Studying medicine is really about learning how to communicate. It could be with fellow doctors, allied health professions or our cherished patients. I feel that the difference between a great doctor and an average one is determined by his or her ability to communicate his or her thoughts to the intended audience. It is imperative that doctors have a good grasp of the dominant language or languages in the their area of practice or in, UPCM lingo, community whether it be Filipino, English, Bisaya or swardspeak.

Unfortunately, UP students have lived very sheltered lives within the confines of the university. Although we know Filipino, we do not have a good grasp of the Filipino being used outside academic circles. For example, multiple classmates were shocked that the term for masturbation is Mariang-palad. And yet, still many do not feel the need for our community exposures. Compound this with our still rudimentary grasp of med-speak and the variations that occur for each hospital and each department.

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Again, in retrospect, I should have been more attentive participative eager during Filipino and English class. I still regret not being able to gain a good grasp of effective communication, in writing and in speech, much earlier in my education. I've always told myself that writing and public speaking is not my thing. Someone should have told me that these two things are the vitals things a doctor should have in his or her arsenal.

In one of the Peace month events I attended, we were asked how can you contribute to achieving peace? It seems so easy to answer. Just give a cliche albeit like I will not be violent to anyone or I will strive to achieve inner peace. But are these answers valid? Do they really contribute to peace?

How is peace defined? Scholars through the years have debated this issue and currently there are three kinds of peace. The most common one is that peace is the absence of violence. Note that this definitions allows for conflicts. Conflicts are an innate part of the the human experience and help us learn. In a peaceful situation, conflicts are resolved in a nonviolent way.

The second one builds up on the first and seemingly borrows from the WHO comprehensive definition of health: Peace is the ideal state of harmony and not just the absence of violence. This definition agrees that violence should be absent but if people are not in harmony with themselves, others or their environment, then there is no peace. It is an encompassing definition which then allows concerns such as health and environment to be concerns also of peace workers. Peace is not limited anymore to just eradication of war and disarmament. Peace work is now making the environment not just safe but promote human growth and development and harmonious living.

The last one is the trickiest one for me. Peace is not just a state but it is a capacity of an individual. That is a peaceful individual is not just in harmony with ones' self and his or her surroundings but is able to handle situations in peaceful ways. This definition again adds another dimension to peace work. After (or while) ensuring peace within a person, he or she must then learn to live and act peacefully.

Based on these definitions, achieving peace or peace work covers almost anything a "good" person can do. These definitions also imply that peace work cannot be the work of just a single individual. Peace is a complex entity which demands a comprehensive approach. Thus it entails the contribution of every peace-seeking individual.So those cliche answers are valid. Vague and general but valid. In my case, I can answer that as a health worker I will strive to ensure the right to health as health is a necessary component in achieving peace.

Sadly, health workers around the world are ignorant of this health-peace concept. That by being health workers they are peace workers. That they are potentially the most powerful bloc of peace workers as they not just treat individuals but if they apply the biopsychosocial approach, they can treat communities. Commitment to preserve the health of an individual should spread to preserving the health of the community he or she lives in. As violence would eventually come into play, health work then covers prevention of violence and achievement of a certain peace.

Ovitraps are now being marketed by the DOST. UP Manila students set-up a drive to collect empty cans that can be used to build ovitraps for our rural community partner. But does it really work?

First, let's tackle what ovitraps are. Ovitraps are primarily surveillance tools researches use to determine the number of breeding mosquitos in the area. It is made of a small container partially filled with water and a strip which serves as the site for egg-laying. During my undergrad, we used it to catch our mosquitos for our entomology project. So, if you just want to catch mosquitos. Yes, it works.

Ovitrap yo!

Now, some people thought that maybe instead of just for surveillance we can use it to kill those pesky mosquitos in our area. So they made a lethal version of the ovitrap by adding instecticides such as bifenthrin. They call this the lethal ovitrap. Basically, it attracts gravid mosquitos to use the can. When a mosquito touches the strip, it comes in contact with the insecticide. Thus, whether it decides to lay eggs there or somewhere else, it will die. Gravid mosquitos die, less mosquitos in the area, less mosquitos, less likely to be bitten and less dengue cases. Like most innovations, it sounds good on paper. But again, do we reach our end objective of less dengue cases?

Dengue detector

One should really avoid extending your conclusions. I was kind of let down. Based on the article, it's just another way of monitoring platelet counts and not detecting the virus or antibodies to the virus. Actually, one shouldn't call it the dengue detector for it doesn't detect dengue. There are many illnesses that can lead to decreased platelet counts. But this application could have potential used in other thrombocytic conditions.

And the interview reveals their inadequate knowledge about the pathophysiology of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever. Dengue fever doesn't progress to dengue hemorrhagic fever. They are two separate disease entities. It's a good thing that they'd be working with doctors in developing their concept further.

Too bad the article was too vague on the mechanisms used to count the platelets. Then I'll know for certain how it "detects" dengue.

wag ka na lang mag-aral sa UP

kung ganito ang paniniwala mo. Sa pagpasok mo sa UP (sa kahit anong paaralan naman) inaako mo ang responsibilidad na tulungan ito makamit ang kanilang bisyon. Hindi na nga hinihingi na maging "excellent" o ma-laude kayo, papasa na lang. Sa mata nga ng marami, binabaan na ang standards para sa iyo tapos di niyo pa pinahahalagahan bagkus (naks, nagamit rin ang bagkus) pinipilit niyo pa iharap na nag-aaral naman kayo sa ibang lugar nga lang; ang edukasyon niyong nakukuha ay walang katumbas na grades ika nga. Problema lang hindi ang edukasyong gusto ng institusyon ng iyong pinanggalingan ang iyong natutunan. Baguhin natin, hindi mo natututunan ang dapat mong nakukuha sana kung kahit minsan manatili ka sa loob ng silid aralan. Aanhin mo ang doktor na hindi marunong manggamot dahil may iba siyang gustong aralin. Eh di sana di ka na nag-enroll. Sayang ang slot. Sayang ang paunti na paunti na resources ng UP. At dahil sa kapabayaan niyo, nawalan kami ng mga lider. Oo, naninisi kami. Sino ba ang kanilang binigo?

Aminin na kasi na may malaking pagkakamali nagawa.

PS Mali ang blue at dilaw. Walang relasyon ang pagiging tibak sa grades. Kung tinatanong siguro ano ba ang ideal na tibak na UP, baka pwede na sagot iyon.

From Mainstreaming Natural Family Planning:
"On the average, lower-income couples desire more children, but also experience a larger gap between “wanted” and “actual” number of children. From another perspective, government does not need to engage in population control. What is needed is simply to address the needs of couples to arrive at their desired number of children, particularly among couples in the lower economic quintiles."

False dichotomy. One need not choose between population control and addressing the couples' desires. Actually, addressing the couples' desire is a means to attaining population control. And we need the government to engage in control (the better term is management) because the State doesn't have enough of its resources to sustain the current and future population, hence, we have overpopulation. (The Philippine population really needs to stop growing so 2% is not enough.)

The author seems to misinterpret the NDHS findings and falling into the trap of using biased non-generalizable surveys. The most striking is the conclusion that couples not using any form of family planning have no desire of planning their families. Duh? The NDHS found that they're not using any form because maybe they gave up or do not know how. It doesn't mean they don't want to. And two, it is laughable to elevate the findings of your poorly designed biased survey to a nationwide randomized survey such as the NDHS. Any student who knows basic research courses will notice that your sample will be non-representative and thus non-equivalent to the NDHS population. Actually, your survey won't even be representative of all the couples in your diocese.

It is commendable though that they are engaging in a form of extension service that is beyond that of spouting stupid statements like contraception is equal to abortion or that contraceptives are carcinogens. Hopefully, these sessions aren't or won't turn to indocrination sessions on NFP or none at all.

If NFP works for the people who desire to use NFP, why not use it. Just don't go overboard in criticizing other methods, people have the rights to choose their own.

It hurts when you're doing a nice thing for someone and that person tells you to go to hell.

Now, I get an idea of how our OB coordinator feels.

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It's hard to be a leader of a group of people who feels like they're entitled to have special treatment just because they want to do something else. Reality check. Everyone wants to do something else. Everyone needs to be somewhere else. If you really want, I could just remove you from the list of those who worked in the research project. If you really need to go somewhere else, explain first before leaving and approach me asap to learn what you missed and what you need to do to make up for it.

And it's really hard to lead if people don't respect you. I guess they should just form their own group if they don't want to attend meetings. I've been relatively lenient because we are med students and presumably, mature individuals, but they're really forcing me to be a b*tch.

So abortion has come up again in the consciousness of Philippine media. In one story, a counselor for women who attempted abortion explained that abortion should not happen because the woman will feel extreme guilt regarding the act. Immediately, a question popped in my head, why should she feel guilty about it? Guilt occurs when you commit an act the society deems as unethical. (And the flood gates open for the ethics of abortion.)
But it is sad that our society is a blaming society. One in which women who commit abortion are shunned when them getting pregnant and subsequently getting an abortion is not her entire fault. I am curious as to what methods do these counseling centers use to convince women to keep their pregnancy. I glean from the story that it uses a more religious approach of labels, blaming and fear rather than a more neutral non-blaming laying it all on the table.

Actually, it is weird to use the word counseling when you only offer one viable option. You're not counseling, you're brainwashing.

Am I seriously arguing for abortion? I don't know. Just rambling. I just can't get over the fact that legalizing abortion would make the number go down. And even better, would ensure that women would not die due to back alley procedures ranging from overdoses of Cytotec or pushing a wire up her vagina.

DOH Sec Ona is not making me hopeful about the Philippine health situation.

One is the striking lack of a Public Health background aside from advocating preventive nephrology and against brain drain, he has spent the rest of his career as a specialist and before becoming the new sec, the head of NKTI. The DOH needs not a specialist who has been stuck in a hospital for the majority of his career, the DOH needs a person who has worked in the communities and in public health programs.

But what really rubs me off is his desire to lift the transplant ban and allow "gratuity packages" for kidney donors. He fools no one. Everyone knows that the "gratuity package" is what he thinks is the appropriate market price of a healthy kidney. The gratitude of the recipient should not be expressed through a lump sum of money. Money that would actually tempt poor families to sell their kidneys. Add to that the inherent complexity of differentiating money given as gifts and money given as payment. A task I do not trust the DOH nor anyone for that matter to be successful in completing for all cases.

Lifting the transplant ban is stupid. Already, thousands of Filipinos die every year because of lack of available kidneys (and the prohibitive costs) yet Dr. Ona plans to siphon the few donated kidneys away from deserving Filipinos to other foreigners. I must use the nationalism card. The foreigner might be deserving as well but Filipinos deserve them too. What more, that Filipino will be working here and helping in the country's development. That foreigner will just pay a sum for the servics and then leave.

Actually, determining who is more deserving is not an important question. We should focus on the Filipino's right to health to which the State is duty bound to fulfill. Lifting the ban makes it harder for the State to fulfill its duty to fulfilling the right to health of Filipinos. As mentioned previously,  lifting it would just diminish the low supply of kidneys which would just rob more Filipinos their right to health.

on miracles: maybe they happen. I've never experienced one but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Still, it would be pretty hard to convince me that there is no "natural" or rational explanation for an event. I do accept that things of very low probability do occur. hey, if they don't occur then Life shouldn't have existed.

Happy Atheist Solidarity Day!

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Parents sue DepEd regarding Sex Ed

One, how many of you hypocrites have children enrolled in public schools?
Two, private schools have been "overtaking the parents' responsibility" for years now. If you are going to sue someone, sue one who has committed the act and not one who is intending to.
Three, your invocation of a clause from the Constitution is irrelevant. The sex education module will not even affect the morals of children. It is not a religion nor a values ed class.
Four, you should sue DepEd because they have values class which is "overtaking the parents' responsibility" for the child's moral development. But you don't want that because according to you the youth already has twisted morals.
Five, it is actually your Church who wants to include the moral implications of sex in the module. So you should first complain to them.

Our art of medicine lecturer shared stories of "rude" UPCM graduates.

It was toxic in the ER. A journalist was asked to leave since he is not allowed. He threatened to expose this "maltreatment" of media and write about how he was wronged. The intern present having enough of the journalist just told him to leave and even showed the journalist his nameplate and said, "Be sure that you don't incorrectly spell my name, ok?"

I probably would have done the same thing but our lecturer warned us that it is stupid to fight the media. And since I was recently called rude by a teacher I respect, I should work on creating a polite public persona. At least one I could use for patients and business acquaintances i.e. people I need something from. Cleaning myself up would help since a doctor also asked me why I look like I haven't taken a bath (I actually did but commuting in the summer heat from home to PGH unraveled most of its effects).

The bishop who attended the DepEd consultation said that they will only agree to sex ed if contentious material against certain doctrine of people are removed particularly those against of the Roman Catholic doctrine.

Uh... no. The DepEd needs to follow secular molarity free from religious doctrine. If it is contentious i.e. offends the RC doctrine or any doctrine for that matter, the teacher can note this in class. There is no need to remove it.

They also want a spiritual component to be involved. From any other person, this would be an okay suggestion but this is coming from a bishop and you know that what he's referring to spiritual development is development to becoming a good Catholic.

And I don't agree that sex should occur within marriage. Nor should they teach that sex should only happen in marriage. Sex should occur between responsible adults who have both understood the potential outcomes of intercourse and have prepared for it. In other words, consenting adults. Adults need not be married. The module could point out that having children out of wedlock would be difficult for the current society but it is not immoral. Having sex out of wedlock is immoral only in religious ethics and not secular ethics.

And having religious teaching in public school is unconstitutional.

In the end, this consultation is a farce. The RC Church is not for sex education. They don't even want using the word SEX. The DepEd should have a firm stance and not be bullied into weakening their module. Worse, they should not be bullied into making a module that forces religious belief unto others especially young and impressionable individuals. If the RC Church is so worried about it sex ed, they should hold their own sessions. I think that is what Sunday school is for anyway.

If you trace the sudden boom in attention, you'd encounter the start on the day Gibo Teodoro visited UP Manila for the Make Health Count Presidentiable series (spearheaded by the UPM USC).

In that forum, I was in charge of filtering the questions the audience can ask to the presidentiable. The event started late and just after a few questions, the Gibo staff were telling us we have time for one last question. Flustered with the number of questions flooding in, we had to choose the "last" question. It was narrowed down to two: smoking and HIV/AIDS. We chose HIV/AIDS. And apparently the one who asked the question was an advocate of the infection in the Philippines. And now we have this. Which is good. The NEC and DOH has actually been trying hard and failing to capture the mass and media's attention on the disease and they have the surveillance data to back it up.

How funny that I unintentionally played a role in HIV/AIDS advocacy in the country. This is  something to tell my grandchildren or students or whatever when I'm old and moldy.

In much sadder news, January 2010 had the highest number of news cases of HIV diagnosed ever in the Philippines. The NEC points to needle-sharing among IV-drug users.

So the AFP detained and tortured 43 health workers attending a health training in Morong. The AFP claim they are part of the NPA and the training is a training on bomb making or some other skills terrorists and rebels need to learn and not on health.

Having heard the military spokesperson on Crossroads (the ANC show):
- Why have you detained and prevented these people access to legal counsel for days?
- Even if they were rebels, you can not treat these people the way you treated them. And aren't we supposed to presume innocence even if we have overwhelming evidence at hand?

In italics are some things that the AFP claim support their accusations regarding the participants:
-Low educational attainment
-Event wasn't publicized
-Groups who support the Morong 43 are mostly leftists
-They have revealed their NPA affiliations during their detainment

The first two reveal how ignorant the military is regarding the prevailing approach towards community health. Educational background is irrelevant in health skills training. You do not need a college degree to be able to protect you and your community's health. You do not need to be the brightest one in the community to be able to pick up these skills. That is the purpose of the training anyway.

Trainings of community health workers are not publicized or advertised in the usual ways. It is not only due to the effin high expense to do these things but also the uselessness of these publicizing modalities. And no AFP, GOs and NGOs do not need to tell you about all the trainings they will conduct in an area. They, as a form of courtesy, will inform the local officials but not you. Why should they? Unless they seek help in maintaining security of the training site, they wouldn't interact with you. These trainings are indeed spread through word of mouth and communication channels already present in the community. Sometimes, the training is invitation only because the NGOs have already identified what communities are targeted and the only groups they will contact for participants. I repeat, they don't need to publicize these trainings. These are not huge events needing humongous number of attendants. They don't need to tell everybody, they just need to tell the involved communities.

The AFP also seem to have this notion that the organizers should have screened this people. No! They screen them if they are capable of giving back to their community by imparting or using their new skills but they don't screen for character, legal history or warrant of arrests. One, you don't have a good database of warrant of arrests easily accessible by the public or NGOs and two, that is not their job. That is yours. And lastly, why should they forbid people to learn these skills especially if these people are chosen by the community itself.

For the fourth, confessions made during torture is and should be invalid. Under torture and extreme stress, a normal person can be made to do anything. Given that the detainment seem to be one big torture fest, why give weight to their confession?

And for the third. That's one of the stupidest things I've heard in a long time (and I frequently read posts regarding quackery in SB). These groups are supporting the Morong 43 not because they are necessarily involved in them. Rather, they saw that attack on HR and the illegal nature of how the AFP handled the Morong 43 from capture to detainment. If you can let go of your bias against the left maybe you can realize that your attempts at hiding your mistakes is failing, greatly.

I wonder why the DOH is being mum about this though. DOH being a huge partner in promoting community health programs should have been one of the first to react to this. And a good thing they could do is introduce the AFP, PNP and other GOs to primary health care and community health.

The comments on a certain PhilStar Article makes me want to vomit. How come there are still people who think that being part of the LGBT is a mental disease? How can they not see the LGBT as a legitimate marginalized sector in our society? Actually, the LGBT is one of the best examples of a marginalized sector needing dire representation.

It is true that the State (actually, everybody) should protect the youth from moral and spiritual degradation.
As such we have the minimum drinking age law, laws that prevent them from being jailed and institutions that offer counseling to victims of abuse to prevent a downhill spiral to becoming sociopaths. The COMELEC, however; seems to have forgotten to check the definition of the words "moral" and "spiritual." They should realize that moral, spiritual and religious are not synonyms. Nor is it right (in every sense of the word) to use Catholic and Islamic doctrine to justify their claim that LGBTs can cause moral degradation. The scientist in me is shouting that they should have atleast cited a study wherein children raised by homosexual couples are more immoral (or atleast exhibit deviant behavior) than conventionally raised children. They could also show that schools who accept LGBT teachers have higher rates of juvenile delinquency. Raising the Bible and Qu'ran just doesn't cut it. They may offend you but that doesn't mean it is immoral. Bad breath is offensive but it is certainly not immoral. And they shouldn't even dare to claim the homosexuality is a transmittable disease because its not. It is not a disease period.

Returning to morality and spirituality, the government being a secular institution (we are not in the Unitied Catholic and Muslim States of the Philippines, right?) should use secular ethics and principles or at the very least use it in adjunct to their arguments citing dominant religious ethics. They should allow for an environment where the youth are allowed to make their own decisions. They shouldn't be an environment censored and controlled by the ruling class. The COMELEC has no right to impose their beliefs on everyone especially if those beliefs can only be supported using supernatural beings and religious texts.

Let us expand their argument a bit to LGBTs are harmful to the youth. As far as the current evidence shows, LGBTs are not a separate human species which can carry but not be harmed by diseases that can kill the youth. They are equally capable of gaining and sharing skills and knowledge. They are equally capable of contributing to society. Nor are they the sole carriers of the sins of society such as alcoholism and polygamous relationships because straight people are capable of those things and may even exhibit them at proportions greater than the LGBT. It bothers me that the only harm I could think of is the nauseated feeling some homophobic people get from seeing LGBT couples... wait, seeing LGBT people just breathing make them sick. Unless this brand of nausea has caused massive deaths and disabilities or calamities the level of Ondoy, I see no reason to mark the LGBT as a harmful agent (in terms of health and morals) to society thus the youth shouldn't even be protected from them.

FTW?!

They were at least a real party representing real people unlike this one which represents people they don't even have as members.

I have never supported Chiz. There's just something about him that reeks of evilness. Similar to the feeling I get from Erap actually.

"Ang partido lamang dapat niya ay Pilipinas at ang kanyang mga kapartido ay lahat ng Pilipino." - Chiz

Uh... you can't do that. A party is a group of people with similar stances on key issues. It exists to form a strong and unified voice on a certain issue. Forming a single unified stand on issues is impossible for this nation. For example, you cannot have a party of secular Filipinos with very religious Filipino Catholics. That party will never be able to form a decision regarding key issues such as population control and management. You can't please everyone. In the first place, who gave you the right to do that? I for one don't want you in my party (if I would ever have one).He also leaves a party of Filipinos to join a party which has all Filipinos as members. I feel a disturbance in the Force.

"Para po sa akin, hindi dapat idikta ng isang partido ang gagawin ng sino mang tatakbo. Dahil kung ganoon, papaano niya mapapanagot ang mga tiwali sa gobyerno kung ito ay kagrupo o kasama niya?" - Cheeze

There's a thing we call leadership where you encourage your party to agree with your beliefs and make them follow you not the other way around. If you think your being a mere puppet of your party then you're probably not qualified to be the president. And are you saying that there are corrupt individuals in your party? Then why are you leaving it? Aren't you supposed to be doing the opposite, forcing those corrupt people to leave? Returning to your previous statement, you say you want a party of all Filipinos but you don't want corrupt people and clearly, there are no corrupt Filipinos in the world.

Besides why should we support a candidate with no party backing him or her. That president would be a cripple and be at the mercy of a Congress that would antagonize his every move. For all of GMA's faults, she and her party were very successful in securing power and that is what every presidentiable should aspire to mimic. It makes the development process much faster.  (Granted, the minority should still exist just not too the point where voting for laws always end up in deadlocks.)

School will start again on Monday. My attempt to finish our proposal failed due to uncooperative groupmates. Some had valid reasons, others I don't know... I think they're just being irresponsible (would it kill them to reply to my text message?).

On the other hand, I spent too days helping out in the UPM relief efforts although I didn't participate in the distribution and med missions. I'm still a med mission virgin. Yes! Judging from the stories from other people, the med missions didn't just serve to meet the health consequences of Ondoy. They provided means for people who have no money or time to consult a health professional regarding their diseases. It was a bit funny (I'm twisted, ok?) to hear that one of the leading morbidities in a med mission was hypertension. Hypertension. Disasters don't result in hypertension. A single butter-laden meal doesn't cause hypertension. Funny, right? Just shows how poor the health system is in encouraging people to get their yearly check-up or at least visit the health center for illnesses (granted, HPN can be asymptomatic).

Also, Red Cross can be sexist. They have this policy of excluding females from tasks which involve carrying heavy objects such as sacks of rice. How they could be so backward is beyond me but then again, it is a Filipino-run organization so maybe. Doesn't erase the fact that it is a stupid policy. I really don't want to hear that lame argument of males being stronger than females. Individual females may be incapable of carrying a sack of rice but there is nothing that will prevent them from working together or using machines (wheels, levers, etc), right?

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I also went skating last Friday. It was really nice to have a nearly empty rink. It was cold. There was a mist. And you could go faster and do more things without worrying about hurting someone. I should do it again but I have to come on a weekday though.

Spent a good part of the day repacking stuff and will probably be doing that again tomorrow due to the whole week suspension of classes in UPM.

There were too many people for the available tasks. When a shipment of stuff appears, it takes less than 30mins to repack all of it. People who volunteered for Red Cross say there's also a surplus of volunteers. Methinks a volunteer network/sign up tool should be created, at least for UPM. I know there's Pahinungod and virtually every College has the SC and an org for this kind of thing but there's this issue of coordination and resource (in this case, volunteers) allocation. How many and what kind of people (skills, experience, preferences) should be deployed to volunteering sites such as repacking areas, Red Cross/Crescent chapters, whatnot are things the coordinators would be tackling. I'm all about efficiency and maximizing the use of the volunteers' skill set. Besides, the time we spend waiting for new stuff to arrive could be spent in other ways.

I am truly amazed at the level of mobilization in the NCR right now. Milenyo and the other storms didn't generate this level of concern and activity. I don't know if this is the effect of direct damage in the NCR(literally every NCR resident was a victim or was close to someone who was a victim of Ondoy), the high coverage of the media or finally a tangible effect of all those "hip" commercialist nationalistic drives featuring fashionable accessories, shirts and whatnot (in fairness to those efforts, "pirated" versions of their merchandise has become widely available).

Facebook or multiply groups with sign-up applications. Mobile and SMS technology could also be used. Maybe I should suggest it to our formations committee.

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In the meantime, I've stopped studying for exams and resumed watching series online. Yey early sembreak. Too bad we have tests and a proposal to look forward to the next weeks.