East Villagers Non-Profit Community News » Health & Medicine

Toyota in the Hospital

Onome Uwhuba — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:49:05 +0000

After spending almost an entire year writing about public health especially in the developing world, I can confidently say, that half the problem is money and the other half is knowing what to do with the money—thus decreasing the amount of money needed in the first place.

It was with this mindset that I first saw and read a New York Times article titled “Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital”. Admittedly, as a patient in a hospital, I would not appreciate being treated as if in a healing factory, but in thinking about it more, I would rather be part of a healing factory, than an incompetent hospital.

The Factory lessons came from practices used by Toyota to reduce waste and increase value. The challenge now became transferring and translating the efficiency in cars to efficiency in human care. This perceived dehumanization of the treatment process has definitely raised questions among some healthcare providers who do not believe in the ability to standardize care given to humans—simply because humans are not uniform. At the same time, other providers have embraced these measures that have increased efficiency and decreased possible errors and shortages.

So there are good and bad aspects. But for the most part, adapting these techniques is saving hospitals millions of dollars—which means it isn’t going anywhere for a while. In fact, a hospital in Seattle has been built that utilizes a program called “continuous performance improvement” or C.P.I.

References:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/business/11seattle.html?src=me&ref=homepage&pagewanted=print#top

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Little Red Scarf August Newsletter

steveko — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:50:34 +0000

Angel of the Month: Minjuan

Minjuan is a quiet yet brave girl. She shows no fear of needles, surgeries, or painful and unfamiliar exams. Instead, she worries only for her three young brothers and sister while she is away from home, hoping they will behave well while she is away.

Born to a family with too many mouths to feed and too few helping hands, 11 year-old Mingjuan learned early on to take care of herself and her younger siblings while her mother worked in the field alone.Her father could not labor in the fields due to a medical ailment that he left untreated for fear of the cost, and Mingjuan’s own heart disease, discovered during a school physical exam when she was seven, similarly had no hope of being treated. Across the past 4 years, the family continued life as usual, but grieved their inability to look after their oldest child.

The family atmosphere changed recently when they were told of Little Red Scarf. Mingjuan signed up for sponsorship and was admitted into our partner hospital early this month. Since then, her path toward health has been smooth. Mingjuan has always been like a little mom taking care of her family, but now we hope to take care of this brave little girl in her recovery from heart disease.

Background Information: Mingjuan, Female, 11yrs, VSD, first contacted by Little Red Scarf. For more on Mingjuan’s journey, see her project page.

Post-Surgery Update: May LRS Children
This month, our post-op follow-up phone calls reached out to families of children treated in May. On those calls, we were extremely relieved to hear that over 90% of the families are busy with back-to school preparations. Because of their health conditions, more than 90% our Little Red Scarf school-age children had stayed home for longer than a semester. Some had even suspended school for more than 10 years, cut off from any sort of education and classmate companionship. For these children, the hectic process of meeting teachers, buying new stationary, and catching up on reading and writing is underscored with beautiful hope for the future that could not have existed without LRS. Little red scarf, as an honorable accessory in China that all elementary school children would like to wear to school, is something we envision on every child as we sponsor them with your support.

Family Profile: Haoyang
Like a typical Gansu village girl, she wed at 19, and bore her first son a year later. When her son had an accident in which he was severely burnt and scarred under her care, her confidence as a mother was shattered. She could no longer show empathy or affection, even after the birth of her second child. As a result, her boys grew up emotionally distanced from their mother.

When Haoyang found to have congenital heart disease last Spring and was hospitalized later in the year, it was very difficult for both mother and the son; even last May, when three-year old Haoyang came to Beijing for treatment, it was still obvious he was not close to his mother.

Haoyang experienced post-surgical complications and struggled for survival in the ICU for more than 60 days. During this time, our team watched his mother’s heartache, regret and concern for her son. The silver lining to this heart-wrenching process was the softening of this poor mother’s heart toward her child. We shared her joyful tears when the news of Haoyang’s miracle awakening came last week. When Haoyang was transferred to the regular ward today, we saw the fear and distance in his mother’s heart turn to thanksgiving and love. We congratulate this family on not only their son’s new life, but also the rebirth of his relationship with his mother. For more on Haoyang, see his project page.

News and Updates
Medical Outreach- At the beginning of this month, the LRS team participated in medical outreach to Huining and Linxia County with our partner hospital, Lanzhou University First Hospital, . We screened more than 500 patients, with many families signing up for LRS support on the spot.
Professional Publicity – We participated in the Congenital Heart Disease Treatment Progress conference held in Gansu, and publicized our program to many medical practitioners from county and town hospitals. In making ourselves known to people from medical workers to farmers, we hope to extend our reach and impact.
Welcome!- We welcomed a new staff member, Guanyin, this month. Her passion and experience supporting poor students in a professional setting will greatly benefit our team. Says Guanyin about her upcoming role, “In one years’ time, I hope to be more mature in the way I interact with the families; understand their hearts and speak their comforting language in times of their greatest needs.” We are so thankful for her enthusiasm and can’t wait to see how she adds inspiration to our team.

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Fangdi, last month’s focus child says thanks. See her project page.

Xuanxuan tells us, “I’m going home! Thanks Little Red Scarf aunties and uncles!” See his project page.

Hear Wenxia’s family share, “By giving us a healthy family, you have let us feel that compassion still exists in society.” Or, see her project page.

Xiqiang shows us her gratitude. See her project page.

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Voo-Doo, Herbs and Science: a merging of minds?

Onome Uwhuba — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:34:21 +0000

A long time ago, when I still entertained dreams of being a chemist—before my meeting with organic chemistry killed all such hope—I had always wondered about African traditional medicines. My rationale was that as a human race, we have survived millennia without the use of “scientific” medicine. The fact that “science” as we know it now only exists because no one has yet to disprove it, further made me more interested in understanding the medications and treatments of generations past. As the daughter of a Nigerian nurse, my experiences with herbal medicine were very very rare, and usually fell to things like drinking really spicy soup to cure a cold. But I was also aware of herbal medicines, and “witch doctors” with their cures. I was never ready to try and of their so called cures, but I was very curious to see if they worked. My previous article discussed the burden that pharmaceuticals place on a country due to their high cost, and I have always wondered if it isn’t best if we just used the tools we already have to make the things we need.

I faced this same issue this summer in Australia. The Indigenous Australians who inhabited their continent for 40,000 years before the present, had the most amazing and ingenious uses for their flora, fauna and landscape. I spent some time there talking to medical professionals about Aboriginal healthcare, especially due to the 17 year life-expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. One of the reasons for this gap is a lesser use of medical facilities by the indigenous community, whether due to lack of access or due to lack of want. One of the reasons for lack of want, was the incredible fount of medical knowledge held within these communities and tribes. But I still wanted to ask the big question, which was: Does it work? And from my conversations, with medical professionals, they agree that the herbal remedies worked, but there was a big caveat. They worked on illnesses present before the colonization of their continent. They would work on an injury, childbirth or sore muscles but not on diabetes, or heart problems.

A recent article on herbal medicines talks about the two sides: it works, but only for things that could possibly have been around when it was developed. The article discusses the increased export of herbal medicines from India and China, and the continued critique of claims due to lack of scientific proof. While I believe that the best scientific proof is one that can stand the test of millennia, one is hard pressed to decide who to believe. One main point in the article about African traditional medicines is that they were previously made for small communities with one-on-one consultations. Many of these medicine-men have passed away and taken their knowledge with them, both in Africa and Australia. Furthermore, the methods, cleanliness and ethics of the mass-produced “miracle herbs” leaves a lot to be desired—the fact is you are never really sure if you are taking the amazing herb from 2,000 years ago or ground spinach sprinkled with an ‘exotic’ flavor.

So do I believe in herbal medicines? Absolutely. Would I take any herbal medicine? Very unlikely. Why? Because I need to see the proof. I cannot believe a salesman or a company that has not yet been certified or proven. But if the proof is there, sign me up! The best medicine is one you can grow in your kitchen for little to no money and trust to cure you with little (or a lot of) fuss. So for those miracle herbs from “ancient civilizations” that help cure every disease (with side effects that include ‘possible death’), I would advise you to avoid them. But I remain strongly interested in gathering knowledge from the true (though how one would determine this remains a challenge) medicine-men, and then using modern science to test these claims.

Afternote: while a more apt title would be “Juju, herbs and science”, assuming my audience to be American, one would expect that they equate the mystical VooDoo, with the West African “ju-ju” medicine. As for what you would call Aboriginal herbal medicine, I am at a loss.

References:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201107201055.html

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The Forgotten Child Killer

Karen Ngo — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:52:27 +0000

Pneumonia. When this word is mentioned in Canada, there is an immediate assumption towards it being an affliction of the elderly. However, pneumonia has been identified as the number one killer of children all around the world. Annually, over two million children die from pneumonia, and over 98% of these deaths occur in a subset of sixty eight countries in the world.

The high prevalence and incidence of pneumonia is mainly due to the fact that its symptoms have often been mistaken for the common cold. This is a logical assumption, as pneumonia is an acute respiratory infection, and the symptoms of both pneumonia and the common cold share many similarities. Visible symptoms of both diseases include labored breathing and coughing.

Pneumonia is an easily preventable and treatable disease. Vaccines exist that can be distributed to children under the age of five. However, these vaccines are often not found in the country’s vaccination program, leaving many children susceptible to the disease. In addition, the data concerning pneumonia’s disease burden are not available in many countries, simply because it has not been collected in the past. As a result, the severity of the disease burden has not been made known to the government, making it impossible to prioritize the prevention and treatment of pneumonia. In addition, there has not been enough global attention directed to this particular disease, and the extent of this disease has been made relatively unknown to the world.

Incidence of Childhood Pneumonia - Country Level (WHO)

However, much progress has been made since the development of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 1990. One of the goals that are specific to the reduction of the prevalence of pneumonia is MDG4, which aims to reduce the under-five child mortality by two thirds by the year 2015. In the year 2008, the World Health Organization and UNICEF developed the Global Action Plan for Prevention and Treatment of Pneumonia (GAPP) to suggest a plan of action in addressing and reducing the mortality caused by pneumonia. This plan included three simple steps: Prevention, Treatment, and Protection. The Advanced Market Committee (AMC) has also accelerated the production and distribution of pneumococcal vaccines through aiding in the process of distributing more cost-effective vaccines.

The Pneumococcal Vaccine has been introduced into the vaccination programs of both Kenya and The Gambia. In addition, on June 13, the GAVI Alliance Pledging Conference for Immunization was hosted in London. This conference aimed to solidify the intentions and plans to raise the extra $3.7 million that is needed to effective manufacture and distribute cost-effective underused vaccines, the pneumococcal vaccine being one of these.

With continued efforts, hopefully the reduction in the disease burden of pneumonia will be possible. However, that is not to say that there are still numerous neglected diseases in the world that require the same amount of attention, if not more.

Sources

http//www.who.org

http://www.countdown2015mnch.org/documents/2010report/CountdownReportAndProfiles.pdf

http://www.mchip.net/node/316
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/5/08-053348.pdf

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110211/full/news.2011.89.html

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/pneumonia/Pages/a-mothers-story.aspx

Karen Ngo

McMaster University

Toronto, ON

Team 5: International Health

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Toilet.

Onome Uwhuba — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 22:49:54 +0000

Some of the best jokes are often about toilets, and what goes on within (or without) them. However, 40% of the world population do not have access to the “Western toilet” or WC (water closet) as it is called. The United Nations recognizes that “Disease caused by unsafe sanitation accounts for roughly half of all hospitalizations in the developing world.” These statistics likely played a large part in the decision by the Gates Foundation to launch their: Reinventing the Toilet Challenge. It is part of the foundation’s new Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WaSH) strategy that focuses on improving sanitation.

The Gates foundation awarded 8 $400,000 grants to universities around the world with the challenge of reinventing the toilet, and one of those universities is surprisingly in Africa, though not surprisingly in South Africa. So what exactly are the challenges? From my experience, the challenge is the infrastructure. In all the houses I lived in Nigeria, we had individual “suck-away pits” that were drained by ominous looking trucks every few years, after a few days of the stench of an overflowing sewage tank. There were no centralized waste disposal systems and the burden of sanitation was left to home-owners, which left people at the mercy of their income, or their landlords.

So the goal of the initiative is to build an economically accessible toilet that can gain valuable materials from recycled waste. Something interesting I found commendable was the goal not to try to build the infrastructure in their research site in South Africa (an actual neighborhood), but rather work with the existing infrastructure.

So here’s to ingenuity, and I hope they are successful.

References:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201107191408.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/201107191399.html

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Athletes in other Countries

Sharon Li — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:19:09 +0000

Just yesterday, on August 18, 2011, a story came out about how Chinese athletes were rebelling against the system. As I said in my earlier blog, in China the academics are particularly harsh and kids never seem to get a break. Although pretty much 97.5% of them are focused on math and science, the other 2% is on athletics. Then…the last .5% is writing or other creative learning type things. No matter which one it is, the training for each is vigorous and brutal, from the angle I view it, but because they grow accustomed to it and it helps them succeed then my viewpoint is different from theirs.
In China, children whose parents want them to be involved in sports are to start training when they are three or four years old. Doing exercises on which ever sport is chosen by their guardian. Many parents in China are very serious about whatever things their child gets involved with so they pick the toughest trainer out there. It’s normal to hit and insult their children In China, and although it can sound cruel, it’s just how they’re brought up, and even though American children would rebel, this only drives the kids in China to try harder. The coach/trainer is usually to remain the same throughout the kid’s professional career, switching or changing if a better one is in the area. The parent’s tell the coach to treat them like their own child, also telling them that it is fine to be harsh.
So back to the article…in Beijing the national junior basketball team decided to write a letter to the Chinese Basketball Association about how their coach abused them physically and verbally. They wrote that they would like to request a new coach and have the old one replaced; afterwards the coach was approached about his behavior after a scene began to be made of this, much more of a scandal and weeks later he was noted that his personality completely transformed and was much more compassionate and less pushing. There is much controversy in China on situations like this, saying the younger generations are trying too hard to take control, while others say they are being pushed too hard. My opinion on a case like this is much more confusing because although I do understand both sides it’s hard to understand the situation, seeing that I’m in neither of their positions.
This seems to have started more or less of a riot among younger athletes who want to change how they get treated as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/sports/chinese-athletes-begin-to-challenge-governments-tight-grip.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=global-home

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US Pollution

Sharon Li — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 01:48:41 +0000

So what can cause pollution? There are only an infinite number of things to be honest. Even by just breathing, we are contributing to the earth’s downfall. There’s burning precious fossil fuels that are non renewable by driving cars, adding to the bad quality of the air by creating more factories, contributing to how polluted the water is by throwing trash, and so many other factors.
America’s pollution is not as harsh as other countries like China and India or Russia, but it is not quite as serene and clean as Iceland or Switzerland.
More than forty percent of America’s lakes and rivers are too polluted to use, as in to fish in, swim, or be the habitat for aquatic life. So if you are in the wild with no clean water to drink, but then you find a river or lake, there is a little less than fifty percent that if you drink it you could get a deadly illness or die. So with this in mind there are more than two hundred fifty million cases of water-based diseases each year with leads to around seven point five million deaths. Seven point five million deaths that we could possibly prevent, not all, but some, by not throwing garbage and left over drinks in our bodies of water, by striving to walk or bike when we can and so much others. Sadly, in just the Mississippi River alone, there is around one point five million metric tons of nitrogen pollution that is spewed into the Gulf of Mexico each year. So the one point two trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste that are discharged to the US waters annually will someday not be an issue.
But enough about water, what about recycling? Those men who come around every Friday to collect or paper and glass in big green tubs? On average, one American per year produces over three thousand two hundred and eighty five points of hazardous waste. Not only this, but twenty three percent of people don’t recycle at all. So that’s our problem, but America’s problem is that although eighty percent of items in landfills can be recycled, they are not. That gives only a mere twenty percent of things that actually should be in landfills. And although we generate two hundred million tires, and a little less than two billion disposable diapers each year that is what is mixed with recyclable things in landfills.
America is slowly using away all our precious fossil fuels and sadly, raising the gas prices isn’t changing a thing.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/15/worlds-cleanest-countries-business-energy-clean-countries.html

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-pollution

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Pollution in the World

Sharon Li — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 01:48:05 +0000

pol•lu•tion
[puh-loo-shuh n] Show IPA
noun
1.
the act of polluting or the state of being polluted.
2.
the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment: air pollution.

As this dictionary definition clearly states, polluting is the introduction of harmful substances or products in the environment. But not just the introduction of it, but the continuation, and a real life example would be the earth, right now, just as I am typing this, and will probably continue for a long time until something serious is done about it.
Pollutants are the elements of pollution and can be anything that contributes to the pollution, either naturally (although this does not frequently happen) or manmade (which is the most common source).
Pollution is occurring all throughout the world. China, the Dominican Republic, India, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Russia, Ukraine, and Zambia are the top worst polluted countries. Each country has their own unique reason for being so polluted. From coal dust, lead contamination, metal processing plants, and nuclear meltdowns, each is dangerous and quite a toxic place to live in.
Linfen, China currently holds the world’s most polluted place on earth. I go to China around once a year and all my relatives live there except my mother, father, sister, brother, and I…maybe a great aunt and uncle lives in New Jersey but the majority do not. When I go there I usually stay in Yangzhou, which has a population of around five million people mostly around eighteen to sixty years of age. I don’t deny it; the pollution there is pretty bad. There is smoke all over the place and the traffic is terrifying, considering how many people there are. But also, smoking plays a big role. Two thirds of people smoke there and lung cancer continues to be something that contributes largely to their death rate and pollution rate. So I always though Yangzhou was pretty bad, until I researched a bit on Linfen.
The reason for this cities high pollution rate is automobile and industrial emissions and this is a coal and particulates pollutant. So far there have been three million people affected and this city is located directly in the heart of a coal-production site. Many people suffer from lung cancer here as well and poisoning because the water is infected with arsenic, which is a chemical element that is with sulfur and metals.
Many people report not even being able to see through the thick haze and clouds of toxic gases that are ever present in the air. But although this problem is the worst in Linfen, it is also in all of China. Twenty of the thirty most polluted cities in the world are in China.
The earth is becoming more polluted and it seems as though China is taking a turn for the worst.

http://www.livescience.com/4226-world-10-polluted-places.html

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pollution

http://www.chinatouronline.com/china-travel/yangzhou/yangzhou-facts/yangzhou-population.html

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Politics…and Health

Onome Uwhuba — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:48:54 +0000

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, with incredibly high revenues, but the poorest health outcomes and severe corruption issues. So it is no surprise that healthcare for Nigerians can scarcely be called fair. Despite living in Nigeria for almost 14 years, I only remember going to the hospital about 3 times in my life beyond ante-natal care. And those were experiences I would never want to repeat. It goes without question that there needs to be a healthcare revolution. I recently asked my mother why we never went to the General hospital in Warri (where I lived), and she said that while the public hospitals were free, you often had to arrive by 6am in the morning to get a good enough number that would allow you to be seen by a doctor on that day.

With such obvious holes in services, one would expect the government to attempt to fix the problem, even if for the purpose of ensuring reelection. However, that is all that has happened: attempts. The Alma Ata Declaration of 1978 endorsed primary care as the way to reach universal health by 2000—a wish I scoff at. This was the National Health Policy that was then launched in 1988, but it lacked any legal standing which has resulted in it becoming a decorated manual of suggestions. In 1996, attempts were made to change this to update it, but to no avail—the solutions remained unsuccessful.

A better document was written up in 2002 to fix the problems with the old document, but for some reason, this bill was not seen in Congress until 2009, and it was accepted and then “withdrawn for bureaucratic reasons” in mid 2009.

Now in 2011, it appears that there is hope for the bill to be passed again, however there have been complaints and protests against the bill. The most compelling I’ve found has been by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria. Their problem? The fact that the bill names doctors to be the only part of the “health team”. While there are nonetheless political and ego-driven impulses behind these complaints, they point out a very strong point. Doctors simply are not the health team (after all, it is a team). About 50% of doctors trained in Nigeria are currently working overseas where they have better guaranteed pay and (supposedly) better hours. Naming doctors as part of a health team is not exactly cognizant of current trends in the country. But the most disheartening aspect is that this new bill is an improvement on the previous bill. I simply have no words to say except that the solution is really obvious—expand the definition of health team in order to make health services more available.

The bill has now been passed, and what does it indicate. It indicates that “it’s promise, will not change everything for Nigerians, but the Bill does allow them to finally hold the government to account for their right to health, including equitable access to care”. Another important provision is that no less than 2% of the federal fund should be channeled into healthcare—whereas the goal of Nigeria in 2001 was a funding of 15%. So there are improvements, but there are also concessions. The question now becomes when the provisions become enforced.

References:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201107111530.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/201106240500.html

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McDonalds

Sharon Li — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:56:45 +0000

Speaking of McDonalds, let’s dig a little deeper into this topic. Most people are eating, based on a two thousand calorie diet. So there is breakfast, dinner, and lunch, plus all the snacks and drinks and such in between; what if someone ate just McDonalds for a whole day?
For breakfast:
McDonalds Big Breakfast with Hotcakes(Large Biscuit Size) which is 1150 calories. Then a Chocolate Triple Thick Shake which is 1160 calories. In your smallest meal, you have already exceeded that day’s calorie intake.
For lunch:
A McDonalds Big Xtra with Cheese is 810 calories, and of course, a supersize fries to go with that is 610 calories. Then a Strawberry Triple Thick Shake to wash it down is another 1160 calories! Now, you have realllyyyy exceeded your limit for the day.
At three oh’clock you’re getting a little bit hungry?
Snack: Grab a couple of sugar cookies, about 3, and that’s another 480 calories.
Dinner Time: A Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese is 740 calories, and a Vanilla Triple Thick Shake is 1110 calories. But you’re still hungry? You throw in another supersize large fries and a box of delicious Cinnamon Melts for 460 calories.
Now, it’s time to add this up!
One thousand one hundred and fifty plus one thousand one hundred and sixty plus eight hundred and ten plus six hundred and ten plus one thousand one hundred and sixty plus four hundred and eighty, plus one thousand one hundred and ten plus seven hundred and forty plus four hundred and sixty equals…
1150 + 1160 + 810 + 610 + 1160 + 480 + 1110 + 740 + 460 =
Seven thousand, six hundred an eighty.
Enough calories to last you around four days!
In 2004 a documentary was made starring Morgan Spurlock who at nothing but McDonalds for thirty days from February 1st to March 2nd. He ate three meals a day all from this fast food store and consumed around 5000 calories a day; that’s 2.5 times more than the average human being. This documentary shows how eating fast foods can really affect your body in extremely harmful ways. During this one month period he experienced many negative side effects. It took him more than a year, roughly fourteen months, to lose all the weight he gained.
So as you can see, McDonalds has contributed largely to our nations obesity rate, considering it is not only pretty good, but also very cheap and located almost anywhere. But what are the numbers?
Twenty four million people eat McDonalds every single day. That is horrifying. A little more than twenty five percent of all Americans consume fast foods daily. Since there are about three hundred million people in the United States alone, then more than seventy five million people are eating fast foods.
A Sutter Health Affiliate. “Fast Food.” Palo Alto Medical Foundation | Best Doctors in California. Palo Alto Medical Foundation, June-July 2008. Web. 12 Aug. 2011.
Google. Public Health and Social Justice. Web. 12 Aug. 2011. .
Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Data and Statistics: U.S. Obesity Trends | DNPAO | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Us Nation and Unties States Wide Obesity Trends and Rates. Web. 12 Aug. 2011. .

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