Colorspace

It is hard to know where to begin when discussing the 1500 page “Domestic Medical Practice” - a turn of the century tome designed for household use, published by a now vanished medical society and written by a mix of 19th century educated New York City Doctors. I have chosen to begin randomly with page 1386 and a passage on scabies which reads:

Scabies or the Itch appear in children who have not been kept as clean as they might be. They are little red marks with black centers. They usually appear between the fingers and the toes. The itching is intense.

Give the child a warm bath, and anoint with Balsam of Peru. Three or four applications of Petroleum or Benzine after a bath will often remove the trouble. One ounce of Sulphur and two ounces of Lard made into an ointment is an old remedy. If any of the above remedies are used a few times, the skin will usually clear. It is a very contagious disease and the child should sleep alone.

Feel free to comment on this and then I will continue with an analysis.

High-risk patients who’ve been exposed to TB or recently converted to positive PPD’s need some kind of preventative Rx. This is not the same as the Tx options which the CDC recommends based on standard RIPE-S therapy, however we have some tough choices to make.

ISONIAZID for six months? Hmm. It can cause hepatitis, peripheral neuropathy and a “lupus-like” syndrome.

We can get away with only two months of treatment with AE that are much worse, using Rifampin and Pyrazinamide - where we’ll get red-orange piss, sweat and tears, as well as a potential hepatitis and in exchange for something lupus-like we go “flu-like” for the duration with myalgia and gout possibly too.

Either way it is not a pretty way to spend your time but at least better than taking HAART therapy after a needle stick. Jeez. There has to be a better way on the horizon!

It is time again to get involved with others. Times are getting increasingly difficult and this is primarily due to selfishness. One of the things we can do is to become more involved in our own governance. Here is a copy of a letter I wrote to lawmakers on the recent salmonella outbreak, something seemingly minor when compared to the collapse of the global economy, but nonetheless a symptom of the same disease: that is, a failure of the people to ensure their own future by allowing government’s role of enforcement to be reversed by the regulated community. Get involved and fight for a civil society!