Laham
  • Laham
  • Federico Laham, MD, MS, is the head of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Specialty Practice at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Laham graduated with honors at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then completed his residency in Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine/Jackson Memorial Hospital. He subsequently sub-specialized in Infectious Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine where he remained until 2010 as an Instructor. He is currently a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. His clinical interests include the study of the early immune response against paramyxoviruses, the development of biomarkers for prediction of bronchiolitis severity, and the effect of respiratory syncytial virus in human airway epithelium and its role on the development of an allergic inflammatory response.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Amoeba, a silent killer

Federico Laham, MD, MS

It’s been about a year since I was face to face with one of the worst infections I could not wish for. A previously healthy girl in her late teens, who had been swimming in the river at the same usual spot where her father and her father’s father used to spend the long and hot Florida’s summer days, developed a gradually unbearable headache and high fevers.

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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Mix and match: A new swine flu virus is lurking among us

Federico Laham, MD, MS

The CDC and the Infectious Diseases Society of America released cautionary statements about a new swine influenza virus that has been increasingly detected in few inland states. The virus is a type A (H3N2) that contains the genetic footprint of a conventional influenza A virus, along with markers for H3 and most notably the M gene from the infamous 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic virus.
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Friday, May 25, 2012

Top 7 dubious statements heard by an ID doctor

Federico Laham, MD, MS

#7. It likely represents a contaminant. No further workup needed — The Micro lab Well, we all know that a coagulase-negative staphylococcal infection in the sick NICU baby with one catheter per body orifice (natural and man-made) ain’t no contaminant. Or at least until you figure that out at the bedside, don’t make the bold statement. Still, many people feel reassured when reading this under the results. HAL 9000, I’m afraid you can’t do that. #6. The kid is fine, y...

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Are you up-to-date?

Federico Laham, MD, MS

The first issues of the “New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery, and the Collateral Branches of Science” were published in a letterpress in 1812 and featured a handful of articles. Now, medical articles are catered via e-TOCs, email, aheads of prints, PDFs, RSSs, Kindles, iPads, and soon Facebook, Twitter and Angry Birds. It would be very hard to actually dimension the impact of this tremendous access. The half life of new knowledge decreases dramatically as access to information becomes ubiquitous. From 1948 to the present, PubMed now provides instant access to 18 million journal citations. PubMed Central hosts 1.5 million full-text articles. And when you look at the trend over time, it points up like our fiscal deficit chart.

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Monday, November 14, 2011

Low glucose in shunt infections and meningitis: Further comments on the mechanisms behind this phenomenon

Federico Laham, MD, MS

With this mid-twentieth century title paraphrasing an interesting article by Petersdorf, Swarner and Garcia, I preface a question that has been bugging me: Why is it that glucose drops in (bacterial) CNS infections? While I’m not 100% sure of the answer, and the question keeps coming back, I feel I can venture some possible explanations:
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Thursday, April 28, 2011

My review of systems

Federico Laham, MD, MS

FL is a young man presenting with a flu-like illness.
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Monday, December 13, 2010

Fact: Patients with complex past medical history are indeed complex

Federico Laham, MD, MS

When recently going through the October issue of Pediatrics, two articles caught my attention. (Question: is it me or half of the journal is about less-than-one-pound-babies?) The first one by Simon et al inks what we all have already witnessed: from 1997 to 2006, a) the proportion of patients hospitalized with complex chronic medical conditions increased from 8.9 to 10.1% , b) the absolute numbers went up, c) these patients accounted for ~40% of hospital charges. As their definition of complex chronic condition was rather shy, expect these numbers to be higher. Noteworthy, as the authors remind us, 20% of children eat 80% of the healthcare pie.
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Monday, November 1, 2010

Antibiotic treatment: More is not always better, but too short may be too little

Federico Laham, MD, MS

Thou shalt not give antibiotics for less days than the fingers thou have on your hands.
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Monday, October 11, 2010

Ever wondered about the circadian cadence of infectious diseases management?

Federico Laham, MD, MS

With the exemption of a dramatic positive gram-stain from a sterile patient's site, a relevant PCR result posted after dusk, or a radiologist calling in for a golf-ball ring-enhancing brain abscess, most decisions will be made q24.
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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Oil slick: Pseudomonas to the rescue?

Federico Laham, MD, MS

Pseudomonas to mitigate the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? No kidding!
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