The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a black box warning for the class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones which includes the popularly prescribed Levaquin (levofloxacin), Avelox (moxifloxacin), and Cipro (ciprofloxacin). The warning advises that the serious side effects associated with this class of antibiotics “generally outweigh the benefits for patients with acute sinusitis, […]
Patients Lie
Patients lie. That’s not a secret. It’s the reason doctor notes read like police reports. “The patient denies smoking.” “The patient states they lost the prescription for Vicodin that the ER gave her two days ago.” It would be kinder if we wrote “the patient doesn’t smoke” and “the patient lost her prescription” but do […]
2016 – The Year of Zika
We are barely a month into 2016, and already it seems we have found our illness du jour. ZIKA VIRUS! I will admit that Zika virus is relatively new to me despite being an infectious disease specialist. When I first heard of it in 2014 through an online news report out of Brazil, I had to […]
Disgusted by pyrimethamine price hike
About two weeks ago, a physician on the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) listserve asked if anyone else was experiencing difficulty acquiring pyrimethamine (Daraprim), a drug used to treat toxoplasmosis and malaria in combination with other medications. Others responded that they too were experiencing shortages. Little did we know then what we know now. […]
Ruining Summer One Patient At A Time
I was taking care of a middle-aged patient recently who was experiencing a recurrent bout of diverticulitis this time severe and with a small abscess. It’s at a stage where surgery to remove part of the colon is necessary but the surgeon wants to let things “cool down” for a few weeks. So my role […]
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