It's SteeTime!

I'm sitting here, typing this from my mobile phone because I just faced this question no person should ever have to ask. Let me paint the picture: A man brings his wife who is in a state of sever dehydration. She needs fluids by drip, antibiotics, something to bring fever down and some tests to make sure her kidneys are fine and also to identify the causative agent. I work at a private firm for locums which only accepts particular medical aid schemes. Our patient is on none of them. The dreaded cash patient. The husband goes to reception after my consultation and is told he has to pay $130 for everything. He comes back to me and says 'doc, I only have $50, which medicine is most important?' Zimbabwe has become a very depressing place to work as a doctor. Forget our miserable pay issues. Patients are having to compromise their health because of the depth of their pocket. That is not fair. You might argue and say, well, couldn't this patient go to a government hospita...

I don't understand half the terminology here Would it be bad to ask what that acronym stands for? People looking all kinds of professional Hairstyles and eyebrows on point No room for my student shoe-string styling In a room full of titles and representing organisations I've only admired on the internet Here they are Human Not just a smiling photo What comes out of their mouth is clever and relevant My itchying hand stay firmly on my lap Followed by regret as I hear my question being asked by someone else I've googled half the people in this room Can't believe it is me now with them What could I possibly contribute? These are serious decisions about serious things Things concerning the entire country What a platform What an opportunity I immediately resolve to work hard My country needs me To google the acronyms To bug Taramusi to explain those terms Write everything down even if I will receive the presentation by email Write a list I can fe...

One of the best indicators of a health care system is how many women die whilst pregnant-trying to give birth or a few weeks after. This is called maternal mortality. The reason public health specialists use this indicator is because a successful delivery of a baby and healthy mother requires all aspects of the system to run smoothly. From the decision of the mother to seek care, recognition of complication, access to health facility, transport to appropriate care delivered at the health facility by trained health workers. Pregnancy complications are unpredictable and are fatal therefore a health system which can prevent these mortalities is said to be robust. The WHO Sustainable Development Goals aim at a maternity mortality rate of 70 per 100,000 live births. In Zimbabwe the rate is 651 deaths per 100,000. In simple terms, this means that about 7 women in Zimbabwe die each and everyday for doing what their bodies were most specially created for – bringing life into this world...

Zika has caused international alarm, with the World Health Organisation declaring it a global public health emergency in February 2016. According to the WHO this is what's definitely known about Zika Virus: Zika virus disease is caused by a virus transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. People with Zika virus disease usually have symptoms that can include mild fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. These symptoms normally last for 2-7 days. There is no specific treatment or vaccine currently available. The best form of prevention is protection against mosquito bites. During large outbreaks in French Polynesia and Brazil in 2013 and 2015 respectively, national health authorities reported potential neurological and auto-immune complications of Zika virus disease. The Zika virus, which has been linked to an increase in Brazil of a birth defect called microcephaly, was first identified in a Ugandan forest in 1947. Scientists now suspect...

Where do I start? I have noticed a lot of my Facebook friends have (temporarily?) left the social medium. Perhaps to concentrate on real-time living. Maybe the cheesy holiday snaps and fake glamorous food pictures were getting too much for them. Some just have found little value in social networking and decided to just try doing without it for a while. I am here to assure you that I am not one of those people. I was simply very very busy. With my wedding festival! Yes, I got married at the end of last year. I was this close to starting a wedding blog. I am sure I could write a million things about that experience, but with the million already existing blogs I really don't know what I could add. I'm just grateful that it all came together short of losing our minds during the preparations. I do recommend the following when attempting this supernatural feat of throwing a wedding 1. Choose an extremely good maid of honour, she must be both your bestest friend but also have a...