A child develops a fever of 104 ⁰F, cough, runny nose and red eyes. A few days later she develops a red bumpy itchy rash as in this photo. Any guesses as to the diagnosis? Many of us would be stumped, having never seen this disease. This is the classic presentation of measles, which prior to the development of the measles vaccine in the 1960s affected hundreds of thousands of U.S. children annually. There is no treatment. Complications from measles caused 3 fatalities for every one thousand ca...
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Keep Calm, Carry On, and Get Your Flu Shot
Ah, the magical serenity of mid-August! Students face the new school year with dread, parents face the new school year with joy, London is set ablaze, Syria shells its own civilians, and the stock market be... Linaclotide is Safe and Effective for Chronic Constipation
Chronic constipation affects about one in six people in the U.S. and is a problem that primary care doctors hear about very frequently. Symptoms include infrequent bowel movements, hard stools, straining, abdominal bloating and discomfort, and a sense of incomplete evacuation. It’s not a dangerous problem, but it causes plenty of misery for lots of people. Though doctors have a few remedies for chronic constipation (which I’ll list at the end of this post) they are only temporarily and modestly ...
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A New Species of Tick-Borne Bacteria Identified in Minnesota and Wisconsin
[Lunch warning: Parts of this post are kind of gross. If you’re reading this over a meal, you have been warned.]
What a depressing week. The debt ceiling debate postponed all difficult decisions, second quarter economic growth was revised so low that you need to squint to see it, and yesterday the stock market jumped off the balcony, losing all the gains it’s made over the year.
We need some happy news to...
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