Apr 7, 2012 Posted by daktre

Of scorpion stings and antivenoms

I was quite puzzled by the general lack of information and clarity over treatment of scorpion stings. A phone call from a friend requesting urgent help from a remote forested area triggered me to put together this blog on scorpion sting response. Medical school text books are quite confusing. The ones that we hold holy are mostly US or European in origin. Although many of them are quite globalised, the... read more

Oct 21, 2011 Posted by daktre

The emperor of all maladies: a review

This is one of the best books I have read. Depressing, intense, detailed, thorough, free-flowing and reflective. The book pulls the people from the history of medicine (or sceince itself) into a living narrative putting together pieces of apparently disjunct and inconspicuous and serendipitous events in the lives of cancer patients, researchers, doctors, surgeons, scientists and poets and presents it as as... read more

Sep 18, 2011 Posted by daktre

From questionable social subsidies to unquestioned corporate welfare

An unusually punctual gathering on the dais greeted me at Rotary Club. Thankfully, this was a gathering of unimportant people both on and off the dais; none of those species of “Very Important People” often sporting Anna-like caps were invited to the gathering and things started on time. P Sainath was supposed to be speaking on “Rural India after two decades of liberalisation” and... read more

Aug 9, 2011 Posted by daktre

… and Then The Dessert Arrived: Global Health Dichotomies

The story was tragic. A Tuberculosis patient from India who died because the system which was expected to provide for his treatment failed to deliver… and then the dessert arrived. The setting? The official dinner of the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research organized at the Montreux Casino. A photo of the dying TB patient formed the background for 20 minutes of a talk on “Why Health... read more

Jan 25, 2011 Posted by daktre

The truth that dare not speak its name: corruption in health services

Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today -Mahatma Gandhi Some things are better assumed and neglected, than acknowledged and attended to. In public health research, these often find a passing mention in “Discussion” section where findings are explained, and worse still, may be as a “contextual” element. Prime among this is... read more