MEDICAL MATTERS

[Tizer]

We do need to try and get more British people to go into nursing. It's a `no brainer' really, improve the NHS and ease unemployment at the same time.

[PanBiker]

Personally I'm not bothered what nationality medics are that fix me when I'm broken as long as they are qualified. The doc that diagnosed Sally's cancer was from India and the surgeon that saved her life was Egyptian, Oncologist was Polish and the bloke that attended to me when I got in bother last year was Italian. Send all the "Johnny Foreigners" back at our peril.

[Tizer]

Nor am I bothered by the nationality of the nurses as far as treatment is concerned. But I'm concerned that we should be educating and encouraging people born in this country to become nurses and doctors for their own sake. We need more employment and better employment for them.

[Stanley]

Unfortunately P's analysis is reinforced by the evidence. When a question like allowing essential skilled workers to stay and work here, especially after being trained here, arises, xenophobic and archaic attitudes prevail over reality and common sense. Free medical care is the greatest boon of our society and these sods are slowly destroying it in the name of the free market. It is the modern version of ethnic cleansing. 'The Labouring Classes' are no longer seen as an essential component of the economy and are therefore dispensable. We sleepwalk into a disaster.

[Tizer]

`Bacteria that resist 'last antibiotic' found in UK' [url-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35153795]BBC[/url]
I wrote on this back in November in this thread and gave some links with more information: Antibiotic resistance
It's hard to believe how this has been heading our way, like an asteroid, for 60 years and no action has been taken. Scientists have been warning about it all that time but no-one with the power has done anything about it. Doctors have continued wrongly prescribing antibiotics, patients have continued to demand them, farmers and agrichemicals companies have continued to use some of the very same antibiotics that we depend on in their animals.

[Stanley]

Tiz, just one more example of how incompetent our systems of governance are. People like you and me have known about this for years and have done our bit in avoiding antibiotic use as far as possible. There are many reasons why it has happened but one of the biggest is the use of antibiotics as a prophylactic in agriculture. I think I saw a figure that over 70% of AB use in feed was in the US.
Weighed myself this morning. I am under 12 stone for the first time in at least 55 years. I reckon I'm getting very close now to where I want to be, no point getting carried away and doing too much. One thing is certain, it has changed my life.

[Tizer]

“The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to nonlethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” Alexander Fleming in his acceptance lecture for his Nobel Prize for the drug’s discovery in 1945 (yes, 70 years ago!)

Denmark made changes to regulations on the use of antibiotics in agriculture in 1995 to prevent their over-use and it shows that you don't need them in farm animals. LINK

[Stanley]

And Hartley's comment would have been 'pesky scientists'..... I often wonder about the cumulative effects over the years of various accidents of modernisation. Think of the deaths that could be attributed to fossil fuel and compare with those from development of atomic power. Think of the dire effects the supermarkets, aided by modern food technology, the power of the lobby and blanket advertising are having on public health.... We let the genii out of the bottle and then cry foul at the results as we misuse the advances... Are we fit to run a planet?

[Tizer]

Over 2000 people die every year in road traffic accidents in the UK and thousands are injured, yet we still turn a blind eye to most speeding, especially on motorways. But compare that to the fuss we make over the many fewer deaths due to terrorism.

[Wendyf]

Col has his 6 month check cystoscopy this morning....great timing! Am anxiously waiting to hear from him.

[Tizer]

Here's hoping he gets good results Wendy.

[PanBiker]

Yes, I hope it's good news Wendy.

[Wendyf]

Good news, no tumours. A biopsy taken from an 'angry' looking area that is even angrier now! Ouch.

[PanBiker]

The ouch will be temporary though Wendy, good news, regards to Col.

[Stanley]

Thank God for that Wendy.... Col has had more than his share of discomfort lately and I hope he is beginning to see a way out of the wood! Give him my best and I wish you all the luck in the world for the future. (When you're saying your prayers, just remind Her Upstairs that you expect the same treatment for Col that you give to Dennis and Sparky!).
This is the time of year to take stock and count your blessings. At the moment (and it may only be temporary....) i am doing fine on all fronts despite the mileage. My target now is to stay that way until at least July, I want to be fit enough to go and teach the Carleton Seminar with Martha....

[Tizer]

Great to hear the good news Wendy, the best Xmas present.

[Stanley]

How did you go on with the water Wendy?

[Stanley]

See THIS Daily Mirror report of the warning by the Chief Medical Officer that a strain of gonorrhoea which is immune to the drugs used to treat it has surfaced in the North of England. Once a scourge, efficient antibiotics reduced it to an inconvenience but it looks as though that is ended now. It was gonorrhoea that probably saved my dad's life in WW1, it kept him in hospital for the greater part of his service.

[Tizer]

At least gonorrhoea is relatively easy to avoid. But think of Frank Winfield Woolworth, the American who launched the F.W. Woolworth chain of stores. He died in 1919 aged 67, when he was said to be worth about $76 million. What caused his death? A tooth infection. In those days there were no antibiotics and even a tooth infection could kill you. Even your $76 million couldn't save you. If we don't tackle antibiotic resistance quickly we'll be back in the same situation. We can do it, but it needs provision of funds to research and develop solutions and commitment from governments worldwide to better control antibiotic use.

[Marilyn]

( I wouldn't have thought Gonorrhoea would have kept anyone in hospital, Stanley. It is not terribly disabling...)

[Stanley]

Maz, it depends on the severity and duration of the infection. Even these days, if untreated, it can cause septicaemia. In the Great War any soldier who was infected had to be hospitalised and cured, not released until the infection had completely cleared up. They were very hot on STDs in those days. It's one of the untold stories of both World Wars. If you look at Ernie Roberts' transcripts in the LTP. he talks about a large hospital devoted to treating venereal disease called Rose Cottage, I think it was in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon of course. The only trace you'll find of it today is in naval and military slang, officially it's still a sensitive subject.

[Marilyn]

...and not the sort of thing you would write home to Mother/Wife about...
( or there would be a clip round the ear waiting for you when you did get back home)

[Stanley]

Definitely Maz, and that was the reason a lot never reported sick with it.
I have a story for you, onje of my dad's mates was a bloke called Harry White who was a horse coper with the artillery in WW1. One of the staple medicines used on horses at the time was the infamous 'Blue Salve', a mercury based ointment. Harry had a nice little sideline going whereby he sold the ointment to men who wanted to self-treat the disease, mercury was one of the recognised treatments. The Company Medical Officer took Harry on one side and told him that if he stopped treating the men he would promise not to treat the horses. Harry protested that the ointment was curing the men but the MO said yes, but it's making them sterile as well!
Father had a lot of mercury treatment, I have his detailed medical records, but he must have remained fertile, mother had three children....

[Marilyn]

They would have been better served providing condoms to the forces.
Just shows you the risks man will take for sexual gratification..

( my teenage son always knew there was a box of condoms in the bathroom cabinet - no questions asked!).

[Stanley]

Indeed Maz. But they were different times, remember this was 100 years ago....