Comments for Speaking of Medicine

Comment on Poop Excavated from Old Latrines Finds New Life by Maggie Brown, MS, ELS

Maggie Brown, MS, ELS — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:28:40 +0000

Thanks, Don – Too true! Indeed, proper handling of the compost (including ensuring that it reach proper temperatures) is essential not only to kill tomato seeds but to inactivate pathogens.

Comment on Short-Term Surgical Mission: A Vehicle for Sustainable Surgical Care Delivery? by Ryan Hayton

Ryan Hayton — Tue, 15 May 2012 03:49:40 +0000

I’m a US trained General Surgeon working as a long term missionary in Malawi at a large, 275 bed referral hospital. I agree that ‘short term surgical mission’ trips are beneficial to the level of care offered in under-served countries. They stimulate the long term operative care to elevate the accepted and expected standards. The short term trips also work to bring in specialty surgery like cardiac or plastic surgery to areas where these are not usually available.
I do ink this only works where there is a baseline of surgical care and that can ‘save up’ specialty cases for a regular and dependable short term specialty team. And there must be a well functioning hospital and theatre that can rise to the level of care needed for such cases as cardio thoracic surgery. My alma mater Loma Linda University has done this effectively since at least the early 1970′s when their Heart and Lung team traveled to areas like Greece to educate, elevate, and demonstrate surgeries that were not yet performed there. These short term trips are more effective the longer they stay at a location.
With the RRC’s new stance and acceptance of international rotations for general surgery residents, I believe there will be a resurgence of short term surgical specialty missions as attendings are motivated by the trainees experiences. This is why I’m excited to be involved with Loma Linda’s emerging program to have a standard rotation for all fourth year residents to my hospital in the middle of Africa.

Comment on False positive HIV tests: the problem no one wants to talk about (and how to solve it) by lili

lili — Sun, 13 May 2012 07:56:28 +0000

Hello, do HIV test shows positive and negative result at the same time on one blood sample …..in one test.? What’s the reason behind?
thank u

Comment on Poop Excavated from Old Latrines Finds New Life by Don

Don — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:16:24 +0000

If it wasn’t for the tomato seeds…

They are tough little things. They go right through you and if you don’t get your compost up to 65°C and keep it there for a while you will get far more volunteer tomato plants than most farmers would appreciate.

Comment on Conflict and Open Access: A Tale of Two Conferences by Open Access

Open Access — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:25:38 +0000

Where these conferences were held at…?

Comment on Poop Excavated from Old Latrines Finds New Life by Maggie Brown, MS, ELS

Maggie Brown, MS, ELS — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:53:31 +0000

Thanks for bringing up ecological sanitation (EcoSan), Leah – I was remiss in not including that term in the post. Other organizations also work on applying it in different ways and different settings. And thanks, too, for emphasizing that SOIL has worked mostly in Haiti and is applying its lessons learned to other places.

Comment on Poop Excavated from Old Latrines Finds New Life by Leah

Leah — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:01:27 +0000

Thanks for the great article! SOIL’s adventures into toilets in Africa have been informed by their years of work building composting toilets in Haiti. Ecological sanitation simultaneously tackles some of Haiti’s toughest challenges – providing improved sanitation to people who would otherwise have no access to a toilet and producing rich, organic compost critical for agriculture and reforestation.

Comment on Responding to Malaria: A View from the Ground by Malaria: A 25% Solution. « Tropical Maladies

Malaria: A 25% Solution. « Tropical Maladies — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:23:56 +0000

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Comment on A Story of Renewable Energy Use in Rural China by blog

blog — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:09:59 +0000

Rather than being treated as equal project partners, the villagers of Caotianba are assumed to be passive recipients of whatever infrastructure projects are mapped onto their village. I find it difficult, therefore, to fathom replicating Caotianba’s successes outside of this unique context: an environment characterized by continued government aid and intervention—an unsustainable model for most of the world outside of this small hillside village.

Comment on Sugar: A Popular Poison? by N

Wed, 02 May 2012 20:31:26 +0000

Not a bad article as a whole. To me the bigger issue are food addictions and how these addictions are treated. Since abstinence is the foundation for controlling any addiction, food addictions are difficult to control because we must eat.

The debate that is forming, at least in the USA, are the methods of controlling this type of addiction. Is this going to be done as national, federally controlled/mandated or by education and personal responsibility.

I would hasten to add that additional things need to be done that would also have a positive impact on this issue. One of the major problems is the lack of activities that are safe for children to do outside their household. As a parent I certainly would not let my children do what did when I was young because the streets are not safe.

Being able to get children out and about keeps them away from the fridge and burning calories. I do not see a easy answer for that problem.

Still people should remember that besides sugar, salt, and even water have toxic properties.