Physicians in practice for many years will tell you that upon hearing a diagnosis, the first question that many patients ask is: “Is it serious?” In fact, most people do not really care about what their illness is called, so long as they can expect a quick and total recovery. This is also true for travelers who fall sick or…
Posts By Frank Gillingham, MD
Travelers to remote locations with limited or no options for professional medical care often have access to the Internet and thus the ability to seek out web-based tools to diagnose conditions and recommend medical triage. Even those in the comfort of their own homes have made free self-help symptom checkers a popular pastime on the web. How useful are they?…
Mononucleosis—better known as “mono” or “kissing disease”—is a common viral illness that afflicts thousands of young adults each year. Although usually a benign condition, with symptoms of fever, headache, sore throat, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes—particularly in the neck—mononucleosis can occasionally lead to much more severe problems, and rarely even death, particularly in those with compromised immune systems such as…