Our economy might’ve taken a hit, but we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world CLINICAL MATTERS At the start of the pandemic last year, each country had to make hard choices in terms of its response to an unknown virus that was spreading fast. The rapid propagation of what was then...
Here are the new medicines at the forefront in the fight against COVID CLINICAL MATTERS Since the original SARS coronavirus was first discovered in February 2003, scientists have been hard at work looking for effective treatments against deadly coronaviruses. The first promising treatments included...
A quick review of COVID-19 CLINICAL MATTERS Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvana The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in many ways. It has also expanded our vocabulary, at least COVID-19-related terms. There remain a lot of misconceptions surrounding technical terms like strain, variant, quarantine,...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay For more than five years, ordinary citizens had to contend with the egregious display of officious behavior by some of our public officials. From the highest ranks of leadership down to the second and third tiers of the bureaucracy, the space...
(Not just the Western ones) CLINICAL MATTERS Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvana Despite record numbers of cases across the world as a result of the Delta variant rampage, death rates from COVID-19 in countries with high vaccination rates have been dropping dramatically. Along with decreasing death rates...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay By the time this column sees print, Metro Manila would have been under Alert Level 4 for one week. An official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) described the situation over the weekend as “good,” but his...
First-generation vaccines are not the boosters you need CLINICAL MATTERS Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvana As Delta variant wreaks havoc around the world, many people are starting to worry about their risk for infection and severe COVID-19. Vaccination is proceeding globally at an increasing pace. More...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay Businessmen by nature are not prone to criticize a sitting administration on every matter involving national policy. But it took a policy gaffe of epic proportions, one with far-reaching consequences on the economy and the livelihood of...
Each part has its own meaning CLINICAL MATTERS Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvana Twenty thousand cases. 22,000 cases. Every day at 4 p.m., people get palpitations waiting for the release of the next Department of Health COVID-19 Bulletin. Most of the attention goes to the number of new cases, followed...
Our early lockdown in March saved 200,000 lives, and continued vaccination is driving down infection numbers CLINICAL MATTERS Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvana Last March 2020, the first community transmission of COVID-19 in the Philippines was recorded. Given the uncertainty surrounding the virus, the...
And what to expect in the next few months CLINICAL MATTERS Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvana There is an internet saying that goes, “This too shall pass. It may pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass.” I’ve never had a kidney stone, but I have had many patients who passed one. They all tell me...
Avoid having ‘booster’ shots of the same vaccines—wait for the ‘souped up’ versions CLINICAL MATTERS Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvana On Aug. 15, 2021, the Department of Health along with the Philippine Genome Center announced the latest variant detected in the Philippines. Lambda, also known...
