To the Editor : “Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health,” by Nicholas D. Kristof (column, March 12), addresses a topic of paramount importance, the epidemic of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in our community. Mr. Kristof draws an association between the...
Published: March 17, 2009 “Our conference was being held over lunch, but Pat, a middle-aged health-care consultant, did not touch a bite of her food. When I asked if something was wrong, she revealed her lifelong battle with Crohn’s disease, an...
Published: February 17, 2009 “Did you know that women live longer than men?” I asked my wife. Of course she did — and not just because, like me, she is a physician. Anybody who walks into a nursing home can see the imbalance. Most people’s...
Published: February 10, 2009 I was skeptical when my hospital embarked several years ago on an initiative to reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections in our intensive care unit. These are infections that originate from the tubes and catheters inserted into...
Published: December 09, 2008 Ten years ago, an intelligent, reserved software engineer — a woman with the complexion of Halle Berry and the physique of a marathoner — came to my infectious-disease clinic, accompanied by her fiance. They’d been...
Published: November 25, 2008 Last month at a luncheon marking International Infection Prevention Week at the National Press Club, some speakers reminded me of a shameful and frightening statistic: Almost 60 percent of American health-care workers do not receive the...
