Word: tss
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Delphian oracle could not have been more clairvoyant. In a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, doctors at the Minnesota Department of Health and the University of Virginia reported a total of ten cases of suspected Thucydides syndrome -- flu complicated by TSS. Nine of the cases occurred during a major influenza outbreak in Minnesota in the winter of 1985-86. One occurred in Roanoke, Va., and an eleventh case, in Oregon, has since been reported to the CDC. Like the Athenian scourge, the two-part illness was lethal: six of the patients died. Langmuir says...
...time they fell ill (both said they were not using tampons). The patients ranged in age from five to 56, but most of the deaths were among children. Says Dr. Kristine MacDonald of the Minnesota Department of Health: "There is some suggestion that younger people are more susceptible to TSS. As people get older, more of them have antibodies to protect them." Indeed, most adults are immune to the syndrome...
...TSS is caused by a toxin-producing strain of the common bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, carried benignly in the respiratory and genital tracts of perhaps one out of three people. Under certain conditions -- a wound, some infections, the presence of a tampon or contraceptive sponge -- the bacteria multiply. If the toxin-producing strain is present, such proliferation can lead to TSS. The symptoms are dramatic and develop quickly: high fever, a sunburn-like rash, severe vomiting and diarrhea, culminating in shock, in which blood pressure plummets and circulation deteriorates. Doctors usually try to head off this life-threatening condition by administering...
MacDonald speculates that the influenza virus can injure the throat or lungs in a way that favors the growth of S. aureus. Though the complication appears to be rare, it is urgent that doctors be aware of it, says TSS Expert Bruce Dan, in an editorial that accompanied MacDonald's paper. Early recognition and treatment of the syndrome "is the most important factor in being able to prevent fatalities," says Dan. "It behooves all physicians to be on the lookout for any influenza patient whose condition suddenly worsens...
...Playtex and Tampax tampons to withdraw products containing polyacrylate rayon from the market and replace them with safer, though somewhat less absorbent versions. Procter & Gamble's Rely tampons, the only type containing polyester foam, were discontinued in 1980, after they had been linked to dozens of cases of TSS (the incidence rate promptly dropped). Kass is hopeful that his research, which was sponsored by Tambrands (the maker of Tampax), will help manufacturers in developing new tampons that are both ultra-absorbent and safe...