Global infectious diseases: What can we do?
It seems like we keep reading about infectious diseases spreading this fall. Here's the latest and tips for prevention.
Just this summer, I wrote about the world of infectious disease getting smaller and smaller with what were once considered exotic diseases popping up on our doorstep. Ebola in a plane passenger in Texas, chikungunya or "bent over virus" in Florida, and now an unknown disease in Denver that is making children very ill.
Nine children in three weeks have gotten ill in Colorado with what is presumed to be a virus that is causing severe weakness in their limbs, and inflammation around their brains with grey matter destruction. Doctors at Boston Children's Hospital have also identified four patients with the same symptoms.
The disease does not seem to be polio although it has similar features. There is some speculation that this could be another manifestation of enterovirus D68, which is making many children with pre-existing lung disease ill all over the country. EV-D68 has been detected in four people who have died, but none of the deaths have been directly attributed to the virus, according to officials from The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention last week. The CDC is currently not sure if these "brain fevers" with limb weakness may be associated with EV-D68.
In a world where you can fly almost anywhere in a single 24 hour period, infectious diseases are hard to keep confined. So what can we do?
Get vaccinated for what we know how to prevent
Avoid smoking and smokers (tobacco and marijuana), which makes lungs and other mucous membranes easier to infect
Wash your hands.You do not need fancy disinfectants, just soap and water vigorously for at least 15 seconds after you use the bathroom, before and after you prepare food, and after touching anyone who seems ill.
I have had dozen of emails and phone calls about Ebola and EV-D68 from my patients, and I tell them to wash their hands and their children's hands a lot. Gently, but firmly; wash not to scrub so hard that you take the skin off your hands. Unfortunately, it does not work all the time. Almost 20 years ago, a child with coxsackie virus (hand, foot and mouth disease) coughed in my face and 10 days later my heart failed from coxsackie myocarditis. Though I have done extremely well with medication, and now a pacemaker, the damage to my left ventricle has been permanent.
There is a constant struggle between humans and microbes, and at the same time humans each need billions of internal and skin microbes to survive. Wash and avoid sick people is good advice, unless you are a doctor and then you can only wash.
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