FEBRUARY 10 #1

The Mayor’s robot-tele spokesperson interrupted my lunch Monday, to warn me that it was too dangerous to be out on the icy streets and walks. Good advice especially if it did not involve Council.

Any comments I make about the February meeting will have to be based on third hand accounts. The Mayor and his chief of staff could do the public a service if they would post on the city site the   city’s local TV cable station’s schedule; especially the time  of the showing the Council meetings. I have repeatedly made that suggestion and there must be someone responsible to provide the info

 Meantime Dawg and I caught up on needed sleep.

In my last blog I had made a cynical request for information about a so called “vessel sprain” an unlikely injury to a non-solid structure such as a ligament. I have received only one response to that question.

FYI, I had thought that what was meant was a small tear or contusion to a vein with clot formation. A tear to an artery would have been apparent immediately after the injury with increasing evidence of blood escaping into the soft tissues of the neck.

Of all the media only the NY Post remarked;” Multiple doctors unconnected to Lundqvist’s treatment told the Daily News the injury Lundqvist is describing more likely would be classified as a partial tear or leak of a blood vessel, since one does not “sprain” a blood vessel the way one sprains a joint.:”

A NOTE

A whirlwind visit that lasted 23 hours, 27minutes has ended with Dawg exhausted and I having difficulty staying awake  to post a blog for Monday.

For the third weekend in a row  Monday's weather is supposed to be anti-social for old bones. My attendance at the dual Council meetings will depend on road and sidewalk conditions.

Request for info!. On the 11pm news there was report that the Ranger's goalie, Lundquist(?), who was hit in the neck with a puck the other day was suffering from a "blood vessel strain". I know that  medical science has progressed rapidly, specially with the politician's input from when I retired; but I am unfamiliar with the pathology of a vessel "strain". Pleas e advise me. 

SATURDAY INFO

The good news is that I have already commented on the Agenda Fixing Session agenda this past week, and all my comments remain valid including one that the Council should have an backup meeting date for all meetings. (SEE ON SIDEBAR"ABOUT MONDAY'S AGENDA,IS THERE A FOOTBALL GAME TODAY?)

Having the acceptance session immediately before the business session defeats the purpose of the two session format. Neither Councilors or especially the public have time to understand what is being voted upon. That could in a perfect world make a difference.

The better news is that the 'Richmond cohort" will be here overnight Saturday.

ABOUT VACCINATION.

As a physician whose career included the WWII to the 70s golden age of American medicine I will make the dogmatic statement that those who would not permit their children to be immunized from measles or any of the other contagious viral disease are idiots.

The present explosion of well over a hundred cases, including 5 in a preschool in Chicago, of measles  scattered over  multiple states is inexcusable. If due to refusal for vaccination when the first death is reported; it should be treated as criminal an act as giving a shooter a gun. This particular disease can be fatal especially in children under 5 and adults over 20.

Equally important are the potential complications that this virus which attacks almost all systems and tissues can cause. Chronic ear infection and loss of hearing,

As many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.

About one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or mentally retarded. Other possible lifelong residual problems such as severe epilepsy. My 4 year older sister suffered from this complication all her 80 years; accompanied by violent temper changes. None of this was helped by the available controlling medication that basically sedated the brain.*

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a very rare, but fatal disease of the central nervous system that results from a measles virus infection acquired earlier in life. SSPE generally develops 7 to 10 years after a person has measles, even though the person seems to have fully recovered from the illness.

There are other preventable diseases that have been for all purposes eliminated except where through ignorance or distorted religious zealousism vaccination has been forbidden. That would include Polio, Whooping Cough which too can kill, Chicken Pox, Influenza, Meningitis and of course Small Pox the white man’s conqueror of the American Indian. Those are viral diseases; yesterday I mention Diphtheria a bacterial disease as well as Pneumonias.

If one can save lives should not one do so? There is little difference from endangering other through a serious disease by not taking preventive measures as using a gun to harm.

There are few laws that mandated vaccinations. Some like Jackson vs King gave Board of Educations the right to make immunization a requirement for school attendance. Arguments for and against mandatory vaccination are based often on the IX and XIV Amendments.  

Federal jurisdiction over public health matters derives from the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Believe it or not but that has been upheld b SCOPUS.

However, because of the IX Amendment; states have individually maintained the right of immunization laws. All but two states, Mississippi and West Virginia permit exemption from mandatory vaccination due to religious belief. 19 states also permit exemption based on personal wishes. Unfortunately some are based on a debunked fear that vaccination is the cause of Autism. Others are also based on nonsense and disregard for the majority.  

If the “proven welfare of the public is what is at stake; there is no question that there should be corrective action.

Note that I have not mentioned other vaccines including tetanus that have been developed and now have a place in preventive medicine. Where and when indicated they should be used unles of course there is a medical contraindication.

* She was never able to live or enjoy a normal life. Never  had a date, could not drive a car or truly be independent.

RAMBLINGS

Wednesday was a lost day; nothing accomplished. I waited to 5 pm for the mail which usually comes between 10:30 & 11am.

Since there are no sidewalks on Cushing and the other side of the street is Scotch Plains our mail delivery is by “jeep” to a roadside (rural) box. 

One of the advantages is that outgoing mail is picked up.

Yesterday’s delivery was at 5pm. Our regular mailperson must be on vacation and instead of a relief deliverer the route is split into two and given to other carriers for after they finish their normal routes. Today there was no delivery. In the over 40 years that I have lived here, there never was a day that I did not receive at least some third class mail.

Thursday is of course another day, and I can hope that the four letters I expect are delivered in the morning.

With the weather predictions for the next five days indicating the coldest days of the winter, and possibility of some snow Thursday and Saturday with a coastal storm on Sunday night into Monday the roads and walks will be treacherous. I would hope that Council has already prepared an alternate meeting date if Monday is too much of a mess.

The present measles outbreak merits a dedicated blog and most likely I will post one either late Thursday or Friday am. There are only a few still living who remember how bad the contagious disease were. Prior to WWII many hospitals including Muhlenberg had separate buildings with a small number of beds for contagious diseases.

In the 60s I often remarked that I would hate to see the first case of diphtheria in Plainfield because I and every other doctor would miss it as just “tonsillitis”. I had not seen one since the early 40s. 

This outbreak reminded me of one diagnosis I was most proud of. In early 1944 I was, for about two months before the army decided that I would like to fly even if there were no engines,stationed at Finney General Hospital at Thomasville Ga. 

One night I was sent out with an ambulance to pick up a sick solider in   rural Georgia. The House had no electricity on kerosene lamps for light. The soldier whose skin was jet black had a high fever. Before I moved him I had to examine him and thought I noticed a rash so I informed him and the family he had measles which he did. Often because of skin pigmentation in African Americans the rash could be difficult to see even in daylight.

The treatment in those days was of course only symptomatic and supportive.