Master of Public Health & Tropical Medicine. Long standing experience with infectious disease surveillance (including influenza-like-illness monitoring), outbreak control, case management, vaccination program management. There is no health without liberty and justice. Ask anyone existing in poverty.
Very briefly, I’m happy to report that some convoluted discussions led to Mary being put back onto her TB medication. Details are murky but 4 days later she had gained 100g, and 1 week on from that she had gained 300g. With bated breath we are hopeful these are signs of a cure in the … More A Little Good News….
Mary, as I have been calling her, has remained severely malnourished now for four months of her almost seven months of life. Her five year old sister has a neurological disability caused by TB Meningitis, which happens to children when their TB disease goes unchecked for too long. Noone has ever identified the adult who … More When God Syndrome Gets in the Way
Baby Mary was commenced on anti-TB medications sourced from the Black Market in the past couple of days. That’s an underground drug deal I never thought I would support. After festering in misery for 4 months of her 6 months on earth I expect to hear only good news from now on. This however, is … More Underground Drug Deal
Tuberculosis is an insidious and a complicated disease. Six years ago I met a young man of about 30 years old who hailed from India. He presented to an Australian hospital with persistent abdominal symptoms. Eventually doctors performed investigations and found multiple lesions on the lining around his abdominal organs. Whilst awaiting results from the … More Fighting Felons
It’s a month since I wrote about Mary, aka “TB Baby”. Sadly there is still no reprieve for this deteriorating almost-6-month-old. She remains untreated and dangerously unwell at home. Her weight is perilously stagnant, with no weight gain for over 3 months. She is now developing other symptoms related to her suppressed immune system caused … More Dismay and Disarray
This is a World Health Organisation growth chart for a child from birth to six months old. The Y axis follows weight in kilograms, while the X axis follows the age in weeks to 12 weeks, then in months to six months. The coloured curves traveling from the left to the right of the chart … More TB? Or Not TB?
Before leaving Cambodia I did some training with my local colleague on how to correctly weigh babies. She has since trained one of our village volunteers. Last night they sent me some weights from the past few weeks to interpret and advise on. Before I even analyse the results properly, I can see a range … More Baby Bears and Coffee Creamers
Sadly I’m returning to Australia after four very fast months in Cambodia. The last few days have been busy tidying up loose ends. Yesterday I had a final child health meeting in a Phnom Penh neighbourhood of busy alleyways encircling a very large pagoda. Tuk tuk rooftop scraped past truck walls, moto handlebars knocked my … More Pre-Departure Refurbishments
Both of these young women are Cambodian. One is 23yo from current day peasant roots and the other, now a generation or two removed from her peasant roots, 17yo from an established ruling class family. Juxtaposed, these photographs demonstrate my point that poverty is not necessarily a visible thing. So often I have encountered elegant … More A Collision of Two Lives
One of the things I have learned about the world since coming to Cambodia, is that there must be millions of people whose lives could be transformed by something as simple as a wheelchair, but who instead are confined to a tiny space by their inability to walk. I have met a surprising number of … More Wheels
