May 8, 2025 • 9 mins
Neil Saavedra fills in for Bill on this Thursday Morning. Dr. Keany talks with Bill about what you are doing at your doctor’s visits that is a leading cause of cancer. Neil about a hepatitis A outbreak declared in L.A. County and the next superbug threat is HERE and will be harder to overcome.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now, we're going to talk about medical stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yeah, with doctor Jim Keeney, chief medical officer for Dignity
Saint Mary Medical Center in Long Beach.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
How are you, doc, am on Cono.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
There he is there.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We go okay, yeah, so Doc, very exciting because hepatitis
A is back.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Woo.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The scary thing is you've got this outbreak of hepatitis A,
but it's not the usual suspects.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well, yeah, by the usual suspects, you mean that the
last year we had an outbreak and that was concerning.
We saw a big uptick in heptitis A, but it
was in unhoused population or people with IVY, drug abuse,
or other risk factors that would put them at a
very high risk for contracting heptitis A. So you know,
(00:54):
that's expected. We still address that from a public health standpoint.
It's not that it's not important, it's just it's more concerning.
When people with no risk factors or people that don't
you know, that are able to have normal hygiene and
everything else, are contracting it, it means that it's much
more widespread. So we are currently in an outbreak and
(01:16):
it's probably more widespread than we are aware of because
you know, you can have this. You can be exposed
up to fifty days prior, so seven weeks prior, and
not have symptoms for that length of time. And so
I think that we're just starting to see.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
The tip of this.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, I think that you look for those normal, you know,
boxes to check off, like you said, people that don't
have access to good hygien you know, running water all
those things, or intravenious drugs or travel, and now seeing
it in people that don't click any of those boxes,
including travel, which would be a big one is concerning
(01:56):
what are the symptoms?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
How would you know if you had this?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
So, I mean it starts off like any other virus.
You can get a fever, fatigue, that type of thing.
You might get nauseous abdominal pain. Really the key is
when you start seeing yellowness in your eyes or your
skin or dark urine, because that's that's a chemical called
Billy reuben. It turns your skin and your eyes yellow.
It also tends to turn your urine a very dark color.
(02:21):
And when you see that, you really need to seek
medical attention. It's more than just you know, a regular
common virus, and you need to get some you need
to be aware of it because it can lead to
other problems. You know, there's even been deaths from the
from hepatitis A. That's unusual, but it can happen, and
it can lead to even rarely things like liver failure.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So how's it passed around?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
What do we have to make sure we're not doing
besides having feces on our hands?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Right, that's a key question. And on the bottom line
is my infectious disease professor told me, we're all covered
in a very thin layer of feces and it's just
a matter of you know, how thick your layer is depending.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
On your hysing. He sounds like a fun guy, you
guys close.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
We tried not to be, but yeah he uh yeah,
So really we are. We all have some level of
those bacteria on our skin at all times, as gross
as that sounds, and that's the amazing thing that our
skin does to protect us. So if you don't wash
your hands before eating, or if the person who prepared
your food has hepatitis A and doesn't wash their hands
(03:24):
before eating, you can ingest this virus. Uh. And then
it's so we call that a fecal oral ingestion. So
people who use the restroom don't wash their hands, and
then either you know, are exposed to that expose other
people by maybe shaking hands or something else, or preparing
food and now you eat and you put it in
your mouth, and that's how we get it. And you know,
(03:46):
that's why we can use wastewater surveillance to know when
this is in the in the in the water basically.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, we did that with COVID stuff as well, right correct, Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You know what I'd love the fact that every single
thing in medicine is Latin except oral fecal. It's like, oh, yeah,
that's you know this Latin word, that Latin word. Oh
what's this called? That's just a crap in the mouth?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Is all that is? That's all that is? Yeah or whatever?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Gross, but true, we're humans.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
It's gross.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, humans are gross. Okay, So we went over the
hepatitis outbreak. You used some words that I don't know
that we could legally use. It is pretty crude. You
disgusted everyone. And now we'll move on to a superbug
because nothing is more exciting than thinking there is a
bug out there that we can't defend ourselves.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, I mean, so people are worry about funguses, I
think in general because they don't really understand them. So
I mean, first of all, mold is a type of fungus.
Yeast is a type of fungus. Mushrooms are type of fungus.
So funguses are all around us, and they're key to
our environment. They break down, you know, dead plants and
tissue and everything else else. So they're critical and and
(05:02):
they're in our body. They're in our they're in our bloodstream.
Sometimes they're you know, they're in organs like your eye,
your mouth, vaginal, so it's it's everywhere. You know, there's
no woman that's the you know, above child bearing age
that hasn't either had or known of someone with a
yeast infection. And that's because fungus lives in our body.
(05:23):
And when you take antibiotics a lot of times, you
change the the micro climate and all of a sudden,
this virus or this fungus can grow. But you know,
I haven't said that every once in a while, this
thing breaks through, and that's happening more and more where
it can cause serious infections, especially in people who are
(05:44):
im you know, compromised or hospitalized people with with lines
in them like catheters or feeding tubes or elderly people,
especially if they're in one of those congest more congested
long term care facility.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, is this one of those things that you get
unfortunate in the hospital?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Not typically this is you know, that's that is definitely
an area where we're seeing a few additional infections. And yeah,
because in the ICU, for example, we got about one
hundred and twenty thousand ICUs beds in the United States
and they're almost always full.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So let's say one.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Hundred thousand patients are at risk there. Because of the
people living longer with HIV AIDS, with chemotherapy and everything else,
we have about seventeen million people in the United States
that are immunal compromise. So that's really where we're seeing
the expansion of this type of disease.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
You know why people are afraid of funguses, doctor.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
No, I hear a joke? No?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Oh see O core diceps. That's why does zombie fungus
that is going to take us over during the zombie apocalypse?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Right, And there's there is one that affects ants, right, Yeah,
that you.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Affects spiders as well, and it basically can control them.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, yeah, it's crazy, But no such thing in humans yet?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah yet? Okay, so that's the word.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I no vaccines, right, there's no vaccines. And for funguses,
we only have about seventeen meds that we can use,
as opposed to bacteria, we have hundreds of antibiotics. So
it's difficult because funguses are cellularly a little closer to
human cells than bacteria are. So how do you kill
the fungus without killing the human and it makes it difficult?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, my understanding is with a shovel to the head.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
From the zombie movies that I watch, you got to
take off the head.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Doc.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You probably don't know. They don't teach you this in
med school. You learn this from your buddy Neil.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Take that the head. So the head.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But it is a superbug. So what is that are
they going to have? Is there going to be anything?
You said, you only have like seven options? Do they come?
How do you come up with something with a super
bug that is beating down all the you know, prior
bouncers that we've built.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, you know, it's going to be an interesting problem.
So it's going to take research and probably research dollars
that are being cut currently, and we'll have to figure
out some new treatments because right now, even the treatments
we have they're not great. I mean, they cause kidney damage,
liver damage, they can cause severe allergic reactions. So we
(08:35):
really don't have a lot of great options when it
comes to fungus. Now, people who lived in the San
Joaquin Valley or other areas. I know Bill and I
have talked about this because I think he has a
family member who has who had valley fever. You know,
that's that's a fungal infection, and when you don't live
in that area, it's something that doctors don't often consider
because it's so it's it's unusual, but it's definitely expanding
(08:58):
in its footprint.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
To the head with a boom stick, Doc, okay, do
that anything sharp? Pointing Their heads are soft when they're
zombie fie. All right, Hey, hey, who got the who
got the learning today?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You did? Doctor? I definitely am not the way.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I appreciate you, Doctor Jim Keeney, chief medical he's a
real medical, serious medical person. I am not chief medical
officer for Dignity Saint Mary Medical Center there in the LBC.
Thanks again, doctor appreciate you. Take care, we'll talk again,
all right. Doctor Jim Keeney great guy, and they're very knowledgeable,
just not about zombies.
Right now, we're going to talk about medical stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yeah, with doctor Jim Keeney, chief medical officer for Dignity
Saint Mary Medical Center in Long Beach.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
How are you, doc, am on Cono.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
There he is there.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We go okay, yeah, so Doc, very exciting because hepatitis
A is back.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Woo.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The scary thing is you've got this outbreak of hepatitis A,
but it's not the usual suspects.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well, yeah, by the usual suspects, you mean that the
last year we had an outbreak and that was concerning.
We saw a big uptick in heptitis A, but it
was in unhoused population or people with IVY, drug abuse,
or other risk factors that would put them at a
very high risk for contracting heptitis A. So you know,
(00:54):
that's expected. We still address that from a public health standpoint.
It's not that it's not important, it's just it's more concerning.
When people with no risk factors or people that don't
you know, that are able to have normal hygiene and
everything else, are contracting it, it means that it's much
more widespread. So we are currently in an outbreak and
(01:16):
it's probably more widespread than we are aware of because
you know, you can have this. You can be exposed
up to fifty days prior, so seven weeks prior, and
not have symptoms for that length of time. And so
I think that we're just starting to see.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
The tip of this.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, I think that you look for those normal, you know,
boxes to check off, like you said, people that don't
have access to good hygien you know, running water all
those things, or intravenious drugs or travel, and now seeing
it in people that don't click any of those boxes,
including travel, which would be a big one is concerning
(01:56):
what are the symptoms?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
How would you know if you had this?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
So, I mean it starts off like any other virus.
You can get a fever, fatigue, that type of thing.
You might get nauseous abdominal pain. Really the key is
when you start seeing yellowness in your eyes or your
skin or dark urine, because that's that's a chemical called
Billy reuben. It turns your skin and your eyes yellow.
It also tends to turn your urine a very dark color.
(02:21):
And when you see that, you really need to seek
medical attention. It's more than just you know, a regular
common virus, and you need to get some you need
to be aware of it because it can lead to
other problems. You know, there's even been deaths from the
from hepatitis A. That's unusual, but it can happen, and
it can lead to even rarely things like liver failure.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So how's it passed around?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
What do we have to make sure we're not doing
besides having feces on our hands?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Right, that's a key question. And on the bottom line
is my infectious disease professor told me, we're all covered
in a very thin layer of feces and it's just
a matter of you know, how thick your layer is depending.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
On your hysing. He sounds like a fun guy, you
guys close.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
We tried not to be, but yeah he uh yeah,
So really we are. We all have some level of
those bacteria on our skin at all times, as gross
as that sounds, and that's the amazing thing that our
skin does to protect us. So if you don't wash
your hands before eating, or if the person who prepared
your food has hepatitis A and doesn't wash their hands
(03:24):
before eating, you can ingest this virus. Uh. And then
it's so we call that a fecal oral ingestion. So
people who use the restroom don't wash their hands, and
then either you know, are exposed to that expose other
people by maybe shaking hands or something else, or preparing
food and now you eat and you put it in
your mouth, and that's how we get it. And you know,
(03:46):
that's why we can use wastewater surveillance to know when
this is in the in the in the water basically.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, we did that with COVID stuff as well, right correct, Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You know what I'd love the fact that every single
thing in medicine is Latin except oral fecal. It's like, oh, yeah,
that's you know this Latin word, that Latin word. Oh
what's this called? That's just a crap in the mouth?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Is all that is? That's all that is? Yeah or whatever?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Gross, but true, we're humans.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
It's gross.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, humans are gross. Okay, So we went over the
hepatitis outbreak. You used some words that I don't know
that we could legally use. It is pretty crude. You
disgusted everyone. And now we'll move on to a superbug
because nothing is more exciting than thinking there is a
bug out there that we can't defend ourselves.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, I mean, so people are worry about funguses, I
think in general because they don't really understand them. So
I mean, first of all, mold is a type of fungus.
Yeast is a type of fungus. Mushrooms are type of fungus.
So funguses are all around us, and they're key to
our environment. They break down, you know, dead plants and
tissue and everything else else. So they're critical and and
(05:02):
they're in our body. They're in our they're in our bloodstream.
Sometimes they're you know, they're in organs like your eye,
your mouth, vaginal, so it's it's everywhere. You know, there's
no woman that's the you know, above child bearing age
that hasn't either had or known of someone with a
yeast infection. And that's because fungus lives in our body.
(05:23):
And when you take antibiotics a lot of times, you
change the the micro climate and all of a sudden,
this virus or this fungus can grow. But you know,
I haven't said that every once in a while, this
thing breaks through, and that's happening more and more where
it can cause serious infections, especially in people who are
(05:44):
im you know, compromised or hospitalized people with with lines
in them like catheters or feeding tubes or elderly people,
especially if they're in one of those congest more congested
long term care facility.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, is this one of those things that you get
unfortunate in the hospital?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Not typically this is you know, that's that is definitely
an area where we're seeing a few additional infections. And yeah,
because in the ICU, for example, we got about one
hundred and twenty thousand ICUs beds in the United States
and they're almost always full.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So let's say one.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Hundred thousand patients are at risk there. Because of the
people living longer with HIV AIDS, with chemotherapy and everything else,
we have about seventeen million people in the United States
that are immunal compromise. So that's really where we're seeing
the expansion of this type of disease.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
You know why people are afraid of funguses, doctor.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
No, I hear a joke? No?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Oh see O core diceps. That's why does zombie fungus
that is going to take us over during the zombie apocalypse?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Right, And there's there is one that affects ants, right, Yeah,
that you.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Affects spiders as well, and it basically can control them.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, yeah, it's crazy, But no such thing in humans yet?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah yet? Okay, so that's the word.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I no vaccines, right, there's no vaccines. And for funguses,
we only have about seventeen meds that we can use,
as opposed to bacteria, we have hundreds of antibiotics. So
it's difficult because funguses are cellularly a little closer to
human cells than bacteria are. So how do you kill
the fungus without killing the human and it makes it difficult?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, my understanding is with a shovel to the head.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
From the zombie movies that I watch, you got to
take off the head.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Doc.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You probably don't know. They don't teach you this in
med school. You learn this from your buddy Neil.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Take that the head. So the head.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But it is a superbug. So what is that are
they going to have? Is there going to be anything?
You said, you only have like seven options? Do they come?
How do you come up with something with a super
bug that is beating down all the you know, prior
bouncers that we've built.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, you know, it's going to be an interesting problem.
So it's going to take research and probably research dollars
that are being cut currently, and we'll have to figure
out some new treatments because right now, even the treatments
we have they're not great. I mean, they cause kidney damage,
liver damage, they can cause severe allergic reactions. So we
(08:35):
really don't have a lot of great options when it
comes to fungus. Now, people who lived in the San
Joaquin Valley or other areas. I know Bill and I
have talked about this because I think he has a
family member who has who had valley fever. You know,
that's that's a fungal infection, and when you don't live
in that area, it's something that doctors don't often consider
because it's so it's it's unusual, but it's definitely expanding
(08:58):
in its footprint.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
To the head with a boom stick, Doc, okay, do
that anything sharp? Pointing Their heads are soft when they're
zombie fie. All right, Hey, hey, who got the who
got the learning today?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You did? Doctor? I definitely am not the way.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I appreciate you, Doctor Jim Keeney, chief medical he's a
real medical, serious medical person. I am not chief medical
officer for Dignity Saint Mary Medical Center there in the LBC.
Thanks again, doctor appreciate you. Take care, we'll talk again,
all right. Doctor Jim Keeney great guy, and they're very knowledgeable,
just not about zombies.
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