience. My mind holds onto the gray-haired woman, stooped from age and wearing the hospital-issue facemask, standing alone with her hands clasped tightly behind her back. She was peering through the window of the door to her husband’s ICU room where he had just died. I joined a small group of nurses to hold a distant …

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The unseen debt of the pandemic

COVID-19 through the eyes of my kids

Miriam Zylberglait Lisigurski, MD

Conditions and Diseases

July 16, 2020

Living the surreal experience of the COVID-19 pandemic challenges us on multiple levels. As a physician, I feel the responsibility to understand the magnitude of the situation and implement the best measures to protect my patients, trainees, my family, and myself. I experience the fear of getting sick or losing a loved one and the sadness and frustration of seeing millions of lives affected by illness, desperation, isolation, and death.

COVID-19 …

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COVID-19 through the eyes of my kids

Where on earth have everyone’s manners gone?

Giannina L. Garces-Ambrossi Muncey, MD

Physician

July 15, 2020

There comes a day in every woman’s life when she must wonder: Where on earth have everyone’s manners gone?

This phase of life, I once believed, was the same phase when I would shout things like:

“You kids get off my lawn!”

“Oh, it’s just a touch of gout!”

And so on.

Is it my own grand-millennial style, wherein I scour vintage Etsy finds (and insist on living in a 100-year-old house), that awakens my …

I am overwhelmed right now. I know I am not alone.

Diana R. Twiggs, MD

Physician

July 14, 2020

I am overwhelmed right now. I know I am not alone. I hear it in the voices of my friends, family, colleagues, patients. We are all feeling it.

I am overwhelmed by this virus. There is so much to learn, so much to teach. Every day the information changes. Who is credible? Who is just shouting the loudest? It can be hard to …

The toll of COVID-19 on primary care clinicians

Ankita Sagar, MD, MPH

Physician

July 14, 2020

I am sitting on my living room floor, my back to the living room sofa, a sense of dread overcoming me as I realize that my call to 911 may be too late. I hear her muted voice with periodic pauses that allow her to catch her breath. All I can do is say, “I am still here with you. They will get to you soon.” And then I hear, …

We need effective wound care medicines in our national stockpile

David Barbara, MD

Conditions and Diseases

July 14, 2020

To suggest that the impact of the novel coronavirus has been nothing short of devastating – from a health perspective, to the economy, to basic social interaction – would be the most striking understatement of the decade. Daily media viewing over the course of the last two months has seen virtually nothing but bad news – sickness and death, trillion-dollar relief programs, millions out of work, businesses lost, growing tensions …

Living with extended family? Try these tips for better mental health.

Miles J. Varn, MD

Conditions and Diseases

July 13, 2020

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the structure of many people’s households has changed dramatically. Young adults who were away at college had to return home when schools closed, and many will still be at home this fall as schools continue to limit on-campus classes. Some people chose to move in with family after job loss strained their finances. And some families chose to temporarily move older relatives out …

This infectious disease physician is furious and exhausted

Anonymous

Conditions and Diseases

July 13, 2020

I am exhausted. I’m a physician in the suburbs of Houston. The latest COVID-19 infection rates in the Houston area show a steep increase in rates since reopening in May. And it’s still rising.

As an infectious diseases physician in the middle of this whole COVID-19 pandemic, and as a mom of 2, here’s why I’m tired:

1. Working almost every day (weekends included) since this March at multiple hospitals and in …

The COVID effect on this physician

M. Michelle McClelland, MD

Conditions and Diseases

July 12, 2020

COVID. What is it to me? A sense of growing dread for primary care providers everywhere, whose patient panels read like a list of future dead. Diabetes, obesity, heart disease, emphysema. The reality is most people have no idea how close to devastation our medical system is at most times. How many times was the hospital of my residency on diversion due to staffing or available beds? How many times …

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The COVID effect on this physician

Bereavement during social distancing

K. Maravet Baig-Ward, MD, PhD

Physician

July 12, 2020

It’s never easy to lose someone you love. Imagine not being able to be at their bedside or say goodbye in person. Imagine losing them and not being able to have more than ten people at their funeral … if you are even able to have a funeral. There is no hugging, no tears wiped away, just the same feelings of loss without the human touch of comfort. For thousands …

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Bereavement during social distancing

To my kids from a mentally exhausted doctor

Whitney Mascorro, MD

Conditions and Diseases

July 11, 2020

As I reflect on Independence Day, I think of soldiers that sacrificed their own lives for others – present and future. They knew what they were facing, and yet, continued to push forward. They imperfectly led our nation through unprecedented waters with wisdom and perseverance. Today, we find ourselves in unprecedented waters – questioning our country, our leaders, our friends, and our doctors. Breaking silence, I am answering the question, …

Complacency fuels the slow burn of COVID-19

Raghav Gupta, MD

Conditions and Diseases

July 9, 2020

In polarizing politics, it seems that somehow the greater good often misses the very grain that comes together and makes it great — the people.

After we blindfolded ourselves to a warning from China and then Italy, New York witnessed the grinding impact of COVID-19. Merely two months later, many other states are showing unprecedented growth in cases. Surpassing 2.5 million cases, we have officially unflattened the curve. Our failed …

COVID-19 becomes a magnifying glass for health disparities

Ni-Cheng Liang, MD

Health Policy

July 8, 2020

The daily email update on COVID-19 affecting our hospital system is a glaring reflection of the health disparities amongst those in marginalized groups. The farther south you go, generally in San Diego, the higher the number of socioeconomically disadvantaged persons, and that tends to include a disproportionate number of persons of color. These populations may be unable to physically distance due to living conditions and job conditions. Perhaps there is …

How the pandemic forced this physician to quit

Nesrin Abu Ata, MD

Physician

July 7, 2020

I never thought that I would resign with my last day of work being the same day of my resignation. In fact, I did everything in my power to stay at my job, but the job didn’t want me to stay. COVID brought a sharp focus on the difference between my goals and my employer’s goals.

The meatpacking plants made my town a COVID hotspot. To minimize patient COVID exposure, we …

Our public health efforts depend on flexibility and trust

John Connolly

Health Policy

July 7, 2020

Public health has never been more important. As the coronavirus waxes and wanes, it is crucial that our evolving understanding of COVID-19 translate into our everyday lives. Our collective response to the virus will be much improved with an acknowledgment that our scientific knowledge is dynamic, and that we may have to alter our behaviors as scientists unearth more information about the virus’s transmissibility and lethality.

Nowhere is this evolving understanding …

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