drwisetravel.com

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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It is pretty easy for me to look after the “high-risk” traveller, that is, one going off to the middle of nowhere for a long time with very little money, medical support and perhaps common sense! I recommend most of the shots (though they often can’t afford them) and REALLY stress the importance of one’s [...]

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I try to live vicariously through my travelling patients. That is, I don’t let them do all of the travelling, but I hope that I don’t also get their medical problems. Didn’t quite work this way following my recent week in Nicaragua! About 5 days after I returned, my bowel movements, how shall I say [...]

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