Universal Medicine

Responsible for leading a mass vaccination campaign during the '70s that managed to completely eradicate Smallpox in 1979 and for launching a TB control strategy in 1995 that managed to save more than 35 million lives, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has done much in the past to aid and protect the people of this world. However, in 2013 the WHO was criticised for responding slowly to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa which subsequently led to the dire situation which we saw unfold there. Between 1979, 1995 and 2013, the fundamental reason as to why there was a difference in the way the WHO operated was the leadership. The Director General. I am writing this article today because on Tuesday 23rd May 2017, a new Director General was voted in and today we are going to discuss what this means for the World Health Organisation. First of all, let's talk about what the WHO is, and what they aim to achieve. First and foremost, the WHO is a UN a...

What does the general election mean for our healthcare system?   Politics is an intrinsic element to all areas of society, and the policies within party manifestos will inevitably shape the NHS and impact the care and quality of our medical institutions. It is no secret that hospital hallways are becoming more accustomed to patients and doctors are under increasing amounts of stress, so it is salient that the party taking office on June the 8 th can take the necessary steps to help ease the pressures. Although, it is not just about the NHS itself, the care of the UK’s elderly population is an element of the Conservative manifesto which is dividing voters.   An element present in the three main parties is additional funding for the NHS, with the Conservative party claiming spending will ‘rise by £6 billion in real terms’ by 2022, yet where the money will from for this is unsure, so it comes with ambiguity as to whether or not it can definitely be implemented. Furtherm...

Prescriptions paving our way to Health disaster?  Doctors of the NHS and UK have warned that painkiller dependency (addiction) may be a future crisis we are likely to face as data shows drug prescription has doubled in the UK within the past decade . The faculty of pain medicine and Royal Pharmaceutical society has raised concerns on the growing use of Opioid drugs(painkillers) e.g. codeine( a drug used to treat moderate degrees of pain) and Tramadol (drug used to treat severe pain). Dean of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Doctor Barry Miller stated - "While some of the increase use can be attributed towards an improvement in understanding of the effectiveness of these medications by professionals, we are concerned for reports of unnecessary prescription", furthermore he stated that increase prescription rates of painkillers in the UK should be "met with concern". NHS digital figures clearly shows evidence that the number of Opioids prescription have doubled in ...

Globally around 13 million people are killed by diseases that are passed from one organism to another, known as communicable diseases. That is 23% of all deaths, highlighting the detrimental effects of these diseases to humanity. Vast amounts of these diseases are due to bacteria, despite only a small proportion of the bacteria population being pathogenic. Bacteria is able to reproduce rapidly, making it easier for it to spread. Consequently, bacterial diseases are able to spread from organisms to organisms quickly by direct and indirect transmission. To kill pathogenic bacteria and prevent bacterial diseases antibiotics and vaccinations are used. Although, new resistant bacteria is developing making the treatments ineffective. Bacterial diseases that risk becoming antibiotic resistant include: §   - Tuberculosis- a disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacteria tuberculosis . It suppresses the immune system, and if the immune system fails it could spread to other parts of the ...

Can your surgeon make a roll of sushi with just one grain of rice? Can your surgeon make 3 miniature origami's in 15 minutes? And can your surgeon reassemble an insect with merely glue and tweezers? Well, if you happen to need an operation in the Japanese city of Kurashiki, you may be in luck! As of April 2016, new recruits (medical students) hoping to become fully fledged surgeons at Kurashiki Central Hospital (倉敷中央病院) are required to pass 3 completely unique and rigorous tests in order to be accepted to the Hospital as a surgeon. These three tests include everything that was mentioned in the introductory paragraph and are as abstract as they sound. Specifically, the tests that the recruits must pass are as follows: 1) To create three miniature cranes 5mm in height, in 15 minutes using nothing but tweezers and their hands. 2) To reassemble an insect in 15 minutes with glue and tweezers and in such a way so as not to destroy the fragile structures of the insect. 3) Their f...

  JUNIOR DOCTORS: Is their patience running out?   Channel 4 put forth an intimate and honest look into the life of a junior doctor’s first taste of their career in a hospital environment, complete with patients in critical condition within the first three hours of one woman’s day and another deciding whether oncology is the field in which she wants to specialise. Set in Northampton General Hospital, the documentary follows the junior doctors paralleled with the inescapable truth of the deteriorating state of the NHS causing moral amongst professionals to be low. Doctors are an incredibly vital aspect of any society, and it is even more vital that there are people willing to commit themselves to the years long training to ensure the care and support that patient’s need is able to be provided. Yet it appears that the biggest problem is not finding individuals, but rather ensuring that they are able to actually do their job once they have completed training and feel able t...

First Fight Last fight?  What if you were told your child has cancer? What if you were told there was no cure... In this week’s post, we look at one of many cancers that affects children and infants across the country, leaving them fighting a battle with little or no known knowledge of why they are experiencing something so awful or how long they will remaining fighting for. Neuroblastoma is a rare type of cancer most commonly found in babies and young children under the age of five. The initial cause of the disease is unknown, but it is understood that it is related to body signalling that causes cells to grow from primitive baby cells to more mature adult cells, and the defect in the control of such signalling that causes these primitive cells to mature into malignant tumours.  It develops when neuroblasts which mature into neurons (nerve cells), continue to mature causing a tumour to begin, hence the word "Neuro" means nerve and "blast" means cells in e...

Everyone wants the brightest, whitest, smile in town. We’re all buying into the latest DIY whitening kits that promise amazing results in just one use, or splurging out at the dentists to remove those deep rooted stains that will not come off no matter how hard you scrub. However, if we just took a closer look at some of the causes of tooth erosion/decay, we would find that there are many lifestyle changes we can make at home to keep our teeth as healthy as possible. Not only would this save us hundreds of pounds but it will also help our teeth in the long run. Oral hygiene is vital, despite the constant reminding of the “two times a day for two minutes” it is rarely done. Most people spend less than half the recommended two minutes of brushing their teeth and some even fail to brush their teeth at all. Although the most obvious reason for oral health issues being not effectively brushing the teeth there are other ways in which oral problems occur. Such as teeth wear- the three ma...

What comes to your mind when someone says "stem cell donation"? Most people would imagine an incredibly painful process consisting of huge needles burrowing into their arms or spine, right down to the bone, and drawing up a substance the doctors call 'bone marrow'. However contrary to popular belief, only 10% of stem cell donations require needles going deep into the body and the other 90% of donations are carried out entirely differently to how people envision it in their minds. I want to shed some light on the stem cell donation procedures and encourage  those of you reading this today to join the stem cell donation register. So, what exactly are stem cells? Embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells are the two main types of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are cells that can divide indefinitely and turn into any type of cell within the body. Say there were two different embryonic stem cells in an embryo, one could differentiate and become a heart cell,...

In 2010, an article was written detailing the severity of Tuberculosis in the UK, with the Daily Telegraph labelling London as the ‘TB capitol of the world’ with statistics highlighting the drastic rise in the number of diagnoses.  One study has accentuated the fact that one fifth of cases of tuberculosis are resistant to at least one of major drug treatments. Instances of tuberculosis have been falling in recent years but England still maintains one of the highest rates in Europe. Yet, today we have the achievements of researchers in both Oxford and Birmingham to recognise for having a world first breakthrough in the incredibly serious disease.   First of all, tuberculosis itself is a bacterial infection which is acquired through the inhalation of tiny droplets from sneezes or coughs of an individual who is infected. When a person is healthy, their immune system is able to kill the bacteria and the person won’t feel any symptoms, or the immune system won’t be able to ...