Index Home Refuge is to seek protection. Thus, a refugees is an individual who looses protection in their country, and is forced to flee. This loss of protection is usually a consequence of war, ethnic strife, or persecution. It may also be due to disasters such as famines or floods. However, current definition requires well founded… Continue reading Refugee health: distraught and displaced
Category: Health concepts
Healthy, well, happy, quality
Founders of healing: from ancient to the early medieval times
Index Home Healing is an art, and no one knows it better than the healers themselves. A system of healing is in place, since the beginning of mankind, much before the advent of modern scientific discoveries and invention. Early healers were priests and philosophers. They were a link between mortals beings and the divine. Since… Continue reading Founders of healing: from ancient to the early medieval times
Empowering people with a disability
Index Home Valentin Hauy (1745-1822), a linguist and an interpreter in the Royal court, established world’s first school for the blind, in Paris. This was in 1785, when families either kept visually impaired children hidden in their homes, or got them admitted them to an asylum. Valentin developed elevated letters, that could be felt with fingers.… Continue reading Empowering people with a disability
Coming out of the disability closet
Index Home It took global community, more than thirty-five years just to come out of their disability closet. Thirty-five years is a gross understatement, as we shift our start-line to 1945, end of the Second World War. We were fresh from the horrors that were inflicted by Nazi Germany on the civilian population. In 1948, all… Continue reading Coming out of the disability closet
A mirror of the past and our wall of shame
Index Home Postage stamps are a mirror of our past. Often, less than a square inch of space, sums up prevalent societal, political, and behavioural norms. Our past perceptions, as well as discrimination meted out on individuals with disability, will remain as our wall of shame. Postage stamps, issued prior to 1980s, are its glaring testimony.… Continue reading A mirror of the past and our wall of shame
Medical services in the sky
Index Home During First World War we began to use airplanes, both as a weapon and as a medical service. In 1917, a British plane evacuated a solder with a broken ankle. This is the first recorded aerial rescue. In the next ten years, British, French, and Germans had all used military air ambulances to evacuate… Continue reading Medical services in the sky
How to make our roads healthy and safe ?
Index Home About 1.3 million humans die, and another 50 million suffer injuries in road accidents every year. These numbers have remained almost unchanged in the last twenty years. Most deaths occur in the young. Further, more deaths occur in Africa, and Asia and least in Europe. Till 1970s, the number of deaths was on a… Continue reading How to make our roads healthy and safe ?
Our governing molecules, from concept to a structure
Index Home A child is a mix of two parents. Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) questioned this belief, and in 1865 he demonstrated that expressed traits are not a mix. Instead, traits are either “dominant” or “recessive”. An inherited dominant trait is invariably expressed. On the other hand, a recessive trait is expressed only when the dominant one… Continue reading Our governing molecules, from concept to a structure
Intensive care: borne out of an epidemic
Index Home Today almost all large hospitals have an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Purpose of this facility is to provide care for the severely ill patients, who often require heroic measures to salvage their failing organs. Today Intensive care is complex, demanding, and relies a lot on a variety of gadgets such as mechanical ventilators, invasive… Continue reading Intensive care: borne out of an epidemic
Medical innovations in British stamps
Index Home Postage stamp was a British innovation. First introduced on 6th May 1840, it was a beginning for pre-paid postage, we still follow world-wide. Since then British postage stamps have a unique tradition. Only human figure on these postage stamps is either the monarch, or members of the royal family. British post (or Royal Mail)… Continue reading Medical innovations in British stamps