A Doctor’s Perspective

Relating to the previous post, Whooping Cough Woes, a friend who is an Urgent Care Physician sent out this notice to our group. I really appreciated hearing his point of view:

(My wife) told me about the recent Pertussis infection in the Stevenson family and I wanted to pass on my perspective as a physician in dealing with this. My practice is in the urgent care centers for Sharp Rees-Stealy medical group, where I see a number of patients with various ear, throat, and respiratory infections.
Here are some points to keep in mind. Many vaccines are not 100% effective. Influenza and Chicken Pox vaccines, as well as Pertussis, are common examples of this. When they are not completely effective, they do often give partial immunity, which results in milder infections, such as the (Bizzert) children had. The reality is that there are probably many in the community who have had these mild infections who are never diagnosed or treated with antibiotics, and the vast majority recover with no significant problems. Your kids have likely already been exposed to these low level infections at school and possibly at church also. The biggest risk is to infants under 6 months of age. If you have any concerns, you should contact your pediatrician.
In my practice we see both adults and children, and we have not had a lot of positive test results for Pertussis. These tests are not 100% accurate, so I’m sure there are many with these low grade infections. Although it is important for the media to make people aware of these infections in our community, my experience is that for Pertussis, along with bird flu, swine flu, MRSA (resistant staph infection), and other recent infections, the hype in the media has always been much greater than what I see in my clinic. Of course this can be a serious matter for the rare unfortunate individuals who have a serious infection, but that can happen even if there isn’t an epidemic going around. If in doubt, it is always best to check with your doctor.
In reading the narrative from Amy about her family, my opinion is that the recommendations by her doctor where very reasonable, since you can’t keep every kid home who has cold symptoms, and are consistent with guidelines given to physicians by the state health department. I hope that my perspective can be helpful for you and I hope your kids all stay healthy.

(My wife) told me about the recent Pertussis infection in the (Bizzert) family and I wanted to pass on my perspective as a physician in dealing with this. My practice is in the urgent care centers for Sharp Rees-Stealy medical group, where I see a number of patients with various ear, throat, and respiratory infections.

Here are some points to keep in mind. Many vaccines are not 100% effective. Influenza and Chicken Pox vaccines, as well as Pertussis, are common examples of this. When they are not completely effective, they do often give partial immunity, which results in milder infections, such as the (Bizzert) children had. The reality is that there are probably many in the community who have had these mild infections who are never diagnosed or treated with antibiotics, and the vast majority recover with no significant problems. Your kids have likely already been exposed to these low level infections at school and possibly at church also. The biggest risk is to infants under 6 months of age. If you have any concerns, you should contact your pediatrician.

In my practice we see both adults and children, and we have not had a lot of positive test results for Pertussis. These tests are not 100% accurate, so I’m sure there are many with these low grade infections. Although it is important for the media to make people aware of these infections in our community, my experience is that for Pertussis, along with bird flu, swine flu, MRSA (resistant staph infection), and other recent infections, the hype in the media has always been much greater than what I see in my clinic. Of course this can be a serious matter for the rare unfortunate individuals who have a serious infection, but that can happen even if there isn’t an epidemic going around. If in doubt, it is always best to check with your doctor.

In reading the narrative from Amy about her family, my opinion is that the recommendations by her doctor where very reasonable, since you can’t keep every kid home who has cold symptoms, and are consistent with guidelines given to physicians by the state health department. I hope that my perspective can be helpful for you and I hope your kids all stay healthy.

Posted by on Sep 24, 2010 in General | Comments Off on A Doctor’s Perspective