Category: Medicine

If you’re around my age, you remember the disappearance of the red M&M. One day, they were just…gone. Apparently, folks worried that a red food dye not even used in M&M’s caused cancer. Well, the red ones came back, but food dyes are back in the news. The Center for Science in the Public Interest…

This topic has been running through my mind quite a bit lately. Infectious diarrhea is one of the world’s most vicious killers, but is susceptible to basic public health measures such as clean water and good sanitation, which is why cholera-ridden Americans aren’t dropping dead in pools of their own feces. (Citizens of other countries…

West Nile season is starting up, with the first few case reports trickling in. Back in the summer of 2002, I was introduced to West Nile fever. This mosquito-borne viral illness had a minimal presence in North America in the preceding three years, but made its real American debut that summer. It may have hitchhiked…

The fight against HIV occurs on several different levels: prevention of transmission and acquisition, treatment of the infection, and prevention and treatment of opportunistic illnesses. Prevention has been addressed extensively (and perhaps will be again later), and opportunistic illnesses is a huge topic, so first I’ll delve a bit into the origins and biology of…

A rather opinionated reader made me aware of a disturbing issue. In Connecticut–the state whose city of Lyme gave the name to the tick-borne disease–the Attorney General decided that the nation’s foremost infectious disease experts have their heads up their arses. Apparently responding to pressure from questionable advocacy groups, the AG launched an “investigation” into…

New diseases are pretty rare these days. It used to be that a good observer could travel to the great unknown and acquire/discribe scads of new (to them) diseases. In the interconnected world of the present, “new” diseases spread rather quickly, and become old. When I was a young attending physician, I had heard of…

The NIH announced today that it is launching its “Undiagnosed Diseases Program”. This program will evaluate patients who are referred by physicians. They will also ask for input from so-called advocacy groups. This should be interesting. I’m sure they will be receiving requests from people with “chronic Lyme disase”, “Morgellons syndrome”, and “chronic fatigue syndrome”.…

MarkH recently gave us a case to play around with. Since this is usually great fun, I thought we could try another one. I’ll start you off with very little information, and I’ll answer any questions you bring up. I’ll warn you that this one is complex, and shows off the type of intricate problems…