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  • Old-Fashioned Illnesses

    You know those diseases that people in old books get, but (here in America at least) nobody actually gets even though they haven't been eradicated?

    My 3-year-old has scarlet fever (confusingly, he has no fever). He had a weird rash that spread alarmingly in 12 hours, so we took him in and the doc did a strep test. She said he had scarlet fever! Obviously this is not as dire as it once was (it used to kill kids all the time) and 10 days of antibiotics should clear it up, but the diagnosis surprised me.

    I'm glad he got the rash, as he hasn't acted sick at all (of course, when he is puking his guts up he acts perfectly normal and active between vomiting sessions). I know left untreated any strep infection can be dangerous.

    My mom had measles as a teenager, and I know people still get TB and stuff, it's just that it's so rare you never think of it.

    Has anyone else had an old-school illness?
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  • #2
    Had, no. But there's a fairly high number of whooping cough cases going around too.
    I've also read about several cases of bubonic plague last year in the western US...
    "If your day is filled with firefighting, you need to start taking the matches away from the toddlers…” - HM

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    • #3
      After I had my son the hospital nurses suggested I get a whooping cough vaccine (I did). I was noodling around the net, curious, and found that scarlet fever is also making a comeback along with mumps, rickets, gout and- shocking for something so easily preventable- SCURVY! The article I saw said they are seeing an uptick in children with scurvy because their diets are so lacking in fruit and veggies. That's kind of horrifying in the 21st century in a first-world country.
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      • #4
        Quoth AnaKhouri View Post
        After I had my son the hospital nurses suggested I get a whooping cough vaccine (I did). I was noodling around the net, curious, and found that scarlet fever is also making a comeback along with mumps, rickets, gout and- shocking for something so easily preventable- SCURVY! The article I saw said they are seeing an uptick in children with scurvy because their diets are so lacking in fruit and veggies. That's kind of horrifying in the 21st century in a first-world country.
        You'd be surprised how many kids don't even recognize fruits and veggies...have no idea what they are!
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        • #5
          Ok, I forgot about one that AnaKhouri mentioned. I do suffer from gout. I never really considered it an "old-time" illness, as I've known a number of people that have had it. I'm on medication, and I've had to cut down on the amount of seafood I eat (rather irritating...)
          "If your day is filled with firefighting, you need to start taking the matches away from the toddlers…” - HM

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          • #6
            Doubt it's anything considered old but Mom had Mono when she was a newly-wed. We think EQ had some mild form of it, she had a migraine that lasted for a month that prevented her from eating and moving much. She took pills to sleep through it, took her about 6 months to get back to normal.

            Uhhhhhhh, we've had all of our vaccines, because Mom was paranoid and stuff.

            I keep seeing giant billboards for Whooping Cough.
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            • #7
              A lot of "old-timey" illnesses that once thought to be pretty much eradicated are starting to come back due to a weakening in the herd immunity that once kept the majority of children/people safe.

              Children with allergies to vaccines would rely on all the other children not allergic to have their vaccination to keep them safe. Now an increase in the number of parents not vaccinating for a myriad of reasons (that are better suited to fratching, so I'll avoid those) is creating a hole where the diseases/illnesses can slip through.

              Though... I will admit to having scurvy once during college. I had no money and had to survive off ramen, after I got scurvy though (it SUCKS, don't get it!) I scraped together any cash to get some fruit and veg... along with my ramen. lol

              Just don't ever believe your doctor if he tells you that you have "hysteria." He's a creep. RUN AWAY.
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              • #8
                Quoth Crossbow View Post
                Ok, I forgot about one that AnaKhouri mentioned. I do suffer from gout. I never really considered it an "old-time" illness, as I've known a number of people that have had it.
                My dad had it as do I. Try cherry fruit extract--it works for me. I was on a medication, but that was nothing but a high-dose anaglesic.
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                • #9
                  not exactly. i mean i had mono in my navy school. other than that... i'm currently inoculated against small pox. Yeah, it's pretty uncommon to have that inoculation these days but they thought we might need it. I'm good until '16 IIRC.
                  Last edited by PepperElf; 01-04-2013, 07:51 PM.

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                  • #10
                    I had scarlet fever when I was 5 years old. But that was when it was an old-time disease as I am 49 now.

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                    • #11
                      I believe my brother had scarlet fever in the 80s. He has a heart issue now. I remember my mom saying something about it being able to damage the heart. Whooping cough and polio are on the rise.
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                      • #12
                        I had mono when I was a kid. Didn't know what it was at the time, but the symptoms and duration make it pretty obvious that that is what I had.

                        Other than that, I don't think I know anyone whose come down with an "old time" condition.

                        ^-.-^
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                        • #13
                          My dear A recently had chicken pox. Despite having had it as a kid, and having had the vaccination. Apparently it can happen, it's just rare.

                          And it's not just tuberculosis making a comeback: it's antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis .

                          As in, all the antibiotics which are reasonably safe to use - the penicillin family, the erythomycins, etc - are useless against this one. Instead, they have to use the ones that give horrible side effects. For months on end. Even after you no longer 'feel sick' from TB.
                          So you feel sick from the antibiotics instead (also from the subtle effects of dying TB bacteria, but most people can't recognise that), and they're expensive antibiotics, so patients who don't 'get it'/understand the danger of antibiotic-resistant illnesses go off the antibiotics, so .... GAH!

                          <le sigh>
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                          • #14
                            Yep, I've had scarlet fever myself, and measles...and recently got a fun, FUN test for TB. (negative, WOOOO) Oh, and I totally had mono over the summer. Lesson learned: when you find out a family member has mono, don't forget this fact, and steal their drink. It leads to several months of "auuuugh I want to die".
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                            • #15
                              Quoth PepperElf View Post
                              not exactly. i mean i had mono in my navy school. other than that... i'm currently inoculated against small pox. Yeah, it's pretty uncommon to have that inoculation these days but they thought we might need it. I'm good until '16 IIRC.
                              I got the recruit package and the overseas package when Rob was doing EMT crosstraining at Portsmouth Naval in VA back in 1988, he was doing an ER rotation and I had stepped on something and wanted a tetanus booster, so he dragged me into class and they used me as a shot training dummy. I got the Navy to keep up the booster schedule, so I have plague, yellow fever, small pox, and I even scored them adding rabies to the booster program. [I talked to my Gold Team doc when I had sheep to find out how to get Rob notified he had been exposed to something while he was underway, and he decided that since I handled animals and might end up in contact with a rabid critter it was better to be safe than dead and sent me over for a rabies vaccination to get me started.]

                              Which reminds me, I have to schedule a couple boosters again.

                              And when I was out of the country between birth and 5, I had whooping cough, rubella, rubeola, chicken pox and scarlet fever. I didn't have mumps - I got those at 24 from the kid of a friend
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