CLINICAL MATTERS A clandestine US operation during the Covid-19 pandemic to discredit Chinese vaccines in the Philippines was confirmed by official communication between the two governments last June 25, 2024. This was according to a followup report by Reuters on the initial controversy, after it...
CLINICAL MATTERS A recent Reuters investigation e x p o s e d a clandestine US government program run by the Pentagon to discredit Chinese vaccines during the height of the pandemic. Reuters reported that the reason behind the program was to neutralize China’s positive PR generated by the act of...
CLINICAL MATTERS Rainy season is back, and with it the plethora of infectious diseases that increase in incidence during this time. These include the dreaded leptospirosis, dengue, and typhoid fever, among many others . How do w e protect ourselves and our loved ones? Most Filipinos are already...
CLINICAL MATTERS A few months ago, a teenager tragically died from rabies after she did not tell her mother that she had been bitten by a stray dog. By the time she asked for help, she had developed symptoms of rabies and it was too late to save her. Shortly afterwards, she died. The Philippines is...
CLINICAL MATTERS Picking up from where we left off after our first day in Mexico City, we journeyed south to Xochimilco where the remnants of the mountain lake, on which Mexico City was built, can still be seen. Canals crisscrossed the small man-made islands, known as chinampas, where locals build...
Covid-19 has been trending in the news, with several countries announcing an increase in cases and US President Joe Biden testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Several of my own patients have also tested positive for the virus. The latest variant, KP.3, seems to be taking over and is driving a...
A snore is one of the most obnoxious sounds that a person can make. I don’t mean the gentle, soft and rhythmic snoring that people who are very tired occasionally make. I mean the loud, explosive, erratic, and bed-shaking eructation that rouses both the snorer and anyone unfortunate enough to be...
The one thing that is inevitable in life is death. Doctors know that we can do everything humanly possible to delay death with our medications and interventions, but in the end death always wins. This is why an important part of the practice of medicine is guiding patients and their families...
With the recent rise in Covid-19 cases, a number of people have contacted me for advice on what to do after being exposed to someone who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. At the height of the pandemic, these rules were ingrained in the minds of most people. We’ve been fortunate to have had a...
The sudden increase in Covid-19 cases in Singapore two weeks ago gave rise to the usual over-the-top reactions in social media. This was further fueled by a subsequent modest uptick in the number of local Covid-19 cases, albeit mostly mild. Panicked and hysterical posts were once again all over the...
In the last few weeks, more and more people have been consulting me for a positive Covid-19 antigen test. Thankfully, most of them are vaccinated and so their Covid-19 course is mild and they recover quickly. Covid-19 continues to circulate in the community and we expect small increases in cases...
I am writing this column in between lectures at the Philippine College of Physicians convention, which gathers thousands of internists from around the country and from abroad for education, networking, and fellowship. Medical conventions are a rich source of continuing medical education (CME) for...
