Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: Prologue: A well educated and qualified doctor from western country practiced in an underdeveloped tribal area of an African country full of quacks and god-men but became very popular. When asked how such a scientific and rational doctor became popular among tribal, he gave a simple answer. He said that one third of patients are psychic, another one third have self limited illnesses and the remaining one third have illnesses which need his attention. The quacks and the god-men can cure psychic & self limiting illnesses but only he could cure the rest and that is why he became popular. This is the difference between the conventional scientific medicine and traditional unscientific medicine. Thousands of years ago everybody believed that the sun revolves around the earth & the earth is stationary but today, everybody believes that the earth revolves around the sun & rotates on […]
SEX EDUCATION
SEX EDUCATION: Prologue: When I was a small child of about 6 to 8 years old, I asked my relatives about how I came to this world. They told me that a child comes from heaven. I was wandering how it is possible; even at that immature age. Nobody told me that relationship between a man and a woman brings a child. When I got admission in medical college at the age of 17 years, my friends who got admission in engineering college came to my house to see anatomy books. I was surprised. I asked them what they want. They told me that they want to know everything about male and female genitalia as they are growing up and they have no knowledge about it. Most teens want to know about sex but do not know how to get information. So they buy magazines & books, see movies, visit […]
DENGUE
DENGUE: Prologue: I have treated about 150 patients of dengue fever in the year 2008 and 2009 in India and I want to share my experience with the rest of the world about this not-so-bad infamous disease which was wrongly labeled ‘horrible’ as patient’s relatives run from one place to another place in search of platelet transfusion looking at low platelet count with fear and the fear psychosis augmented by treating doctors. Synonyms and abbreviations: Dengue fever = DF Dengue hemorrhagic fever = DHF Dengue shock syndrome = DSS Dengue virus = DENV DIC = disseminated intravascular coagulation GI tract = gastrointestinal tract NSAIDS = non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs Normal saline = 0.9 % sodium chloride solution = 9 gram salt dissolved in 1 Liter water. ICF = intracellular fluid ECF = extracellular fluid = interstitial fluid + intravascular fluid Dengue fever is an acute febrile viral illness caused […]
CHIKUNGUNYA
CHIKUNGUNYA Prologue: Few years ago, I have not heard the name Chikungunya but now a days, I am treating plenty of Chikungunya cases in my medical practice in India. The hall mark of Chikungunya is presence of multiple cases in a family/ neighbourhood/ locality /village /township. Majority of patients have abrupt onset fever with severe joint pain (arthralgia) with/without joint swelling (arthritis). Even though majority recovered soon, some of them have chronic crippling arthritis lasting for months or years. Also, many patients of Chikungunya were erroneously diagnosed as typhoid/ malaria/ dengue and received wrong treatment. So I posted this comments on Chikungunya to educate masses. Synonyms and abbreviations: Vector = arthropod = mosquito Chikungunya fever = CF Chikungunya virus = CHIK-V Chikungunya = chicken guinea = chicken gunaya = chickengunya The disease was first described by Marion Robinson and W.H.R. Lumsden in 1955, following an outbreak in 1952 on the […]
THE FARCE OF DEMOCRACY
THE FARCE OF DEMOCRACY: Prologue: In the year 2000, the flawed Electoral College system in America helped Bush to win presidential election against Gore despite losing popular vote. In the year 2004,during Indian parliamentary election, the Congress party got 26% votes with 145 seats and a small party BSP got 5% votes with only 19 seats proving the fact that the Congress party got far more seats than voting percentage would suggest. In the year 2005, during British parliamentary elections, the Labour party got 35.5 % votes with correspondingly far higher 55.2% seats in parliament. These figures are alarming and therefore I decided to post my comments to focus on this crucial issue. I will discuss democracy/elections in the context of electing people’s representative to public office and not elections in school/college/corporate sector/sporting body etc. Synonyms and Abbreviations: Voter = elector Political party = party Legislative body (legislature) […]
