“If we use antibiotics when not needed, we may not have them when they are most needed.” –Dr. Tom Frieden, Director, US CDC I’ve been rotating through Internal Medicine for the past two months. And one of the more common reasons we had to admit people was because of infections — whether it was a lung infection, a urinary tract infection, or an infection of their blood. And once the infection was bacterial, they needed antibiotics. Usually, we would start them off on a broad spectrum antibiotic and send a…
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Family ties!
By Anu Dev “To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.” – Confucius “Family”– a word that’s casually thrown about; taken for granted really, used flippantly without knowing the exact meaning. It’s not given the importance it deserves; and by extension, the family members are probably not getting enough…
Read MoreCervical Cancer is beatable
By Anu Dev “Prevention is better than cure.” – Desiderius Erasmus January is “Cervical Cancer Awareness Month”! In my gynecology rotation, one of the questions we got asked by different doctors was, “What’s one of the most preventable types of cancer?” And the answer was always the same, “cervical cancer”. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable types of cancer. That’s because there is both a sensitive test for detecting pre-cancerous lesions — the pap smear — and there’s an effective method of dealing with HPV, one of the…
Read MoreDon’t go breaking your heart
By Anu Dev “Fast food is popular because it’s convenient, it’s cheap, and it tastes good. But the real cost of eating fast food never appears on the menu.” -Eric Schlosser When I first arrived in Trinidad, I was amazed at all the different types of fast food places they had: McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Pappa John’s, Wendy’s and a whole host of others. At the time, Guyana only had a couple. And then I came across a 2013 report that Trinidad was the number 1 obese nation…
Read MoreHappy New Year
By Anu Dev “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier’.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are two of my favourite days of the year. It’s probably because of that feeling of freshness that accompanies the thought of a new year. Rather weirdly (I now realise), I also used to be excited about the start of a new school year or term. I think I just really like fresh starts. Interestingly, though the “New Year” was celebrated…
Read MoreThere’s no place like home
“Oh, but anyway Toto, we’re home! Home! And this is my room – and you’re all here! And I’m not going to leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all! And – Oh, Auntie Em, there’s no place like home!” – Dorothy, “The Wizard of Oz” By Anu Dev Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been wishing I had Dorothy’s red slippers so I could just click my heels and wake up in my own room. Since reading about Dorothy’s adventures in “The Wizard of Oz” I’ve…
Read MoreBrutal honesty
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson By Anu Dev I’ve noticed that there are some people who seem to think that the only way to be honest to someone is to be brutal about it. And that’s quite confusing for me. But I’ve realised that those people just use ‘brutal honesty’ as an excuse to say something mean and take someone down a few pegs. And those people seem to really pride themselves on their brutal honesty. They think it’s a virtue! They’re…
Read MoreInformed consent
Informed consent is required for every invasive medical procedure, from getting your ears pierced to having an abortion – Bob McDonnell By Anu Dev Every day, at some point, we usually have to make decisions: whether it’s a decision about what we’ll wear, or what we’ll eat, or what TV show we should start binge-watching. And despite those being seemingly not very ‘serious’ decisions, most of us still take time to weigh our options and make a decision based on all of the facts we have at our disposal. Basically,…
Read MoreHealth Behaviour
By Anu Dev “Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.” – Ralph Marston Back when I was rotating through Family Medicine, we had a lecture on the concepts of “Heath behaviour” and “illness behaviour”, which I believe may be useful to the general reader. Heath behaviour refers to any action a person undertakes to promote, maintain, or protect health. And illness behaviour refers to the actions taken when sick to get better. It made me remember that, at…
Read MoreMEDICAL TOURISM
By Anu Dev Medical tourism can be considered a kind of import: instead of the product coming to the consumer, as it does with cars or sneakers, the consumer is going to the product – James Suroweicki It’s November, which means that it’s Tourism Month again. This year, the theme is “Sustainable tourism – A Tool for Development” I was a bit surprised; however, that medical tourism wasn’t touted at the launch of the Month, since this is one of the most lucrative and growing areas of tourism. A few…
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