As the COVID-19 pandemic rages in our various cities, it is important to remember that as of today there are no proven effective therapies. Still it is very difficult to watch people die despite your care. With about a thousand lives already lost to SARS-CoV-2 in the United States, everybody is scrambling to find therapeutics […]
Living in Two Different Worlds in the Era of COVID-19
March 1 2020 I’ve been back from my Thailand/Cambodia holiday two weeks now. Opened up my work email to find a number of emails related to my hospital’s preparedness for the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. Reassuring. Jumped right back into a busy clinical service. Checked my temperature daily and avoided the gym (more so […]
Nobel Peace Prize Recognizes Sexual Violence
The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege for their work to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of armed conflict and I couldn’t be more elated. Nadia Murad and Dr. Denis Mukwege have “both put their own personal security at risk by courageously combatting war […]
Fungal Meningitis Linked to Epidural Steroid Shots in the News
137 cases, 12 deaths, 10 states and still counting… You don’t have to be an infectious disease expert to be aware of this very alarming outbreak. Public health personnel and infectious disease physicians have been hard at work and have narrowed the source of this multi-state infection to a likely contamination event occurring at New […]
Whooping Cough (Pertussis) kills!
Last month, a baby in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania died of pertussis (whooping cough). I suppose death from pertussis (or any other vaccine-preventable illness) is preferable to the speculated possibility of life with autism for vaccine nay-sayers. Thank goodness I’m not a pediatrician because I don’t think I would last long trying to convince parents […]