In today’s blog, our new student editor Mohsan Malik from King’s College London, reflects on the psychology of 33 miners who got trapped in a small mine in Chile nearly a month ago. Accompanying this blog is an article by Carlos Fioravanti on a new drug that has been developed in Brazil to fight infectious diseases.

Shrines dedicated to 33 miners trapped in San Jose, Chile Source BBC

On 5th August 2010, a small mine near San Jose, Chile, collapsed, entrapping 33 miners. It was 17 days later that the rescuers heard echoes and the 33 miners were discovered to be alive. Since then drilling has began to rescue the miners from the collapsed mine.

Interestingly, lessons learnt from space medicine are being used to help the trapped miners as NASA scientists arrive at the site. With their help, today’s media reports that, miners received their first hot meal. Previously, they have been surviving on glucose and high protein milk.
Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s blog is the first part of a series of blogs that will be presented by Suzanne Murphy, a student at Trinity College Dublin on her experiences from the International summer medical school in Manchester (August 23rd-27th) that she attended recently. Keep an eye out for next part soon!

Also, don’t forget to read this week’s TLS challenge by Muniesh Shanmugam.

Courtsey Dr Karen Au

When I saw the ad for the Future Excellence International Medical School on the TLS website, I knew straight away it was something I wanted to do, particularly when I saw that there would be a cardiology and cardiothoracic Surgery group. In the last few years I had been increasingly thinking of moving to the UK to study medicine as a postgraduate and after some work experience with a cardiothoracic team over the summer, I was convinced of the path I wanted to take. The summer school aims to allow medical students (or those of us who intend to be medical students!) the chance to gain an insight into some of the most competitive surgical and medical specialities, while offering the chance to learn some basic clinical and surgical skills, learn about developing a portfolio and give opportunities for interaction with a wide range of consultants and registrars.
Read the rest of this entry »

Today we have an elective report by Keir Philip, medical student at University of Sheffield where he describes his experiences from his medical elective in Colombia. Click here to read it.

In today’s blog, TLS student editor Joanna Hunter questions the logic behind medical school selection criteria. Don’t forget to read this week’s Lancet digest, an easy way to connect with our parent journal.

Source: BBC

In today’s blog student editor Versha Prakash writes about the unmet needs of people in the ‘double disaster’  struck Niger. Accompanying this blog is an article by Elliot Davis on harm reduction schemes in Malaysia.

One in five, or 17% of children are malnourished in Niger (Source: BBC)

A prolonged drought had hit Niger in 2005 leading to a widespread famine. The devastation caused widespread starvation, malnutrition in children and a huge loss of livestock. Located in western Africa, Niger is among the world’s poorest nations and is currently facing another hunger crisis or ‘as yet undeclared’ famine this year.

It’s already lean season in Niger but the grain banks are still empty. Now, the conditions are so extreme that people are left with very little or no food at all. According to this week’s Lancet world report, “[i]n villages scattered throughout the provinces of Zinder, Maradi, Diffa, and Tahoua, people have been reduced to eating leaves and lizards as their granaries run empty.” The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says that one in five children is malnourished and 7.3 million people are in desperate need of food. These figures far exceed those normally used to declare a state of national emergency.
Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s blog Jane Bigham reflects on her experiences from Liberia. Accompanying this blog is this week’s TLS challenge by Chun Yat Chu.

Many Liberians suffer from trauma, depression, and other mental health issues following more than a decade of civil conflict. With only one psychiatrist in the entire country, and just a handful of nurses with mental health training, treating those who suffer from mental illnesses has been almost impossible. Jane Bigham is assistant program coordinator for the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program and recently traveled to the West African country. Below, she reflects on her journey and what a new Carter Center mental health initiative will mean for the people of Liberia. Bigham will receive her master’s in global health from Emory University in December 2010.

I recently traveled to Monrovia, Liberia, to work on The Carter Center’s Liberia Mental Health Initiative—our first international project to improve access to mental health care. The initiative will assist the Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to implement the national mental health plan, a set of priorities and goals established by the Liberian government to improve access to mental health services in the country. Among other activities, The Carter Center will help create training systems for mental health professionals, such as nurses; develop support systems for family caregivers; and work to reduce stigma and discrimination against people with mental illnesses.

Photo credit: The Carter Center/M. Benckert
Jane Bigham and the team depart the Carter Center offices on U.N. Drive in Monrovia.
Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s blog third year medical student Matthew Rinaldi from Imperial College London writes about how doctor-patient relationships  are affected by medical abbreviations and acronyms Accompanying this blog is an elective report by Sian Cooper where she shares her experiences from Nepal.

Talking with a doctor can be a bewildering experience for lay-people. Their conversation is sprinkled with latin, interspersed with obscure terminology and it is possible to leave having not understood a thing that’s been said. Although recognised by other members of staff, the language used by healthcare professionals can impede doctor-patient communication.

A lay-person may view their stomach as the area of fat above the belt and below the chest that inflates proportional to the number of beers drunk in a lifetime. On the other hand, an anatomist could define it as a muscular, hollow section of the alimentary tract; the potential for confusion is apparent.

The employment of technical terms is not unique to the medical profession, however as healthcare makes the transition to a patient-centred approach, it should be used wisely. Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s news blog, third year medical student Maria Siddiqui of the University of Karachi writes about the devastation of the Pakistan floods upon her country. Accompanying this blog is an article by Kevin Gillman on the realities of life after medical school.

Waiting for relief. Source: BBC

Covering one-fifth of the country with water, displacing two million people across three provinces, injuring and killing more than 3500 people and rampaging across the livestock and agricultural resources, Pakistan’s floods are the worst natural disaster in the eighty year history of the region.
 
Wiping out homes, schools, farms, villages, and towns they began late last month when torrential monsoon rains flooded the Indus River, the nation’s life-blood. The floodwaters coursed from the north, battered the region, before making its way towards the south, spanning three provinces and causing misery and destruction in its wake. Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s blog student editor Versha Prakash writes about World Humanitarian Day and its agenda this year. Also, don’t forget to read a seminar on Pre-eclampsia from Lancet this week.

Source BBC

Yesterday, amidst floods and threats to life across the globe, the international community celebrated the second anniversary of World Humanitarian Day. The day was established by the United Nations (UN) in 2008 to raise awareness for the victims of conflicts and natural disasters and to pay tribute to more than 800 humanitarian relief workers who have lost their lives in service over the past decade. August 19 also marks the tragic anniversary of the 2003 terrorist bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq, in which twenty-two people lost their lives.
Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s blog, TLS student editor and medical student Joanna Hunter considers the international response to the Pakistan floods. Accompanying this blog is an article by Ben Pederson and Tyler Weber, in which they discuss the emerging role of husbands and fathers in Tanzanian and Ugandan family life.

Floods in North-West Pakistan. Source: BBC ‘In Pictures’ 

The Pakistan floods have secured a place in the British national consciousness; the disaster has dominated news headlines for well over a week and London is plastered with appeals for aid. The death toll has now exceeded 1,500 and the total number of lives affected by the rising waters is estimated to be a staggering 13 million [1]. Simon Rogers observes that this is more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake [2].  Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation is expressing grave concerns at reports of cholera in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. ‘I have visited the scenes of many natural disasters, but nothing like this’ declared UN secretary General Ban Ki-moon upon his return from the disaster area last week [3].  

Read the rest of this entry »