Showing posts from: April 2015
Not ready for next outbreak
In 2014, the world avoided a global outbreak of Ebola, thanks to thousands of selfless health workers — plus, frankly, some very good luck. In hindsight, we know what we should have done better. So, now’s the time, Bill Gates suggests, to put all our good ideas into practice, from scenario planning to vaccine research to health worker training. As he says, “There’s no need to panic … but we need to get going.”
[ Original video at TED: Bill Gates: next outbreak ]
Due to editing and space constraints, my (newspaper) article on tonsillectomy two weeks ago did not present the entire picture of how physicians feel about this surgical procedure… and generated several additional questions – which we will cover here.
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I have been asked several times this week about tonsillectomy – whether or not a child should have their tonsils taken out by surgery. Usually the question is in response to a sore throat of some kind, whether or not there is an infected tonsil.
There are just so many variables (i.e. whether it is acute or chronic, allergic or contagious etc.) that my reply must be largely individualized; so, a short article cannot adequately cover the topic.
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“Chocolate Bar” means awesome to Dylan Siegel, the boy who wrote CHOCOLATE BAR, the book. At just 6 years old Dylan wrote it to raise money towards a cure for his best friend Jonah Pournazarian’s rare liver condition, Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD) Type 1b. His magnanimous act of friendship “went viral” into spots on prime-time news and sold enough copies to truly (and dramatically) make a difference in the research effort. What struck such a chord with the millions of viewers? Jonah’s struggle against a rare disease he didn’t deserve; or, Dylan exercising the pure faith of a child to be a true friend – you decide.
I’ve already given a link to an article describing how to be a friend to someone with a baby in the NICU; but, I’m a bit between a rock and a hard place with this article.
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What would you think if your child, who had been toilet-trained for many years, began wetting the bed but was otherwise healthy and in no discomfort; or, if your little girl, 2 1/2 years old, began refusing to sit on the toilet, had a low-grade fever, and was extremely irritable; or, if your 15-year-old boy told you that he had pain on urination for the past four or five days and was now passing bloody urine; Read more→
At TED U, Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, spells out 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do — and why a little danger is good parenting for both kids and grownups.
I have been holding off writing a summer article until the weather made it clear that it really was summer. I don’t seem to have been quick enough on the draw, however, there was no spring to warn me.
When the weather warms up we begin seeing less contagious illnesses like colds, ear infections, chicken pox, etc. (very warm areas decrease illness in summer as people go indoors for air conditioning.)
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