Medical Masque Effect. (MME)

Medical Masque Effect. (MME)
Andre Willers
11 Dec 2009

Synopsis:
An artifact of successful medical intervention .
Some Disease X evolves to masquarade as Disease Y . Medical intervention is for Disease Y , leaving the field clear for Disease X . Common in rapidly evolving pathogens like fungi . The system invariably becomes more contagious .

Discussion .

Example :
Eczema of the skin on the hands .
This is ascribed to stress , based on work done decades ago . In the meantime , some fungi , whose symptoms initially appeared similar to the stress-eczema , were positively selected by differential diagnosis .
Contagiousness was also a positive selection criteria .
The result is a veritable epidemic of old-fashioned fungi-based eczema , but misdiagnosed .
Treating the eczema with something like Daktarin gives rapid relief .

The intriguing thing :
The disease evolved into the niche created by a successful medical treatment .
It relies on the masquerade for a mis-diagnosis .
How many others are there ?
And how big a danger is it in future ?

The more successful the medical intervention , the greater the selection pressure for a masque .
This is old-fashioned Darwinnian selection in action . Nothing fancy .

New Building Syndrome .
I observed this first-hand (so to speak) after moving into a brand-new corporate headquarter building . Suddenly I got eczema . Then I observed (in the lift and in conferences) that about 30%-40% of my colleagues also had the same problem . Nobody wanted to talk about it , and the company had a good medical aid . They went to their private doctors and the data was not correlated from an epidemiological viewpoint .

What happened ?
The new building did not have an existing ecology of skin organisms transmitted by surfaces like lift-buttons , door handles , tap handles , air conditioning , etc .
And brand-new ablution facilities .

Masquerading fungi with some contagious element were strongly selected . The result was an epidemic of eczema , incorrectly treated as stress symptoms .

Later on other organisms populated the building and incidences returned closer to normal .

Medical staff more at risk .
Scrubbing up or using alcohol handwashes leaves the hands more vulnerable to these masques .

What to do :
I wrote about this previously . The ecology of the skin is a fairly hot subject at the moment .

Malign organisms find it 1 000 to 10 000 more difficult the get a foothold in an existing ecology .

What we need is an appliqué of benign skin-ecology organisms . Something similar to pro-biotics for the intestines .
I do not know of any now .
A huge commercial opportunity . A really large market . (About 10 billion hands a few times a day)

Quick and Dirty :
After an alcohol handwash to decrease harmful bacterial imports from supermarket trolley-handles , computer keyboards and the like , simply rub your hands across your belly under your shirt , palms and back . I would not recommend permanently moist sites like the arm-pits , groin or fatfolds if your immune system has been compromised in any way .
The aim is to reinfect the hands with benign skin organisms , to counteract the destruction of both benign and malign organisms on the hands .

Commercial opportunities :
Individuals with tested benign skin-ecologies will be able to sell them . Can sell them right now .
Like perfume .

By gad ! A new Miss World category ! Highly marketable .
"All our skin wipes are from Miss Purity , rated 9.9 for the Skin Benign."
"Our toilet paper is from Miss Baby Bottom , rated 9.9 for the Skin Benign."

Advantages
1.It is patentable.
2.It has an actual beneficial effect.
3.It is fashionable (amenable to mass-media) .

This is worth many billions of dollars .

As a side effect , many chronic skin diseases and other diseases will disappear .


Weight loss .
This is speculative .
Certain weight disorders (anorexia , diabetesII , big bums and thighs , etc) have fractal epidemiological aspects . Exactly like the skin disorders .

Wrinkles especially ditto .


HIV .
This is even more speculative .
Note the common element of very rapid mutation .

What would HIV be the masque of ?
Answer: Adjuvant block by lead poisoning .

Bushmeat only became deadly after the introduction of firearms : ie lead pellets .
Shotguns . Lead pellets were cooked and ingested . Lead is a rare metal .
Cf Roman and Greek plagues .
But the effect is subtle . An adjuvant is blocked , leading to lessening of the auto-vaccination effect .
The immune system is hobbled .

The adjuvant can be added (probably something simple .These are not complex systems . Like gout) . A simple cure is possible . The disease is a masque .

Or simply remove the lead . Pb can be chelated out .

Note the correlation of HIV with lead additives in petrol or in shotgun pellets .

Get the lead out , Mac!

Andre