When you are too sick to fly

Air travel is a great way to get free peanuts, a deep vein thrombosis and the worst cold of your life. Plus: baggage fees!

Ever since Andrew Speaker took to the friendly skies with drug resistant tuberculosis, and brave Ebola outbreak workers returned sick to the United States, avid international attention has focused on the infectious risks of air travel, too.

Could the next pandemic spread on planes? 

We should care more about the people who live in areas where millions of people get sick from infectious scourges without having to invoke international travel. Yet it is reasonable for people who travel in rich countries to want to stay healthy as well. 

Proudly quoted in this brief article by Allison Fox of HuffPo.

Protecting patients from employee drug diversion

In May 2012, Exeter Hospital in Exeter, New Hampshire, announced it would temporarily close its cardiac catheterization lab after dozens of patients were diagnosed with acute hepatitis C infection.

In time, a multi-state investigation revealed that every case was linked back to a lab technician who was using patient drugs himself, and then putting contaminated vials back into use.

Further, there were multiple opportunities for the hospitals in which this technician worked to protect patients from him - but none were taken.

In a new article, ethicist Bill Nelson and I propose a nationwide reporting system that would help protect patients from the risks of drug diversion-related outbreaks like this one. 

Lessons from the 2014 Ebola epidemic

I was honored to have my thoughts included with those of luminaries like Anthony Fauci of the NIH in The Atlantic's year-end review of lessons learned from the 2014 Ebola epidemic. Click here to read the whole article by Julie Beck.