Tag: infectious disease
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Milwaukee’s unlikely public health advocate
Lea DacyRochester, MN, United States The story of my mother’s possible childhood episode of pertussis (also known as whooping cough) has lived on in family lore because of its link with a notorious legendary figure in Milwaukee history. One Sunday afternoon, Helen Cromell (she later changed it to Cromwell), or “Dirty Helen” as she is…
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The men who defeated syphilis
Beginnings The origins of syphilis have been subject to much debate. The disease has been claimed to be thousands of years old and originally to have evolved from yaws. Generally mistaken for leprosy and not recognized as a separate entity, it might have taken the form of a mild disease, prevalent in societies whose inhabitants…
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Sir Patrick Manson—“Father of Tropical Medicine”
Patrick Manson (1844–1922) was born in Aberdeenshire, qualified in medicine from the University of Aberdeen in 1866, and joined the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service as a medical officer with private practice allowed. He developed a successful and profitable general practice in Amoy and Taiwan, and was unusual in possessing a microscope. Keeping this near…
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The other Timothy Leary
Saty Satya-MurtiSanta Maria, California, United States Most people know the name of Timothy Leary as an American counterculture guru and psychologist who had a massive following in the mid-twentieth century. He invoked the names of Gandhi, Jesus, and Socrates as his martyred models; was associated with Aldous Huxley, John Lennon, and Jack Kerouac; and fissioned…
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Intubation incarceration: A true tale of torture
Abram GabrielPiscataway, New Jersey, United States For five days, I could not speak at all. In November 2010, I had a brainstem stroke resulting from an arteriovenous fistula. I spent nearly a month in a coma in a regional teaching hospital, and seven weeks in an acute rehabilitation center. While my mind is now clear,…
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COVID-19: clinico-immunologic snapshot of a coronavirus
S.E.S. MedinaBenbrook, Texas, United States A tiny mote of moisture, buoyed by silk-soft wind currents, is kicked and coaxed along a random path in space. The droplet carries a microscopic stowaway; a translucent, spherical, protein-encased, fatty bubble filled with the ostensibly lifeless essence of COVID-19, the virus known as SARS-CoV-2. Anonymous among the swirling detritus…
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A historical analysis of the military’s method of anti-malaria health education through print
Pavane Gorrepati Iowa City, Iowa, United States The fight against malaria has largely been successful because of modern scientific advances, but during World War II the fight was supplemented by propaganda posters warning soldiers about malaria just as they were warmed against venereal diseases. Everyone was expected to aid the war effort—women to plant victory gardens…
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What does the zoonotic origin of COVID-19 teach us about preventing future pandemics?
James A. Marcum Waco, Texas, United States The history of medicine reveals that epidemics and pandemics have plagued humanity throughout the centuries.1 Examples include the Antonine plague (165-180 A.D.), the Justinian plague (541-542 A.D.), the Black Death (1347-1351 A.D.), pandemics such as the Spanish flu (1918-1919) and the Asian flu (1957-1958), and now the COVID-19 pandemic.…
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Simon Flexner, infectious diseases pioneer
Simon Flexner. circa 1930s. Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center. Source, Infectious diseases shaped the life of Simon Flexner, who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most successful and prominent scientists in American medicine. His contributions to the field of infectious diseases were legion. He became the first chairman of pathology at…