{"id":2388,"date":"2012-01-29T10:01:07","date_gmt":"2012-01-29T15:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=2388"},"modified":"2015-06-04T15:15:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T19:15:03","slug":"pre-super-sunday-scombroids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/pre-super-sunday-scombroids\/2012\/01\/29\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Super Sunday Scombroids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/01\/7443745_blog1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2392\" title=\"football field\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/01\/7443745_blog1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"186\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a>Some quick ID\/HIV links while we await big guys playing the big game with a big (or at least <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenewsburner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/footbase.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\"><em>bigger<\/em><\/a>) ball.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Did you see how this doctor\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/AP757c3a224109437c941493ba9c77f517.html\" target=\"_blank\">cheated Medicaid out of more than $700,000<\/a> by prescribing HIV meds to people who didn&#8217;t have HIV? Not surprisingly, he&#8217;s going to jail. Proof that if there&#8217;s money behind a program &#8212; no matter how beneficial &#8212; someone will figure out a way to scam it.<\/li>\n<li>Not only is there barely any winter this year, but there&#8217;s<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/weekly\/summary.htm\" target=\"_blank\"> hardly any influenza.<\/a> Not a single state is reporting widespread activity. But <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.org\/flutrends\/us\/#US\" target=\"_blank\">Google Flu<\/a> doesn&#8217;t think it&#8217;s quite so remarkable, especially compared to last year where flu season peaked in mid-late February.<\/li>\n<li>What we&#8217;re not getting in flu, however, we&#8217;re definitely <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/Boston\/dailydose\/2012\/01\/norovirus-rise-how-avoid-manage-symptoms\/JhtXpdCViF5BIfhU9K4xeJ\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">getting in norovirus activity<\/a>, at least here in Boston. Last week someone in our office turned the color of a bedsheet, then disappeared home, only to returned a few days later weak, tired and 10 pounds lighter. And she didn&#8217;t even get to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nceh\/vsp\/surv\/GIlist.htm\" target=\"_blank\">go on a cruise,<\/a> though maybe that&#8217;s a good thing this year.<\/li>\n<li>Good brief\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/01\/29\/magazine\/the-hiv-scare.html?_r=1&amp;partner=rssnyt&amp;emc=rss\" target=\"_blank\">piece in the <em>Times<\/em><\/a> about men of a certain age getting HIV. As the author awaits the results of his test, he writes &#8220;I was feeling an incipient sense of . . . failure.&#8221; \u00a0That part particularly rang true, based on my clinical experience &#8212; these men lived through the horrible early years of the epidemic, and they feel like failures to get HIV now, after all these years. Lots of self blame.<\/li>\n<li>How about we all pick up one of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hammacher.com\/Product\/81655?source=EMZ00812&amp;cm_ven=WC&amp;cm_cat=20120117_EMZ008&amp;cm_pla=BYR&amp;cm_ite=81655_The\/%20Mold%20and%20Germ%20Destroying%20Air%20Purifier\" target=\"_blank\">these beauties<\/a> for our hospitals before flu season kicks in? The <em>Mold and Germ Destroying Air Purifier<\/em> &#8220;eliminates up to 100% of airborne bacteria, mold, viruses, pet dander, dust mites, and pollen without making a sound or using a filter.&#8221; I guess the key is that &#8220;up to &#8230;&#8221; phrase. (Note to catalogue copy writers: doctors never use the word &#8220;germs&#8221; unless talking to non-medical people.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For reference, today&#8217;s title was brought to you by the makers of the ABIM Recertification Exam, who truly have a thing for <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=597F4ZVu7eQC&amp;pg=PT118&amp;dq=scombroid&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=ZU8lT9_MC_TH0AHzvojkCA&amp;ved=0CGAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&amp;q=scombroid&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">fish poisonings<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some quick ID\/HIV links while we await big guys playing the big game with a big (or at least bigger) ball. Did you see how this doctor\u00a0cheated Medicaid out of more than $700,000 by prescribing HIV meds to people who didn&#8217;t have HIV? Not surprisingly, he&#8217;s going to jail. Proof that if there&#8217;s money behind [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,7,8],"tags":[167,388,392,423,500,593],"class_list":["post-2388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-hiv","category-infectious-diseases","category-misc","category-patient-care","tag-cdc","tag-germs","tag-google-flu","tag-hiv","tag-influenza","tag-medicaid"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}