I grew up in a family that harbored health experts and world-class hypochondriacs, and I am one of ‘those‘ insufferable patients – a media surfer who wants to be on the same page as her doctors. Obnoxious. Well no, I’m pretty discreet.
Many of us oldies are lining up for double-whammy vaccinations to prevent or attenuate influenza (strains expected this year) and Covid 19 (idem). RFK Jr notwithstanding, those who can generally go for prevention. Despite some negative reactions it’s still wise. We won’t lock up RFK Jr just because he has issues with mainstream science, ignores and undermines it, obsessed with unverified theories of autism. New vaccinations have been developed, the door is open for more. We’ll simply carry on, despite Olympian Trumpian cuts to universities, the CDC, major medical research projects and so on.
We oldies still recall polio, whooping cough, measles, mumps, chicken pox, if not diphtheria, etc. Weeks and months of suffering. Bovine tuberculous was still alive and well in Switzerland, and all schoolchildren received chest fluoroscopies annually (with generous doses of radiation). Measles kept me in bed for a month, a nightmare of fevers and isolation. And measles is rearing its angry rash again among the unvaccinated, with the risk of severe complications.
All this is a lead-in for my favorite under-the-radar disease…….
Cat-scratch fever, with the beautiful Latin name:
Bartonella henselae
My younger brother was diagnosed with cat-scratch fever by the pediatrician-who-made-housecalls with his stuffed monkey puppet meant to distract a scared child. My brother was 6, I was 11 and curious about all the attention he was getting. He had very swollen lymph glands and fever, and simply wasn’t his usual sunny self.
I was fascinated that a cat could cause this condition. Yet I have owned many cats, have endured many scratches over the years but never had it, and I haven’t met anyone else who confesses to being a survivor.
The sheltered life? Better flea powder? Who knows?
Westerners still live with parasites, worms, head and body lice, scabies, etc.
So where are the Bartonellistas?
