Random thoughts from a few cantankerous American physicians. All contributors are board certified. Various specialties are represented here. I do not know where this will lead but hope it will at least be an enjoyable read. All of the names mentioned in this blog are pseudonyms, the ages have been changed, and in half the cases the gender as well. All photographs are published with patient consent or are digitally altered to preserve anonymity. Trust us, we're doctors.
CDC says number of U.S. measles cases is increasing.
The CBS Evening News (8/21, story 9, 2:15, Rodriguez) reported that measles, "a childhood disease, is making a comeback in this country, and doctors are worried." In addition, health officials are concerned "about what these numbers say about parents'" attitudes towards vaccinations, NBC Nightly News (8/21, story 5, 2:00, Williams) noted.
I hang my head in shame at my fellow Californians who don't have their curtain climbers vaccinated.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget seeing the emotion flow out of my doc when I asked him about the whooping cough vaccine. He actually shook like a leaf in anger while reciting how he treated a kid with whooping cough after the mother had refused to allow the shot. "Anyone who's ever seen a kid with whooping cough would get their kid vaccinated. It's one of the most heartbreaking things to see."
Saw a Whooping Cough Exposure last week, Grandma who'd been around her 4 month old Grandchild. Wasn't clear if the kid had been vacinated or not, and anyway wasn't my patient. The only sort of Headache was whether to vacinate the Grandma or not, as she was a year over the maximum recommended age for the vacine. Won't tell you what I did, but she left with a sore arm.
ReplyDeleteI should thank these wonderful parents. Its thanks to these beacons of enlightenment that I have any hope of seeing a SSPE patient in my career..
ReplyDeleteAnd a special word of thanks to all my country people in India as well.. thanks to whom Polio has still not been eradicated, cause of silly reasons like the ones these parents have for the measles vaccine...
I got immunized as a little kid and then... I got the whooping cough my first year of college. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteAnd I highly recommend it as a dietary lifestyle. The pounds just melt away.
and... what is a hankie head?
ReplyDelete(sorry, I don't get out much).
Mr Hanky, the Christmas poo ?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.emerchandise.com/images/p/SOP/pdBUSOP0004.jpg
Oh, Hanky, not Hankie. I was thinking handkerchief and just could not get it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cynic.
Ohh I was thinking handkerchief, too. Like hippies that wear handkerchiefs and don't get there kids vaccinated.
ReplyDeletetheir**
ReplyDeleteThe attitude of parents like this drives me nuts. I had polio in 1959. I was "lucky" in that it only left my left leg and some abdominal and hip muscles paralyzed. The very idea that religious or "philosophical" (whatever the hell that means in this context) ideas trump scientific facts makes me want to rise up and smack somebody. Do these people not understand that these little kiddie diseases KILL people??
ReplyDeleteI am reading a history of polio in the US, and the description of the reception of parents all over the country to the availability of a vaccine is so different than what we see today. The author reports that doctors and nurses in the field trials were stealing the stuff to get their own kids the life-saving coverage.
How soon we forget.