Every winter, flu season descends upon the hospital. The most consistent reaction among any of our physicians — trainee and attending alike — who succumb to this nasty virus is one of guilt. Even the thought of “calling out sick” leads to s…
Category: Infectious disease
Doctors: Take a sick day
Every winter, flu season descends upon the hospital. The most consistent reaction among any of our physicians — trainee and attending alike — who succumb to this nasty virus is one of guilt. Even the thought of “calling out sick” leads to s…
Antibiotic resistance is the climate change of medicine
Imagine a looming global crisis that threatens the health of countless people, confounding scientists and governments with its sheer magnitude and complexity and growing at a pace that will quickly exceed our ability to reverse course. Sounds a little …
How to help your patients understand antibiotic stewardship
Antibiotics are ubiquitous in today’s society. Prescriptions for these bacterial killers have become so prevalent that a wonder drug cure phenomenon for any illness has become the cultural norm. The evidence is overwhelming that antibiotics are far too…
Please stop the over-diagnosis of UTIs
I admitted an elderly woman to the hospital recently. The previous week, she had presented to the emergency department (ED) with chest pain and shortness of breath. For some unknown reason, a urinalysis was obtained and was found to be abnormal. The…
Doctors shouldn’t feel guilty about sick days
It’s 2 a.m. And I’m in the emergency room. There are beads of sweat dripping from my forehead. One of my nurses comments that I just don’t look quite right. I can feel the urge to vomit and know where the nearest trash can is at all t…
The erroneous belief that the elderly have the healing power of younger individuals
A wise professor of medicine always told me as a young physician, “Eighty-year olds are to be revered and not messed with.” This is especially true for those 90 or older. Here in South Florida, there is always some senior citizen telling us today’s …
MKSAP: 19-year-old man with lightheadedness and nightly fevers
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 19-year-old man is hospitalized with a 6-day history of lightheadedness and nightly fevers. He also reports sore throat, headache, joint an…
Why developing new antibiotics is a losing battle
“We believe that the current entrepreneurial development model for antibiotics is broken and needs to be fundamentally transformed.” This provocative opinion is from a recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. The introductio…
Why the flu shot cannot give you the flu (and why you should get one now)
Flu vaccination prevents millions of flu-related illnesses and deaths annually, but vaccination rates are low for many reasons. During the 2018-2019 flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 45% of U.S. adults recei…
