Wow, what a CT! Cysticercosis is one of those diseases you learn about in med school, that used to happen, but almost never does anymore because people know to cook their meat.
Note to self: Don't stop not eating raw meat and shellfish.
“The Electoral College is DEI for rural white folks.”
Derek Cressman
It was spring 2023, and Dr. Irene Stafford had been called to the ER for what should have been a routine delivery.
But Stafford, a maternal-fetal medicine physician at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, quickly realized something was wrong: She couldn’t find a heartbeat. The unborn baby boy had already died in the womb.
Soon after, the mother’s syphilis test — given to all women before delivery — came back positive. The infection had been silently passed from mother to son.
It’s a death, Stafford said, that could’ve been prevented with early detection and a shot of penicillin.
Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection, was nearly eliminated in the U.S. at the beginning of the 21st century but has made a dramatic comeback. In 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 200,000 syphilis cases — the highest counts since 1950. Congenital syphilis has similarly increased tenfold over the past decade, the CDC says, even though 90% of cases are fully preventable.
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“The Electoral College is DEI for rural white folks.”
Derek Cressman
