Most respondents in this survey of medical students, residents, and staff physicians reported coming to work when they had a respiratory tract infection, with staff physicians most likely to do so.
A new report and review of the literature comes from Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston of a 77-year-old Native American with follicular thyroid cancer post-radiation that spread to his hip, resulting in metastatic disease. He developed septic shock and necrotizing fasciitis of both thighs.
Physicians in the developed parts of the world have an unrealistic expectation that when they order a patient's specimen to be sent to the microbiology laboratory for culture that the results they receive in the laboratory's report are always reliable and can be used to initiate or modify the patient's therapeutic regimen.
An increasing number of HIV-positive immigrants and refugees, many from Africa, are cared for in the United States.
In this issue: Two oral medications for relapsing-remitting MS in phase III development; antihypertensives find new uses; Ginkgo biloba does not prevent cognitive decline in elderly; and FDA Actions.