Doctors today call for UN guidelines to be changed following research showing that exclusive breastfeeding protects the babies of HIV positive women from becoming infected with the virus that causes Aids.
Guidelines from Unicef, the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS say the best option is to bottle-feed the babies with formula milk…Where exclusive bottle-feeding is not possible, mothers should exclusively breastfeed, they say.
Call me surprised. The worst of all worlds is ‘mixed’ feeding,
Research in the medical journal the Lancet today shows that is the worst of all worlds. Babies of mothers with HIV who receive a mixture of milk and solid foods are 11 times more likely to become infected than those who are exclusively breastfed. Those who are given formula milk as well as breast milk are nearly twice as likely to become HIV positive.
I’m Pretty Sure This Is What They Really Meant By “Mixed” Feeding
“Perhaps the reason it’s been up and down here [at Stanford] is that no one has stayed here 20 years,” Harbaugh told Dodd. “… Charlie Weis is going to do that at Notre Dame. [Jim] Tressel at Ohio State. Pete’s doing it. He’s only got one more year, though. He’ll be there one more year. That’s what I’ve heard. I heard it inside the staff.”
Pete Carroll might leave. The rumors have been too rampant for me to worry about it anymore. But it is hard for me to buy that Jim Harbaugh, of all people, is the one with inside information. Even if his info turns out to be accurate and precise, why in the world he would randomly volunteer a quote like that before he’s even coached a single game in the PAC 10 is beyond me.
Pete Carroll wasn’t too happy,
“If he’s going to make statements like that, he ought to get his information right,” Carroll said. “And if he has any questions about it he should call me.”
This Is A Man Who Used To Boss Around Ed Orgeron…
Why You Would Want To Anger Him, I Have No Idea
Finally, Dennis Dodd (CBS Sportsline writer) is reporting (via AOL Fanhouse: USC) that the copy of the UCLA Football Spring Guide he received explicitly predicts a 20 point victory by UCLA over USC this year.
Uh, whether Carroll is at ‘SC in coming years or not, I think we can say for this year that Stanford and UCLA are going to get their asses kicked.
The directive interview is beaten into your head when you’re first learning to do a patient history. You ask pointed, direct questions in a pretty standard order.
That is lovely until you get to the patient who doesn’t feel like elaborating.
Yeah, I’ve Seen A Lot of Patients Who Apply Lipstick While In The Hospital Bed
I shouldn’t be so hard. I’m pretty tight lipped myself.
So I probably have more sympathy for the “non-elaborators” than for those on the other end of the spectrum. This is the patient with just crazy tangential thought. He starts off talking about his back pain and the next thing you know the stats from his junior year in high school playing tailback or about the time he bit into a piece of rotten fruit when he was nine years old.
For those who stumble across this post: which do you think is the most difficult to deal with for an inexperienced medical student?
Fueled by Iran taking 15 British sailors and marines hostage, there’s more conspiracy theories sweeping the internet about how this show down is going to go down.
One of the problems with the internet’s creation of this kind’ve “social news” is that it fails (more often than traditional news) all sorts of criteria for responsibility. That is the trade off for enabling the citizen reporter, for globalizing media, for increasing transparency.
You take the back waters of the internet with a grain of salt (or two or three).
Arab sources report the positioning of a Patriot anti-missile battery in Bahrain this week; they say occupancy at emirate hotels has soared past 90% due mostly to the influx of US military personnel. They also report Western media crews normally employed in military coverage are arriving in packs. Thursday, March 29, General Khaled al-‘Absi, Bahrain’s chief of air defense operations disclosed that new alarm networks had been installed and air defense systems upgraded to handle chemical, biological and radioactive attacks.
Moscow sources have predicting that a US strike against Iranian nuclear installations codenamed Operation Bite has been scheduled for April 6 at 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories. Missiles and air raids will conduct strikes designed to be devastating enough to set Tehran’s nuclear program back several years. The US attack plan reportedly calls for the Iranian air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian warships to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and for the most important headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out. Massive air attacks with the goal of annihilating Iran’s capacity for military resistance, the centers of administration, the key economic assets, and quite possibly the Iranian political leadership, or at least part of it.
If I was a betting man I’d take the field (or even better, no attack at all) against April 6th at 4 A.M. But hey, maybe Government Dirt really has the scoop…breaking a story this big would make the authors like Woodward and Bernstein, only they’re writing from their parent’s basement with the curtains drawn tightly and tin foil wrapped around their heads.
This real-life Dexter became obsessed with medicine at an early age. He memorised medical books and witnessed surgeries, experimenting on animals at home in Himachal Predesh. “We went to the poultry farm, bought a live chicken, he dissected it, and after, we ate it for dinner,” says his mother, Raksha Kumari Jaswal. As word of the young prodigy spread, villagers flocked to their home, seeking advice or just a glimpse of the boy. He was idolised and revered as a god, much to his discomfort. But Akrit did begin to treat some of the hordes who gathered on his doorstep.. He consulted his textbooks, discussed the cases with established doctors and prescribed medicine for more than a thousand people - including a man suffering from a brain disorder.
Akrit first gained celebrity status at the age of seven, when he successfully performed an operation to separate the fused fingers of a girl a year older than him. He taught students ten years his senior and became India’s youngest-ever Indian university student.
Sweet Microsoft Paint Skills
Okay weird enough. It gets worse though. His father has left the family and doesn’t want them to contact him until his young son finds a cure for cancer.
This is “stage parents” run amok. Not only do the actions of the parents raise all sorts of ethical questions, but the apparent caving of the government to allow this child to basically practice medicine is disgusting. No matter how much of genius he is, this kid is self educated and beyond a mere lack of training he doesn’t appear to have the maturity or level headedness to be performing even minor operations on others.
Just from the brief piece,
Akrit is falling over himself to impress; [Dr.] Mustafa suspects that the boy misses the influence of his father, and is used to never being contradicted.
Akrit Describes His Father Telling Him: ‘Cure Cancer Or Don’t Talk To Me’
While this kid’s talent may be remarkable, I hope no readers are applauding what is basically exploitation of this kid.
The only surprise here is the fact it involves a health science university.
A Symbol Of Pride?
The University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey system has had some problems of late. We should note that the system, along with other health science schools, is comprised of two allopathic medical schools and an osteopathic medical school.
First, the system had criminal charges leveled for double billing Medicare for certain services between 2001 and 2004. As part of a deal with the Justice Department they got a Federal Monitor to watch over their doings. Yikes.
Of course, it doesn’t get much better. The Federal Monitor gets there and lo and behold he finds creepy things still going on. A Senior Dean at the school of Osteopathic Medicine is found to be trying to steer catering contracts to friends and filling for reimbursement he isn’t entitled to. Just generally unethical stuff.
How could it end there however? Now the biggest scandal has “broken,” although if I remember correctly Health Care Renewal has been ranting on the going ons at UMDNJ for some time (I’m sure a search through their archives will turn up more than enough juicy details). In anycase, the “breaking” story involves a powerful State Senator who had a no show position at UMDNJ in order to boost his entitled state pension when he retired. In return for that, and probably other kickbacks, he steered appropriations to the university.
The indictment said [State Senator] Bryant had received “a stream of corrupt payments and other financial benefits” from the school in return for his “using his position as a state senator to take official action” to benefit it.
Mr. Bryant has been the subject of investigation for more than a year after a federal monitor of the university found that Mr. Bryant held a no-show job at the university to increase his pension while steering millions of dollar to it.
In January, he applied for an $83,000-a-year pension from the state.
Once EGCG has bound to immune system cells there is no room for HIV to take hold in its usual fashion.
However, experts said the joint UK and US work, which appears in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, was at a very preliminary stage.
Researcher Professor Mike Williamson, of the University of Sheffield, said: “Our research shows that drinking green tea could reduce the risk of becoming infected by HIV, and could also slow down the spread of HIV.
“It is not a cure, and nor is it a safe way to avoid infection, however, we suggest that it should be used in combination with conventional medicines to improve quality of life for those infected.
“Future research is also currently under way in order to determine how much effect can be expected from different amounts of tea.”
My question is what sort of funding is even available for this?! I understand looking for potentially useful compounds amongst the everyday but this is being presented as having realistic utility as some sort of public health campaign.
What?! “Get circumcised, use a condom, and, oh yeah, drink lots of green tea.”
Should a voice even be given to these sorts of discoveries? You know the ones I mean: “Chocolate helps the heart, sleeping with a sheep wool blanket helps allergies, dandelions can prevent male pattern baldness, etc.”
The World Health Organization recommended Wednesday that circumcision immediately become part of the frontline strategy to combat AIDS — a move that the group said could save millions of lives.
The recommendation were presented by WHO and United Nations officials after an international meeting on AIDS and circumcision this month in Montreux, Switzerland.
They were based on recent studies from Kenya, Uganda and South Africa that found circumcising heterosexual men reduced their risk of HIV infection by about 60%.
The benefit would be greatest in countries with widespread epidemics and low rates of circumcision, such as those in southern and eastern Africa, the WHO said.
“If we had a vaccine this effective, people would be very enthusiastic,” [Dr. Maria J. Wawer] said.
In ESPN’s annual all-sports franchise rankings (it ranks every team in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB) the Spurs are #2. What is more stunning is that as long as they’ve been doing this the Spurs have never been lower than #3.
This is a small market town with a team with great ownership. In some ways this explains the franchise’s devotion to its fans and vice-versa. That goes into consideration in the rankings.
Plus it doesn’t hurt that the Spurs had one of the ‘luckiest’ draft moments of all time. A fine, perennial playoff (but not championship caliber) team, loses its superstar (David Robinson) for the entire year and gets the first draft pick in a year with the most perfect player for the Spurs (in terms of talent and his demeanor and his team first attitude) to probably ever come into the NBA is available.
Okay, beyond that ‘luck,’ let us give this organization some credit. They snapped up All Stars like Tony Parker (last pick of the first round) and Manu Ginobili (second round!). They’ve built a fine group of scouts and this little town in the middle of Texas was one of the franchises which led the way to the European invasion of the NBA.
“The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran,” the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.
He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran “that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost.”
He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
That would be terrible. And if I think so, even with my outrage over Iran’s seizure of those British Marines and Sailors, then it probably doesn’t have a lot of support. :)
I’ve actually heard about Texas’ physician licensing application influx from multiple sources, but never attributed it to the success of Proposition 12.
So many doctors are seeking licenses to practice in Texas that the board is facing a certification backlog. As Express-News business columnist David Hendricks recently detailed, the board processed 2,446 licenses in fiscal year 2001. In fiscal year 2006, the number jumped to 4,026.
More doctors who earn their medical degrees in Texas are choosing to stay here. And more doctors from other states are seeking to move here.
Why the change? Historic tort reform in 2003 that capped non-economic damages from malpractice lawsuits at $250,000. Five years ago, the legal climate and skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates made Texas an unattractive place for doctors to make a living. Those rates have dropped by nearly 30 percent since voters approved Proposition 12.
The medical malpractice debate is normally an economic and legal abstraction. But the experience in Texas provides hard evidence that reasonable reforms can have real world consequences that improve access to health care.
They’re going to release the single female British sailor taken hostage the other day. Sorry guys. However, she’ll be carrying a letter admitting she violated Iran’s sovereignty and entered their waters. Meanwhile Britain puts the screws to them (kind’ve) by freezing business with them. As the NYT points out you can roll your eyes at that move,
Britain has little direct official bilateral business with Iran beyond sporting and cultural ties and some humanitarian assistance to refugees and earthquake victims, according to an assessment on the Foreign Office website.
While the impact of the prohibition on official business was, therefore, unclear, it seemed to reflect the first formal reprisal by Britain in response to the seizure of its personnel, designed to show, in Mrs. Beckett’s words to parliament, “the seriousness with which we regard these events.”
Third year is so close you can feel it. Not that I’m looking past the Step 1, but it can’t hurt to keep the exciting milestone of starting your first rotation in sight.
With that said, it does provide a little stress on the nerves. I wish I had seen more on the clinical side. I’m pretty involved in some national organizations and from the many interesting medical students I meet it is my impression that one of the things that varies the most amongst school’s pre-clinical curriculum is how they treat the introduction to patient contact.
I’ve seen a lot of standardized patients, I’ve seen a lot of patients being presented in physical exam labs as examples of specific findings. After this week however I will have performed an H&P on exactly four real patients as a medical student.
It has been enough to get me over my fear of invading a patient’s personal space and privacy. That early fear to lay hands on a stranger so intimately. And I suppose I have pretty good confidence in my physical exam skills. But I wish I had seen more.
Maybe it is just some innate social awkwardness of my own but I wish I had a better handle and sense of the provider-patient relationship.
No…that’s overstating it.
I wish I felt like I belonged there when I walk into a patients room; like it seemed like I belonged there, that I played the role of an actual health care provider better. If that makes the least of sense.
That comes with experience, no doubt. Another reason to look forward to getting into the hospitals. That brings us full circle to my original point: actual patient contact during the basic science years varies wildly between medical schools and I wish I had had more of it.
I did my undergrad work in USC's School of Cinema-Television Cinematic Arts. I have a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Writing for Screen & Television. I loved it, but a future of waiting tables and taking meetings with B-List producers was not for me.
This blog is ostensibly to discuss healthcare policy and maybe educate a few of my fellow medical students. But it will stray into current events, politics, and other science topics when they draw my interest
Other odd notes about me:
I've skied half the resorts on this list (Squaw Valley/Lake Tahoe, Snowbird/Park City, Whistler, Taos, Vail)
I "played" lacrosse in high school and through a club level team in college
Nothing on this website is to be taken as medical advice. I am not a physician. Please consult a physician concerning any health related questions.
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- Mark Lanier
