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Showing posts with the label "infectious diseases"

Guns, Germs and Steel

The  links  connecting  livestock  and  crops  to  germs  were  unforgettably illustrated  for  me  by  a  hospital  case  about  which  I  learned  through  a  physician  friend.  When  my  friend  was  an  inexperienced  young  doctor,  he  was called  into  a  hospital  room  to  deal  with  a  married  couple  stressed-out  by  a mysterious  illness.  It  did  not  help  that  the  couple  was  also  having  difficulty communicating  with  each  other,  and  with  my  friend.  The  husband  was  a small,  timid  man,  sick  with  pneumonia  caused  by  an  unidentified  microbe, and  with  only  limited  command  of  the  English  language.  Acting  as  translator  was  his  beautiful  wife,  worried  about  her  husband's  condition  and frightened  by  the  unfamiliar  hospital  environment.  My  friend  was  also stressed-out  from  a  long  week  of  hospital  work,  and  from  trying  to  figure out  what  unusual  risk  factors  might  have  brought  on  the  strange  il