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VIEWS [AMP ] REVIEWS: Theodore Dalrymple Too posh to infect? BMJ 2008; 337: a1354 [Full text]

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Not too posh but too senior to infect

James A Erskine   (17 September 2008)

Not too posh but too senior to infect 17 September 2008
James A Erskine, Medical officer Sibanor Clinic Sibanor, The Gambia Send response to journal: Re: Not too posh but too senior to infect	As a junior in England in 1985 there was a senior surgeon who was approaching retirement. I was told that, when a surgical house officer, she had worked for a boss with open pulmonary TB. I gather that the previous four house officers had succumbed to the bacillus and she demonstrated her toughness by surviving. This must have occurred in the early 1950s, well after Buchan wrote sick heart river. The attitude demonstrated by this non-fictional event needs some analysing, but the patriarchal role of the senior consultant perhaps meant that he could carry on infecting his juniors without a thought for the consequence. In this situation patients must have contracted TB from the same source. One hopes times have changed. Competing interests: None declared