4th QT CE #3

This week’s current event is on an article I found on Med Page Today called “The Mysterious Case of the Missing Fingerprints.” On May 27 in Toronto, a Singapore cancer patient arrived in the U.S. missing his fingerprints. He’s only identified as Mr.S and he was detained at the airport for four hours until Homeland Security could identify him by other means. His loss of fingerprints was part of a condition called hand-foot syndrome aka palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia. It happens to patients who take capecitabine aka Xeloda. This syndrome causes inflammation of the palms and soles of feet and the skin tends to peel, bleed, and develop ulcers and blisters, hence the cause of his loss of fingerprints. Some U.S. airports nowadays ask visitors to provide fingerprints in order to detect whether the new visa applicant has a visa under a different name. These fingerprints sometimes match up to a list of suspected criminals. Patients with this problem are suggested to travel with a travel note from their doctor in order to avoid this type of problem.

I thought that this article was very interesting. I’ve never heard of anyone losing their fingerprints besides how they did it in the Men in Black movie. I’ve never heard of airports checking for fingerprints unless they suspect the person to be a criminal. I’ve also never heard of this syndrome that causes inflammation of the palms and soles of your feet. I felt kind of sorry for Mr.S because he was detained for four hours. But I agree when they say that patients with this kind of problem should travel with a doctor’s note.