Month: March 2018

Tried any kratom? Now wouldn't be a good time to do so.

If you are like me, you're not familiar with kratom. I actually heard about it almost 2 years ago, in a CDC blurb about poisonings and overdoses with the substance. Now, however, it's associated with a new public health danger, salmonellosis due to S. Javiana, S. Okatie, and S. Thompson serotypes. CDC first publicized the outbreak last month, with illness onset as early as October 2017. Now, however, the outbreak is expanding to a total of 87 people in 35 states. The most recent states added including Maryland and West Virginia. Take a look at the current case count map.

Kratom's other name is Mitrabyna speciosa, a cousin of the coffee plant. It appears to be used as both a "natural" remedy as well as for recreational purposes for its opioid- and stimulant-like effects. If you happen to uncover any cases of salmonellosis, be sure to ask about kratom exposure. Also, at this time there is no common source supplier of the tainted kratom, so CDC is advising to avoid all use of this compound. (Not that anyone should be using it anyway!)

Influenza-like illness continues to drop nationally, as seen from the latest CDC data for the week ending March 3:

At Children's National we don't collect data in that manner, but our viral detection results for the week ending March 11 show a clear shift in influenza strains, now showing a predominance of influenza B. At our institution flu B is now about twice as common as flu A, which was the predominant strain earlier in the season. RSV is still hanging around from 2017, now at least as common as flu A detections.

In past years, this shift to influenza B has been typical for late in the flu season. However, we still have plenty of flu in the air, not too late to recommend influenza immunization for any children who missed it earlier in the year.