Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new recommendations for all physicians for HIV testing. The new recommendations were generated in response to the fact that of the approximately 1 million Americans infected with HIV, about one quarter have not been tested and are unaware of their infection. These patients can not take advantage of the many therapies available for HIV infect...
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A Vaccine to Prevent Shingles
Zostavax, a vaccine to prevent shingles, has recently been approved by the FDA and reviewed by The Medical Letter.
Shingles (also called herpes zoster) is a very painful illness involving blisters that occur in a stripe-like pattern on one side of the body. Shingles can only happen in people who have had chicken pox. The virus that causes chicken pox, varicella zoster virus (VZV), stays in the in sensory nerve cells of the infect...
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Throw Away Your Bagged Spinach
The Associate Press reports in this article that 50 people have become ill this week and one has died because of food contaminated with a dangerous strain of E. coli. The FDA suspects fresh bagged spinach as a possible cause and is advising all Americans not to eat any.
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The death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 people were reported ill, 11 of them in Milwaukee. The outbreak has s...
Will Primary Care Survive?
Last week's New England Journal of Medicine features an important article by Dr. Thomas Bodenheimer, Primary Care -- Will it Survive? I encourage all of you to read it.
Dr. Bodenheimer starkly presents the looming crisis in primary care. Patients are waiting increasingly long for shorter appointments, frequently do not understand their doctor's instructions, and are increasingly dissatisfied. Primary ca...
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