A second year of clinical tales from the Puswhisperer, Mark Crislip, an infectious disease specialist from Portland, OR. Dr. Crislip kills strep and staph, fights flu, and is always on the lookout for "zebras"?those unusual infections (and sometimes non-infections) that leave all the doctors guessing. Originally intended as a guide for studying for the Boards, these tales have been edited for a lay audience and provide hours of educational entertainment for anyone interested in infectious disease.

H1N1. Staph aureus. Traveler’s diarrhea. All examples of human interaction with the microbial world, which counts viruses, bacteria, and parasites too numerous to mention. Infectious Disease doctor Mark Crislip has a strange relationship with this world—he spends most of his time trying to kill it, even as he appreciates the vital role microorganisms play in the Earth’s ecosystems. Puswhisperer is a collection of infectious disease anecdotes created from a year’s worth of clinical blog posts from the Medscape blog Rubor, Dolor, Calor, Tumor. Originally intended for residents and fellows, the posts have been compiled, edited, and revised for a non-specialist audience. The tales cover a wide range of diagnostic dilemmas and treatment quandaries. Which infection smells like buttered popcorn? Are some antibiotics “stronger” than others? Is it OK to eat the oysters? Along with clinical insight, the book provides a good dose of humor and insightful, microbe-centered philosophy. The author speculates on what the Earth might look like in five billion years, when animals and plants are gone, but bacteria remain. He also draws attention to the staggering rate of evolution in bacteria, made possible by short generation times and passing of genetic material from one bug to another. Finding a 60-year-old Staph strain in an old wound, Crislip tells us, is like looking out your window and seeing a Neanderthal shuffle by. Recommended for anyone interested in infectious disease and the microorganisms that run our planet.

Literary Nonfiction. Health. A second year of clinical tales from the Puswhisperer, Mark Crislip, an infectious disease specialist from Portland, OR. Dr. Crislip kills strep and staph, fights flu, and is always on the lookout for "zebras"--those unusual infections (and sometimes non-infections) that leave all the doctors guessing. Originally intended as a guide for studying for the Boards, these tales have been edited for a lay audience and provide hours of educational entertainment for anyone interested in infectious disease.

The best of Dr. Mark Crislip's science-based medicine essays dealing with supplements, complementary and alternative medicine (SCAM). This book explains the harm--why SCAM is bad for people, animals, and the environment. It also explains why our powers of logic are often powerless against SCAM. It then covers selected aspects of SCAM in detail: probiotics, herbs and supplements, chiropractic, homeopathy, acupuncture, and vaccine denial. A final section on miscellaneous therapies exposes some unusual treatments, from moxbustion to cranialsacral therapy.

In his 30 years of practice he's seen rare bacteria, common bacteria, common bacteria in rare places, complications you can't name, and stories that will make you scrub your hands until they're raw and char your food until it's in cinders. Mycobacteria that cause skin infections can grow in old bomb craters left over from World War II. Acute HIV infection can present as meningoencephalitis. If it's got a flagellum, the Puswhisperer has seen it and tried to kill it. He shares his fourth volume of pearls with anyone who loves infectious disease and the organisms that infect us.

All it took was a few baby chicks and a carpeted floor, and soon, Jane Ishka, a San Francisco Bay Area homesteader, literally felt her skin crawling. She—and her house, her car, and all of her belongings—had been infested by the red poultry mite, Dermanyssus gallinae. Driven from her home and bed by the biting and itching, Jane used her scientific background to figure out what was wrong, and most importantly, how to fix it.

A year in the life of an Oregon infectious disease specialist. A collection essays and anecdotes that illustrate nearly all the reasons physicians call for an infectious disease consult, from tapeworms and lice to MRSA and the flu.

Mark Crislip's alternative history novel explores what the present day might look like if the purveyors of patent medicines had managed to suppress the germ theory. Conflicting models of disease and cure, ranging from balancing humors to homeopathy, form the basis of powerful guilds that control public discourse and stifle discovery. Cholera breaks out in 2017 Portland, Oregon, and all of the medical guilds rush to own a piece of the cure. But an unlikely team of skeptics have heard rumors from Europe that disease is caused by animalcules invisible to the naked eye. With a smuggled microscope and a gradually evolving hypothesis, the skeptics take histories, sample, and examine whatever they can. When the guild leaders find out, the skeptics must race against time and the vagaries of the cholera bacillus itself to keep the outbreak from decimating the city.

A fifth volume of infectious disease clinical pearls covering the common (influenza, staph) to the rare: rare bacteria in common locations, common bacteria in rare locations, and one-of-a-kind diagnostic dilemmas that in some cases are never fully resolved. Following Pasteur's dictum that "the microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything," Crislip introduces the reader to a panoply of host factors in infection, from HIV infection to intravenous drug use to unusual variations in the immune system or the anatomy. Full of wit and bad puns, Crislip's essays are a fun way to study for Board exams or just learn more about our microbial overlords.

A reimagining of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" traces the story of a family of flappers who work in a 1920s speakeasy until their suspicious father decides to marry them off, prompting a confrontation with a bootlegger from the eldest sister's past.