Movie Magic

Decided on a horror movie this weekend. A newly released 'Cabin fever'. Nothing to shout about where a group of young adults decided to spend their holidays in a cabin in the woods. There, they encountered a mysterious disease that affected one after the other. Not scary for sure! I would give it a 4 out of 10. Are there any good horror movies out there anymore?

Cabin Fever

Wapblogger

Trying to publish from my PDA to this site using wapblogger! This site was written by a Swiss guy as an interface to Blogger and LiveJournal. I am using Celcom's GPRS system. This site is WAP enabled so there is less data transfer thus saving cost! Yes GPRS is costly especially if you surf normal sites with all the graphics. My device is an O2 xda and i must say it was worth my dollars! Sending sms is also a breeze! I have 5 books in my pda downloaded from the net including The Bible, harrisons (if you have not got this pda version, GET IT!), cecils, washington manual and pdr drug reference.

http://wap.ubique.ch/wapblogger - wapblogger site

Medical PDA downloads
Skyscape
Handango - for both Palm and Windows

Incidence of renal failure is on the rise. One of the main culprits is diabetes. The rise in diabetes is also worrisome and summons urgent attention from the Ministry of Health. Although many programs do target diabetic patients, the trend now is to identify impaired glucose tolerance ie a state before the onset of diabetes. It has been shown that lifestyle modifications ie exercise and diet, can delay the onset of diabetes. But most subjects in these studies were put on strict diet and regime of exercise. How many of us can follow such dicipline?.. the answer.. drugs.. There is certainly promise that drugs eg metformin and acarbose can prevent diabetes in patients with impaired glucose tolerance. Interestingly though the risk reduction of diabetes when using drugs always appear lower as compared to lifestyle modification studies.

So in view of the rise in end stage renal failure patients, there is a need for hemodialysis in most cases. Monetary contraints remain the obstacle for most renal failure patients. Dialysis machines in most government hospitals are inadequate and private hospitals are far too costly. There are many organisations that do provide assistance either monetary or in terms of providing the facility.

I looked up the internet and found a good site
Global Dialysis

The search of their site found 190 dialysis centers in Malaysia with the complete address and contact information. Rather impressed!

Also
Renal Disease in Malaysia : Problems and prospects

Cameron Highlands landslide: Earth movement likely cause -says Samy Vellu in The Star

I was thinking Wow! what a surprise!!! So that was what caused the massive landslide in Camerons! DUH! Go figure

He continues when asked if the stretch would be safe when road-widening works were completed, “Nothing is safe in this world and I cannot give you a guarantee on that.”

Do we want a Works Minister like this? Samy, I think your time is up!

In another story,
The Education Ministry has confirmed that were elements of fraudulent practice in SK Pulau Chapa, Kubang Pasu, where weak Year Six pupils were substituted with top Year Five pupils for the 2002 UPSR examination.

what were the teachers thinking? I would understand if students do it but for teachers to advocate such is incomprehensible. What is wrong with you, Malaysia?

Dyslexia, an under-recognised problem in Malaysia. Teachers who are the main educators remain ignorant of the disease and its proper approach. A parent wrote into The Star today to lament on how inept our teachers are in handling children with dyslexia. There are also little facilities to help children with dyslexia with available ones being too expensive for regular folks. I quote from http://www.cikgu.net.my and its description of dyslexia:

The word dyslexia is derived from the word Greek language, and simply means difficulty with words. Dyslexia may affect a child’s speech, reading, writing, memory and concentration, and sometimes mathematics, foreign languages, music and personal organizational skills. It tends to run in families and so is believed to be of constitutional origin.

Teachers should know more about medical conditions that affects children . This is because they are the ones that have good contact with children and may be more educated to recognise abnormalities. Limiting themselves to the educational syllabus is no longer the only requirement of a teacher.

This is a great website on dyslexia and important links
Dyslexia Teacher
Dyslexia Test
Persatuan Dyslexia Wilayah Persekutuan
6, Persiaran Kuantan, Setapak,
Kuala Lumpur 53200

You can almost feel the heat! Err.. Nope that's coming from my notebook! Yes.. election time is definitely near. The only thing to look forward to is probably the holiday that civil servants get! Yippeee. Probably stay at home and sleep.

Someone in CARI forum mentioned dermabrasion as a way of removing scars. It is a plastic surgery procedure. It basically removes the outer most layer of your skin where visible scar tissue usually resides. It also refines the skin ie can remove all that wrinkles. Useful for acne sufferers, deformed skin (due to accidents, burns, previous surgery etc) and for a younger look! No wonder these plastic surgeons earn a tonne of money!. Not without risks eg infection albeit rare. It should be done by qualified plastic surgeons NOT cosmeticians!

Dermabrasion, American Society of plastic surgeons
infoPlasticSurgery.com
Patient's Fact Sheet, American Society for Dermatologic Surgery
JAMA & Archives - the evidence

Using maggots for wound healing? Indeed that is currently being practised in certain places to reduce length of hospital stay. These maggots are said to eat dead flesh and leaves the healthy ones intact. Home nursing is essential especially in application of these maggots! Would you want maggots on your wounds?

Check this out
LarvE
Case Report: Maggot therapy in Acute Burns
Case Study: Larval therapy in for an infected insect bite
MRSA, macrophages and maggots. (Clinical Review).(methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)

Today is Awal Muharram , a public holiday in Malaysia. So I decided it fitting to know what it is all about. I quote from http://www.regit.com

AWAL MUHARRAM (MAAL HIJRAH)

Celebrated by Muslims as the day symbolises two happy event in a Muslim's life. The start of Muslim year or calendar, Muharram, coincides with Prophet Muhammad's journey from Mecca to Medina on the first of Muharram in 622AD. To signify this occasion, Muslims attend to various religious activities, spiritual singing, religious meeting throughout the country.

Enjoy the holidays!

Comsumer Association of Penang's president, SM Mohammad Idris, has been getting of everyone's nerves. He has reshaped himself to champion the rights of patients and has repeatedly unjustifiably attacked the integrity of doctors. He even recently tried to lecture doctors in medicine in particular gender-based issues. This comes from someone with no medical background who probably does not understand much about what he is saying. A little knowledge for him is certainly a dangerous thing. Why is he doing this? For popularity perhaps? I guess the best strategy is to ignore such fools.

Stem cell research has been growing in popularity. It could be the next medical breakthrough for diseases incurable before this, for example, diabetes, parkinson's, heart disease etc... Although it will take further research, i am sure one fine day the breakthrough will be achieved.

stemcellresearchnews.com
Stem Cell Information, National Institute of Health
stemcellresearch.org

Singapore is now wooing our students to their universities. Looks like the brain drain will worsen. Local universities should buck up and be more competitive. Stop resting on your laurels. Do not be like Proton and expect to be protected. Local universities have to fight for their share of brilliant students and staff alike. The process of meritocracy is the foundation of a good university and should be practised. Meritocracy in Malaysia is like its democracy. It is only practised partially with the racial divide still pretty obvious.

The condition of the civil service is not any better than its education counterparts. It is sluggish, inefficient, lazy, corrupted and grossly incompetent. How are we to improve such services? Low pay remains the main obstacle. Even the process of promotion is shrouded in secrecy with no transparency. Good workers are not adequately rewarded but instead incompetent chronic workers are given their "long-awaited" promotions despite a poor working record. Due to its low pay, good workers shy away and all the civil service ends up with are the second hand goods. Many civil servants feel that it is a safe haven where disciplinary actions are rare and obstructed by a bureaucratic process. Dismissals are almost non-existent.

The civil service is indeed in bad shape. The recent anti-corruption drive is much welcomed. It is only hoped that it will be an on-going process and not a political ploy sacrifising unimportant pawns. The success of a nation lies in the government and its civil service. Thus its problem should be rectified first.

Mariah Carey is in town for her concert tonight. Still awaiting Celine Dion's arrival!

More hospitals are being built! Today's paper mentioned 14 in all. Unfortunately, the staffing remains inadequate. Are additional hospitals really needed? All this when existing hospitals remain poorly staffed and ill equipped? Are we putting our chips in the right places? More doctors are certainly needed but mass production with little regard to quality is becoming an increasing problem today. Rumours are rife that even doctors that fail their Masters programme are offered positions as trainee lecturers. Are our universities diluting their already sour reputations? What about our future doctors?

It struck me today as well that obesity is certainly on the rise. We use to blame Westernisation of our diets and lifestyle as the culprit. Unfortunately local diets with all the santan and deep fried delicacies is actually the main cause. Even rural folks are not sparred. They definitely do not have McDonalds or Kentucky. If left unchecked, co-morbidities including diabetes and cardiovascular diseases will rise in incidence. What should we do? How are we to tackle this problem?

American Obesity Association
Weight Management Information Centre, Malaysia
Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity
c/o Dept of Nutrition a Dietetics, Faculty of Allied
Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur
Tel:03-4040 5622/5465 Fax:03-2694 1296/2694 7621

Finding a direction for this blog. There is always a struggle between useful rumblings and nonsensical trash. Which do you think is more appealing?

Currently there is a non smoking campaign nationwide. However, it has already been touted as a failure. Why is that so?
There are no easy answers to this one. An anti-smoking strategy has to be multi directional. Such programs need continuous implementation. It has to be on going in schools, at home, in public places , in healthcare centers , in government departments and in the courts of law. Anti smoking campaigns are not alien to Malaysians and basically most smokers have become immune to such messages. Tobacco companies need to act more responsiby. Their cigarretes are killing lives. Governments should also tighten the screws on these companies. Strict advertising ban, increasing taxes, implementation of the law in penalising offenders in public places and eventually the demise of the tobacco industry need to be the anti-smoking strategy.

Doctors on the other hand need to counsel their smoking patients aggresively. However, being a smoking doctor will lead to a compromise of the integrity of the doctor. So it is necessary for healthcare workers to quit smoking and lead the way by example.

SOme useful sites

Quitnet
Quit Smoking Support
Quit Smoking Company

I have decided to relaunch the blog that I first tried to start in 2003. This is after reading some blogs especially that at MMR. Hopefully this will be a more lasting encounter. Still have to refresh myself on the works of blogging after staying away for so long.