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Show Toxic Shock Syndrome Strikes Qoseto Park by Anne L. Burnett Park City resident Geor-genc Geor-genc Crosby has decided to talk publicly about her recent battle with a deadly infectious infect-ious disease called "toxic sease. Dr. Smith said doctors are trying to learn why Utah has one of the highest per capita incidences of toxic shock. He said they know the i ... - .1 "...30 minutes before I got it I was sitting down to dinner with friends and family, half an hour later I was vomiting. ..that's the scary part about toxic shock it's often treated by the victim and even doctors as a bad cause of the flu." disease is caused by a staph infection, but are unsure of what mechanism triggers it. But doctors know 99 percent per-cent of toxic shock victims were women using tampons at the time of infection. Most people probably remember re-member last year's controversy contro-versy which resulted in the removal of the new "Rely" tampon from the market. Dr. were the persistent high fever and the redness of her skin. Dr. Smith said the redness appears as the disease progresses into a more serious stage. Current University studies of toxic shock deal with the possibility of a certain type of staph being carried in the vagina of some women which may make them more susceptible sus-ceptible to the disease. The studies also look at the possibility that women twho ... experience aches and pains during their menstrual period peri-od may be actually suffering mild symptoms of toxic shock. Dr. Smith said the university univer-sity is offering free exams and staph cultures for women who would like to participate in the study. You can call Dr. Bob Latham of the Utah State Health Department in Salt Lake City at 533-6135 for information. Georgene Crosby had a near brush with death. She said she's worried that it might happen to othei j women, especially women j living alone who may not be able to get help soon enough. She's worried that women think they're safe from getting the disease because J they don't use tampons or j because they don't hear I ' much about it anymore. j "Awareness is the most ! important means of prevent- j ing it," Dr. Smith said. ; "...people tend to be bored ! , with it now and that's why J the news isn't reporting it." I shock syndrome". The disease struck Crosby a little over three weeks ago while on a business trip in Montana with her husband. She didn't know the town or the doctors and she had never been hospitalized. Crosby said one of her biggest mistakes was not immediately going to a doctor. By the second day, the disease progressed to the point where her skin was a bright red - similar to a sunburn. With her temperature tempera-ture soaring and her muscles stiffening to the point where it was too painful to move, her husband finally convinced con-vinced her to go to the local hospital emergency room. Doctors at the hospital did not know what Crosby had but verified she was very ill. She was hospitalized immediately im-mediately in intensive care which she said "really scared me". Luck was with Crosby, the infectious disease specialist on duty at the hospital had treated four other cases of iinitn said tne removal ol the tampon has not stopped the incidence of toxic shock. He said it is still around including four Utah cases reported within the last few weeks. Crosby agreed. "Rely is not the culprit, it just happened to be caught," she said. She urges women to be aware of the disease, use 100 percent cotton tampons (stay away from "super absorben-cy") absorben-cy") change them often and take sanitary precautions. Dr. Smith said sanitation or make-up of the tampon does not appear to make much difference. They also have not verified that frequent toxic shock a few months earlier. He was able to diagnose the disease and treat Crosy. Crosby credits getting to the hospital when she did plus agressive treatment of the disease with saving her life. Looking back on what happened, Crosby said she "knew what toxic shock was but didn't know how dangerous danger-ous it was." The head of Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah College of Medicine agreed. Dr. Charles B. Smith said most people are still unaware of the seriousness and deadli-ness deadli-ness of the disease. "The scariest thing about toxic shock" Crosby said, "is how simple the symptoms seem to be and how serious and fast it strikes." The University of Utah is one of about six U.S. medical facilities studying the di- changing of tampons helps prevent the disease. Still, he said they are investigating the idea and a medical debate is currently going on about the danger of "super nhsorbent" tampons. Toxic shock syndrome is considered rare because onl 15 out of 100,000 people run the risk of getting it, and once contracted, it can reoccur. Because it reoccurs, Dr. Smith said scientists are not urging women to stop using tampons but they need to be aware of the disease and its symptoms: dizziness, nausea, nau-sea, vomiting, diarrhea, aches and pains and fever. He advised women to remove re-move tampons immediately if they experience any of the symptoms and see a doctor right away. The symptoms that alerted Crosby and her husband |