Fall/Winter 2002/2003

First, I wanted to welcome Michelle Sanders MD, our latest associate at our Westford office. Dr Sanders , a Williams College and Yale School of Medicine graduate, completed a three year pediatric residency at Mass General . She is joining us as a full time pediatrician at our Westford site and she is accepting new patients.

Late Fall early Winter is the time when a discussion about the Flu shot is all but mandatory. In these days of vaccine shortages the most obvious question is who should get it. First, everybody agrees that people with serious chronic illnesses should receive the vaccine. The vast majority of people in this category includes children with CYSTIC FIBROSIS and other SERIOUS LUNG DISORDERS, DIABETES, youngsters with SEVERE ASTHMA (patients who have been hospitalized with asthma or who require steroids), patients with IMMUNOLOGICAL DISORDERS, or children with other serious diseases on the advise of their personal physician. Television and magazine reports that children below the age of two should be immunized en masse is neither feasible nor advisable in my mind. The American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a lukewarm “immunize if feasible” statement which leaves practitioners like myself totally unconvinced on the science merits of such a statement.

Once again, with the new school year in full swing, we are bombarded with requests for Ritalin and other stimulant prescriptions. These agents are fast becoming the ‘smart drugs” or the “educational enhancers” of our times. They are used more and more as “performance’ drugs as parents and teachers aim for higher and higher grades, better and better ‘focus’, more and more commitment to the tasks. I am not sure whether this is a good or a bad trend. One thing is for sure; what started out as a clinical syndrome involving a fairly extreme behavioral dysfunction has now become the centerpiece of any school difficulty.

Prevnar, the vaccine against pneumococcus, a bacterium that causes many serious pediatric and adult infections, is available again for complete immunization series and parents with young infants are encouraged to discuss this issue with their pediatrician.