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I wish I could tell you that this is a normal Editor’s Message, but as you realize, it certainly is not. I am writing this message under the cloud of a worldwide pandemic that has created a new normal for society. Unprecedented, surreal, anomalous, and discombobulated all come back into the common vocabulary during this time. I hope you and the people around you are staying as safe as possible. I also hope you are doing everything possible to continue in your role as an Osteopathic Family Physician for your loved ones, your patients, and your community.
Social isolation has helped me have some time to learn more about topics that perhaps I would not have had time for previously. The origin of words has always been interesting to me. For example, learning about the difference between epidemic and pandemic. Both with roots from the Greek dēmos, “people of a district,” the prefixes help distinguish the two words. The prefix of epi- refers to “upon or near” while the pan- prefix refers to “all.” Both words, when they came into the English language, were originally used for the spread of diseases. Two other words with interesting etymology (bug lovers, don’t confuse it with the entymology) are isolation and quarantine. Isolation, from the Latin insulātus, “made into an island,” based on insula, “island,” is related to but with a distinctly different root than quarantine. Quarantine, from the Italian quarantina was a period of forty days used to remove a potentially ill person from others to prevent the spread of disease, such as the plague in medieval Europe. Let us hope forty days will help flatten the curve during this current crisis.
I am pleased to provide you with some excellent medical information articles in this issue to read during your social isolation and distancing. You may want to review the clinical image first, in order to gain some perspective on the current medical situation. Physicians with more experience on Earth (aka older) may find the image to be very easy to diagnose. Other articles in this issue involve the integumentary system, including the Osteopathic management and treatment of hives and non-melanotic skin cancer. A joint pain related article rounds out the slate.
Remain diligent and optimistic in these times. How true are the words of Ulysses to Achilles in Shakespeare’s play Troilus and Cressida “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” Be safe and try to connect with others in the safest way possible. I wish the best for each of you.