Chicago—West Nile Virus, SARS, Lyme disease, HIV—these aren’t our parents’ infectious diseases anymore. When it comes to diagnosing the often misleading manifestations and defining the puzzling pathways behind these and many other diseases, today’s physician must be part scientist, part sleuth.
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July 2006“When we think in terms of traditional infections, we like to think of effects that are manifested at the site of the infection, such as polio virus where you have paralysis, or infections of the intestinal tract where you have symptoms like diarrhea,” said W. Ian Lipkin, MD. “In recent years, though, new paradigms are emerging… and there are much more complicated mechanisms to consider.”
Dr. Lipkin discussed the significance of these new paradigms as the Triological Society‘s Presidential Speaker here at the 2006 Combined Otolaryngology Spring Meetings (COSM). Dr. Lipkin is the Greene Professor of Epidemiology and Professor of Neurology and Pathology at the Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York City. He is also the director of the Jerome L. and Dawn Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory and principal investigator of the Northeast Biodefense Center.