Virus

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 15 Issue 20/21

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Flu season is around the corner and we should take a look at the virus for preparation purposes.

Influenza

Every few years, I revisit this virus in my writing, not only to keep it on your radar in preparation, but also because of the significant illness and death it continues to cause. It’s never wise to dismiss its potential impact. Influenza reliably returns each year, difficult to escape even with strict isolation.

The flu is different from the common cold in many ways as the flu has:

1) Rapid onset with high spiking fevers

2) Muscle and headaches

3) Little to not sneezing and sore throat

4) Rapid and robust cough onset

Influenza season is beginning in the United States this fall. Who gets sick? In short, people of all ages. Seasonal influenza has a reproductive rate of just over one, meaning that each infected person typically spreads the virus to one or two others through coughing or sneezing in close proximity. The virus also survives on surfaces for up to 24 hours, creating another common route of transmission, especially in children. Young kids frequently touch surfaces and each other, then touch their faces, providing the perfect pathway for infection. Because of this, schools remain a major hub for flu transmission across the country.

Preventing the virus from taking root in your body is the key to avoiding a bad outcome.

Things that I think of as critical to avoiding or preventing this infection:

1) Keeping your vitamin D level greater than 50 ng/ml is an important way to prevent influenza infections. Get tested and supplement accordingly. As always the sun is your natural route to normal D levels

2) Get adequate sleep based on your age to keep your immune system in great shape. Sleep is very important for immune health…… and more on asthma driving mental health issues.
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 15 Issue 14

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As I have told many of my patients, I would write immediately when NC sees its first Measles case.

Well, North Carolina has its first measles case: The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed a case of measles in a child who was visiting Forsyth and Guilford counties. The child became ill while traveling to NC from another country where measles outbreaks have recently been reported. To protect the individual and their family’s privacy, no additional information about this individual will be released. This is the first confirmed case of measles in the state in 2025. NCDHHS is recommending all unvaccinated individuals ages one year and older receive measles vaccination to protect themselves and those around them. (NCDHHS)

So, it is finally in NC. If you are still on the fence of whether to vaccinate, the issue is now truly pressing.

From the CDC:

U.S. Hospitalizations in 2025

12% of cases hospitalized (148 of 1227)

Percent of Age Group Hospitalized

Under 5 years: 20% (72 of 355 cases) 50% of the total hospitalized. Highest risk bucket.

5-19 years: 8% (35 of 455)

20+ years: 10% (40 of 404)

Age unknown: 8% (1 of 13)

Deaths 3

And a story on Insurance Hell.

Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #49 – Marcel Nold, MD – Neonatal Immunology

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This weeks guest is Professor Marcel Nold, MD. Dr. Nold is a clinician scientist in the research environment of neonatal immunology and microbiomes at Monash University in the city of Monash in Melbourne, Australia. Professor Nold received his Doctor of Medicine degree at the JW Goethe-University at Frankfurt am Main, Germany, including final year rotations in Zürich (Switzerland), Montréal (Canada) and Capetown (South Africa). For his biomedical research training he spent six years at the Pharmazentrum at Frankfurt am Main and three years as a research Fellow at the laboratory of Professor Dinarello, at the University of Colorado Denver. In 2009 he was recruited to The Ritchie Centre in Melbourne and finished his specialist training at Monash Newborn. Professor Nold is a leading researcher worldwide in the field of immune cytokine signaling and was the key contributor to identifying Interleukin 37 or IL37. His research has been published in the journals Nature Immunology, Science Immunology and many others. His academic Inflammation in Neonatal Diseases Research Group and his industry programs aim to characterise underlying pathways of inflammation in early life diseases, with a focus on interventional immunology in cardiopulmonary and intestinal diseases of the preterm.
For the purposes of this interview, Dr. Nold is a researcher with a view of the maternal child dyad that is prevention focused and health span conscious. His research has led to many critical discoveries in the neonatal health space that I find deeply intriguing. We get into some deep immunology at times which is critical for total understanding.
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 7, Covid Updates 54

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Coronavirus Update #54 – This audiocast is a deeper dive into policy and opinion based on the same for Omicron.

In my opinion, our children’s mental and physical health need to take primacy over pandemic fear at this time. They are in a very very very low risk scenario from COVID, however, they remain in a high risk scenario from a mental and metabolic health perspective. The scales do not favor current school based mitigation measures based on risk and health from Omicron and the downstream events relate to it. If you are a young person, boosting is questionable, especially if you are a male with myocarditis risk. The WHO and European Union are not recommending it at this time. The CDC is recommending down to age 12. Let us say that you are 18 years old and male. If a young adult receives a third dose of an mRNA vaccine which provides marginal to no transmission benefit for 90 to 110 days and minimal disease severity reduction because it is already almost zero after a 2 dose series, what is the point. Are our youth supposed to protect the unvaccinated? The vaccinated and boosted with risk factors? For how long? Then what? Do it again, and again every three months as immunity wanes rapidly? Has this ever been done before or well studied? Nope.
Be well,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #13 – Dr. Peter Rowe, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long Covid

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Dr. Peter Rowe is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is the inaugural Sunshine Natural Wellbeing Foundation Professor of Chronic Fatigue and Related Disorders and serves as the Director of the Chronic Fatigue Clinic at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

His areas of clinical expertise include chronic fatigue syndrome and other disorders characterized by fatigue and orthostatic intolerance. Dr. Rowe and his colleagues were the first to describe the relationship between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and treatable orthostatic intolerance syndromes, as well as the association between Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and CFS.

In this episode, Dr. Rowe and I dive deep into CFS and long Covid for both the parent and the clinician. We set the stage for a better understanding of this complex disorder in order to encourage earlier diagnosis and better therapy.

Please Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 11 Issues 32 and 34

Majestic poplar

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Newsletter #32 covers – School and the Covid Generation

More than a year later, as we had feared, we are starting to see and feel the repercussions of the school closure pandemic phenomenon. The K shaped recovery of the economic pandemic is also playing out similarly in the school system. Last year, private schools stayed open while public schools shuttered. Of those in public school systems, many that could afford one, hired tutors to bridge the academic dysfunction of zoom education. The gap between the rich and poor just widened like never before right before our eyes. Regardless of the intent behind the outcome, we are now here. It serves no purpose to blame teachers unions or local governments or parents living in fear or any other publicized reason to date. We are Americans and we must now roll up our sleeves and begin the process of bridging this gap again. These children deserve our total and unwavering support. Link to more….https://www.salisburypediatrics.com/patient-education/dr-magryta-s-newsletter/983-school-and-the-covid-generation

Newsletter #34 covers – Long Covid and its association with Epstein Barr Virus, EBV, reactivation

This is a very important topic for clinicians and parents to understand so we are going to look at it a little more deeply.
Long COVID or what appears to be a post infectious inflammatory issue may now be a consequence of another infection. What are the symptoms of long COVID and when do they occur? From the CDC: Some people are experiencing a range of new or ongoing symptoms that can last weeks or months after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Unlike some of the other types of post-COVID conditions that only tend to occur in people who have had severe illness, these symptoms can happen to anyone who has had COVID-19, even if the illness was mild, or if they had no initial symptoms. Symptoms can even begin weeks after the infection.  Link to more…. https://www.salisburypediatrics.com/patient-education/dr-magryta-s-newsletter/990-long-covid-and-its-association-with-epstein-barr-virus-ebv-reactivation

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 11 Issue 29 Covid Update #39

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Coronavirus Update #39 Quick hits
1) Repeat with new information as an important follow up on MIS-C, multi inflammatory syndrome – c., from 2 weeks ago. Remember that in children, MIS-c is associated with poor intestinal function from a microbiome perspective coupled to genetic weaknesses in immune suppression of chemokine CXCL9 post inflammation. Research from the lab of Dr. Alessio Fasano has shown direct evidence of intestinal permeability in children with multi inflammatory syndrome – c:
The authors found that children, unlike adults, the SARS2 virus decides to take up residence in the intestines and replicate there. The virus can be found in the child’s stool via testing. This is a unique finding to children as the intestine is not known to be a harboring site for the virus in adults. The expert researcher on this paper, Dr. Fasano, has extensive knowledge of the function of the intestinal mucosal lining and the fact that the cells are held together by tight junctions made up of different proteins forming a semi impermeable membrane…….
Read more at https://www.salisburypediatrics.com/patient-education/dr-magryta-s-newsletter
Have a great day,
Dr. M

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