Thoughts of a retired physician

  I am preparing a Current Events session for our group at MonteCedro on the continuing war in Gaza. We discussed this in the fall of last year when it started but it has become obvious that an update is (sadly) necessary. The death toll in Gaza has passed 32,000 but as the New York Times notes, it is likely much higher than that.   “ Gaza has become a 140-square-mile graveyard, each destroyed building another jagged tomb for those still buried within.” I have read through numerous accounts from a wide variety of news sources. The Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 was unprecedented, barbaric, and horrible: 1143 dead, 250+ hostages taken, rapes and sexual assaults. Israel’s response was predictable but equally horrible in its consequences. Dead: 32,000 and counting. Wounded: many, many thousands more. Gaza became a major humanitarian crisis overnight with forced evacuations from Gaza City to the south followed by an air and land assault of immense size. Famine looms, especially threaten

  As an infectious diseases physician, I have read widely about the history of development of antibiotics in the 20th century. One of my favorite books is The Mold in Dr. Florey’s Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle by Eric Lax. The stories in the history of medicine are fascinating and this one is no exception, as good as any novel you might pick up. Penicillin has been in clinical use since World War II; the emergence and prevalence of resistance to it has diminished its utility but it remains the premier drug to treat a long-standing human scourge – syphilis. The long story of syphilis itself is another engrossing tale. Treponema pallidum met its match with penicillin. Cures now number in the uncounted millions worldwide. Although there are reports of gene mutations in T. pallidum related to penicillin resistance no documented penicillin resistance has been reported .  After my Navy career I was the medical director for the sexually transmitted diseases clinics for the Chic