I’ve had strep a number of times (as a kid) and you are sick as a dog from it. I think I would recognize it again and get my ass to the doctor. Yup! It’s a beast. Nope! You don’t want to fuck with it.
He was. See his obituary in the national gay news magazine, the Advocate, for example.
And regarding Yassar Arafat, I believe recent reports from the hospital pathology lab confirm that his death was a result of AIDS. Of course, some in the PLO are very upset about this, and trying to deny it.
I tried to buy some on Monday, alas, but they were gone.
I’d be interested to hear more about Arafat, as last I’d heard, it was deemed unlikely that AIDS killed him.
You may buy your Muppet stamps (and many others as well) directly from the U.S. Postal Service’s Stamp Fulfillment Services at (800) 782-6724. It’s a great resource for stamps and stamp-related stuff.
Synchronisity alert: I was in the post office today and saw the stamps on the wall and thought “How neat, I didn’t know that had been issued.”
As for Yassir, this entry from Little Green Footballs contains two links, one to an Israeli newspaper
The New York Times says their look at the records “dispells a rumor that he may have died of AIDS” but notes:
I did read that Ha’aretz concluded it was AIDS. We’ll see what else comes out.
What is Arafat’s official cause of death? The article quoted above says that his death certificate is obviously fake, but does anyone know what it says?
Re: Arafat.
I’m thinking about this, and really, this is all medical information that is supposed to be confidential (death doesn’t end confidentiality).
Allegations of a “cover-up” are somewhat odd, and the fact that Israel is so interested in Arafat’s cause of death rather points to a smear campaign.
In the grand scheme of things it matters very little what someone died from and breaches of patient confidentiality help no-one.
Is that the case? I’d like to see some legal authorities, because I’m not at all sure that this is clear.
Under the common law, for example, a dead person has no privacy rights.
You try and get your family doctor to tell you confidential information about dead patients and see how far you get.
It’s a serious breach of medical ethics.
Clarification: Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia is pathgnomonic of a suppressed immune system.
While most cases are related to HIV infection, others can get it too. A summary from emedicine.com:
*Causes: PCP occurs only in immunocompromised individuals, particularly patients with cell-mediated immune deficiencies. Patients at risk include the following:
Persons infected with HIV
CD4 count less than 200 and not on PCP prophylaxis
Evidence of oropharyngeal thrush or fever, regardless of CD4 count
Patients with HIV who have undergone splenectomy - May have spuriously high CD4 count
Patients with hematologic malignancies
Patients on long-term steroids or immunosuppressant therapy, including patients with systemic vasculitis or other autoimmune diseases
Organ-transplant recipients
Patients with other immune deficiencies
Thymic dysplasia
Severe combined immunodeficiency
Hypogammaglobulinemia
Patients with severe malnutrition*
No cause of death is listed.
French law allows this to be omitted from the death certificate, and Arafat’s wife requested that it be left off his death certificate.
You missed those on marrow suppressive chemotherapy.
As an aside, Pneumocystis is carried by birds, I’m not completely sure if it occurs commonly else where, but in the U.S. mid-west, nearly everyone has antibodies to it. It was how we tested to see if someone could mount an antibody response. (Research project) It was injected intradermally, like a TB test, then read in 3 days. In a year of testing only one healthy volunteer came up negative. He was English and had only been in the area one week.
This was before HIV was recognized. I doubt if it’s used routinely today.
IIRC the A&E Biography, Jim Henson was a Christian Scientist; modern medicine is against his religeon.
When he finally, reluctantly, went to the hospital, it was too late.
No, this isn’t true, under the laws of most countries. Only a few countries allow a death certificate without listing the actual cause of death. And in many, putting false information can subject the doctor to legal charges.
In fact, this information can help many people.
After all, the purpose of medical confidentiality is to ensure that people get treated for diseases, even ‘loathsome’ diseases that might cause others to shun them if they knew about it. Obviously, this is not very relevant any more after the patient dies. At that point, society’s interest in keeping track of diseases & deaths for public health purposes is more important. Thus the existence of government agencies as the CDC & WHO, and their regular publication of reports about this. (See the US CDC’s weekly Morbidity & Mortality Report http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwr_wk.html, for example.)
In the law, patient confidentiality for live patients is often trumped by the needs of maintaining the health of the general public in society. Think of the requirements for immunizations for schoolchildren, or the mandatory isolation & quarantine imposed on communicable disease outbreaks, such as SARS a few years ago. When the patient is dead, this is even more weighted in favor of the living members of society.
Interesting. That’s a pretty big hint that Arafat’s condition was something that might be considered embarrassing or shameful. You don’t hide the cause of death if it’s cancer, or a stroke, or something common like that.
I’ve seen many people die of pneumonia. If you are elderly and already weakened by heart, lung and kidney problems, infection can be fatal despite the best antibiotics. If you are healthy and young, some strains can still be dangerous, even deadly.
t-bonham@scc.net-there is a difference between collecting epidemiological data, with NO PATIENT IDENTIFIERS and breaching confidentiality by saying “Mr. So and So died of AIDS”. Do you see the difference?
And I’m sorry, I meant to say PCP is an AIDS defining condition in an HIV positive person, rather than PCP is pathognomonic of AIDS. Apologies.
I believe Jim Henson died of pneumonia complications from AIDS, this was covered up, because of his status as creator of Sesame street and the Muppets, to protect the millions of children who might have been unable to cope with this information!
Just so you know, the culture here is when you make a assertion such as you did, you’re expected to back it up.