Properly Naming the Sinusitis-Otitis-Conjunctivitis Syndrome
One of our nonphysician providers recently announced, “This kid has that double-sickening thing you talk about all the time." She was referring to the sudden worsening of signs and symptoms (e.g., onset of fever) in a patient who had had an upper respiratory tract infection for several days.The majority of links in a Google search for “double-sickening" are references for sinusitis, but new-onset pneumonia is another double-sickening event. The Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines for sinusitis acknowledge double-sickening and concur that pneumonia can present similarly. I investigate for sinusit...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - November 1, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Nasal Endoscopy for Urgent and Complex ED Cases
Fiberoptics and endoscopy have changed the way we treat patients in the emergency department. Endoscopes are relatively easy to use, and can aid your diagnosis and treatment plan. Endoscopy may be useful in urgent cases, such as epistaxis, nasal foreign bodies, and ear debridement. It may also be helpful when dealing with more complicated presentations and critically ill patients, such as those with Ludwig's angina, epiglottis, tracheostomies, or those who need intubation.Fiberoptic tools are not just for surgeons and consultants. The endoscope has many uses in the emergency department, and we have a few tips and tricks...
Source: The Procedural Pause - October 28, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Why follow a vaccine schedule?
Right now, many people are hoping for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus. While that’s still on the horizon, new research suggests that families who do vaccinate their children may not be following the recommended schedule.
Vaccines are given on a schedule for a reason: to protect children from vaccine-preventable disease. Experts designed the schedule so that children get protection when they need it — and the doses are timed so the vaccine itself can have the best effect. When parents don’t follow the schedule, their children may not be protected.
And yet, many parents do not follow the schedule.
A th...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 26, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Adolescent health Children's Health Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Pediatric Conjunctivitis a Simple Diagnosis Until It Isn’t
Conjunctivitis is a common condition and easy enough to treat, but several uncommon conjunctivitis syndromes require more care and should not be missed.Conjunctivitis is either infectious (viral or bacterial) or noninfectious (allergic or nonallergic). Viral infections are more common in adults, bacterial ones in children, usually caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis. Adults tend to have more S. aureus infections, while the other pathogens are more common in children. An adenovirus is typically responsible for viral-associated infections in conjunct...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - March 1, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Distinguishing between Orbital and Preseptal Cellulitis
Some medical conditions have signs and symptoms that significantly overlap, making a diagnosis a little more difficult. Epididymitis, testicular torsion, and torsion of the testicular appendage are examples, but orbital and preseptal cellulitis are others that can cause significant diagnostic confusion.Both conditions are more common in children than in adults, and preseptal or periorbital cellulitis is more common in children under 5. The preseptal and orbital spaces are separated by only a thin membranous septum that originates in the orbital periosteum and inserts into the tarsal plates. It is only this thin septum t...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - December 31, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
The Migrant Caravan, Central America, and Vaccination Rates
Many commentators have recentlywritten andsaid that members of the migrant caravan and Central American immigrants in general are diseased. Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Ward claimed that the migrants are “coming in with diseases such as smallpox,” a disease that the World Health Organization (WHO) certified as beingeradicated in 1980. One hopes Mr. Ward was more careful in enforcing American immigration law than in spreading rumors that migrants are carrying one of the deadliest diseases in human history nearly 40 years after it was eradicated from the human population. But even on oth...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 1, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
Meningitis vaccines: What parents need to know
Meningitis can be a very scary infection — and vaccines can help prevent it.
What is meningitis?
The meninges are a membrane that covers and protects the brain and spinal cord. When that membrane gets inflamed, it’s called meningitis. One of the ways this inflammation can happen is from infection. Common symptoms of an infection of the meninges are fever, headache, and a stiff neck.
There are many different germs that can infect the meninges. Viruses cause most cases, and while this can be serious, most people with viral meningitis get better without treatment. Some may not even realize they’ve had meningitis.
Bacter...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 8, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Adolescent health Infectious diseases Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs
3 ways to help get more children immunized
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There is much to celebrate during National Infant Immunization Week this year. More than 90% of children 19 to 35 months have received all the recommended doses of vaccines for their age against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, and hepatitis B — and more than 80% have received all the recommended protection against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, pneumococcus, and Haemophilus influenzae.
But there are also reasons to be concerned. Only 72% have had all the recommended vaccines, which means one in four children is missing at least one. Even more concerning, studies show that ther...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 24, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Infectious diseases Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Learn typical community acquired pneumonia with a Medcomic
Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is an acute infection of the lung parenchyma acquired outside of the hospital or less than 48 hours after hospital admission. CAP is classified into typical and atypical subtypes, differentiated by their presentation and causative pathogens. This illustration focuses on the classic features of typical CAP.
The most common cause of typical CAP is Streptococcus pneumoniae. It is an encapsulated, gram-positive, lancet-shaped diplococcus bacterium. Other common causative pathogens include Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, gram-negative bacilli (e.g., Klebsiella), and Staphylo...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 26, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/jorge-muniz" rel="tag" > Jorge Muniz, PA-C < /a > Tags: Conditions Infectious Disease Pulmonology Source Type: blogs
Stories to help parents think critically about the importance of vaccinations
I was rotating through an infectious disease elective at an outside hospital during my fourth year of medical school when I encountered a startling situation. We were called to evaluate a patient who was suffering from an infection called Haemophilus influenzae. Now, I knew that most children were vaccinated against this pathogen, so I was surprised by the consult.
I was working on a team with three others: one attending, one fellow, and another medical student. We donned our gowns and our gloves, and we entered the intensive care unit. The sight before me is one that I will never forget. The child was connected to various...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 2, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/cherilyn-cecchini" rel="tag" > Cherilyn Cecchini, MD < /a > Tags: Conditions Hospital-Based Medicine Infectious Disease Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
How we can all help protect babies with immunizations
This study should mostly be a wake-up call to health care providers, who clearly need to do a better job of getting information about the benefits of immunization to pregnant women. But it also points out that every single one of us can make a difference, by getting the word out.
The majority of American children are fully immunized, yet it’s the parents who choose not to immunize who are more vocal. That needs to change — especially because studies clearly show that when it comes to health information, the opinions of friends and family really do matter.
So speak up. If you have vaccinated your children, talk with you...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 22, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Pregnancy Vaccines immunization immunizations Source Type: blogs
What's noise, what's Illumina bias, and what's signal?
The PhD student and I are trying to pin down the sources of variation in our sequencing coverage. It's critical that we understand this, because position-specific differences in coverage are how we are measuring differences in DNA uptake by competent bacteria.Tl;dr: We see extensive and unexpected short-scale variation in coverage levels in both RNA-seq and DNA-based sequencing. Can anyone point us to resources that might explain this?I'm going to start not with our DNA-uptake data but with someH. influenzae RNA-seq data. Each of the two graphs below shows the RNA-seq coverage and ordinary seq coverage of a 3 or ...
Source: RRResearch - August 18, 2017 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Rosie Redfield Source Type: blogs
What's noise, what's Illumina bias, and what's signal?
The PhD student and I are trying to pin down the sources of variation in our sequencing coverage. It ' s critical that we understand this, because position-specific differences in coverage are how we are measuring differences in DNA uptake by competent bacteria.Tl;dr: We see extensive and unexpected short-scale variation in coverage levels in both RNA-seq and DNA-based sequencing. Can anyone point us to resources that might explain this?I ' m going to start not with our DNA-uptake data but with someH. influenzae RNA-seq data. Each of the two graphs below shows the RNA-seq coverage and ordinary seq coverage of a 3...
Source: RRResearch - August 18, 2017 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Rosie Redfield Source Type: blogs
What's noise, what's Illumina bias, and what's signal?
The PhD student and I are trying to pin down the sources of variation in our sequencing coverage. It's critical that we understand this, because position-specific differences in coverage are how we are measuring differences in DNA uptake by competent bacteria.Tl;dr: We see extensive and unexpected short-scale variation in coverage levels in both RNA-seq and DNA-based sequencing. Can anyone point us to resources that might explain this?I'm going to start not with our DNA-uptake data but with someH. influenzae RNA-seq data. Each of the two graphs below shows the RNA-seq coverage and ordinary seq coverage of a 3 or ...
Source: RRResearch - August 18, 2017 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Rosie Redfield Source Type: blogs
Learning to use the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus
As part of our workup for the toxin/antitoxin manuscript, I want to find expression data for the homologs of theHaemophilus influenzae toxin and antitoxin genes. The former post-doc recommends that I use NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus ('GEO') for this.I'll need to learn how to search the GEO for specific accession data and data from specific taxa.I'll also need to find out the specific identifiers for the genes I'm interested in, in the species I'm interested in. I think I can use BLAST searches (queried with theH. influenzae sequences) to find the species and links to the DNA sequences of the homologs, and then ...
Source: RRResearch - May 15, 2017 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Rosie Redfield Source Type: blogs
