Book Review: Seven Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them

Infectious Disease is interesting. In fact, I would wager that it forms at least part of the backbone leading to most medical students deciding to study medicine, regardless of whether or not they end up enjoying ID. Seven Modern Plagues by Mark Jerome Walters investigates seven diseases causing havoc today. He looks at the circumstances that

Review: The Big Necessity by Rose George

One of the first things I noticed when I started traveling was international differences in public restrooms. In New York City I was met with the conundrum of a city that has everything except restrooms. In China I saw squat toilets for the first time – and refused to use them. Working in a hospital

Things I Want: Infectious Plushies

Friday is my final final exam for fourth year. Exams have gone really well so far this year, but after this weekend’s news I guess my focus has been a little off.* Since I’m studying all sorts of horrid diseases, I figured I’d share something I want to get. Well, I certainly don’t want any of

The Girl with the Smile

She is here for a nerve conduction test and an assessment of her Thalidomide regimen. Thalidomide: The morning sickness wonder-drug-turned-teratogenic-horror that gave birth to deformed and ill babies. It has some wonderful other uses. Crohn’s Disease and Myelodisplasia run from this drug. And mycobacteria hate the drug too. But special permission is required to use such a

Giving me back my Enquiring Mind

The Professor in Paediatric Pulmonoly has done wonders for my brain. He told us to question everything he tells us, and that we should only expect 30% of what we are taught to be true. He forces us to ask WHY.

My Wish for World TB Day

As posted yesterday, today is World Tuberculosis Day. StopTB has this really cool campaign where you can make your own stopTB poster about your goals for this disease. The theme is “Stop TB in my lifetime”, which I think is an excellent motive. This is the poster I made:

The ABCs of Me

Gerry’s Space has nominated “everyone who enjoys this world of blogs” for the ABC (Awesome Blog) Content Award. 1. Share something about yourself using each letter of the alphabet 2. Pay the award forward to however many So without further ado:

The Original Guinea Pigs

We are currently doing our Infectious Diseases and Clinical Immunology theory block – which means lots of freaky latin names and difficulty staying awake in class. Occasionally though, our class is graced by a lecturer with some spunk. This is South Africa: needless to say, Tuberculosis was one of the first things discussed. You know