Free Republic

University of Otago-led research has uncovered the strongest evidence yet that household overcrowding is a major risk factor for acute rheumatic fever and streptococcal infections of the skin. Lead researcher Professor Michael Baker of the University of Otago, Wellington, says it is the first time researchers have investigated risk factors for Group A streptococcal infections of the throat (strep throat) and skin (strep skin) that can cause rheumatic fever. The studies found that both rheumatic fever and strep skin were linked with barriers to accessing primary health care and a family history of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, a...

CASES In 1931, a third-year Harvard medical student saw a cluster of small red dots on his forearm and knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would be dead within six months. In 1942, an obscure medical journal published the student's diary posthumously, for he did indeed die of the disease he had diagnosed in himself, subacute bacterial endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves that was uniformly fatal before the advent of antibiotics. The Harvard professor who submitted the diary for publication said in a brief, sharp introduction that as far as he was concerned, doctors were...