October's Post: Halloween Medical Musings

An anthology series on medical/science stories related to Halloween.

Deviating in my monthly posts I thought it would be interesting to peruse PubMed and other databases and see what stories I can find that relates to Halloween.

Because Halloween, for all of its cultural and supernatural aspects, can sometimes delve into the world of medicine and science.

There’s no doubt that Halloween is a night where adults are allowed to be kids again, including dressing up in ways that would otherwise be deemed socially unacceptable.

But then there are other fears, some more rooted in malice and evil intent.

Growing up, especially in the times after 9/11, stories of Anthrax-riddled candy or child abductions would run rampant. The idea that massive hordes of people would intentionally poison children for revenge or even for some kicks was fairly common growing up.

So here we’ll take a little journey and look through a few stories that I have come across, mostly dealing with some of the medical aspects of this holiday.