Seriously…
Fungal infections are spreading due to climate change. Doctors have almost no training about fungal infections even though they can be deadly. People die because their fungal infections aren’t diagnosed.
If you have a fever or other suspected bacterial infection and an antibiotic (which kills bacteria but not fungi) doesn’t help, ask your doctor to test for a fungal infection. (They often don’t even think about the possibility of fungal infection.) Don’t just switch to a different antibiotic. Antibiotics can exacerbate some fungal infections because they eradicate bacteria that compete with fungi.
Now here’s something weird. Dh came home today complaining that every one of his patients this morning had turned up for an endoscopy with food in their stomach/esophagus. Including one lady who’d insisted she’d followed directions. I just read this article out to him … mainly because of daughter’s dog with the aspergillus sinus infection recently and his identifying AIDS gastropathy decades ago
“That’s bloody funny”, he said "I ended up biopsying this woman’s esophagus and told the assisting nurse it’ll either come back as egg…or candida.
Very close friends of the family. He is a doctor and colleague of my dads. His oldest was my playmate when we were both one years old. She is now a congresswoman.
I tried about a year and a half ago to get him to discuss it with her. The biggest problem is people outside of a congressional district really can not approach the representative for working congressional matters.
She has studied this. It was a backburner issue in congress. Not much of an issue because for decades most of this stayed in the lesser populated southwest.
According to him as a doctor fungi do not change much over time. If we have to fight fungal inflections in a larger way we have a lot of time. It wont mutate in the meanwhile.
The article says that some pathogenic fungi have mutated to become resistant to the available fungicides. So this sweeping statement is already too late.
Wendy
Well, the article would say that, wouldn’t it? A more measured report…with appropriate nuance and historical context…wouldn’t grab eyeballs quite so readily.
It’s not impossible that there’s been a shift towards drug resistance but not so likely as with bacteria and antibiotics or viruses, say. According to the husband (and he’s someone
who’s been hanging around ICUs and dealing with immune compromised patients for the past couple of decades) he’d want some sturdy evidence that this is the case . Appropriate diagnosis, the correct anti fungal, in the right dosage and for long enough is usually the way to handle these infections.
Not to say complacency is appropriate either but, as usual, caution is advised when reading these upcycled press releases.
As tantalizing as these headlines are … don’t we all like to think we’re “in the know” when the doctors are confounded … I almost always find the story behind the headlines more of an attention grabber. This one’s no different. Both for the stuff I didn’t know … and what I know that just ain’t so.
My daughter never seems to be confounded by fungi. I suspect there are more examples in vet medicine (including our sad episode with the doggie’s aspergillus sinusitis) … which actually isn’t unheard of in humans and is equally hard to treat. It’s an amazing world out there.
Maybe related maybe not…dad always said do not get any sinus surgeries. Turns out the infection rate after surgery is higher and often chronic…in humans.
He was in a hospital setting. The other hospital that was larger on the next compound over had him in emergency rooms. He traveled to other hospitals in his practice. He dealt with over a thousand patients per year intake as he was in charge of admissions for roughly 15 years. He clearly saw what went right and wrong.
Also his idea of practicing would have brought in the best advice and doctors in the area because he was not out there making crazy decisions. He was on the licensing board in early retirement.
The kicker he is a smoker who has headaches daily. He does not have sinus infections at all. But he was careful in his own case to know what could go wrong with sinus surgery.
Interesting. Truth be known, I’ve had 2 sinus surgeries in the past 8 years.
The first one, 8 years ago was due to frequent sinus infections that were pretty disabling to me - lying in bed, cold sweats, high temp - really sick. Steriods up the nose via various delivery systems didn’t work. I have not had a sinus infection since that surgery.
I’ve been tested for all sorts of allergies, and I have very minor allergies to some factors, but nothing that is a silver bullet.
The surgery that I had recently, was attempting to fix my lack of taste, smell, and inflammation affects my hearing (sinus inflammation presses against Eustachian tubes causes fluid build-up in inner ear resulting in reduced hearing) and pretty much constant post-nasal drip.
Still not fixed totally, but my hearing seems better since surgery - but taste, smell and other senses are pretty dulled.
Overall, I’ll take the fact that my surgeries have kept me from having debilitating sinus infections which have been a big PLUS in my life.
'38Packard
still must flush sinuses daily with steroids to reduce inflammation…
Your experience is far more the “rule” than the exception. Most everyone I’ve encountered with a sinusitis that’s not responded to my first measures (which don’t include a neti pot or any of the other random things you can come across on the internet) have experienced over the decades experienced a dramatic improvement after a referral to the appropriate specialist and subsequent surgery. That includes a handful of folk who’ve been informed that surgery is unnecessary/too risky and so have been opted for so -called “conservative” treatment…or supervised neglect, depending on your point of view.
To quote one of my old maxillo-facial surgery professors… “Never less the sun set on undrained pus”.
The surgeries that I had were referred to as FESS Surgery. According to this Wiki article, most patients see a dramatic improvement in their sinus function after this day surgery.
I was in and out of a Boston hospital in about 4 hours.
And that is probably the difference the four hours.
My dad and sisters and I were smokers. I have only once had a sinus infection back at age 19. Dad’s warnings were around that time.
The issue is going home and not staying in hospital has lowered the infection rates. It is not the sole issue. Another issue maybe new operating techniques that are less invasive. This is not my wheelhouse at all.
One thing that surprised me two years ago, a few neighbors were walking. The elderly couple were down our road a bit and she fell. She had two bad breaks femur and hip. What shocked me, she was out of hospital 1.5 days later. Dad said instead of a rehab or a hospital stay people are sent home as fast as possible. The reason broken hips used to kill people were the hospital stays. People came down with pneumonia.
Dad’s advice is outdated and no longer relevant about sinus infections. Still I’d like to know the infection rate. Sounds like minor surgery to a degree now.
ah reading your link 38
“However, as with any medical procedure, there are potential risks and complications that should be discussed with a healthcare provider.”
Dad’s warning was not about the direct surgery as much as the few that did get infections after the surgery. What he was saying was if you have an infection the surgery did not guarantee you would not still have an infection and worse the frequency of infections can rise.
I do believe this is safer now in a few ways but still not my wheelhouse.
