Yesterday was Rotary’s World Polio Day, and the temptation to draw a comparison with Ebola is compelling. Both diseases at times sparked intensive public fear: polio in the 1950s and 1960s; Ebola only recently. Both diseases are killers; polio about 250 so far in 2014 (some 10,000 in 1960); Ebola about 4,000. Both diseases […]
This week I hosted the in-classroom section of the 2014 Fall, Glendale CA, INMED Intensive Course. Our ten participants came armed with extensive of experience in Cuba, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Pakistan, Ghana, and Papua New Guinea. Nevertheless, most who serve on behalf of forgotten people, discovered that their prior education poorly prepared them for effective
The progress of today’s Ebola epidemic is largely being tracked through the commentary of one fortunate Ebola survivor: the physician Kent Brantly, stricken as he himself cared for Ebola sufferers. This disease, which to date has sickened about 7,500 person and killed 3,400 of them, bears some resemblance to another terrifying, contagious, viral disease:
What is the most dangerous day in a person’s entire life? Perhaps the one when a teenager receives his or her driver’s license, the first big college party event, a rock climbing or back woods vacation? Worldwide data actually demonstrate that the highest risk of death – life’s most dangerous day – is the
“I am Shutruk Nahunte, King of Anshand and Sussa, Sovereign of the land of Elam. I destroyed Sippar, took the sword of Niran-Sin, and brought it back to Elam, where I erected it as an offering to my god.” ~ Shutruk Nahunte, 1158 BC. Regarding this inscription above his classroom door Professor William Hundert
This decision is often bewildering. As a young person proceeding through healthcare education you face increasingly complex choices that touch on academic ability, financial debt and earning potential, social pressures, prestige and reputation, non-career interests and responsibilities, and personal passions. You likely have considerable freedom of choice, and with that freedom can come marked
Should people of faith be allowed to participate in global health discussions or initiatives? Does not their spiritual orientation create ulterior motives and cause them to take advantage of people in need? How can those that may believe in a supernatural Being or an afterlife be considered respectable, professional colleagues in undertakings of such
A disturbing thought, indeed. Marek Banas, a medical student at Lincoln Memorial University, completed his INMED service-learning experience at The Surgery, a general practice clinic in Kampala, capital of Uganda. I find his account to be one of the most compelling of all our students have written… “The Surgery is potentially the best
The debate surrounding Kent Brantly, the American physician serving in Liberia who became infected with Eboli, is representative of the dilemmas faced by many of us who are lead by good intentions. “Why wasn’t he taking care of his own people back home?” “It’s irresponsible to put himself and his family in such a
The horrific recent videos of murders allegedly committed by the Islamic State In Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are deeply disturbing and provocative. They remind me of how very great is the potential for humans to willingly instigate and participate in great evil. As youngsters, the neighbors of these assailants surely could not have imagined them