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(in)frequent musings about medicine, science, life, and of course infectious diseases.
August 8, 2014
Taking (Live)stock: Antibiotic resistance, farm antibiotic use, what we can do about it Antibiotic resistance is a topic that is increasingly in the news and on the minds of our patients, providers, and even our government . We all know we…
Read more →February 13, 2014
Originally Published at https://the-magazine.org/36/script-doctor/index.html Long before I wanted to admit it out loud, or even just to myself, I knew my grandfather was losing his mind. Not in any sort of crazy sense. Just that literally,…
Read more →January 16, 2014
Doctor Who? Doctor Geek! How our geeky interests may become our geeky careers I recently wrote a piece on my origins as a physician-writer. In it, I explored how writing allows physicians and other health professionals to understand our…
Read more →November 25, 2013
A couple of months ago I wrote a piece for The Magazine entitled Carry On , also located on this blog [[Blogging/The Magazine Pieces/Carry On|here]]. In it, I discussed how some of the devastating genetic diseases actually persist because…
Read more →November 22, 2013
To say that vaccination remains an extremely hot-button issue is an understatement. Thirteen years after Andrew Wakefield began a controversy over the MMR vaccine and autism, and 2 years after the author of that controversy was discredited…
Read more →October 24, 2013
Originally Published at https://the-magazine.org/28/a-separate-peace/index.html Shivering in the brisk October air, I stood clutching a small pudding cup, licking the plastic spoon. Standing — no, hiding — on the roof with a friend and…
Read more →October 12, 2013
There are times that medical school and residency feel like a sheltered island. When you start medical school, what you will eventually choose for a residency seems an eternity away, but by 3rd or certainly 4th year, most of you will have…
Read more →September 5, 2013
I recently came into contact, through Twitter , with an aspiring doctor and former journalist named Chantal Mendes who was interested in interviewing me about what it was like to be a pediatrician and an infectious disease doctor. My…
Read more →August 29, 2013
Originally Published at https://the-magazine.org/24/carry-on/index.html When my mother was pregnant with me, she and my father underwent screening for Tay-Sachs disease. She was an Ashkenazi Jew; he was not Jewish. Common in Eastern…
Read more →July 15, 2013
Much has been written so far today about Jenny McCarthy joining The View as host, replacing Elisabeth Hasselbeck (who will apparently be joining Fox News in a not entirely surprising turn of events). Excellent pieces by Seth Mnookin ,…
Read more →May 23, 2013
The question a story like this prompts, is why? Why, in the face of easy, accessible vaccination do people still not vaccinate their children? There are currently 34 reported cases in a Measles outbreak in Brooklyn, NY. All were…
Read more →May 14, 2013
It's that time of year again: the birds are singing, the sun is shining, it's getting warmer... You know what that means—yes, its Lyme disease season! What's that? You didn't learn about the two seasons in school growing up? Lyme season…
Read more →May 7, 2013
Autism and Lyme Disease? This is a thing?? Apparently I just moved out from a rock that I've been living under since 2008, when a paper was published linking Lyme seropositivity with autism in a cohort of children. I'm astonished, given…
Read more →April 29, 2013
In the days since my article on vaccines I have received a lot of feedback. Many readers have been very supportive but some have taken issue with some of my arguments, my mode of presentation, or raised questions that I did not answer.…
Read more →April 25, 2013
Originally Published at https://the-magazine.org/15/give-it-your-best-shot/index.html During my pediatric residency, I took care of a three-week-old girl who went deaf from bacterial meningitis due to Haemophilus influenzae type b , an…
Read more →March 29, 2013
Just a very short post today with some food for thought. I spent a good portion of my day yesterday struggling to ascertain whether insurance would pay for certain specific testing on a post-mortem specimen from a patient--that is, a…
Read more →September 23, 2012
Another week, another post; this one on Jewish ritual circumcision...wait, what? How is this an infectious disease issue, you may ask? I’m not spoiling the ending...you’ll have to read to find out. First, a meta-post: my apologies for the…
Read more →September 15, 2012
A recent article by Jane Brody earlier this week in the New York Times discussed the overuse of an antibiotic group called fluoroquinolones . While she had the right idea, I think her approach and some of her data are at best flawed and at…
Read more →September 11, 2012
Today’s post isn’t about medicine, or infections, or antibiotics; rather, it’s about children. 11 years ago today, a horrific act of terror robbed the world of almost 3,000 people. Those women and men were mothers and fathers to children…
Read more →September 4, 2012
As I have discussed in a [[Blogging/On Cows...|previous post]] here, Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is increasing in prevalence. There are outbreaks this year across the country, building on previous outbreaks last year and in…
Read more →September 3, 2012
Just a quick post tonight. Anybody who has any awareness of or interest in the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or “Obamacare”, which pretty much means anyone who has ever received medical care, hasn’t been living…
Read more →September 2, 2012
It can be all too easy for those of us who work in the medical field to forget why it is we do what we do for a living. And when we do remember why , it can feel difficult to understand how we face what we face on a daily basis. But during…
Read more →August 31, 2012
Today’s topic is vaccines and vaccination. And you thought I’d be writing about farm animals ... From the Latin for “cow,” vaccination owes its name to the first virus used in a vaccine: Cowpox or Vaccin ia virus. Edward Jenner first…
Read more →August 30, 2012
Call me old-fashioned, but I thought an introduction would be in order. My name is Saul Hymes. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease at Stony Brook Long Island Children’s…
Read more →August 30, 2012
I had never really seen the point of blogging [1] . So why am I here, you ask? I think it just comes down to it being the right time. Which is not to say it is the first time... The internet is littered with the corpses of the…
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