Friday, March 28, 2003

I gave a talk on Bioterrorism at the American Dental Association meeting in DC on March 28. The last person to come to the microphone to ask a question after my talk said that he had waited many years to publicly address me. He related that in 1979, his 7 year old daughter was gravely ill on a respirator with a diffuse autoimmune-like disease that her doctors could not figure out. She was moribund and they were about to give up on her. A doctor said that there was only one doctor in the country that he thought could come up with something and so they called me. Apparently, I spent over an hour on the phone walking through with them a plan for the patient that included plasmapheresis together with cytoxan and prednisone. Within days, his daughter began improving, got off the respirator, spent over a year in rehab, graduated high school, went to Barnard College, graduated first in her class, became a Ph.D. pathologist, got married and had a child. She is entirely well now. He said that he just wanted to thank me publicly for “saving his daughter’s life”. The audience gave me and him a standing ovation. It was one of the most moving things that I had experienced. March 29 – April 1, 2003 – It is hitting the fan. SARS is getting out of control. More than 1800 cases and 62 deaths worldwide. 3.6% mortality. Clusters of cases appearing mostly in Hong Kong and China. Now there are 17 countries. USA has 72 cases in 27 states – no deaths yet. It appears that it is spread by respiratory droplets, but also recent evidence that by fine aerosal and objects – not unlike other coronaviruses. I will brief the POTUS this week on SARS. The war in Iraq is raging with troops engaging the Republican guard close to Bagdad. More myocarditis complications with smallpox vaccine. What a week so far!!!