Stinger Zinger

Dr. Greene’s take on bee stings… Get ready for an interesting bee season! All the way back in the summer of 1997 we had a noticeable spike in questions at DrGreene.com about severe mosquito bite reactions and severe headaches, most of them coming from Orange County, Florida. I wondered if there might be a new mosquito-borne encephalitis epidemic brewing there. I called the public health department in Orange County, all the way across the country, to alert them what we were seeing, and they dismissed my concerns, responding that they had seen nothing of the sort. But the questions to DrGreene.com kept coming. So the next week I called the CDC in Atlanta to suggest there might be a cluster of mosquito-borne encephalitis in Florida. They hadn’t heard of anything, but promised to look into it. They called back a few days later and said nothing had showed up, but they would keep paying attention. Two weeks later the mosquito-borne encephalitis in Orange County was headline news. Vacationers cancelled their trips. Part of Walt Disney World was closed because of the encephalitis. This year we’ve been getting a decidedly unusual spike in questions at DrGreene.com about bee stings. “I was stung by a bee on the outside of my foot 6 days ago and it hurt like my bone was being crushed for the next day or so…” “My daughter was stung by a bee on her upper arm on the under side 8 days ago. She woke up this morning…and the sting site is red and swollen….  “Dr....
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: Dr. Greene's Blog Source Type: blogs