The SUZY Project aims to introduce dispersible zinc tablets as a treatment for diarrhoea in young children in Bangladesh. Due to my role in the project, I frequently receive questions from people embarking on a zinc scale up in their own country or catchment area. […]
Category: Columnists
Martin McShane on boundaries
“How much does the PCT spend on healthcare for people over the age of 65?” the telephone caller enquired. An impossible question to answer accurately, but after a moment’s reflection I suggested applying the Pareto principle. Most of our money is now consumed by long-term conditions management or, is it fair to say, mis-management. A […]
Richard Smith: Enter the “liquid journal”
It may be what epidemiologists call “ascertainment bias” (seeing what you want to see), but I detect the beginning of the end of prepublication peer review. The latest death knell is the appearance of a “liquid journal” where scientists can post papers without peer review and papers in evolution, data sets, pieces of computer code, […]
Sandra Lako on progress at the Ola During Children’s Hospital
During my time in Sierra Leone from 2005-2009, I often visited the Children’s Hospital in Freetown. At the time I was working in a paediatric outpatient clinic and frequently saw patients who needed to be referred for in-patient care. I had two options at the time: either the emergency surgical centre or Ola During Children’s […]
Martin McShane on volcanology
I set off on holiday in early July. Part of the trip included a visit to a volcanic island. It is awe-inspiring to see how central eruptions from the volcanic crater would, intermittently, over the years send out huge streams of lava which completely reshaped the landscape. Trying to predict what will happen when an […]
Julian Sheather: Are doctors better people?
It’s an odd question I know, but bear with me. It was prompted by a book I picked up again recently, “Open Skies,” a collection of Somerset landscapes by the war photographer Don McCullin. McCullin is arguably the best known war photographer of his generation, and has taken some of that generation’s most iconic war […]
Sandra Lako on her return to Freetown
After being away from Sierra Leone for a year, it is good to be back. Previously I spent four and a half years in Sierra Leone working for an NGO, running an outpatient pediatric clinic. Now, I am working in the government-run Children’s Hospital, volunteering as medical coordinator for a UK-based charity called the Welbodi […]
Richard Smith on improving what the world eats
High blood pressure is the second main cause of disease burden in Australia and is only marginally behind tobacco, said Bruce Neal, senior director, research and development at the George Institute for International Health in Sydney, at a seminar organised by C3, Collaborating for Health. It’s the same in other developed countries and increasingly in […]
Simon Chapman: Sick and famous
Singer Cheryl Cole may turn out to be the most famous person to get malaria in 2010, but of course she’s not the only one. And more importantly, she’s hardly typical of malaria patients who are likely to be impoverished residents with poor access to prophylaxis living in areas with run-down public health infrastructures. While […]
Sandra Lako: An introduction
When I was two years old my parents moved onboard the M/V Anastasis, a hospital ship run by the organisation Mercy Ships, which provided relief and medical services to communities in developing countries. The ship was my home for 14 years. The greatest advantage about life on a ship was the opportunity to see so […]