Epiphany

Papa had TB when he was a small boy. He was sick for a long time. They gave him streptomycin but it made him deaf in one ear.

Pa's secretary Mr. Roberts has a twisted foot that stands on its toes all the time, because that leg is shorter than the other. He had polio when he was small.

I am scared. They're taking us all out of class when there isn't a different class on the timetable. I am in Standard One and still don't feel comfortable in school, in this cage of dark blue pinafore, grey cement floor and wooden desks, trapped by my lack of language.

Teacher is taking us to the hall but instead of lining up two-by-two as we do for assemblies, we're lining up single file. I can hear girls crying.

There are people in all white who look like nurses. There is a needle in my arm that brings sharp, burning pain. I am told to open my mouth and given a drop of bittersweet liquid.

The taste of the liquid triggers a revelation: I know what it is. We have a book at home that has pictures of sick people. It tells you about all kinds of diseases and how to stop them. There is a picture of a boy who has polio with a twisted leg like Mr. Roberts, and a picture of a child taking a drop of liquid in his mouth.

And I think I'm the only kid in this whole class who knows: This needle and this drop are the magic potion of freedom.

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And that's how I became interested in vaccines at age six. It just took me 17 years to realize.

For the Tongkat Ali believers

This is the worst example I've seen recently of the mainstream media completely mangling scientific findings - not only exaggeration in this case but a complete reversal of the facts. You know I normally like theSun but which ever reporter wrote this story got it completely backwards:

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http://sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=24775
Untreated erectile dysfunction can cause death, says urology specialist

KOTA BARU: Men suffering from erectile dysfunction must seek treatment fast as leaving the problem untreated for two years can be fatal.

Subang Jaya Medical Centre urology specialist Prof Datuk Dr Tan Hui Meng said a scientific study found that men with erectile dysfunction risk getting chronic heart diseases which can cause death in one or two years.

"Erectile dysfunction is closely linked to the health because it is the heart which does the pumping so that men get excited. Men who have difficulty keeping their partners sexually satisfied carry early symptoms of cardiovascular diseases," he told reporters at the 2nd Sexual Health Conference here today.

"Most men aged 40-45 years have this problem. It can only lead to death in two years if it is a continuous problem and left untreated," he said.

However, men aged 20-30 years-old need not worry as the erection problem is only temporary and not over a continuous period.

He urged men with sexually linked diseases to refer to doctors quickly to avoid more serious diseases.

Those suffering from diabetes and hypertension should control their food intake and seek treatment to prevent it from worsening as it can lead to erectile dysfunction. -- BERNAMA

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*bang head on table*
I have seen articles on the same topic from other news agencies in the past (can't be bothered to look them up right now). The REAL story that doctors are advising older men on is that HEART DISEASE can cause erectile dysfunction, not erectile dysfunction causes heart disease. This Dr Tan's comments are slightly unclear as quoted but it still completely boggles my mind as to how the reporter got it completely backward. This is a gold mine for anybody selling Tongkat Ali, fake Viagra, etc.

Anyway...I wrote to my dad about this...I dunno what his and my mum's sex life is like and I don't want to know but I thought I'd give him a heads-up since he's a pastor and people tend to forward a lot of silly stories to him, and sometimes he uses me for fact-checking.

Multidrug-resistant infections in Sultanah Aminah Hospital

This is absolutely appalling. (Scroll down to the second part of the story in the middle of the page.)

If you don't want to read it here's a quick summary. A woman whose 60-something diabetic father was in Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor complained because a consultant told him he urgently needed a wound debridement surgery, but he was subsequently left in the multidrug-resistant isolation ward for five days with only i.v. antibiotics. He has a multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter infection in the ulcer. A reporter from theSun went to visit them and found that:

• The door of the quarantine ward had a sign saying it should be closed, but it was left open
• another sign said that everyone going in must wear gloves, masks, and aprons, but there weren't any masks or aprons
• there was a pile of used gloves next to the glove box (yay cross-contamination!)
• visitors were ignoring the signs since the protective equipment wasn't there
• even worse, the reporter saw A NURSE AND A DOCTOR!!! walk in, attend to patients, and walk out without putting on the PPE or washing their hands (and the doctor's tudung wasn't tucked into her lab coat, which is effectively the same as a non-Muslim doctor having unbound long hair trailing all over).
• Another guy was there who had been in a road accident and acquired a multidrug-resistant infection from a metal implant in his leg. He's been there with a FRACTURED HAND for over a month. His fiancee said that the quarantined patients appear to have been "forgotten".

This hospital is apparently run by monkeys. Even if the patients weren't KNOWN to have an infectious disease, clinicians are still supposed to wash their hands between patients (I don't use the same gloves for different experiments in the lab).

Let me point out again for the sake of my American readers that Malaysia is not, in terms of technology, resources, or wealth, a backward country. I take every opportunity to smack down the ignoramuses who assume that "developing country" = "1990s Rwanda". We make computers, other electronics, drugs, all kinds of fine consumer products. We have so much. But brains? Who knows.