Doctors Said He Had The Flu. In Reality, He Had Flea-Borne Typhus.
Tom Sachs is one of about 60 reported people who have contracted flea-borne typhus this year, an outbreak that reflects an increasing trend in typhus cases since 2009. The symptoms of the sickness are very similar to the flu.
Orange County Register:
Typhus Symptoms Look Like The Flu, Which Is Why It Took Weeks For This San Marino Man To Be Diagnosed Correctly
Tom Sachs could barely move from his bed. He lay lifeless — delirious with 103-degree fever, riddled with aches, chills and extreme weakness. “I had the chills where my body would shake from my waist to my head,” he said during an interview Monday, Oct. 15. Doctors told him he had the flu. After nearly three weeks without any recovery, his wife, Carolyn, called a priest. Although she said she was thinking more about healing than death, Sachs seemed so ill that the priest gave him communion and last rites. (Scauzillo, 10/15)
In other public health news —
Los Angeles Times:
Paging Dr. Facebook: How The Social Network Could Help Doctors Screen Patients For Depression
More than half of Americans who suffer from depression never get any treatment, and in many cases that’s because their symptoms are never diagnosed. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force advises primary care physicians to screen all of their patients for depression and make sure proper care gets to those who need it, but this is a big job and doctors could use some help. Paging Dr. Facebook, stat! (Kaplan, 10/15)