The number of laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu in England has shot up by nearly fifty percent since last Friday. 1604 new cases were confirmed between 27-29th June, bringing the total number to 4968. […]
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The spread of swine flu
“We’re saying there have been at least a million cases of this new H1N1 virus in the United States so far this year. “ That’s according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which held a press conference on Friday which shed some more light on the epidemiology and spread of the disease. So […]
Choose your own swine flu adventure
The pandemic continues to spread throughout all corners of the world, with Serbia and Iraq getting their first cases yesterday. In the UK the West Midlands still lead the way in new cases with 115 confirmed there yesterday. The actual prevalence in this area and other flu “hotspots” is probably much higher as guidelines on […]
Tom Nolan’s flu blog
The media’s interest in H1N1 may have declined, but the number of cases appears to be on the increase, and not just in the southern hemisphere where we’re told to look to. The World Health Organisation’s latest map of H1N1 cases gives an interesting if simplistic snapshot of the most affected areas globally. Countries with […]
Stephen Ginn on antidepressants: psychiatrists only?
Recently I saw a patient who has problems with use of multiple recreational drugs and alcohol. The patient had never seen a psychiatrist before, but has been taking an antidepressant for the past few years. This is prescribed by a hospital physician. I almost never prescribe medications outside a psychiatric remit, but antidepressants are regularly prescribed by doctors whose area of expertise is not […]
Joe Collier on coming to one’s senses
Training to be a clinician is so much more than simply accumulating facts. It is easy to forget, for example, just how much time and energy we spend on learning to use our senses. Despite having served the owner well for 18 or more years, the senses of the “raw” student still need much honing […]
Ulrike Schmidt on swine flu fear and loathing in Mexico…and London
My flight to Cancun, Mexico, to attend the Conference of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) was scheduled for Sunday, 26th of April. The day before there were several anxious emails about the swine flu outbreak in Mexico City, but a reassuring response from the AED president followed: of course the conference would go ahead.The […]
Dr Harry’s netlines: Is paper dead?
I remember as a medical student, which was some time ago (over 25 years ago to be truthful), that if I wanted to find a journal citation as part of a literature search, then I had to search by hand, a collection of tomes called Index Medicus (ring a bell anyone?). It was published monthly […]
Tony Waterston returns to Ramallah
To Ramallah for the twice yearly contact with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health teaching programme in the West Bank, the first time I have visited since the Gaza war. How would this have affected our programme? What are the prospects for expansion and can we start up in Gaza? How did the […]
Joe Collier on being critical
Being critical is a central part of me. It has been crucial to my work as an editor, a teacher, an advisor, a consultant, a reviewer and an author. We are not talking trivial, gratuitous, knee-jerk or offensive criticism. Rather, it is being critical from a standpoint of knowledge and understanding in which the process […]