July 2008
4 posts
Update
Life has been hectic, but I will soon begin posting (in retrospect) the happenings of the last week or so.
Tomorrow is my last day at Zacamil Hospital.
Fast Food
The day I arrived in El Salvador I noticed a ridiculous amount of fast food restaurants. Having visited several times in the past, I can remember when there was only one McDonald´s in San Salvador and I remember what a big deal it was when the first Pizza Hut was opened. Nowadays it´s uncommon to see a street corner without a fast food restaurant. In fact, pizza, hamburger and fried chicken...
Parasites
I continue to rotate throughout the hospital with various specialists and always enlist the ¨CE¨ as my home base. I´ve been counting and the CE averages 70-80 logged patients a day (from 7am to 3pm). I say logged because not all patients are logged due to human error. This is a huge number of patients to be passing through such a small office, and I´m sure every office and operating room in the...
June 2008
8 posts
“Humanity has but three great enemies: Fever, famine and war; of these by far the...”
– Malaria:
Malaria is a protozoal infection caused by Plasmodium and transmitted by the anopheles mosquito. It is a serious infection and caused 1-3 billion deaths worldwide each year. Four species of the genus Plasmodium cause nearly all malarial infections in humans. These are P. falciparum, P....
Chagas
Today I met a man with Chagas Disease (see below). His story is apparently a common one. 8 years ago he attempted to give blood. All blood in El Salvador is screened for Chagas before it is given to a patient due to the possibility of infection. At that time, this man was found to have a positive test and was diagnosed with Chagas. He arrived today, 39 years old, and complaining of extreme...
First Day
Today was my first official day at Zacamil Hospital. The staff was very helpful and friendly. I spent the day in the ¨Consultas Externas¨ (CE) department, which is similar to an outpatient/triage center. Patients from around San Salvador that have been referred to the hospital first arrive at the CE clinic to be seen and then treated, referred on, or sent home. The reason for the existence of the...
Introduction
I arrived early this morning to El Salvador disguised as an exhausted 4th year medical student. My first week in El Salvador will be spent exploring the area of San Salvador and researching the etiologies and presentations of common tropical diseases. At the beginning of next week, I begin work at the Zacamil Hospital in San Salvador, where I will be working on an international internal medicine...