This Perfect World

On my recent holiday I was reading a novel named 'This perfect world' by Suzanne Bugler and despite the fact it was fictional, it was about young experiences effecting a persons later life. It encouraged me to put in some research about this because I think many health issues dealt with my a doctor can involve social aspects currently and in the past. 

The first thing I came across was on the recent news, with the headline 'school bullying 'affects adult life.' The reports seemed to be a reliable resource because 1400 people were tracked, between the ages of 9 and 26 (also reliable because a large age gap.) The trial also incorporated victims of bullying, people who bullied and others who were both bullies and victims. 

The thing I found most interesting was the fact in which, the people who had the most negative effect, were people who were bullied and bullied others. This was very interesting to me because I thought the victims would be the most negatively effected people. These people were six times more likely 'to have a serious illness, smoke regularly or develop a psychiatric disorder.' A further health issue developed more likely by these people are obesity  and further social issues include lack of qualifications and less likely to have friends. The reason I believe these people are the worse effected are due to the distinctive characteristics of a victim such as low self esteem, unpopular with peers or poor at understanding social cues. They also have the characteristics of a bully such as easily provoked. 

The studies showed people who are singly victims or bullies still have a negative outcome than those isolated completely. 

 

The victims of bullying show higher rates of mental health, serious illnesses and greater likelihood of poverty. Where they differ from people who bully aswell, is they generally are more capable of making friends or succeeding through education. Where as the result for bullies is opposite to victims, in the way that they have low rates of health issues, but problems socially. The social problems include inability to remain employed, violent relationships and are much more likely to be involved in crime or illegal occupation. 

Although this research isn't directly medically related, I find it hugely interesting and is closely related to the psychological side of medicine. 

Malaria Vaccine

My recent exploring of the BBC news health page spurred my interest to research further on the Malaria vaccine, after ‘Malaria vaccine shows promise in recent clinical trials.’

Malaria is a disease caused by a protozoan called plasmodium (of which there are four different species which cause malaria and only two are common; Pvixax and P.falciparum.) The plasmodium causes illness when it reproduces inside red blood cells, and then burst out releasing chemicals, which cause fever. A female mosquito of Genus Anopheles transfers it from person to person. It takes in the plasmodium bacterium when obtaining protein from blood to make its eggs.  The plasmodium is then injected into another person, where it multiplies in the liver.

Although there are drugs available for malaria, such as prophylactics that are taken prior to being infected. However the largest area affected is Africa, where there is lack of access to drugs and medical expertises and due to poor diet and high HIV rates.  Therefore The African Region accounts for 85% of malaria cases and 90% of malaria deaths worldwide. Malaria causes avoidable and often catastrophic spending for households and is an obstacle to the development of affected African communities and nation. 

It is clear the malaria vaccine would be so beneficial, it would save one child every 30 seconds from dying from malaria. So what he the advancement so far?

The vaccine contains weakened form of malaria, which is injected into the patient and allows the patient to evolve immunity to the disease. ‘Sanaria has taken lab-grown mosquitoes, irradiated them and then extracted the malaria-causing parasite (Plasmodium falciparum), all under sterile conditions.’  The weakened form are transferred to vials prior to injection into the patients blood stream.

The pre-clinical research was successful and so the next step was to determine appropriate doses of the medication to give the patients. There were 57 volunteers, it was important that none of these patients had been infected before. 17 of the volunteers did not receive any dose, and the other 40 were given different strengths.  Once exposed to malaria-infected mosquitoes, it was discovered no vaccine or small doses resulted in infection.  The huge advancement for the vaccine was the of the 15 people given high dosage, only 3 became infected after exposure.

Most drugs don’t pass the pre-clinical trials, so this is a huge advancement to be successful on phase one of the clinical trials. I will post any further news on the vaccine!

Sources:

http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-programmes/dpc/malaria/features/2287-10-facts-on-malaria-in-africa.html 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23607612 

Devon Air Ambulance Work Experience

For the past week I've been fortunate enough to spend with the large team behind the Devon Air Ambulance Trust. This has included the finance department, fundraising department, PR and finally the airbase situated at Middlemore (There is another base in North Devon.)

There's been so much I have learned about the Trust, and its been a great opportunity for me to compare the similarities and differences between a non-profitable charity and the NHS to enable health care. Although the NHS does too have to make cuts, and monitor money- they have an average annual income providing hospitals with enough money. However with a charity, it is alot harder to supply medical equipment and drugs with no stable income, and they have to spend a large amount of money on fundraising and promotion to bring in funds.

Why is an Air Ambulance so Important in Devon? As the map shows, devon is a huge county- and it stretches for about 105 miles North to South, with a very dispersed population. The county has a very poor infrastructure with many single track roads and every year has a large influx in holiday makers.

So why does that mean an air ambulance is useful? With such a dispersed population in a large county, there is not the necessary facilities or Ambulance services in close reach to everyone because its not possible. The poor infrastructure increases the journey time for land ambulances due to narrow roads. Therefore in many cases the land paramedics would arrive to the site too late to recover a patient from serious injury, this is where air ambulances save lives because they can get a defibrillator or essential medical services to the site of an accident or emergency 2.66 times quicker.

In some situations, for example severe burns or trauma accidents means neither land or air ambulance can recover patients at the site or guarantee full recovery. This is also where the air ambulance is essential, because they provide quick transfer to hospitals in major incidents such as severe burns where a child would be needed taken to Bristol Children's Hospital or adults to Swansea. This journey by land would take around 1hr30 to Bristol or 3hrs to Swansea- in this to patients could become, seriously ill due to blood infections. Similarly, major trauma incidents such as broken pelvis or internal bleeding would need to be transferred to Plymouth for the appropriate care. If the trauma patient was coming from the north it could take over 2 hours for the journey, and the patient may not stabilise.

In summary, the Devon air ambulance is essential at saving lives and whilst my time on work experience I have managed to hear amazing patient stories. Each mission, costs £3,500 along withthe maintenance   of the helicopter, equipment on board, drugs, employing paramedics and pilots- these things are only on the forefront of the picture. With simple things like stationary or facilities for finance employees need to be bought and maintained. Therefore it's a very expensive service, and is completely dependent on donations for the service.