'Happy Cinco de Mayo'!

Commemorating the Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, Cinco de Mayo is a holiday celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla and throughout Mexico, as well as in Mexican-American communities in the United States.

Cinco de Mayo, however, is not Mexico’s Independence Day, which is celebrated on September 16.

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday, but in the United States it has become a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations.

It is often marked with parades, music, dancing, as well as eating lots of delicious Mexican cuisine.



Read more here. . . .



Every year Phoenix Magazine publishes a guide featuring over 685 of the Valley’s best physicians. The doctors are selected through a peer-review survey. The theory is that medical professionals are the best qualified to judge medical professionals.

The survey asks the doctors to nominate those doctors who, in their judgement, are the best in their fields.

Once again, Dr. Lakin has been chosen as a TOP DOC among his peers.

Now standing at 22 years!

(2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2001)

Please join us in congratulating &

Email 'Happy Birthday' today to Dr. Lakin!

May 5, 2024

COVID IS AT IT’S LOWEST LEVEL IN THE PAST YEAR. IT REMAINS AROUND THIS SPRING BUT IS LESSENING ACROSS THE COUNTRY…. BUT STILL …THERE ARE INFECTIONS EVERY WEEK…

ALL DOING WELL.  BE PROACTIVE TO PREVENT NEED FOR HOSPITALIZATION.

• IF YOU DON’T WANT COVID FROM TRAVEL…. WEAR A MASK IN THE AIRPORT CROWDS AND ON THE AIRPLANE (UNTIL 10,000 FEET) …. THIS IS NOT AS ESSENTIAL AS IT WAS WHEN COVID WAS MORE PREVALENT…BUT IF YOU WANT TO AVOID INFECTIONS IN GENERAL DURING TRAVEL...IT’S A CONSIDERATION.

• GET BOOSTED IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO…PARTICULARLY OVER AGE 65.  

• IF YOU WERE BOOSTED IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER AND OVER AGE 65, ANOTHER BOOST IS WORTHWHILE THIS SPRING.  THAT SAID...IF YOU HAVE HAD COVID IN THE PAST 6 MONTHS YOU CAN HOLD ON BOOSTING.

• FLU SEASON IS OVER… NO MORE FLU SHOTS THIS SEASON

• VERY LITTLE RSV IN THE VALLEY.

IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A COLD OR RESPIRATORY INFECTION RIGHT NOW…. YOU MAY WELL HAVE COVID. PLEASE DO A COVID TEST TO CHECK AT HOME.  

ALMOST ALL DOING WELL, BUT WE ARE SEEING A FEW PEOPLE NEED THE HOSPITAL TO RECOVER. 

THE CURRENT COVID VACCINE IS AVAILABLE.

  IT IS KEEPING PEOPLE FROM HAVING A MORE DIFFICULT TIME WITH INFECTION AND KEEPING PEOPLE OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.

I RECOMMEND THE COVID BOOSTER GENERALLY FOR THOSE OVER 65. BUT……

• I HIGHLY RECOMMEND A BOOSTER FOR THOSE 80 & OLDER.

• I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE BOOSTER FOR THOSE OVER 65 WITH HEART FAILURE, SIGNIFICANT LUNG CONDITIONS, AND DIABETES.

CONSIDER BOOSTING WITH THE NEW COVID VACCINE TO REDUCE RISK OF COVID AND TO REDUCE COVID SYMPTOM SEVERITY

WEST NILE SEASON IS COMING:

WEST NILE SEASON IS COMING.  PREPARE TO USE PROTECTION.

IF WE HEAR OF NEW CASES…WILL REPORT TO YOU.

NO WEST NILE REPORTED…. BUT PREPARE NOW BY GETTING YOUR MOSQUITO REPELLENT.

PLEASE USE MOSQUITO REPELLENT

WHEN IN HIGH EXPOSURE SITUATIONS.

ARIZONA IS THE PRIME USA LOCATION FOR WEST NILE DUE TO HIGH WEST NILE VIRUS LEVELS IN RAPTOR BIRDS WHO ARE IMMUNE TO WEST NILE ILLNESS, BUT NOT IMMUNE TO CARRYING THE VIRUS. THIS CAN RESULT IN ARIZONA MOSQUITOS WITH PARTICULARLY HIGH VIRUS LEVELS WHEN THEY BITE.

H5N1 INFLUENZA

THERE IS A LOT OF NEWS ABOUT THE ‘BIRD FLU’….H5N1, AS IT HAS BEEN FOUND IN LARGE QUANTITIES IN COWS MILK IN THE USA.  THIS IS NOT INFECTIOUS IN MILK, BUT IT DEMONSTRATES THAT THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF THIS SUB-TYPE IN THE COUNTRY.

IT IS NOT A WORRY, BUT IS SOMETHING THAT IS TO BE MONITORED, AS WIDESPREAD INFECTION IN HUMANS WOULD CAUSE A VERY LARGE INFLUENZA OUTBREAK OR ANOTHER PANDEMIC…THIS TIME OF INFLUENZA.

THAT SAID, THE RISK REMAINS PRESENT BUT LOW.  WE SHOULD NOT BE WORRIED ABOUT THIS IN OUR DAY TO DAY LIVES, BUT WE WILL KEEP MONITORING AND KEEP YOU AWARE.

H5N1 IS A SUB-TYPE THAT IS DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE NORMALLY CIRCULATING FLU AND ALTHOUGH THERE WILL BE AN IMMUNIZATION FOR THIS IF IT BECOMES WIDESPREAD IN HUMANS, THERE IS LITTLE NATURAL IMMUNITY TO THIS FORM OF FLU AND IT IS FELT THAT H5N1 HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR PANDEMIC EFFECTS.

TOP PODCAST DONE WEEKLY

BY DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM

(UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA)  

He is a world-renowned epidemiologist who was credited with first elucidating TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME in the 1980’s.

He provides comprehensive and understandable/actionable ideas related to COVID.

Dr. Osterholm Update: COVID-19 Podcast

May 2, 2024

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/episode-156-h5n1-impending-crisis

"H5N1: An Impending Crisis"

In "H5N1: An Impending Crisis," Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss the spread of H5N1 avian influenza in US

dairy cows, cover the latest COVID-19 trends, review two articles on long COVID, and answers a listener question about the safety of raw milk and other dairy products. Dr. Osterholm also shares a timely "This Week in Public Health History" segment and interviews the final two members of the podcast team.

According to Dr. Osterholm……

• GET YOUR LATEST AVAILABLE BOOSTER IF YOU HAVE NOT HAD COVID OR IT’S BEEN LONGER THAN 4 MONTHS SINCE YOU HAD COVID YOURSELF
• A GOOD MASK, N95 OF KN95, DOES HELP REDUCE TRANSMISSION…. USE IT AT HIGH-RISK LOCATIONS
• GOOD VENTILATION IN ROOMS/HOME/BUSINESSES IS A GREAT WAY TO PREVENT TRANSMISSION
• VACCINE, VACCINE, VACCINE…THIS IS OUR PROTECTION.  ALL VACCINES ARE EFFECTIVE AND WITH TIME WE ARE SEEING THAT THE J&J VACCINE IS PICKING UP STEAM AND GIVES SOLID LONG-TERM PROTECTION.
• BOOST, BOOST, BOOST…THIS WILL BE NECESSARY TO PREVENT RECURRING SURGE AND TO RAISE ANTIBODY LEVELS IN THOSE ALREADY SET WITH THE PRIMARY COVID VACCINE SERIES.
• ANTIGEN TESTING IS USEFUL, BUT OF LIMITED VALUE. DON’T DEPEND ON IT…BUT USE IT.

Know that unvaccinated remain a source of potential infection.  Avoiding unvaccinated persons will reduce your risk of COVID.

The milestone came and went with little fanfare.

After more than four years with COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported the lowest new, weekly coronavirus hospitalizations since the pandemic began. There was no celebration or publicized statement. It’s safe to say that most Americans had no clue about the occurrence – though that may just be how they’d prefer it.

The CDC started publishing weekly COVID-19 hospitalizations in August 2020, so the data doesn’t represent the entire pandemic. Still, experts agree that it's a noteworthy trend, and likely accurate as wastewater viral activity levels are low and deaths are also declining.

“The really good news is we're really hitting the lowest numbers in terms of hospitalizations and deaths since the pandemic began,” says Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.

There were over 5,600 new COVID-19 hospitalizations during the week ending on April 20, according to CDC data. That’s compared to a peak of more than 150,000 new, weekly hospitalizations during January 2022.

“As long as people continue to be mindful of those in our community who are at greatest risk for severe illness and death from COVID, this is shaping up to be a summer where we'll continue to watch the data, but right now I'm seeing a lot of positive signs in the data,” says Dr. Keri Althoff of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Notably, it could be one of the last weeks of full COVID-19 hospital admissions data as the requirement for hospitals to report the figures as well as capacity and occupancy ended this week.

Read more here. . . .

Bitten by a tick?

TickCheck can determine if your tick carries pathogens that cause Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. CLICK HERE

After you received your COVID or any other vaccination outside our office, please let us know!

We would like to document this information into your chart.



What we need:

1. Your name
2. Name & date of vaccination received
3. Brand name
4. Lot number if available
5. Which dose you have received

**Email your vaccine info HERE

A polar bear in the Arctic, red foxes in Europe, penguins in Antarctica and a wide range of other wild animals have been infected with the flu virus strain currently spreading in dairy cattle in the U.S.

Why it matters: Up to 75% of new and emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals, and most of those can be traced back to wildlife.

Monitoring wild animals for diseases can help scientists identify emerging health threats.

• Government agencies in the U.S. and around the world monitor wild birds for avian influenza, which spreads in bird populations without causing symptoms, and select animals for other pathogens.
• But on the whole, there is "very little surveillance of wildlife for any diseases," says Thomas Gillespie, a disease ecologist at Emory University. An exception is animals that are commercially important — like deer that people pay to hunt.
• 
  

Catch up quick: Outbreaks of avian flu in farmed poultry and wild birds started to increase around the world in 2020.

• Soon after, the virus started to kill mammals — seals from Chile to Russia to Maine, red foxes in Europe and the U.S,. sea lions in Peru and other species.
• Bird flu has affected nearly 20 wild mammal species in the U.S. since 2022, including brown bears, skunks, mountain lions and a bottlenose dolphin in Florida.

Read more here. . . .

New Covid Variant FLiRT Spreads in US;

Do We Need To Worry?

Symptoms To Precaution, All You Need To Know

FLiRT, a group of new Covid-19 variants belonging to Omicron's JN.1 lineage is spreading fast in US, raising concern about a new wave of infections in summer. With new mutations, the variants KP.2 and KP 1.1 are considered to more infectious than previous Omicron variants, but experts say the symptoms remain more or less the same.

KP.2 has reported to have taken over JN.1 variant in US although cases of hospitalization there remains low, as per media reports. KP.1.1, another FLirt variant is also detected in the US, but seems to be less in circulation than KP.2. The nickname 'FLiRT" is based on the technical names for their mutations, according to the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Read more here. . . .

We Are Here to Take Care of Your Healthcare Needs.

We Are Here to Serve!

Our office is using all techniques to reduce exposure to a minimum during your visit. These include: 

·       Temperature checks of all patients and staff.

·       Masks for all people in the office.

·       Cleansing of hands and surfaces repeatedly.

·       Multiple Super-HEPA filters to filter out potential virus and particles in the office.

·       High Level UV light air cleansing in the office to eliminate bacteria and viruses in the air.

OUR OFFICE SCHEDULE

DOORS OPEN     

7AM - 4PM Monday through Thursday

7AM - 11AM Friday

IN OFFICE

APPOINTMENTS: MONDAY – THURSDAY

7AM – 11:15AM & 1PM – 3:30PM

APPOINTMENTS: FRIDAY

7AM – 10:30 AM

DR. LAKIN WILL CONTINUE ‘TELEHEALTH’ VISITS WITH FaceTime, WhatsApp or ZOOM WHEN NEEDED.

SUMMARY OF A COVID KIT & CHECK LIST:

This is what you should have at home to prepare for possible COVID, to monitor yourself if you were to get infected:

DIGITAL ORAL THERMOMETER: MANY BRANDS ARE FINE…HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE:

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Thermometer-Reading-Waterproof-Indicator/dp/B087T3S4TR/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=THERMOMETER&qid=1597159324&sr=8-6

PULSE OXIMETER:  TO CHECK OXYGEN LEVELS. MANY BRANDS ARE FINE...HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE:

https://www.amazon.com/Innovo-Fingertip-Oximeter-Plethysmograph-Perfusion/dp/B07YVGZPRZ/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=PULSE+OXI&qid=1597159388&sr=8-20

OTHER ITEMS FROM THE HOME MEDICAL KIT:

·       TYLENOL, ADVIL, OR ALEVE

·       Sudafed 30mg tablets

·       Chlorpheniramine 4mg tablets

·       Robitussin DM syrup

·       Imodium AD

'Celebrating Cinco de Mayo with La Brasa'

Cinco de Mayo, a traditional Mexican holiday, is celebrated today.

Chef Daniel Bojorquez from La Brasa in Somerville visits the studio to show us some delicious authentic dishes in honor of the day.



Enjoy & Stay Safe!