drwisetravel.com

The news is just starting to seep in about a few planeloads returning from Cuba, Holguin to be more specific, full of sunburned Canadians with vomiting and diarrhea. While this story would always be of interest to me, it is even more exciting as I take off for Cuba with my son, Michael, of The [...]

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Firstly, yet another word about overseas disasters. We worry, both you and I, about coming down with diarrhea, malaria, typhoid fever or hepatitis while or after we are away. With personal protective measures (common sense), vaccines and some pills, these don’t tend to happen too much. When I hear about the poor bungee jumper in [...]

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I apologize for having been a bit lazy on the posts as of late. We have recently changed over to electronic medical records in our office – lots of new machines, training, aggravation. That’s my excuse! By now, everyone who has planned a trip down south somewhere for the holidays should be prepared. Health Canada’s [...]

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< This week’s CMAJ highlights The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care’s “Recommendations on screening for breast cancer in average-risk women aged 40-74 years”. These guidelines, which I believe were last published in 2001, make some dramatic new recommendations, such as, it is no longer worthwhile for doctors or women themselves to perform breast [...]

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Movies are what dreams are made of. They make you laugh, they make you love, and they might make you want to travel. I say this with conviction as my life was changed by a movie, namely Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. In that classic, Butch and Sundance (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) ran out [...]

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“To everything, turn…turn…turn To every season, turn…turn…turn …” Well it seems to be the season for dengue fever. If you Google dengue fever (conflict of interest … my son Benjamin now works for Google) you will find many useful medical sites, as well as the musical site for the band Dengue Fever. My son Michael’s [...]

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I was away camping in Algonquin Park over the weekend. A bit colder than my recent trip to Nicaragua. Hence, I really haven’t had time to write my blog. Fortunately, I have come across a  guest blogger! In the words of Julie Vance …. I write articles for http://mphdegree.org/, a website dedicated to providing students [...]

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Another week … another disaster involving tourists. This tragic incident involved a Bhudda Air flight from Kathmandu over Everest, which crashed on its return to Kathmandu. Sixteen people were killed. Again the thought “Gee, that could have happened to me.” I took that same flight in 2001 with my son Benjamin. The weather was perfectly [...]

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Mefloquine (Lariam) has been one of the mainstays of antimalarial prevention since the parasite (P. falciparum) developed resistance to chloroquine. It has been available in Canada since the early 90s, and has been the subject of controversy ever since. A major part of that controversy stems from the behaviour of  a Canadian soldier in Somalia. [...]

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One of my first trips to Africa was about 15 years ago. At that time, VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas – now CUSO-VSO) Canada, of which I was, and still am, the medical advisor, sent me over to visit our Canadian volunteers. This took me on a three week whirlwind trip around Kenya and Tanzania. Two [...]

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