CLINICAL MATTERS I was preparing to do a vaccine talk when I saw the post on social media. Pope Francis was dead. Since you cannot trust anything that comes up on social media these days at face value, I quickly checked mainstream media webpages, and it was confirmed. The Pope had died in the early...
CLINICAL MATTERS COVID-19 was a watershed moment for the world. Whole countries were shut down by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and millions of people died despite all the advances in modern medicine. It was the first pandemic to play out in real time on mainstream and social media, and it was the...
CLINICAL MATTERS Whenever I see a sick patient in my clinic or in the hospital, I always make it a point to tell him or her to slow down, get some rest, and let their body heal. As an infectious diseases doctor, I give a lot of antibiotics for bacterial infections, some of which can be quite...
CLINICAL MATTERS When legendary Hollywood actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home under mysterious circumstances, there were many theories as to what had happened. One of the last things people expected was that a little-known virus named Hantavirus was...
CLINICAL MATTERS Last week, I was invited to give a talk at a public health convention hosted by the Health Sciences Society of Ateneo entitled, “Public Health Convention 2025: To Health and Beyond.” The overall theme was “Navigating Spectrums: The Philippine Public Health...
A MAJESTIC SIGHT Iguazu Falls as seen from the Brazilian side One of the perks of being a physician-scientist is attending scientific conventions in different parts of the world. For a Filipino scientist, it can’t get any farther than South America, specifically the colorful country of...
CLINICAL MATTERS The Department of Health recently reported that 7,598 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) were diagnosed between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, 2025. This is about three times the number of cases from the same period last year and is most likely an underestimation of the...
CLINICAL MATTERS In the year 2000, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) declared that measles in the US had been eliminated. This meant that there was no continuous spread of measles in that country for more than twelve months. Sporadic cases from imported infections...
CLINICAL MATTERS Following the death of Barbie Hsu from influenza-related pneumonia, another high-profile person has recently been diagnosed with pneumonia. Pope Francis has been reported to be in critical condition with “double pneumonia,” with the possibility of sepsis. What do these terms...
CLINICAL MATTERS It started with Quezon City, followed by several other municipalities declaring dengue outbreaks. Perhaps it was because of the recent rains that sporadically occur even in the dry season. It doesn’t take much water to get Aedes mosquitoes to breed. Stagnant water in...
CLINICAL MATTERS Following the untimely demise of Meteor Garden actress Barbie Hsu from influenza, I got a deluge of inquiries from patients on how they could get the flu vaccine for added protection. In addition, they wanted to know what other vaccines were available for adults and what I...
CLINICAL MATTERS The news spread like wildfire. Or, perhaps more appropriately, it went viral. Barbie Hsu, the Taiwanese superstar well-known to Filipino audiences as the actress from the 2018 megahit drama series Meteor Garden had just succumbed to complications of influenza. She was only...
