HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"count": 534,
"next": "http://fmp-data.bliss.build/news-post/?format=api&page=6",
"previous": "http://fmp-data.bliss.build/news-post/?format=api&page=4",
"results": [
{
"id": 1078,
"title": "Kindergarten Medical Facility Tour",
"slug": "kindergarten-medical-facility-tour",
"slug_en": "kindergarten-medical-facility-tour",
"slug_vi": "kindergarten-medical-facility-tour",
"slug_ko": "kindergarten-medical-facility-tour",
"slug_ja": "kindergarten-medical-facility-tour",
"overview_image": {
"id": 727,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/HCMC-Kindergarten-Clinic-Tour-7_YaPnnfy.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/HCMC-Kindergarten-Clinic-Tour.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75_K3lHPEI.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-03-07",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 7,
"name": "Clinic Tours",
"slug": "clinic-tours"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Family Medical Practice Vietnam were happy to welcome 20 students of a Korean Kindergarten in a friendly and informative medical center tour at our District 2 medical center on Friday, April 29th, 2016.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
759
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>Family Medical Practice Vietnam were happy to welcome 20 students of a Korean Kindergarten in a friendly and informative clinic tour at our District 2 Clinic on Friday, April 29th, 2016.</p><p>In this activity, the students had a chance to explore our medical facilities and ambulance, to 'become a doctor' by using the stethoscope to check the internal sounds of a human body, and to learn more knowledge about body's part under the instruction of Dr. Orly - our Pediatrician and Early Childhood Development Specialist.</p><p>We usually provide this kind of clinic tour for schools, in order to create an opportunity for children to enhance their knowledge about medicine and health care facilities, as well as helping the them not to be fear when seeing a doctor in the future.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 721,
"title": "Food Poisoning",
"slug": "food-poisoning",
"slug_en": "food-poisoning",
"slug_vi": "food-poisoning",
"slug_ko": "food-poisoning",
"slug_ja": "food-poisoning",
"overview_image": {
"id": 873,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Food_poisoning.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Food_poisoning.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-03-06",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "People who prepare food and are sick can spread their germs via food by not washing their hands before handling it. If the food is not properly washed and cooked, germs from one food item can get to another.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
871,
870,
869,
868,
867
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>What is food poisoning?</b></p><p>Food poisoning is caused by eating food that contains germs such as bacteria, viruses or parasites. This illness can cause stomach upset, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever. The symptoms can range from a relatively mild discomfort to a more serious life-threatening disease.</p><p><b>How can these germs get into the food?</b></p><p>People who prepare food and are sick can spread their germs via food <a href=\"https://www.coastvietnam.com/hoi-an-travelplanner-weather\">by</a> not washing their hands before handling it. If the food is not properly washed and cooked, germs from one food item can get to another.</p><p><b>Is there anything I can do on my own to prevent it from getting worse?</b></p><p>I always tell my patients that when these symptoms start to develop, the first thing you have to do is to keep yourself hydrated. Drinking plenty of fluids prevents you from getting dehydration. You can drink sports drinks or oral rehydration mixtures to replace fluids and minerals lost through vomiting and diarrhoea. Oral re-hydration powder like Oresol</p><p>can be purchased cheaply from a local pharmacy. Be sure to mix the powder in safe water. You can make your own mixture by dissolving 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 6 teaspoons of sugar in one litre of clean drinking or boiled water.</p><p>In terms of what food to eat, it’s better to avoid caffeine, fatty meals and dairy products. The reason for this is that it makes you bloated and will slow your recovery. If you can keep food down, bananas, toast, rice or salt crackers are a gentle way of replacing some of the calories and electrolytes you’re losing.</p><p><b>What happens if I’m not getting better, and when should I seek help?</b></p><p>Generally, symptoms should pass in a couple of days, but should you start to show signs of serious dehydration—including dark or decreased urine, dizziness, palpitations, muscle cramping that’s separate from stomach cramping, or a fever of over 101 degrees that doesn’t break—you should see a doctor. That’s especially important for children, the elderly or those with an underlying medical condition.<br/>Pregnant women or those that suffer from diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and anyone taking immunosuppressant drugs should also let their doctor know if they are suffering from a stomach problem.</p><p>Seek immediate medical attention are if you are vomiting blood, if you notice mucus or pus in your diarrhoea or if you experience neurological symptoms like numbness or tingling.</p><p>Is it food poisoning?</p><p>The symptoms of food poisoning usually develop within a few hours of eating something, if you have not recently eaten or if you’re the only one who got sick after eating a certain dish, you more likely picked up a viral illness in another way—from a sneeze, a handshake or a contaminated doorknob, for instance. For these infections, symptoms usually start one to three days after exposure with clinical symptoms that mirror those of food poisoning -- vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort and fever. Treatment is exactly the same whether it be food poisoning or a stomach bug.</p><p><b>Precautions</b></p><p>The Vietnamese are no more resistant to a bout of food poisoning or contracting a stomach bug than you or I, and though it might not seem like it when you visit the local wet market or restaurant where litter and food is scattered all over the floor -- food hygiene practice is generally of a high standard wherever you dine. Exceptions to this are places where food has been left to stand unheated (this is just as likely to be your hotel buffet as it is anywhere else) or food that is being handled and shared (like rice crackers). Tap water is strictly off limits to all, unless it has been thoroughly boiled and ice is made from filtered water. In smaller, local joints where there are no freezers, ice will be delivered, again this will be made from filtered water, but dependent on the delivery style, it may have been subjected to a scattering of road dust on it’s way to the restaurant--if that concerns you, go without.</p><p><b>What to Pack</b></p><p>Though you can easily pick up medication from local pharmacies if you get struck down with diarrhoea the thought of trotting along to the shops is not going to fill you with joy. Instead, be prepared -- pack rehydration salts and over-the-counter anti-diarrheal or anti-nausea medication (Imodium or Pepto-Bismol). In most cases, medical intervention is unnecessary, though it is worth taking it easy and sweating it out in the comfort and safety of your hotel or resort until the symptoms have passed, remembering to take steps to keep your illness from spreading to others -- frequent hand washing and avoiding close contact from others.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Doctor Christopher M. Suazon, Director, Danang Family Medical Practice</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1077,
"title": "Angel Kindergarten Medical Facility Tour at D2",
"slug": "angel-kindergarten-medical-facility-tour-d2",
"slug_en": "angel-kindergarten-medical-facility-tour-d2",
"slug_vi": "angel-kindergarten-medical-facility-tour-d2",
"slug_ko": "angel-kindergarten-medical-facility-tour-d2",
"slug_ja": "angel-kindergarten-medical-facility-tour-d2",
"overview_image": {
"id": 728,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Angel-Kindergarten-Clinic-Tour-at-D2-4_iSBSwLA.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Angel-Kindergarten-Clinic-Tou.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75_2QtxswI.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-03-06",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 7,
"name": "Clinic Tours",
"slug": "clinic-tours"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Family Medical Practice welcomed students from Angel Kindergarten to our District 2 medical center on August 17th, 2015. As an extracurricular activity, the students had a chance to 'become a doctor' which included many interesting activities such as: measuring their friends' heights and weights, becoming an emergency doctor and working on our ambulance, using stethoscope to check the internal sounds of a human body, and also having a friendly talk with Dr. Orly, our Pediatrician.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
758
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>Family Medical Practice welcomed students from Angel Kindergarten to our District 2 Medical Center on August 17th, 2015.</p><p>As an extracurricular activity, the students had a chance to 'become a doctor' which included many interesting activities such as: measuring their friends' heights and weights, becoming an emergency doctor and working on our ambulance, using stethoscope to check the internal sounds of a human body, and also having a friendly talk with Dr. Orly, our Pediatrician.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Angel-Kindergarten-Clinic-Tour-at-D2-3.jpg\" class=\"format-fullwidth\" /><p></p><p>By providing this kind of medical facility tour, we hope that we can create an opportunity for children to enhance their knowledge about medicine and health care facilities, as well as helping the children not to be fear when seeing a doctor in the future.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Angel-Kindergarten-Clinic-Tour-at-D2-1_GlRUC55.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>If schools and kindergartens would like to arrange similar activities at our medical center, please contact our Marketing Department via email: marketing@vietnammedicalpractice.com or telephone number: <b>(08) 3822 7848 ext. 5</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1073,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "Koreanclinictour-20180427",
"slug_en": "Koreanclinictour-20180427",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": "호치민시-한국-유치원-2군-패밀리-메디컬-클리닉-방문",
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 691,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/20180427_105428-edited.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/20180427_105428-edited.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-03-05",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 7,
"name": "Clinic Tours",
"slug": "clinic-tours"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
755
],
"content": null,
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1076,
"title": "Renaissance International School Medical Facility Tour",
"slug": "renaissance-international-school-medical-facility-tour",
"slug_en": "renaissance-international-school-medical-facility-tour",
"slug_vi": "buổi-tham-quan-phòng-khám-của-học-sinh-trường-quốc-tế-renaissance",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 733,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Renaissance-International-School-Clinic-Tour-2.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Renaissance-International-Sch.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75_t18FjF3.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-03-05",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 7,
"name": "Clinic Tours",
"slug": "clinic-tours"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "On July 7 and July 13 - 14, 2015 Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City was delighted to give students from Renaissance International School a Medical Facility Tour at Diamond Plaza. We hope that via this activity, students were able enhance their knowledge about health care facilities and had an interesting extracurricular activity during this summer vacation at the same time.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
757
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>On July 7 and July 13 - 14, 2015 Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City was delighted to give students from Renaissance International School a Medical Facility Tour at Diamond Plaza. We hope that via this activity, students were able enhance their knowledge about health care facilities and had an interesting extracurricular activity during this summer vacation at the same time.</p><p></p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Renaissance-International-School-Clinic-Tour-2_l69T7nF.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p></p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Renaissance-International-School-Clinic-Tour-3.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p></p><p>If schools and kindergartens would like to arrange similar activities at our medical center, please contact our Marketing Department via email: marketing@vietnammedicalpractice.com or telephone number: (08) 3822 7848 - ext.5</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1075,
"title": "Montessori Kindergarten Medical Facility Tour",
"slug": "montessori-kindergarten-medical-facility-tour",
"slug_en": "montessori-kindergarten-medical-facility-tour",
"slug_vi": "chào-mừng-học-sinh-trường-mẫu-giáo-montessori-đến-tham-quan-phòng-khám-fmp-quận-2",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 732,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Montessori-3.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Montessori-3.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-03-05",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 7,
"name": "Clinic Tours",
"slug": "clinic-tours"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Family Medical Practice was delighted to welcome the children from Montessori Kindergarten to our FMP D2 Medical Center in May, 2015. We offered a clinic tour and ambulance tour for the students, hoping that it would help them know more about health care and emergency services.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
756
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>Family Medical Practice was delighted to welcome the children from Montessori Kindergarten to our FMP D2 Medical Center in May, 2015. We offered a clinic tour and ambulance tour for the students, hoping that it would help them know more about health care and emergency services.</p><p></p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Montessori-1_E1S7v96.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Montessori-2.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>If schools and kindergartens would like to arrange similar activities at our medical center, please contact our Marketing Department via email: marketing@vietnammedicalpractice.com or telephone: (08) 3822 7848 - ext.5</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1074,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "medicalprogram-20180625",
"slug_en": "medicalprogram-20180625",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": "국제학교-재학-고등학생-대상-체험-프로그램-시작",
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 692,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/36230228_2094613797479699_6755938266177863680_o.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/36230228_2094613797479699_675.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-03-05",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 7,
"name": "Clinic Tours",
"slug": "clinic-tours"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [],
"content": null,
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 698,
"title": "Platelet-Rich Plasma in Orthopedics",
"slug": "platelet-rich-plasma-orthopedics",
"slug_en": "platelet-rich-plasma-orthopedics",
"slug_vi": "platelet-rich-plasma-orthopedics",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 679,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_1585064824.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_1585064824.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-02-18",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Famous athletes like Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have received platelet-rich plasma injections for various problems such as sprained knees and chronic tendon injuries. These types of conditions have typically been treated with medication, physical therapy or even surgery.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
315,
314
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>The use of biologics such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP), mesenchymal stem cells or growth factors in the orthopedic office setting is becoming more common due to an increased demand for alternative methods of non-surgical management of soft-tissue and musculoskeletal conditions.</p><p>Famous athletes like Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have received PRP injections for various problems such as sprained knees and chronic tendon injuries. These types of conditions have typically been treated with medication, physical therapy or even surgery. Some athletes have credited PRP with their being able to return more quickly to competition.</p><h2><b>What is PRP?</b></h2><p>Blood is mainly a liquid called plasma but it also contains small solid components: red cells, white cells and platelets. The platelets are best known for their importance in clotting blood. However, platelets also contain hundreds of proteins called growth factors which are very important in the healing of injuries.</p><p>PRP is plasma but with many more platelets than what is typically found in our blood. The concentration of platelets and growth factors in PRP can be 5 to 10 times higher than usual.</p><p>After taking a blood sample (usually 15ml), PRP preparation separates the platelets from other blood cells during a sterile process called centrifugation. The concept is attractive because the patient’s own blood is used under sterile conditions, limiting the possibilities for disease transmission and infections.</p><h2><b>How does PRP work?</b></h2><p>In simple words, what PRP does is to boost our own healing processes. Laboratory studies have shown that the increased concentration of growth factors in PRP can potentially speed up the repair process of our tissues. To boost healing, the injury site is treated with the PRP preparation. This can be done in one of two ways: PRP can be carefully injected into the injured area or it can also be used to improve healing after surgery for some injuries.</p><h2><b>What conditions can be treated with PRP?</b></h2><p>Chronic tendon injuries, surgical repair of tendons and muscles, osteoarthritis and fractures are some of the common conditions where PRP injections are currently applied. Recent findings showed that PRP injections are associated with pain relief; increased function in activities of daily living; increased motion and strength compared to corticosteroid injection.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr Andres Sosa - Orthopedic Surgeon, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 671,
"title": "1 in 5 women",
"slug": "1-5-women",
"slug_en": "1-5-women",
"slug_vi": "1-5-women",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 1013,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_1360242140.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_1360242140.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-01-27",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "If you have been victim of sexual assault, go to an emergency room as soon as possible—this is an emergency. The ER doctor will assess what kinds of specialists need to be notified depending on whatever injuries have been sustained.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
250,
249,
248
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<h3>Seeking medical help and reporting sexual assault is one of the most important things you can do</h3><p>It is incredibly difficult to imagine oneself as the victim of sexual assault, yet statistics show that one in five women will be. When something like this does happen, it’s important to remember that any kind of sexual assault or violence is a crime—and anyone who is a victim has the right to seek both justice and receive medical care. This is just as true in Vietnam as it is anywhere else in the world.</p><p>When a woman has been sexually assaulted and is seeking help, the key factor is time. For help to be most effective, she should contact the police department and a medical clinic as soon as possible. Expats or travelers should also notify their country’s consulate or embassy.</p><p>Sometimes victims will be persuaded by other people not to file a police report. They are told that the police won’t care, or that they don’t speak English, or that nothing will be done. Such advice is in itself an assault on a woman’s right to decide for herself to speak out and take action. Sexual assault is against the law, and it should be reported to the police and documented. A woman seeking to notify the police can ask others for help, such as a front desk staff or receptionist of a hotel, a friend or consulate personnel.</p><p>From a medical perspective, it is important to seek medical attention right away—to treat the injuries (which can be both external and internal), to check and treat for sexually transmitted disease, and for pregnancy assessment—and ideally this should take place at a clinic or hospital with a gynecologist, infectious disease specialist, or surgeon depending on the injuries. Even victims who are not sure whether or not to report the assault to the police should still get medical attention as soon as possible.</p><p>The laws regarding sexual assault vary from country to country, so the response a foreigner might expect from her consulate/embassy can vary too. It is still best to report the event and obtain consular advice in addition to reporting the crime to the local police—this helps the victim to document the occurrence and receive advice and assistance from her own government.</p><p>Rape kits—otherwise known as sexual assault evidence kits—are usually used to collect evidence in cases of sexual assault. These are not yet available here in Vietnam, although some consulates/ embassies do have them. They usually contain:</p><ul><li>Instructions & checklist</li><li>Bags and paper sheets for evidence collection • A comb</li><li>Documentation and forms</li><li>Envelopes</li><li>Material for blood samples</li><li>Swabs</li><li>Specimen containers</li></ul><p>DNA evidence usually needs to be collected within 72 hours in order to be properly analyzed, but other types of evidence can last much longer. When a rape kit is not available, law enforcement agencies should work together with the medical staff to discuss an appropriate course of action consistent with the law/ guidance from local authorities.</p><p>In order to help the authorities to preserve evidence—and also to ensure that medical personnel can properly assess the extent and site of the injuries and provide the most appropriate treatment—sexual assault victims should avoid:</p><ul><li>Bathing</li><li>Showering</li><li>Washing hands</li><li>Using the restroom</li><li>Changing their clothes</li><li>Combing their hair</li><li>Cleaning up the area where the assault occurred</li></ul><p>It’s important to note, however, that even if a victim has done any or all of the above, it is still not too late to report the incident to the police and go to the doctor. There are other ways to collect evidence. It’s advisable to bring an extra set of clothes, as any garments worn during an attack may be collected as evidence also.</p><p>Usually, evidence collection focuses on an attempt to try to discern the extent of injury and identify the perpetrator. Victims of assault are asked to “preserve the scene” and not to wash, even though that will usually be the first impulse. Hair/nail samples, pieces of clothing, and personal belongings might be collected. A statement will be taken, and usually law enforcement officers will work closely with medical staff to collect any body fluids for examination and identification.</p><p>Seeking Medical Help:</p><p>If you have been victim of sexual assault, go to an emergency room as soon as possible—this is an emergency. The ER doctor will assess what kinds of specialists need to be notified depending on whatever injuries have been sustained. These might involve:</p><ul><li>A gynecologist—to assess for pregnancy and administer emergency contraception.</li><li>An infectious disease specialist— to assess and treat any sexually transmitted infections.</li><li>A surgeon—to assess and treat any fractures/lacerations/ bleeding.</li><li>A counselor—victims of sexual abuse have gone through a traumatic experience, and may be in shock. If possible, assessment by a counselor is recommended.</li></ul><p>In the US and UK, a SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) is usually notified, who will follow the rape/sexual assault protocol. Vietnam has its own protocols for when a sexual assault is reported, although the specific practices may be different from hospital to hospital.</p><p>In any case, a victim should expect her injuries be taken care of as well as to be asked about details of the events. Some questions can seem very personal and detailed, but this is important not only</p><p>to make sure all possible injuries have been evaluated, but also to guide DNA collection for evidence and identification of the perpetrator. A victim will also be asked about her past medical history, medications, allergies, and menstruation status before getting a head to toe examination—including an internal exam of her mouth, vagina, or rectum. During the exam, samples might be collected and sometimes photographs will be taken— consent will be obtained first.</p><p>It’s recommended for victims to be offered sexually transmitted disease testing for infections such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV, and genital herpes, etc, depending on the circumstances of the assault. In some cases, a victim might need to take antiviral medications to prevent HIV transmission after high risk exposure. These can prevent the virus from taking hold, and usually the medication has to be taken for one month. Negative tests are usually repeated a month or three months later to make sure they stay negative, as some diseases do not show up positive immediately after exposure. For this reason, if the risk is high, empiric treatment for the most common STIs can be given regardless of the initial result.</p><p>Also, pregnancy status will need to be assessed, and a morning after pill may be offered if necessary. As a matter of fact, any woman can obtain emergency contraception at almost any pharmacy in Vietnam, although to use it properly, it is important to speak to a medical provider—if used too late or if the wrong dose is taken, it will not be effective.</p><p>While the trauma of a sexual assault can make a dramatic impact on any woman’s life, taking assertive steps in the immediate aftermath can help to restore her sense of dignity and control, which is very important to the wellbeing of any person.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Jane Shadwell-Li - Internist, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City.</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 690,
"title": "The Doctors who Face Death",
"slug": "doctors-who-face-death",
"slug_en": "doctors-who-face-death",
"slug_vi": "doctors-who-face-death",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 275,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/The-Doctors-who-Face-Death.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/The-Doctors-who-Face-Death.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-01-22",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "In the ICU, I have become used to death; I have seen people from 15 years to 99 years old pass away. Over time, it still affects you. Some doctors burn out and have to go back, see other kinds of patients, stay in another part of medicine. It’s worse when the doctors in ICU start not to care.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
781,
780,
779
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>I didn’t imagine I’d end up working in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) when I first studied medicine. I was thinking of going into surgery, because I love anatomy and I don’t mind the blood. But there was one time when I visited my uncle working in a hospital, and he introduced me to a doctor who showed me around the department. I loved it—the adrenaline, the challenge of the patients, the sudden shifts in tempo. A patient can come through from ER at any moment while the nurse is shouting she needs something five minutes ago, and you have to move immediately. I realized I like this environment a lot, working with acute patients.</p><p>I started my residency in a hospital near my home. It was tough. The first thing I realized is that I knew nothing about medicine. After seven years in medical school, I had all the theory, and the grades—but when you see your first patient, you just think… what do I do now? That’s when you realize you have to start to understand medicine again. Because the patient hasn’t read the books. The patient presents with symptoms—“I have a headache, a fever, my back is painful…” You have to figure out what’s going on. The books just say “this disease comes with these kinds of symptoms”, but seeing a patient is a whole different thing. The patient cries, gets annoyed, is a good person or a bad person, may have had the symptoms for a while and been very uncomfortable, but doesn’t know what it is or when it started. That’s the human contact side of medicine, and it is difficult to teach and understand. Many residents quit within the first three months.</p><p>But ICU is a special area of medicine, because for a patient to be admitted to ICU, there must be a chance that the patient will die. That is more or less the condition of entry. We live constantly in the ICU with this kind of thing, and death is very common; it is very normal.</p><p>When I was a supervisor, I had a first year resident (who after this became a great doctor) but on that first day, after we finished the doctors’ meeting, I assigned her first patient, who was in a very serious condition. Everyone knew this patient was going to die. But we know that this is part of ICU. Five days later, the patient died, in the morning, and I saw her crying. So I sat her down and asked, “What’s going on?” She said, “Oh, I miss my patient, I worked so hard with him, I thought he was going to make it…” So I had a really tough talk with her. I told her, “This happens, this is ICU. The patients die. All the patients here on these beds have a chance of dying. It could be 50%, 20%, 80%, 90%—but any of them could die. Suddenly or not. You are constantly living with that. You have to talk to the family about that. But you can’t be too involved.”</p><p>It’s the first lesson you learn in ICU. You can’t be too involved with the patients.</p><p>I once read an article about we Latin American people. We have a problem as humans, with death. We know that all of us are going to die at some moment. We buried our fathers, our fathers buried their fathers, our sons will bury us, this is life. Death is the only 100% certainty. The article showed that Latin American people have a problem living with that. When we doctors say, yes, your father, your son, your mother, your uncle, your friend will probably die, it could take a few hours or days, but it’s impossible to do anything because the damage is too severe. We have a problem accepting that.</p><p>In Latin America we don’t accept euthanasia. It’s a crime. Because we can’t tolerate death; it’s overwhelming for us. We always hope a miracle will happen, to change the facts of the situation. Sometimes it’s very difficult.</p><p>In the ICU, we often have very young patients who have suffered a car or motorbike accident that destroyed their brain, themselves, and died.</p><p>We humans can die in two ways. Our heart stops, or our brain stops working. But the brain dead have a problem if their heart is still beating. The body is warm, you look at the monitor and you have the pulse, everything. That is very complicated for the family to understand. What is lying on that bed is a thing, it’s not a person. The person is gone. We can sustain that situation, but there is no way back. That’s the only thing in medicine that is 100% certain. But even so, it can still be difficult to understand.</p><p>The problem sometimes is not that the patient survives, it’s <i>how</i> the patient survives. Which person you give back to the family. Sometimes the patient is not the same. The brain can have contusion, hemorrhage, damage. You do a lot of work with the patient, the patient improves, the patient is still alive—but not the same. If the person is lying in bed, in a coma, or opens their eyes but without consciousness, we give that patient to the family and say, “This is your son, 22 years old, but more like a plant, a vegetable.” And that is the worst part because in the beginning the family says to you, “I want my son to live…” But sometimes, what is life? If I give you the same person before the accident with a couple of scars, nothing else, that’s one thing. But if I give you a person who can barely open their eyes, without a part of their skull, lying in bed… that’s another thing entirely. Some families have the resources to keep their sons, their siblings alive with all the comforts at home, and perhaps they will. But others do not have those resources. It’s very expensive to keep a person living. You even need a nurse to change their pants—and again, is that your son?</p><p>One of the treatments we can offer is comfort. At the end of the day, we are not gods, and the human body has its limits, medicine has its limits, and we doctors have our limits too. Sometimes the only thing we can offer the family, for the patient, is comfort. They don’t have to have pain, they don’t have to suffer at all. Because believe me, nobody dies easy, nobody dies in a good way. This is from the movies. People only die sadly, and it’s a very traumatic moment. And the only thing you can offer the family is to say OK, he or she won’t suffer anything, feel nothing, never realize what’s going on. There are drugs we can use to put the patient in a coma. They are anaesthetics, hypnotics, used to decrease consciousness. We use drugs that are 80 times stronger than morphine, and in higher doses, to ensure the patient doesn’t feel anything. After that, it depends on what you want to believe. But for sure, the patient won’t suffer their death. That is the best we can offer for the last time, for the family, for the patient.</p><p>In the ICU, I have become used to death; I have seen people from 15 years to 99 years old pass away. Over time, it still affects you. Some doctors burn out and have to go back, see other kinds of patients, stay in another part of medicine. It’s worse when the doctors in ICU start not to care. I’ve seen doctors burn out, and become—not a butcher, that’s a very strong word—but they start not to care whether the patients live or die. It’s just another bed. “OK, the patient in bed number 4 died, great, we need that bed.”</p><p>Or even worse—they start to feel like a god. You decide if the patient lives or dies. That is when you are overwhelmed by the power of this position, because with the patient, the ventilation, the drugs, all the monitors, if the patient needs those things to live, you are the person who can shut it down and say “OK, the patient has died.”</p><p>The only way is to protect yourself from this kind of burn-out is to always remind yourself, “I am human, I can make mistakes.” Sometimes we doctors start to think, “I’m a god, I can manage this without any problem, it’s easy for me…” and when we make a mistake we realize, “this is not so easy, I’m human.”</p><p>You can imagine facing the family after making a mistake with a patient. It’s very tough. That is why the most important thing about being a doctor is humility. I am a doctor, nothing less; I am not God, not perfect, I am human. This is a profession, it’s work. We like to be doctors, to be with patients, treat the challenges, fight disease. But always the best doctors are those with the greatest humility.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Julián Alberto Strati - ICU, Family Medical Practice HCMC</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 958,
"title": "Sun, Skin, Scar - Actinic keratosis",
"slug": "sun-skin-scar-actinic-keratosis",
"slug_en": "sun-skin-scar-actinic-keratosis",
"slug_vi": "sun-skin-scar-actinic-keratosis",
"slug_ko": "sun-skin-scar-actinic-keratosis",
"slug_ja": "sun-skin-scar-actinic-keratosis",
"overview_image": {
"id": 499,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/pc004096380_l.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/pc004096380_l.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2019-01-18",
"category": {
"id": 5,
"name": "Blogs",
"slug": "blogs"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 18,
"name": "Dermatology",
"slug": "dermatology"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Actinic keratosis is a precancerous lesion that can develop into a carcinoma. It normally appears in sun-exposed areas—as opposed to melanomas, which can appear anywhere on the skin.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
457,
456,
455,
454,
453
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>Sun, Skin, Scar</p><p>Love to bathe in the sun? Then it’s time to check your face, lips, ears, back of your hands, forearms, scalp, and neck for these signs.</p><p>Actinic keratosis is a precancerous lesion that can develop into a carcinoma. It normally appears in sun-exposed areas—as opposed to melanomas, which can appear anywhere on the skin.</p><p>It’s typically a patch of raw skin that looks a little like eczema, but instead of appearing in areas of flexure (such as behind the knees or elbows) it appears on the “roof” of the body; the ears, nose, scalp (especially in people with fair skin and not much hair), the back of the arms, the back of the hands. Sometimes it’s not so visible—it might look normal, but feel somehow wrong—or it could be raised, scaly, non-healing, sometimes itchy or burning. When we see a skin lesion with these features, diagnosis can be relatively straightforward.</p><p>They’re very common in people who are frequently exposed to the sun—sailors, surfers, beach-lovers, pool-lovers. It’s typical in older men, but can occur early depending on the type of skin; especially with people who have many freckles or who were sunburned when they were a young child when the skin is comparatively weak. They don’t occur as broad rashes, but more like mushrooms—you might have two or three, four maximum, not very close together. On the scalp, however, there can be many. The interesting thing is that they can be mostly invisible, so the skin changes happen much earlier than when the effects can be seen visually.</p><p>It’s very important to treat this condition, as the mutations in the cells can lead to the development of squamous cell carcinomas and cancer. The fact is that actinic keratosis has a 10–30 percent chance of becoming, over a period of around ten years, a squamous cell carcinoma. So if we find it, we don’t give it a chance.</p><p>There are different strategies of treatment. One of the strategies is “kill on the spot.” You see the lesion and you freeze it or treat it with something that is destructive. Normally on this kind of lesion, it’s not necessary to do a biopsy, you don’t need to make a cut. But most skin clinics choose “destroy on sight.” It’s done repeatedly—once you have some, you have to go back after a few months to check for more.</p><p>There are also certain “field treatment” strategies using an immune stimulator called imiquimod. An alternative product is ingenol mebutate, which is derived from the plant <i>Euphorbia peplus</i>. These medicines burn the cancer cells via a direct chemical reaction. Imiquimod increases the skin’s immune awareness toward anything that is strange (and especially viral), which is why we use it to treat warts and cancer. When you put imiquimod on your body, if you have a healthy immune system, it triggers a very strong inflammatory reaction—not only in the lesions that you are treating, but also in the neighboring skin. The visual effect is very ugly, but it disappears after about a week or two and takes with it the existing lesions and any potential ones that are developing unseen. Finally, the skin is rejuvenated, and usually looks fresher and healthier than it did before, free of spots.<br/></p><p>It’s good to examine your skin for anything that doesn’t heal, is pinky, scaly or scar-like. Actinic keratosis typically has volume or an atrophy; they can get discolored or have a whitish, spidery aspect. Any lesions like this that are raw and don’t heal should warrant a dermatological check-up. At the clinic, we can examine the skin and do a dermoscopic check to see if treatment is necessary.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 689,
"title": "Out of Joint",
"slug": "out-joint",
"slug_en": "out-joint",
"slug_vi": "outjoint",
"slug_ko": "outjoint",
"slug_ja": "outjoint",
"overview_image": {
"id": 273,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/56FD074E-1701-4678-8DC4-CF8505F8714A-5577-00000F5C1687D612.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/56FD074E-1701-4678-8DC4-CF850.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-12-26",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "It’s important to recognize that surgery is not always 100% successful, and even if it is a very low risk procedure, it is no different for arthroscopic surgery. We must keep in mind that even if they are rare, it is still a surgical procedure subject to complications.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
837,
836
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<h3>Learn more about arthroscopy, a minimally invasive operation to repair a damaged joint</h3><p>Arthroscopic surgery is a revolution in orthopedics, and it has changed the way we operate on joints. This minimally invasive procedure has given us the power to accurately examine joints from the inside, making a diagnosis with 100 percent accuracy. Not even an X-ray, CT scan or MRI can provide such results—with arthroscopy, you can see everything clearly and sometimes even fix the problem immediately.</p><p>Arthroscopy is where you make a very tiny incision in the skin around a joint—such as the knee or elbow—and insert a thin fiberoptic scope. This simple device gives us a very clear view of the anatomy of the joint—the cartilage, the meniscus, and all the minute structures between the bones. If there is damage, it’s usually quite apparent, and if (for example) you need to repair the damage or remove some tissue, you can cut another tiny hole and insert a separate instrument inside to do the job.</p><p>The science of arthroscopy has come a very long way. In the beginning, the procedure was really only used as a diagnostic tool. With the development of new techniques, materials, instruments and tools for treatment, we have learned to use arthroscopy to treat many disorders—especially soft tissue disorders like cartilage tears, meniscal tears, ligament ruptures and damage to other anatomical structures.</p><p>A good example is a torn meniscus, which is a very common sports injury. It’s a stretchable fibrocartilage within the knee that can easily rip with vigorous activity. 20 years ago, a meniscus tear was treated with open surgery—a surgeon would open the knee using a five or six-inch incision to get inside the joint and remove the part that was damaged.</p><p>With arthroscopy, we approach the same procedure with a very, very small incision. Whereas previously we may have just removed the part that was damaged, with the development of new arthroscopic techniques we can now try to repair the tear with a suture, pulling it together and allowing it to heal.</p><p>During my work as an orthopedic surgeon, I have focused my interest on arthroscopy of shoulder and knee and I have seen just how far the technique has come and what it has allowed us to achieve in our practice.</p><p>I started my training in Perugia, Italy under the supervision of Dr. Giuliano Cerulli, one of Europe’s most respected and highly regarded surgeons. In the early stages, as most practitioners often do, I had the opportunity to learn techniques and practice on cadavers while visiting cadaver labs once or twice a year.</p><p>After my specialization, I focused my training in arthroscopic surgery of the knee at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Hospital, Scotland and soon after, in Spain. Thanks to the supervision of senior consultants, I developed an interest in arthroscopy of the shoulder. From the start, I was impressed with how this mini-invasive surgery was able to resolve serious issues such as recurrent dislocation of the shoulder.</p><p>Regarding this pathology, I clearly remember my first successful case in which, via this arthroscopic technique, I was able to resolve a complex case involving a young man, whose quality of life was severely affected by episodes of recurrent shoulder dislocation. Under this mini-invasive procedure, soft tissue (labrum) damage was repaired, thereby fixing a problem that in most cases requires open and aggressive surgery.</p><p>Arthroscopic surgery has an important role in the treatment of injuries to athletes. It has a significant role in the surgical treatment of ligament injuries, such as anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction; and the surgical repair of tendon tear, such as rotatory cuff tear.</p><p>I believe that Vietnam’s very young population is gradually becoming more and more involved and interested in practicing sports; therefore we will be seeing an increase in sport injuries for which arthroscopic surgery will have a larger role in treatment.</p><p>It’s important to recognize that surgery is not always 100% successful, and even if it is a very low risk procedure, it is no different for arthroscopic surgery. We must keep in mind that even if they are rare, it is still a surgical procedure subject to complications. I also think that surgery should not always be the first choice, which is the reason why I always try to present an alternative option for patients, so as to give them the chance to explore forms of conservative treatment.</p><p>In conclusion, arthroscopic surgery is a procedure that offers great advantages to patients, and can often resolve or improve joint conditions, but it requires specific and extensive training from the orthopedic surgeon.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 707,
"title": "Treating Brain Damage the Cool Way",
"slug": "treating-brain-damage-cool-way",
"slug_en": "treating-brain-damage-cool-way",
"slug_vi": "treating-brain-damage-cool-way",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 625,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_529469713.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_529469713.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-12-17",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Cold can damage us in two ways; either through localised frostbite on a body part, or through hypothermia, where the core temperature of the body sinks.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
339,
338,
337,
336,
335
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Do you shiver in the cold? If you do then you handle it better than some people. Without our protective mechanisms, the body’s core temperature can quickly drop and there is a risk of frostbite. At the same time, a body that is cooled down copes better without oxygen, something which researchers can utilise to save lives.</p><p>We are now entering the cold season. Researchers have started to use the fact that when the temperature of our bodies goes slightly down we need less oxygen to treat newborn babies that suffer from asphyxia or lack of oxygen at the moment of birth, helping the plasticity/restoring mechanisms of these children’s brains.</p><p>Cold can damage us in two ways; either through localised frostbite on a body part, or through hypothermia, where the core temperature of the body sinks.</p><p>The body’s main defence against cooling is shivering, and how effectively we shiver is also individual. This causes the muscles to release energy, providing warmth and keeping the body temperature up. But some people do not shiver at all and are unprotected against the cold. The lower the body temperature, the lower the metabolism. This means the organs use less oxygen, for example.</p><p>It is this mechanism that is now being consciously used in several ways in healthcare. In cases where patients have oxygen deprivation of the brain, called asphyxia, due to example decreased blood flow – which is one of the most common complications during delivery – cooling has been shown to be an effective way of saving the brain. </p><p>By beginning cold treatment early within the first six hours, we think there is potential to save the nerve cells that die as a result of oxygen deficiency. The brain is stressed as a result of oxygen deficiency and a cascade of biochemical processes begins. For example, the nerve cells begin unrestrainedly producing the signalling substance glutamate, something which ultimately results in an excess of calcium – leading to the death of the nerve cell. Slowing down the brain’s metabolism by early cooling may be one way to reduce this excessive production of glutamate.</p><p>For neonatal care the cooling treatment lasts for 72 hours. Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to introduce cooling treatment for children with acute oxygen deficiency. About one quarter can be kept alive or saved from severe brain injury by cooling. Despite this, not all children receive the treatment they need since it must be initiated within six hours of birth. Because the majority of hospitals cannot offer proper cooling, the frail, newborn babies must be immediately transferred; a decision requiring quick actions on the part of a skilled paediatrician. During the transfer, the child is often placed in a normal transport incubator.</p><p>There is a need for simpler and safer transfers of children who need cooling treatment. Linus Olson, PhD, and a civil engineer and researcher at the Karolinska Institutet currently working in Vietnam, is involved in a research study testing a cooling mattress on newborn children with acute oxygen deficiency. The mattress works without either electricity or water, which means it can be used in all ambulances and hospitals. It is made of a plastic shell filled with something called phase-change material, which can transform from a solid to a liquid, using the child’s body heat as a source of energy in the process. After about an hour on the cooling mattress, the child reaches a temperature of about 33.5 degrees. A big plus is that the mattress then maintains this temperature in a stable way. It is also a lot cheaper that the equipment currently used for cooling treatment. In addition to the opportunity to improve transfers, we see the potential for improved neonatal care all over the world. Cooling treatment is currently introduced in hospitals in Vietnam. In this study, the mattress will be used to deliver cooling treatment at several hospitals and during transport. The goal is to save lives and reduce brain injuries among children with acute oxygen deficiency. So far the study confirms that the mattress is effective in these contexts, and there are plans to introduce it more permanently in neonatal care in Vietnam. In the long-term, other countries with less developed neonatal care will be of interest. The cooling mattress is also being tested in a study in Sweden. In the first stage, newborns with oxygen deficiency will be randomly selected to be transferred by air, either in a normal transport incubator or on the cooling mattress.</p><p>Cooling to protect the brain may help more patient groups than it is currently being used for, such as stroke patients or cardiac arrest patients. However, these people are often conscious, and then need to be anaesthetised. Cooling treatment may be refined further in the long-term, with better data concerning what body temperature is actually optimal and how long the cooling should last.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Mattias Larsson - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 708,
"title": "The Antibiotic Apocalypse and What You Can Do to Prevent It",
"slug": "antibiotic-apocalypse-and-what-you-can-do-prevent-it",
"slug_en": "antibiotic-apocalypse-and-what-you-can-do-prevent-it",
"slug_vi": "antibiotic-apocalypse-and-what-you-can-do-prevent-it",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 627,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_1175860840.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_1175860840.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-12-10",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Working with the Vietnamese healthcare sector for two decades, I have watched in real-time the deterioration of the effectiveness of antibiotics where we now have ‘super-bugs' spreading everywhere that can cause infections that are untreatable.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
344,
343,
342,
341,
340
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>The child of my friend, who is 13 months old, was admitted to a Vietnamese hospital with meningitis. He was treated for two weeks and recovered. During the third week he developed a blood infection. Despite being treated with the strongest broad-spectrum antibiotics, he died. I was at the hospital working and got involved. I have spent 20 years researching the use of antibiotics and resistance to them in Việt Nam and other countries. With this tragedy, it became personal and affected me deeply.</p><p>Working with the Vietnamese healthcare sector for two decades, I have watched in ‘real-time’ the deterioration of the effectiveness of antibiotics where we now have ‘super-bugs’ spreading everywhere that can cause infections that are untreatable. How did we get here?</p><p>Antibiotics are one of the pillars of modern medicine and have contributed to the enormous improvement of health that we have seen globally in the past decades. It has enabled the decrease of infections as a cause of mortality and enabled surgery and transplantation.</p><p>Antibiotics eliminate some bacteria, including benevolent bacteria that support our metabolism but unfortunately overuse creates resistant strains that cause infections that are difficult to treat. Over time, the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment is eroded and there are not enough new antibiotics being developed to replace those that are no longer effective.</p><p>In Việt Nam, antibiotics are frequently used, often when not necessary and easy available at pharmacies. Correct diagnostics are time and resource consuming. Tests are not always available and often more expensive than drugs. When doctors cannot determine if illness is due to virus or bacteria, many prescribe antibiotics. There are economic incentives to sell drugs and drug companies often reward doctors for using their drugs.</p><p>In a study conducted in 1999, we interviewed parents about their children’s health, if they had been sick, used any drugs and took samples of bacteria. 75 per cent had used antibiotics in the last month, most without prescription and antibiotic resistance was common. The survey was repeated 7 and 14 years later showing increasing antibiotic resistance where antibiotic tablets are not effective for treatment of bacteria causing pneumonia and urinary tract infections, increasing the need for IV antibiotics, and placing a burden on the healthcare system and costs.</p><p>As most of the antibiotics were bought from private pharmacies and used for the common cold – caused by viruses – we did a study on how private pharmacies treat respiratory infections. Questionnaires were used to assess knowledge and fake patients to assess practice. Most pharmacy staff knew that antibiotics cannot treat the common cold. However, half of the pharmacies still dispensed antibiotics. After a three-step intervention, knowledge and practice improved, but still one-third dispensed antibiotics. The reason mentioned was that the pharmacy staff thought that the patients wanted antibiotics even though they knew it might not be necessary. Knowledge might not always be a good predictor of practice.</p><p>Antibiotic use in the community might influence the possibility of treating life-threatening infections in hospitals. Resistance genes are often separate from the bacterial genes on plasmids coding for resistance to several different antibiotics, can replicate faster and be transferred directly between bacteria, like data files between computers. When the bacteria are stressed due to antibiotic use, the replication of these resistance genes increases by several thousand times and bacteria give generously to each other – if you give me one shield I give you another and we both survive. This means that if you take one antibiotic, you also select for resistance to other antibiotics. This is a problem in hospitals where a lot of antibiotics are used, especially in intensive care units. Many patients may be admitted with one disease but during treatment, they become colonised with bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics, so called ‘super-bugs’ causing infections that are very hard to treat with a high risk of death.</p><p>In 2013, we assessed the rate of hospital acquired infections at intensive care units in 16 Vietnamese hospitals. Among almost 5,000 patients, one third of both children and adults had hospital acquired infections. Many were caused by ‘super bugs’ that were resistant to almost all available antibiotics. In order to get an infection, a person has to be colonised by bacteria, so we also assessed colonisation with ‘super bugs’ in several hospitals and found that almost half of the patients were colonised.</p><p>However, we have also seen that if we can detect colonisation early, at admission, patients that are colonised can be separated from other patients, with the result that the risk of transmission, hospital acquired infections and mortality can be decreased. This shows that in hospitals, it is important to screen for ‘super bugs’ and to have good hygiene, with the beneficial result that there is a decrease in the risk that the ‘super bugs’ spread in the hospital and then out in society. </p><p>So – what can you do to preserve the power of antibiotics for our children and grand-children? Most importantly, don’t use antibiotics without a doctor’s prescription. When you choose where to go for examination, choose a clinic that can provide good diagnostics, then take the relevant tests that give you a clear diagnosis. By doing this, you will avoid unnecessary antibiotic use and help keep antibiotics effective for when they are really needed. As a bonus, you will decrease the risk of adverse drug reactions and diarrhoea as well as keep alive the good bacteria that help our metabolism and which can also affect our mental wellbeing.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Mattias Larsson - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 680,
"title": "Mental Health Matters",
"slug": "mental-health-matters",
"slug_en": "mental-health-matters",
"slug_vi": "mental-health-matters",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 739,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/mental_health_matter.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/mental_health_matter.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-12-03",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Mental health problems are one of the main causes of the social and economic burden of disease worldwide. Depression is considered to be the second leading cause of disability across the globe, and a major contributor to the burden of suicide and even ischemic heart disease.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
273
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>In the early hours of an April morning students at Nguyễn Khuyến High School were performing a morning exercise routine when teachers spotted a pupil standing on the roof of a four-story building on campus. The teachers asked the pupil to get back inside and asked two classmates to assist in the effort. </p><p>One of the classmates climbed on the roof in an attempt to persuade the pupil to return inside of the building. The pupil remained silent, smiled, cried, and ran off the building. This teenager was confirmed dead on arrival to a local general hospital.</p><p>I recently became aware of this story through a short yet compelling article by Duy Khang, from Tuổi Trẻ News. This article was powerful, written in a crisp way that did not detract from the principal messages. These were messages of respect and of pain. At that same time millions of people across the country were sleeping or starting their days unaware of what had happened; however, for the people directly touched by this death, life will no longer be the same.</p><p>The practice of medicine relies greatly on stories. Scientific knowledge and technological advances are essential but insufficient in the face of the need for people to recognise, interpret, process, and be moved by the stories of illness. In people with mental health problems those stories are often lived in isolation. In some cultures having mental health problems can carry an implication of weakness, of shame, causing the person or family to lose face. It can be damaging for the future prospects of the individual or even their families. This is a strong disincentive to share those stories and seek help.</p><p>Mental health problems are one of the main causes of the social and economic burden of disease worldwide. Depression is considered to be the second leading cause of disability across the globe, and a major contributor to the burden of suicide and even ischemic heart disease.</p><p>Data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (USA) show that approximately one in five adults in the USA experience mental health problems in a given year. It estimates that only 41% of adults with a mental health problem received treatment in the past year. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for people aged 15-24 years in the USA. British epidemiology data does not differ by much.</p><p>Despite epidemiological data in Viet Nam not being as available as in more economically developed countries, data from the Ministry of Health last year suggest that 15 per cent of the population has stress-related mental problems, and only a fifth of such people access treatment.</p><p>In September 2018, Việt Nam News reported on the director of the National Institute of Mental Health’s (Dr Nguyễn Doãn Phương) statement that over 28 million people in Việt Nam are dealing with mental health problems, about a third of which were young people. There is greater recognition of mental health problems in Việt Nam; more people are interested in visiting health professionals and accessing appropriate treatments. This is a good development and will hopefully push for a better-resourced mental health system.</p><p>The recognition of mental health problems and the ability to seek help and avoid the sense of isolation are essential. Sustainable mental health systems need to rely on prevention; on having patients, families and communities that are well-informed and have an active role in managing their mental health; on having the ability to seek help with the right treatment at the right time; and on doing so in a way that preserved most of our resources. Mental health problems can manifest in a variety of ways, such as:</p><ul><li>Feeling sad or down;</li><li>Confused thinking or reduced ability to concentrate;</li><li>Excessive fears or worries, or extreme feelings of guilt;</li><li>Extreme mood changes, ‘highs’ and ‘lows’;</li><li>Excessive anger, hostility or violence;</li><li>Inability to cope with daily problems or stress;</li><li>Withdrawal from friends and activities;</li><li>Significant tiredness, low energy;</li><li>Problems sleeping;</li><li>Major changes in eating habits;</li><li>Detachment from reality;</li><li>Paranoia;</li><li>Hallucinations;</li><li>Alcohol or drug abuse;</li><li>Sex drive changes;</li><li>Suicidal thinking.</li></ul><p>These symptoms can indicate the presence of specific psychiatric conditions, like a mood disorder such as depression or bipolar affective disorder, an anxiety disorder or a psychotic illness. When identified promptly these conditions are often treated effectively, with medications, psychological treatments, changes in lifestyle and additional support.</p><p>The identification of these problems can lead to difficult but important conversations about how someone can look after their own mental health or how friends and families can support each other. Our health, including mental health, is our most valuable capital, worthy of our care and attention.</p><p>Mental health problems are not a sign of weakness, or a cause for shame. It is often a sign of difficulty, of doubt, of fear and of pain; sometimes of loneliness; sometimes of loss.</p><p>On that tragic April morning, everyone lost.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Miguel de Seixas</b> is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists who studied in Portugal and the UK. Over the years, Dr. Miguel has treated people suffering from depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal tendencies, and those who have been diagnosed with mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 706,
"title": "Acute Respiratory Infections in Children",
"slug": "acute-respiratory-infections-children",
"slug_en": "acute-respiratory-infections-children",
"slug_vi": "acute-respiratory-infections-children",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 639,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_682685302.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_682685302.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-11-19",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Acute respiratory infections are the most common causes of both illness and mortality in children under five with an average of three to six episodes of ARIs annually. The proportion of mild to severe ARI varies between high- and low-income countries.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
334,
333,
332,
331,
330
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are classified as upper respiratory tract infections (URIs), from the nostrils to the vocal cords in the larynx, including the sinuses and the middle ear, or lower respiratory tract infections (LRIs), from the trachea and bronchi to the lungs.</p><p>ARIs are the most common causes of both illness and mortality in children under five with an average of three to six episodes of ARIs annually. The proportion of mild to severe ARI varies between high- and low-income countries, due to different pathogens (bacteria and virus), risk factors such as poor nutrition and access to healthcare and treatment. About 5.6 million children under the age five died in 2016, 15,000 every day, about 20 per cent due to ARI (WHO, 2017).</p><p><b>Upper respiratory tract infections</b></p><p>URIs are the most common infectious diseases, especially in children, and are commonly transmitted in crowded settings such as kindergarten. They include rhinitis (common cold), sinusitis, ear infections, acute tonsillitis, epiglottitis and laryngitis. The vast majority of URIs have a viral etiology and antibiotic treatment is not needed. Because most URIs are self-limiting, their complications are more important than the infections. Acute viral infections may predispose children to bacterial infections of the sinuses and middle ear. Coughing helps to remove mucus, preventing aspiration and LRIs as pneumonia.</p><p><b>Acute pharyngitis and tonsillitis</b></p><p>Acute pharyngitis with pharyngeal redness, swelling and tonsil enlargement is in more than 70 per cent of cases caused by viruses in young children and antibiotics are not needed. Streptococcal tonsillitis is rare in children under two years of age and more common in older children. If not treated, poststreptococcal rheumatic fever may cause inflammatory lesions in tissues such as joints and heart.</p><p><b>Lower respiratory tract infections</b></p><p>The most common LRIs in children are pneumonia and bronchiolitis. The respiratory rate is a valuable clinical sign for diagnosing acute LRI in children who are coughing and breathing rapidly. The presence of lower chest wall retraction can identify more severe cases. </p><p>The most common causes of viral LRIs tend to be seasonal. If the examination and test indicate viral causes no antibiotic treatment is needed. Inhalation of salbutamol can help to decrease inflammation in the respiratory tract, open up the airways and remove mucus.</p><p><b>Pneumonia</b></p><p>Pneumonia often presents itself with fever, difficulty of breathing and fatigue, and possibly painful breathing. Viruses are responsible for about half of all pneumonias in children. Measles, RSVs, parainfluenza, influenza type A and adenoviruses are the most common causes of viral pneumonia. Bacterial pneumonia is often caused by <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> (pneumococcus) or <i>Haemophilus influenzae</i>. Radiology and tests as full blood count and CRP may be helpful to differentiate between viral and bacterial etiology. </p><p>Atypical pneumonias with symptoms such as a dry cough, low grade fever and headaches are caused by pathogens such as <i>Mycoplasma pneumoniae</i> and <i>Chlamydia pneumoniae</i>, which can be treated with antibiotics.</p><p>Tuberculosis often presents with persistent cough for several weeks, sometimes blood in sputum, low grade fever, nightly sweating and weight loss. Tuberculosis can be treated with a combination of antibiotics. </p><p>Pneumonia is often spread in hospitals and may be difficult to treat due to high antibiotic resistance.</p><p><b>Bronchiolitis</b></p><p>Bronchiolitis occurs predominantly in the first years of life. The clinical features are rapid breathing and wheezing and in some cases lower chest wall indrawing and fever. The main cause of bronchiolitis are viruses such as RSVs, metapneumovirus, parainfluenza virus and influenza viruses.</p><p><b>Many respiratory infections can be prevented with vaccines! </b></p><p>Vaccines cause antibodies to develop in the body and protect from disease, it is as you would have a disease without being sick. Vaccination is important not only to prevent disease for the individual but also to prevent transmission in the society. If more then 80 per cent of people are vaccinated it is low risk that a disease can spread. This is called herd immunity.</p><p><b>Influenza A vaccine</b></p><p>Influenza is a serious disease that can lead to hospitalisation and sometimes even death. Every flu season is different. Millions of people get the flu every year, hundreds of thousands of people are hospitalized and thousands die. An annual seasonal flu vaccine is the best way to reduce your risk of getting sick and spreading it to others. Everyone six months of age and older is recommended to get a flu vaccine every season.</p><p><b>Hib Vaccine</b></p><p><i>Haemophilus influenzae</i> type b (Hib) is a bacteria that causes serious diseases such as meningitis (an infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord), pneumonia, epiglottis (severe swelling in the throat, making it hard to breathe), infections of the blood, joints, bones, and pericarditis (covering of the heart). It usually affects children under 5 years old. Before Hib vaccine the mortality in Hib B infections was about 5 per cent. Since use of the Hib vaccine began, the number of cases of invasive Hib disease has decreased by more than 99 per cent.</p><p><b>Pneumococcal vaccines</b></p><p><i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> is a bacteria that is the most common cause of pneumonia and meningitis. CDC recommends pneumococcal vaccines for all children younger than 2 years old, all adults 65 years or older, and people 2 through 64 years old with certain medical conditions. — <b>Family Medical Practice</b></p><p><i>*</i><b><i>Dr. Mattias Larsson</i></b><i> first came to Viet Nam in 1997 to conduct research on child infections and antibiotic use and resistance. In 2003 he defended his PhD and graduated from his medical training. Since then he has spent about half of his time in Sweden working as a physician in pediatrics and infectious diseases. The other half has been spent in Vietnam and other developing countries working with medical training and research. Dr.</i> <i>Larsson</i> <i>speaks English, Swedish, German and Vietnamese as well as some Spanish. He will complement the team at Family Medical Practice in Hanoi, and intends to participate in the development of diagnostics care and treatment towards the best international evidence based standards.</i></p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Mattias Larsson - Pediatrics, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 870,
"title": "World Diabetes Day by Nest by AIA",
"slug": "world-diabetes-day-nest-aia",
"slug_en": "world-diabetes-day-nest-aia",
"slug_vi": "world-diabetes-day-nest-aia",
"slug_ko": "world-diabetes-day-nest-aia",
"slug_ja": "world-diabetes-day-nest-aia",
"overview_image": {
"id": 403,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/WORLD_DIABETES_DAY_Nest_by_AIA_-_Nov_16_2018_2.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/WORLD_DIABETES_DAY_Nest_by_AI.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-11-16",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 8,
"name": "Health Talks",
"slug": "health-talks"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
153
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>In celebration of WORLD DIABETES DAY, our specialist Dr. Pedro L. Trigo presented an overview of one of Vietnam’s most alarming health epidemics in a talk at The Nest by AIA, Bitexco Tower.</p><p>According to the doctor, one in ten Vietnamese people have been diagnosed with diabetes – and the undiagnosed population could mean that the actual rate is twice that amount. Addressing the audience, he explained that the disease is growing rapidly in Vietnam and is actually becoming worse, with a high rate of amputation, stroke and death to be expected if it is left inadequately treated.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/WORLD_DIABETES_DAY_Nest_by_AIA_-_Nov_16_2018_6.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>Dr. Pedro suggested that the prevalence of the disease in Vietnam may be attributable to a high rate of smoking and a general genetic predisposition toward the condition. However, with the advent of changes to the nation’s diet via fast food, resulting in higher obesity rate could further impact on the already high numbers.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/WORLD_DIABETES_DAY_Nest_by_AIA_-_Nov_16_2018_4.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>The doctor’s treatment method is deceptively simple – eat healthy, exercise, regularly, avoid tobacco and excessive amounts of alcohol.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/WORLD_DIABETES_DAY_Nest_by_AIA_-_Nov_16_2018_5_QPu63t2.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>“We can change our future and the future of Vietnam’s kids with these simple tips,” he said.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 600,
"title": "Infectious Disease",
"slug": "infectious-disease",
"slug_en": "infectious-disease",
"slug_vi": "infectious-disease",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 241,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/F6D4EAF6-2F3D-4ED9-81EF-F07B685F74EE-5016-00000ED216805C3A.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/F6D4EAF6-2F3D-4ED9-81EF-F07B6.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-11-13",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Infection and its consequences are in perpetual balance between the surrounding potential organisms that can affect us, and the ability of our immune systems to develop the means to handle and control them. This is why people with a weak immune system are more at risk, whether they are babies or elderly persons, or those with a background condition that affects the immune system—which includes poor nutrition.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Some doctors would tell you that everything is infectious—in some ways, even certain psychiatric diseases are contagious! In medical terms, however, infectious diseases are those illnesses caused by external organisms—including viruses, bacteria, parasites, and some less-common vectors such as fungi and sporozoites. Some of these are easily transmitted between humans, while others are contracted from animals. They are external infections, external invaders that can cause damage.</p><p>Most people who contract such a disease won’t need to see an infectious disease (ID) specialist. Specialists usually deal with special or unusual infections, or cases where standard treatments aren’t working. An example might be when a patient’s condition is not responding to normal antibiotic treatment—an ID specialist will assess the resistance of the bacterial infection to antibiotics, and choose a more appropriate antibiotic or drug regime in complicated patients.</p><p>ID specialists work in a fascinating medical field—the domain of discovering diseases, diagnosing them, finding a treatment, and most importantly discovering how to prevent infection and arrest the spread of a disease.</p><p>When assessing means of treatment and control, it’s very important for an ID specialist to take into account three things: the potential transmissibility (how fast and easily a disease spreads), morbidity (how many people potentially become ill rather than just carry the infectious agent, and what the severity of the illness is) and mortality (how many people who become ill may die) of any given disease. The most alarming infectious diseases—which could be described as plagues—would be highly transmissible, cause many people to become sick, and have a high death toll.</p><p>Most diseases circulating in the world today are not combinations of those three dreaded factors—they are not highly transmissible while at the same time having a high rate of infectivity and causing death in high proportions. Influenza spreads extremely rapidly, although most people who contract the virus suffer only cold-like symptoms for a period of one to three weeks. HIV is transmitted only seldom via intimate contact, but it almost inevitably causes severe morbidity and fatality without treatment.</p><p>Some infectious diseases can be diagnosed clinically. The doctor is presented with a cluster of symptoms or a distinct visible symptom that may be readily diagnosed; the aspect of a chickenpox rash, for example, is easy to recognize—so you don’t have to isolate the virus or take blood to check for antibodies. You just know it when you see it.</p><p>At other times, you may see a patient who has a chronic cough or some prolonged fever, and it’s not clear what the infection is. You may need to use tests—sometimes attempting direct isolation of the organism when you find it in a place where it shouldn’t be, such as observing mycobacteria in the sputum that tells you a patient is suffering from tuberculosis.</p><p>Then you have indirect identification, not by isolating the organism itself, but by finding antibodies produced by the immune system—telling you that the immune system saw a certain organism and reacted against it.</p><p>Simply finding antibodies does not necessarily give you the answer, however, because we all carry antibodies to various kinds of infections that we may have recovered from in the past. Our bodies maintain a stock of antibodies to protect against any future possible reinfections of illnesses we’ve fought against before.</p><p>Sometimes doctors mistakenly diagnose a disease simply by not understanding what the test means— finding antibodies to a disease doesn’t necessarily mean that disease is creating the problem right now, it may be something from the past.</p><p>However, if we identify early forms of antibodies, or a rapid increase in the concentration of antibodies within a short time period, then we can be fairly certain that the immune system is reacting to a live infection. In such cases, you can connect the presence of antibodies to the disease of the patient.</p><p>The part of the world where you live is also an important consideration when making a diagnosis. An ID specialist should know the local incidence of certain diseases. If you’re in New York and somebody comes to you with a prolonged fever, you will not jump on the possibility of tuberculosis as you might here in Vietnam, because there are different incidences in different parts of the world.</p><p>This is the importance of an ID specialist, who should choose the right diagnostic tool, know how to interpret tests, and decide which will be the right medication to use, given the local epidemiology.</p><p>Infection and its consequences are in perpetual balance between the surrounding potential organisms that can affect us, and the ability of our immune systems to develop the means to handle and control them. This is why people with a weak immune system are more at risk, whether they are babies or elderly persons, or those with a background condition that affects the immune system—which includes poor nutrition. By keeping the immune system healthy and staying up to date with vaccines (including the annual flu vaccine) we are far better equipped to fight off diseases.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 685,
"title": "What is Pediatric Emergency?",
"slug": "what-pediatric-emergency",
"slug_en": "what-pediatric-emergency",
"slug_vi": "pediatricsemergency",
"slug_ko": "pediatricsemergency",
"slug_ja": "pediatricsemergency",
"overview_image": {
"id": 299,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/What_is_Pediatric_Emergency.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/What_is_Pediatric_Emergency.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-11-12",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Sometimes it is not possible to get to a child in those critical moments. This is why it’s very important for people who take care of children—even those already capable of administering first aid to an adult—to familiarize themselves with life-saving techniques that can help sustain the life of a critically injured child.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
835,
834,
833,
832,
831
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<h2><b>Dr. Takaaki Mori discusses the emerging field of Pediatric Emergency in Japan and its potential for Vietnam.</b></h2><p>Pediatric emergency is all about saving the lives of children. It’s a very different approach to providing medical care to children than that of general pediatrics. A general pediatrician will examine a child presenting with certain symptoms—for example, jaundice—and first consider what the most likely cause might be. An emergency pediatrician’s first thought will be, “what life-threatening condition could be responsible for these symptoms?” Only after ruling out the most dangerous possibilities will the pediatrician then turn to more common explanations. So while the diagnostic process might be very similar, the order in which things are done is markedly different.</p><p>While this important field of medicine is in its infancy in Vietnam, pediatric emergency practice has been around in developed countries like the USA for 30 or 40 years now. In my native Japan, pediatric emergency medical science has a very short history. I was among the first Japanese doctors to specialise in the field when a pediatric emergency department was established in the Tokyo Metropolitan Children’s Medical Center by my mentor, Dr. Nobuaki Inoue. Dr. Nobuaki had worked in the field in the US, and was keen to build the first pediatric emergency department in Tokyo. I hope very much to participate in the growth of this specialty here in Vietnam.</p><p>When I started out, three or four children’s hospitals in Japan had just been combined into one big medical center—that was our general hospital. The Tokyo government were trying to push the establishment of pediatric emergency in Tokyo, which gave Dr. Nobuaki the opportunity to build our department.</p><p>Classically, general pediatricians deal with child patients suffering from medical issues such as cold, cough and fever through to mild trauma. For critically ill child patients—those who have been victims of traffic accidents and so on—physicians who would normally attend to adult emergencies would deal with the children. This was the situation in Japan when I entered the field, and it is still the case here.</p><p>After Dr. Nobuaki returned to Japan, the pediatricians in our hospital started to deal with children suffering from critical medical and surgical conditions, following the American model. I was a pediatrician with an interest in the surgical sphere at the time, so I decided to enter pediatric emergency in Japan.</p><p>Essentially, the field is very similar to standard emergency medicine, particularly in the way we treat many kinds of emergency and medical conditions. But pediatric emergency differs in that we have to think about the child’s growth and development—we have to adjust the treatment and approach depending on the child’s age (or perhaps other conditions). For example, when we apply stitches, we follow a different procedure with a one-year-old child than with a child of ten. For some pediatric emergencies, we perform sedation in cases where an adult would not need it—for reasons of safety and to lessen their anxiety, and for the comfort of the children as well as the parents.</p><p>There is also the issue of the size of a child’s body. For pediatric emergency medicine, we have to prepare different medical equipment depending on the child’s age and weight. We usually use different types of equipment of different sizes, from infant to adolescent. An endoscope used on an adult, for example, could not possibly be used on a child. Currently, children who require such procedures in Vietnam must leave the country to receive treatment.</p><p>One hot topic in pediatric emergency medicine is the use of X-rays. People are becoming increasingly concerned about radiation exposure in children. In Japan, I was personally involved in promoting the use of ultrasound techniques in children to replace the use of X-ray and CT scans for pediatric emergency conditions. I have successfully detected conditions such as appendicitis as well as critical injuries using ultrasound rather than X-rays, sparing the patients from unnecessary radiation exposure. This is an area that stands primed for development in Vietnam, as the difference is procedural with the required equipment already available here.</p><p>One advantage that emergency pediatricians have over regular emergency doctors is that we’re quite used to the ultrasound, because we have to study neonatology during our residency in pediatrics.</p><p>What attracts me to pediatric medicine? Personally, I prefer working in an acute care setting where a quick decision is needed to treat the traumatised patient. If I administer proper treatment, the patient’s condition can change dramatically</p><p>At the Tokyo children’s medical center, we had some private ambulances for pediatric patients, similar to the modern, fully-equipped vehicles used by our medical practice here. When call-outs occurred, we would ride out to the scene, pick up the child patients and start treatment immediately while bringing them to the hospital. Prior to that, the ambulance would have to bring the child to hospital first for observation, so it would take much longer before the treatment. Accompanying the ambulance to the scene of the accident when the patient’s condition was critical—such as in the case of a brain hemorrhage—could make all the difference.</p><p>I remember one infant who was just 3–4 months old who had difficulty breathing, and went cyanotic—turning blue with low oxygen saturation. I brought the child to the clinic for aeration before intensive care. Any longer, and the infant wouldn’t have had a chance to survive. Speed is important in such cases. Quick and accurate analysis and a decision to give appropriate treatment has saved lives. It is an immensely rewarding experience to save the life of a child.</p><p>Sometimes it is not possible to get to a child in those critical moments. This is why it’s very important for people who take care of children—even those already capable of administering first aid to an adult—to familiarize themselves with life-saving techniques that can help sustain the life of a critically injured child. I would advise teachers, parents and other people who work with children in Vietnam to seek out a first aid course that includes pediatric emergency protocols. As with all emergencies, time is everything.</p><p><b>Dr. Takaaki Mori, Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Vietnam</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 830,
"title": "Breast Cancer Awareness",
"slug": "breast-cancel-awareness",
"slug_en": "breast-cancel-awareness",
"slug_vi": "breast-cancel-awareness",
"slug_ko": "breast-cancel-awareness",
"slug_ja": "breast-cancel-awareness",
"overview_image": {
"id": 363,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Breast_Cancer_Awareness_-_Oct_19_2018.png",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Breast_Cancer_Awareness_-_Oct.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-10-19",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 8,
"name": "Health Talks",
"slug": "health-talks"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
137
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>BREAST CANCER is a serious illness affecting 1 in 8 women, and it’s vitally important to be aware of the factors that put women at risk. Earlier today, our physician Dr. Jane Shadwell-Li conducted a health talk at REPSOL's corporate office speaking on the risks, symptoms and screening methods. Attendees, women and men, were advised on the importance of early detection, which is proven to save lives—the breast cancer survival rate is as high as 98% in cases that are caught early.</p><p></p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Breast_Cancer_Awareness-Oct_19_2018_3.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Breast_Cancer_Awareness_-_Oct_19_2018_1.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 682,
"title": "Breaking the Mold",
"slug": "breaking-mold",
"slug_en": "breaking-mold",
"slug_vi": "breaking-mold",
"slug_ko": "breaking-mold",
"slug_ja": "breaking-mold",
"overview_image": {
"id": 802,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/breaking_the_mold.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/breaking_the_mold.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-10-18",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "All children have the power to grow up. We parents or families should also trust our children, and we need to see them as individuals, and not raise them as if by an instruction book, which will only serve to create undue stress and pressure for these children.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
281,
280,
279,
278,
277
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>As you watch your child grow, remember that each child develops at his or her own pace and the range of normal is quite wide</b></p><p>One of the most topical issues we deal with as pediatricians in Japan is the problem of childhood developmental disorders. Just as in many other developed countries, societal stressors can cause difficulties for both children and adults, but they can be especially problematic for those children suffering from these conditions.</p><p>There has recently been considerable attention given to this phenomenon in my home country, with cases of autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disorders receiving much attention in Japanese society. It’s interesting that in countries like Vietnam, especially in developing areas, such conditions seem to be less common. It could be that there are fewer trained pediatricians capable of diagnosing them, but it could also be that in a less stressful cultural environment, such disorders are far less likely to have obvious manifestations.</p><p>The problem is that more often than not, these children cannot speak clearly about what they are feeling and experiencing, because of their stage of development or their family environment—or sometimes because of the communicative limitations caused by a developmental disorder. Younger children especially don’t have the skills to speak out; they don’t have the words to describe how they feel, and they don’t know how to approach parents or adults. These are the things that a pediatrician needs to think about when seeing a patient. We need to examine them physically, but we also need to think about all the other factors related to their symptoms.</p><p><b>What is Normal?</b></p><p>Parents often really worry about whether or not their child is normal or abnormal, but the most important thing is how they live their lives. The central issue is that those children with developmental disorders often suffer from their daily living, though they look healthy.</p><p>Japanese people, as with most Asian people, prefer to behave as a collective. I can see in Vietnam that people like to “match” each other, which is very similar to my country. However, certain kinds of people don’t fit the mold.</p><p>In Japan, we are taught to behave nicely before others and act as one. This is a skill we have to learn, and it really does require skill to see how other people are feeling and behaving, but these children with developmental disorders, although they are generally clever, cannot understand and accept what is going on, which can cause significant stress.</p><p><b>Seek to Understand</b></p><p>To help somebody in this situation, we first need to understand their character. For example, a child suffering from autism spectrum disorder, when we give them a small toy like a car or train, may just look at certain parts, unlike most babies who tend to look at the whole. They will fixate on features like the car’s little light, and they will have a special interest in that. The things they are interested in are different from others. This shouldn’t mean that they are abnormal; this should be considered a kind of skill, a character.</p><p>Sometimes in old Japanese TV shows, we would see small children who had a certain skill, who at three or four years old could identify the brand name of many different cars, or the special names of certain trains. What is important to note here is how they can use their skills for themselves and for society. We need to accept and understand what skills they have. These disorders cannot be cured, so we need to understand the character of those whom we deal with, and understand how they suffer because of their character.</p><p>Some children who have this kind of disorder might be able to perform sixth grade math at first grade level. Their skills are very amazing, but sometimes their learning disorder prevents them from writing things down or taking notes—so they cannot do well at school, especially in Japanese schools that are very strict about writing.</p><p>My job is to think about what the children are like, and explain to parents how to raise a child with such disorders, how to develop their good characteristics. If they teach their child to use a computer instead of writing down notes, maybe they can exhibit their good characteristics more, and we don’t even need to think about their difficulties. It’s the same as if someone loses their legs in an accident—if they fit prosthetic limbs, they can run again, sometimes even faster than a healthy person!</p><p>There are many children who suffer from some sort of developmental disorder who go on to lead meaningful lives. There are many professional people who have some communication disorders who simply focus on their areas of interest; they just dig and dig, and intellectually they are very competent. They have difficulties in communicating with others and in understanding their surroundings. But as long as their characters can be fully expressed, they can lead happy lives for themselves and for others.</p><p>All children have the power to grow up. We parents or families should also trust our children, and we need to see them as individuals, and not raise them as if by an instruction book, which will only serve to create undue stress and pressure for these children.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Shoji Yoshimatsu, Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1187,
"title": "First Aid Training",
"slug": "first-aid-training",
"slug_en": "first-aid-training",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 940,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/First_aid_Training_Danang_2.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/First_aid_Training_Danang_2.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-10-05",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 9,
"name": "First Aid Courses",
"slug": "first-aid-courses"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
927
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Thank you for attending the First Aid & CPR training course at Family Medical Practice Danang. We hope that you found the training informative and worthwhile. Your enthusiasm and positive spirit helped make our class together both productive and fun. Our primary goal was to improve the survival from cardiac arrest which begins with making sure everyone knows how to call Emergency Response and do First Aid & CPR. At the end of the training, our participants can be able to demonstrate the resuscitation of an adult in cardiac arrest using a simulated incident and a resuscitation training mannequins. </p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/First_aid_Training_Danang_3.jpg\" class=\"format-fullwidth\" /><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/First_aid_Training_Danang_1_SFJBNTe.jpg\" class=\"format-fullwidth\" /><p></p><p>Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions on the evaluations, we assure you that each will be given consideration so that future class will be even more of a success.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1066,
"title": "Hand Foot & Mouth Disease",
"slug": "hand-foot-mouth-disease",
"slug_en": "hand-foot-mouth-disease",
"slug_vi": "bệnh-tay-chân-miệng",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 668,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_73165327.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_73165327.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-10-04",
"category": {
"id": 1,
"name": "Announcement board",
"slug": "announcement"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 12,
"name": "Medical Alerts",
"slug": "medical-alerts"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
924,
749
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><i>MEDICAL ALERT: OCTOBER 2018</i></p><p></p><h3><b>Hand Foot & Mouth Disease</b></h3><p></p><p>Family Medical Practice’s pediatricians have seen multiple cases of Hand Foot & Mouth Disease (HFMD) being reported at our medical centers and confirmed an outbreak in our community.</p><p>HFMD usually spreads among children under the age of five, so school faculty staff and parents should be aware of how to detect this disease and prevent it from spreading.</p><p>HFMD is a viral infection with a typical rash and mouth lesions. It is caused by an enterovirus infection. The most susceptible are infants and toddlers. Adults usually are only carriers. In the past several years there have been ongoing epidemics of HFMD all over Southeast Asia.</p><p></p><p>After an incubation period of about 4–6 days, the child may develop fever, complain of a sore mouth, and refuse to eat or drink. The lesions in the mouth start as small vesicles (blisters) that turn into yellowish ulcers. They involve mainly the palate but can appear anywhere in the mouth. Soon after, several red spots may appear on the hands, feet and sometimes the buttocks. They may gradually change into grey-yellow small blisters.</p><p></p><p>The disease lasts for a few days up to a week. Since there are many different subtypes of enteroviruses, developing antibodies against one doesn't give immunity to the others. Reinfection with same type is uncommon, but getting HFMD/herpangina (a similar infection which involves only the mouth) again is common.</p><p></p><p>The main method of care for a sick child with HFMD is to make sure he drinks enough fluids during the day to ensure he remains hydrated and administer analgesia to manage the pain and fever. Mouthwashes with salty water can alleviate the pain. Soft and cold food are preferred (even ice cream). The most commonly used medications are paracetamol (e.g. Panadol, Tylenol, Efferalgan) and ibuprofen (e.g. Advil, Nurofen). Both are very effective and very safe. While using ibuprofen, it is important to make sure the child drinks properly.</p><p></p><p>The enterovirus spreads through saliva and feces. In order to minimize the spreading of the virus, good hygiene should be maintained and children should avoid sharing the same utensils or having mouth to mouth contact. It is essential to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water after using the bathroom, especially in kindergartens and daycare centers.</p><p></p><p>The disease usually is mild with no long term complications. Neurological (e.g. encephalitis—infection of the brain) and cardiac complications are extremely rare, but may lead to severe disability or death. These complications usually appear after 3–5 days of illness, especially in children younger than two.</p><p></p><p>You should seek medical help immediately if your child develops the following symptoms:</p><ul><li>Lethargy</li><li>Severe headaches</li><li>Recurrent vomiting</li><li>Significant reduction in urine output</li><li>Chest pain</li><li>Difficulty breathing</li><li>Unusual muscle movements</li></ul><p>(jerks, twitching)</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1063,
"title": "Dengue Fever in Vietnam",
"slug": "sốt-xuất-huyết-ở-việt-nam",
"slug_en": "sốt-xuất-huyết-ở-việt-nam",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 677,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_56797630.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_56797630.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-10-01",
"category": {
"id": 1,
"name": "Announcement board",
"slug": "announcement"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 12,
"name": "Medical Alerts",
"slug": "medical-alerts"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
925,
746
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><i>MEDICAL ALERT: OCTOBER 2018</i></p><h3><b>Dengue Fever In Vietnam</b></h3><p>Dengue fever is a disease ranging from mild to severe caused by four related viruses spread by the Aedes mosquito. "Milder"dengue fever causes high fever, rash, severe headache, muscle and joint pain. More severe but much rarer forms of the disease—dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome—can additionally cause severe bleeding, a sudden drop in blood pressure (shock) and even death (very rare).</p><p><br/></p><p><b>TREATMENT</b></p><p>If you have any signs or symptoms of dengue fever, please visit a Family Medical Practice medical center. We have the expertise to diagnose and manage this disease. We can perform specific blood tests to diagnose dengue fever and rule out other diseases that present in a similar fashion—such as malaria, influenza, leptospirosis and typhoid fever.</p><p>No specific treatment for dengue fever exists, and most people do recover—but supportive care is essential, so drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration from vomiting and high fever. Also take acetaminophen (Tylenol) or paracetamol to alleviate pain and reduce fever. Don't take aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) as these can increase the risk of bleeding complications.</p><p>If you do develop a severe form of the disease, you will need hospital care. Hospital treatment will involve supportive care as an in-patient with analgesics, intravenous (IV) fluid and electrolyte replacement, blood pressure monitoring and sometimes transfusion to replace blood loss (very rare).</p><p><b>PREVENTION</b></p><ul><li>The best way to avoid dengue fever is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes that carry the disease. No vaccine is available yet to prevent dengue. To reduce your risk of mosquito bites, minimize your exposure to mosquitoes:</li><li>Schedule outdoor activities for times when this kind of mosquito is less prevalent. Avoid being outdoors at dawn, dusk and early evening, when more mosquitoes are about.</li><li>Wear long-sleeved shirts, long pants, socks and shoes.</li><li>Stay in air-conditioned or well-screened housing.</li><li>Check for sources of stagnant water near your house and garden—these are places where the mosquito that transmits dengue/zika/chikungunya fever breed and where the larvae live.</li><li>Use repellent with a 10–30% concentration of DEET on your skin. Choose the concentration based on the hours of protection you need—a 10% concentration of DEET is effective for about two hours; higher concentrations last longer.</li><li>Chemical repellents can be toxic, so use only the amount needed. Don't use DEET on the hands of young children or on infants under 2 months of age. Instead, cover your infant's stroller or playpen with mosquito netting when outside.</li></ul><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><hr/><p></p><hr/><p></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 579,
"title": "Sun, Skin, Scar",
"slug": "sun-skin-scar",
"slug_en": "sun-skin-scar",
"slug_vi": "sun-skin-scar",
"slug_ko": "sun-skin-scar",
"slug_ja": "sun-skin-scar",
"overview_image": {
"id": 227,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/0C370DBF-4842-4B23-89E0-8DE6AF5198EA-5016-00000ECDD076F526.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/0C370DBF-4842-4B23-89E0-8DE6A.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-10-01",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "It’s very important to treat actinic keratosis, as the mutations in the cells can lead to the development of squamous cell carcinomas and cancer. The fact is that actinic keratosis has a 10–30 percent chance of becoming, over a period of around ten years, a squamous cell carcinoma.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
88,
87
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Actinic keratosis is a precancerous lesion that can develop into a carcinoma. It normally appears in sun-exposed areas—as opposed to melanomas, which can appear anywhere on the skin.</p><p>It’s typically a patch of raw skin that looks a little like eczema, but instead of appearing in areas of flexure (such as behind the knees or elbows) it appears on the “roof ” of the body; the ears, nose, scalp (especially in people with fair skin and not much hair), the back of the arms, the back of the hands. Sometimes it’s not so visible—it might look normal, but feel somehow wrong—or it could be raised, scaly, non-healing, sometimes itchy or burning. When we see a skin lesion with these features, diagnosis can be relatively straightforward.</p><p>They’re very common in people who are frequently exposed to the sun— sailors, surfers, beach-lovers, pool-lovers. It’s typical in older men, but can occur early depending on the type of skin; especially with people who have many freckles or who were sunburned when they were a young child when the skin is comparatively weak. They don’t occur as broad rashes, but more like mushrooms— you might have two or three, four maximum, not very close together. On the scalp, however, there can be many. The interesting thing is that they can be mostly invisible, so the skin changes happen much earlier than when the effects can be seen visually.</p><p>It’s very important to treat this condition, as the mutations in the cells can lead to the development of squamous cell carcinomas and cancer. The fact is that actinic keratosis has a 10–30 percent chance of becoming, over a period of around ten years, a squamous cell carcinoma. So if we find it, we don’t give it a chance.</p><p>There are different strategies of treatment. One of the strategies is “kill on the spot.” You see the lesion and you freeze it or treat it with something that is destructive. Normally on this kind of lesion, it’s not necessary to do a biopsy, you don’t need to make a cut. But most skin clinics choose “destroy on sight.” It’s done repeatedly—once you have some, you have to go back after a few months to check for more.</p><p>There are also certain “field treatment” strategies using an immune stimulator called imiquimod. An alternative product is ingenol mebutate, which is derived from the plant Euphorbia peplus. These medicines burn the cancer cells via a direct chemical reaction. Imiquimod increases the skin’s immune awareness toward anything that is strange (and especially viral), which is why we use it to treat warts and cancer. When you put imiquimod on your body, if you have a healthy immune system, it triggers a very strong inflammatory reaction—not only in the lesions that you are treating, but also in the neighboring skin. The visual effect is very ugly, but it disappears after about a week or two and takes with it the existing lesions and any potential ones that are developing unseen. Finally, the skin is rejuvenated, and usually looks fresher and healthier than it did before, free of spots.</p><p>It’s good to examine your skin for anything that doesn’t heal, is pinky, scaly or scar-like. Actinic keratosis typically has volume or an atrophy; they can get discolored or have a whitish, spidery aspect. Any lesions like this that are raw and don’t heal should warrant a dermatological check-up. At the clinic, we can examine the skin and do a dermoscopic check to see if treatment is necessary.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 722,
"title": "Traveler's Guide: Bites and Stings",
"slug": "travelers-guide-bites-and-stings",
"slug_en": "travelers-guide-bites-and-stings",
"slug_vi": "travelers-guide-bites-and-stings",
"slug_ko": "travelers-guide-bites-and-stings",
"slug_ja": "travelers-guide-bites-and-stings",
"overview_image": {
"id": 334,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Bee_Sting.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Bee_Sting.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-09-17",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Most bites or stings are quite minor, causing little more than redness, itching, stinging or mild swelling. However, some are more severe and can result in an allergic reaction, which will require medical intervention.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
876,
875,
874,
873,
872
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Every year, millions of people around the world are bitten or stung by insects, which account for a great majority of the species of animals on the planet. Most bites or stings are quite minor, causing little more than redness, itching, stinging or mild swelling. However, some are more severe and can result in an allergic reaction, which will require medical intervention.</p><p><b>The Difference Between a Bite and a Sting</b></p><p>When an insect bites you, it uses its mouth parts, while an insect that stings you uses a stinger on the back of its body. Biting insects like mosquitoes and ticks can infect you with diseases, while stinging insects such as wasps, bees and fire ants do not carry disease but can inject you with venom that can cause skin inflammation and sometimes a severe form of allergic reaction.</p><p><b>Mosquito Bites</b></p><p>Bites from mosquitoes produce small red itchy lumps on your skin, and some may develop into blisters. They may spread infections (malaria, dengue fever, chingkugunya and other diseases) and cause symptoms such as fever, chills, headaches, generalized bodyaches and rashes.</p><p><b>Sandfly Bites</b></p><p>Sand fly bites are painful and may cause small red bumps and blisters which can be incredibly itchy. If you give in to the itch, these bumps and blisters can become infected or cause skin inflammation, or dermatitis. </p><p><b>Tick Bites</b></p><p>Bites are not usually painful, and you may not even realize that you have been bitten.</p><p><b>Bedbug Bites</b></p><p>These develop into itchy red bumps that may be found in straight lines across the skin (neck, arms and legs).</p><p><b>Mite Bites</b></p><p>These cause very itchy red lumps on the skin and may cause scabies.</p><p><b>Spider Bites</b></p><p>Spider bites leave painful small puncture marks on the skin, causing redness and swelling. Some are venomous and may produce the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting and dizziness—and some may develop a severe form of allergic reaction.</p><p><b>Bee and Wasp Stings</b></p><p>Bee stings feel the same as a wasp sting. They are painful with redness and swelling. For bee stings, the sting is often left in the wound.</p><p><b>If You Get Stung/Bitten?</b></p><p>When stung, quickly remove the stinger if it’s still present in your skin. Don't pinch the sting with your fingers or tweezers, because you may spread the venom. Some may develop a severe form of allergic reaction and the following symptoms should be observed: difficulty breathing, swelling of face, eyelids, lips and ears, feeling dizzy, vomiting and diarrhea. You need to seek medical attention if these symptoms develop.</p><p>If being bitten by a tick that is still attached to your skin, remove it as soon as possible to reduce the risk of catching a disease. Wash your skin with water and soap afterwards, then apply an antiseptic cream to the skin around the bite. Ticks can cause Lyme disease, and some may develop the typical bull’s eye rash and symptoms such as fever with headaches. You need to seek medical attention if the following symptoms develop: persistent rashes that don’t improve with antihistamines or antiseptic creams, multiple red raised spots on your skin with swelling of the face, difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting or diarrhea, systemic symptoms like fever, generalised body aches, chills and bulls eye/target lesion on the skin.</p><p><b>Prevention</b></p><p>Take the following measures to help prevent bites and stings:</p><ul><li>Wear long-sleeved shirts, shoes and pants when going outside in the early morning, late afternoon and evenings. This includes long sleeve pants, long sleeve shirts with a collar and closed in shoes.</li><li>Keep foods and drinks covered when you are outside.</li><li>Apply insect repellant spray and use it according to directions, particularly when applying repellent to children. Focus on areas such as your ankles, neck and scalp.</li><li>Avoid stepping on ant mounds.</li><li>Avoid localities, especially at dawn and dusk. These are known to be frequented with biting midges. </li><li>When indoors, use ceiling and pedestal fans as a deterrent. Midges don’t like air currents and will potentially stay away. Mosquito coils also work reasonably well.</li></ul><p><b>Management</b></p><p>Insects bites produce an inflammatory reaction at the site of the bite, which presents for a few minutes. They cause itchiness with redness and sometimes swelling. The local reaction may subside in a few hours, while others persist and can become a nuisance or may lead to severe allergic reactions.</p><p>Management of local reactions includes the use of oral anti-histamines and some mild potency corticosteroid creams. For those who develop some systemic symptoms (fever, bodyaches, headaches, fatigue) and severe form of allergic reactions, immediate doctor’s consultation is recommended.</p><p>You are advised to maintain vigilance at all times. Bites or stings may be small, but they can be very dangerous when it comes to disease.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Doctor Christopher M. Suazon, Director, Danang Family Medical Practice</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 679,
"title": "Are you Bipolar?",
"slug": "are-you-bipolar",
"slug_en": "are-you-bipolar",
"slug_vi": "are-you-bipolar",
"slug_ko": "are-you-bipolar",
"slug_ja": "are-you-bipolar",
"overview_image": {
"id": 686,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_696763021.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_696763021.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-09-12",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "I have witnessed painful moments during treatment when someone recovering from a manic phase realises the implications and consequences of their behaviour. That is part of what makes bipolar such a tragic condition that can destroy people’s lives.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
309
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Mental illness is often experienced in loneliness and isolation, no matter where in the world the sufferer lives.</p><p>In Vietnamese society, mental illness is still considered a shameful affliction, and most only think of the stereotyped psychiatric disorders, with sufferers behaving erratically and potentially dangerously. The stigma of mental illness can lead to additional suffering and can be an obstacle to people accessing timely and appropriate treatment.</p><p>With education, attitudes are changing, and many people are interested in getting more information, in promoting good mental health and in understanding specific psychiatric conditions.</p><p>Bipolar affective disorder is a severe mental illness, present across cultures. With skillful diagnosis and treatment, the clinical outcomes, prognosis and associated risks are significantly improved.</p><p>Locals and expatriates from different cultural backgrounds with bipolar affective disorder share a crucial challenge in Vietnam: they need to establish an effective system to manage their condition and minimise the chance of a relapse with less support than would be available in other parts of the globe.</p><p>Understanding a little about bipolar affective disorder, and sharing this knowledge with friends and family is an essential part of a system to manage one’s mental health. To really understand what this illness is and how to recognise it, we need to take a closer look at what we mean when we talk about bipolar.</p><h4><b>The Condition</b></h4><p>Bipolar affective disorder, once known as manic depression, is considered a severe mental illness, at times requiring a high level of care or even hospital treatment. At present there is no known cure, but symptoms can be managed with appropriate and timely treatment.</p><p>What typifies the disorder are relatively prolonged episodes of depression, mania (or in a less severe degree, hypomania) and normality. It tends to affect people in the prime of their lives, and is a significant cause of disability, associated with higher rates of divorce, employment issues, hospitalisations, imprisonment and suicide. Given its potentially devastating impact, it is a condition that warrants treatment. With appropriate medication, psychological interventions and a good awareness of the early signs of relapse, it can be managed well. But it is a chronic condition, so it will not simply disappear.</p><p>There are different types of bipolar affective disorder, the most common known as bipolar disorder types I and II.</p><p>Mania is a term representing a significant change in mental state. Somebody suffering from a manic episode can have spectacularly unusual behavior, involving, for example, reckless driving, public nudity, extreme sexual impropriety, unbridled spending of money, or physical violence. They may have racing thoughts, incoherent speech, hyperactivity, over-talkativeness, extreme impulsivity, no need to sleep, too much energy, euphoria, and may not measure the consequences of their actions. Some people will have psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations or delusional beliefs. There is often a need for hospital treatment, sometimes in special units with greater security if the risk to the patient or to others so requires.</p><p>I have witnessed painful moments during treatment when someone recovering from a manic phase realises the implications and consequences of their behaviour. That is part of what makes bipolar such a tragic condition that can destroy people’s lives.</p><p>In bipolar type I, these manic episodes are so severe that people cannot function normally when experiencing them. If one can still maintain a reasonable degree of functioning, then we are likely dealing with a hypomanic episode. People who are not familiar with one’s habits may not notice the departure from normal behaviour.</p><p>Hypomania is more characteristic of bipolar type II, although <i>depression</i> usually represents the greatest burden of the illness, with long depressive episodes and often delays in diagnosis, primarily due to non-recognition of hypomanic episodes, which can delay the correct treatment. The depressive phase is extremely debilitating, and it can drag on for month after nightmarish month.</p><h4><b>Treatment</b></h4><p>There are mainly three categories of pharmacological treatments available to sufferers of bipolar disorder: mood stabilisers, and on some occasions, antidepressants. There are also two periods of treatment: the acute treatment of an active episode; and the longer-term maintenance treatment primarily with mood stabilisers to prevent further episodes.</p><p>There are several treatment guidelines and protocols available, but an effective treatment plan needs to be individualised, taking into account the severity of the illness, the frequency and distribution of the episodes, the risks that those episodes carry and the support systems available to the person. In addition, psychological therapies of different modalities can be very important, especially in the depressive phases.</p><p>Although we still can’t talk of a cure for bipolar affective disorder, treatment is often effective and recovery is possible. I have seen several patients over the years who got their condition under control and went on to live fulfilling lives.</p><h4><b>Relapse Prevention</b></h4><p>In a chronic condition like bipolar affective disorder, it is important to recognise the early warning signs of a relapse, be it a depressive or manic one. I usually work with people with bipolar disorder and their families to create “wellbeing plans” that can help them take control of the disorder and manage the symptoms early, before they become a full-blown episode.</p><p>The idea is to empower the person to manage their condition by gaining awareness of how the condition manifests in their particular case, identifying subtle changes that may indicate their mental health is again at risk and designing an action plan that allows the person to remain in charge of their own mental health. For example, when someone starts to notice increased stress, irritability, or that it takes them longer to get to sleep, the plan reminds them of what remedial action to take, when to ask for help, who to contact, or when to get to a medical centre.</p><p>In a case of relapse, it is important that action is taken promptly. A wellbeing plan is a reminder, a tool to make sure that the patient is actively managing both their general mental health and the particular mental illness. By being informed and proactive, managing bipolar affective disorder can be a lot less daunting.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Miguel de Seixas, Psychiatrist, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 681,
"title": "Go With the Flow",
"slug": "go-flow",
"slug_en": "go-flow",
"slug_vi": "go-flow",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 269,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/cm08623938.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/cm08623938.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-09-11",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "It can be hard for a parent to know just when to start talking to their daughters about periods. The time when the period starts can be frightening for a girl, especially if it happens outside the home. In general, it’s a good idea to bring up the subject (in terms that hey would understand) at about the age of 9 to make sure they’re prepared for the big day.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
276,
275,
274
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>Start talking about menstruation to your daughter early and often</b></p><p>It can be hard for a parent to know just when to start talking to their daughters about periods. The time when the period starts can be frightening for a girl, especially if it happens outside the home. In general, it’s a good idea to bring up the subject (in terms that hey would understand) at about the age of 9 to make sure they’re prepared for the big day. If they have a friend who has started, that’s a very good opportunity to open a discussion; to say, “Hey, what do you think about that? What do you think is going to happen to you? Do you want to talk about it?” Using TV ads for sanitary pads or tampons can also be a good way to start a conversation. Or simply ask your daughter what she already knows.</p><p>Starting to have periods is a part of growing up for girls. Periods usually start to occur around the same time as other changes happen to the body, such as starting to develop breasts or to grow pubic or underarm hair. Most girls get their period between 12 and 13 years of age—however, it can be anywhere between 9 and 15, and in a small number of girls it can even start a bit earlier or a bit later. If a girl hasn’t started her period by the age of 16, then she should visit a doctor for a checkup. It doesn’t mean that anything is seriously wrong, it just means that we have to find out why. Some common reasons are stress, overexercising, under-eating, loss of weight, obesity, or a hormonal imbalance.</p><p><b>The Basics</b><br/>So what happens during a period? It’s the time of each month, for several days, where some blood will be discharged through the vagina from the lining of the womb following hormonal changes. The amount of blood that is lost varies between girls, although the heaviest blood flow is within the first few days.Bleeding can last from one to eight days, but on average five days is normal.</p><p>Prior to and during the period, some pain in the abdomen—period pain— is normal and common. Hormonal changes can also cause water retention in various parts of the body causing breast tenderness and slight enlargement, and the tummy may swell a little before a period. Headache, fatigue and mild mood changes can also be common—to have such symptoms before a period is normal. Sometimes the symptoms prior to periods can be more severe. This is then called “premenstrual syndrome” or “premenstrual tension.”</p><p>When such symptoms do happen and they start to interfere with a girl’s life—for example, she doesn’t want to go to school, she’s prevented from doing any exercise, or it’s affecting her general wellbeing or mental health—then it is certainly recommended to see a doctor, especially if her symptoms are really bad from the first-ever period or if each cycle is getting worse and worse .</p><p><b>Hormones</b><br/>Females have small organs called ovaries in the lower part of their tummy. The ovaries lie on either side of the uterus (womb). The ovaries start to produce female hormones in girls around puberty, which causes changes to the lining of the womb. This is what causes periods.</p><p>The menstrual cycle is the time between the start of one period and the start of the next one. The average length of a menstrual cycle is 28 days—however, anything between 24 and 35 days is common.</p><p>During the cycle, various changes occur in the body. The changes are controlled by chemical substances called hormones, which act like messengers.</p><p>There are two main female hormones that trigger periods—estrogen and progesterone, which change in amount during the cycle. In the first half of the cycle, estrogen increases and causes a thickening of the lining of the womb; it gets very thick and very red and boggy. Ovulation occurs about halfway through the cycle (about 14 days after the start of the period). Ovulation is a release of an egg into the fallopian tubes (the tubes connecting the ovaries to the womb). During the second half of the cycle, after ovulation, progesterone increases. Progesterone then causes a swelling of the wall of the womb so that it is ready to receive a fertilized egg. If the egg is not fertilized, the levels of progesterone and estrogen fall, and a sloughing/shedding of the wall of the womb occurs, and a new cycle begins.</p><p><b>Symptoms Relating to Periods</b><br/>In general, if a girl experiences a change from the usual pattern that lasts for several periods, it may be abnormal and she should see a doctor. Some common complications that can occur are painful periods, heavy periods, and irregular periods.</p><p><i>Irregular periods</i><br/>Irregular periods are common during the first 1–2 years of starting periods. Teenagers don’t usually produce an egg with each cycle (an “anovulatory cycle”) due to an imbalance of hormones.Because of that imbalance, eggs are not released, and the uterus breaks down outside the perfect 28-day cycle. Eventually, it all balances out, and you get the whole nice cycle of eggs being released at 14 days, just when the uterus is ready, and then if pregnancy does not occur, you shed everything at about 28 days.</p><p>If periods are still irregular after the first two years of starting, or if the girl has bleeding in between her periods, she should see a doctor.</p><p><i>Periods That Stop (Amenorrhea)</i><br/>Pregnancy is the most common reason for periods to stop. However, it is not uncommon to miss the odd period for no apparent reason. Apart from pregnancy, other causes of periods stopping include stress, losing weight, exercising too much and hormonal problems such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (POS), or thyroid disease</p><p><i>Heavy Periods (Menorrhagia)</i><br/>This is common. Periods are considered heavy if they are affecting your life and causing problems. For practical purposes, a period is probably heavy if it causes flooding through to clothes or bedding, frequent changes of sanitary towels or tampons, the need to wear double pads, passing large blood clots, or restrictions to normal life activities because of the heavy bleeding.</p><p>Some causes of heavy periods are fibroids, infections, hormonal changes, blood clotting disorders (this should be especially considered in girls who have had heavy periods since menarche) and in many cases the cause is unknown.</p><p><i>Painful periods (Dysmenorrhoea) </i><br/>It’s common for girls to experience an ache in the lower abdomen, back and the tops of the legs, especially in the first few days of a period. Some girls have more pain than others. In most cases, the cause of the pain during periods is not clear. When the pain is severe enough to affect her day-to-day activities, she should see a doctor. While sometimes a cause is not found, some causes are infection, fibroids and endometriosis. The doctor will normally ask about any other associated symptoms such as fever or vaginal discharge.</p><p>One cause of painful periods is something called endometriosis, which is when some of the cells or tissue of the lining of the womb are found outside of the womb, such as in the fallopian tube, the ovaries; and sometimes they’re present in the peritoneal cavity, which is the mass of ligaments and tissues surrounding the womb and the ovaries. They can be tiny, little balls of cells and tissues, and they respond the same way as the lining of the uterus does to hormones. So if these little bunches of cells end up anywhere else, they can cause period-type pain. Sometimes endometriosis can cause heavy bleeding. After diagnosis of endometriosis a doctor will discuss several options for treatment.</p><p><b>TEEN MENSTRUATION FAQS</b></p><p><i>Is the menstruation the first manifestation of puberty?</i></p><p>Not necessarily. It could be pubic hair, underarm hair, body odor, or breast development—it’s different for different girls.</p><p><i>What is the proper age to wear a tampon?</i></p><p>You can start whenever you want, but many teenage girls are uncomfortable with them and they can take some getting you used to. It may be advisable to start out with sanitary pads, just to get used to the period first, and then moving onto tampons. Tampons come in different sizes and styles, so starting with the smallest one would be the most appropriate to get used to it Larger sizes can be used if your period is heavier or during the night. Sometimes you may like to mix and match- using tampons for swimming but pads at other times.</p><p><i>Are tampons more convenient to use than pads?</i></p><p>From a certain point of view, they can be more convenient—for example, if you wanted to go swimming you could use tampons as opposed to sanitary pads. Often girls find that in their first few days of a period, they prefer pads more than tampons, because they’re changing quite regularly, but this is just a preference. Some people prefer using pads for the first few days, and then when it slows down they can use tampons, which they can leave in for a few more hours, and it becomes a little easier. It’s about what’s right for you; there’s no right or wrong way.</p><p><i>Is pregnancy possible from the first period?</i></p><p>Yes it is possible, although, as discussed above, most girls do not always release an egg with each cycle in the first 1-2 years.</p><p><i>Can you get pregnant during your period?<br/></i>Although unlikely, it is possible to get pregnant by having sex during your period. Sperm can stay alive inside you for up to five days, so if you ovulate early and have a short menstrual cycle, then it is possible to become pregnant</p><p><i>Is depression a normal symptom of menstruation?<br/></i>Depression is not a normal symptom. Irritability and fatigue can be expected, but depression could be a sign of more serious premenstrual syndrome. You should see a doctor.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Olivia Wyatt - Internist, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 663,
"title": "Frightening Facts About Trampolines",
"slug": "frightening-facts-about-trampolines",
"slug_en": "frightening-facts-about-trampolines",
"slug_vi": "frightening-facts-about-trampolines",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 281,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/84B3C022-0768-4C61-A220-073262E76875-5456-00000F5787D4D275.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/84B3C022-0768-4C61-A220-07326.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-09-06",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "The use of trampolines can end up in injuries such as sprains, fractures of limbs, teeth and facial bones and even in serious head and spine injuries… the study found that patients are more likely to be male and the most severe injuries occur in children on average age of 13. It’s not surprising as this age group often try more dangerous jumps and flips, and tend to be more aggressive when sharing a trampoline with friends.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
238,
237,
236,
235,
234
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Children and injuries often come hand in hand. Every child is bound to fall over or hurt themselves as they grow up, it’s an instrumental part of learning and developing a sense of awareness to the world around you.</p><p>Trips, scuffs and bruises are an inevitable part of childhood, unless you’re planning on surrounding your child in bubble wrap. These kinds of minor injuries can be patched up with a plaster and cuddle from a parent, but there are some more serious injuries that can be avoided altogether with a bit of sensibility.</p><h4><b>Head Bangers</b></h4><p>Bouncing up and down on a trampoline whilst on holiday, Theo, son of Jonny Edbrooke Director of AsiaLIFE, and his older and bigger friend mistimed their jumps. As his friend came down, Theo was hurled into the air, and his head was launched into the other child’s teeth. Gallons of blood and a quick trip to the emergency department ensued. In the hospital waiting room, Theo and his parents noticed a video warning of the dangers of trampolines.</p><p>Perhaps if the video had been seen before Theo and his friend were on the trampoline, their collision could have been avoided. But life doesn’t always work as smoothly as that.</p><p>Dr Jonathan Halevy, the medical director for the pediatric division at Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City, says trampolines can be more dangerous than we realise.</p><h4><b>Call for Ban</b></h4><p>Interestingly, the American Academy of Pediatrics warns against the use of trampolines, at home or in parks, since they can cause serious injuries, he says. The American Medical Association is also in agreement, and believes that children should not use backyard trampolines, and the sale of trampolines for private recreational use should be stopped.“The use of trampolines can end up in injuries such as sprains, fractures of limbs, teeth and facial bones and even in serious head and spine injuries,” Dr Halevy says.</p><p>“A study published in 2016 found that injuries from trampoline parks are on the rise, since they have become so much more popular.“The study found that patients are more likely to be male and the most severe injuries occur in children on average age of 13. It’s not surprising as this age group often try more dangerous jumps and flips, and tend to be more aggressive when sharing a trampoline with friends.”</p><h4><b>Safety Equipment</b></h4><p>Evidently Theo’s injury is not uncommon among children using trampolines. Dr Halevy said if a parent still decides to allow their child to use a trampoline, they need to make sure the child wears adequate protective gear, including a helmet.</p><p>Further injuries can be avoided by making sure that the trampoline is secure, with a safety net and pads and that the trampoline is level with the ground level in case jumps are more horizontal than vertical. However, a study published by the American Medical Association in 1998 found that prevention strategies such as warning labels, public education, and adult supervision were inadequate to prevent trampoline-based injuries, as most of them occur in backyards, with adult supervision.</p><p>The main cause of injury in Theo’s case was the two friends bouncing on the trampoline at the same time. To avoid collision-based injuries, it is best to keep the trampoline to one child at a time.</p><p>Playgrounds are often another place where injuries occur. While it would be ridiculous to never let your child play on the swings or monkey bars, there are things you can do as parents to ensure your children are as safe as possible in these situations.</p><h4><b>Danger Danger Everywhere</b></h4><p>The US Department of Health and Human Services states that the most common injuries occur on monkey bars and climbing equipment in public playgrounds. Among those that are injured, children aged five to nine have the highest rates of visits to the emergency department. As a parent, there are a few things you can do without stopping the fun altogether. For equipment, such as monkey bars, checking that there is a soft material underneath such as wood chips, sand, or mulch to cushion your child if they fall. After all, monkey bars are a challenge to hold onto.</p><p>Another step is to read the signs on playground equipment, as they often state which ages it is designed for. It is best to let your child enjoy themselves on activities designed for their age, height or weight rather than put them at risk of injury by climbing up something much more difficult than their abilities can handle.</p><p>The US Department of Health and Human Services states that well-maintained playgrounds pose fewer risks to children, as they won’t have rusty or broken equipment. Checking that there are guardrails in good condition, and not rusting away, can also help to prevent falls.</p><p>While a grazed knee isn’t the end of the world, looking out for tree stumps, rocks or uneven surfaces that could pose a trip hazard, and pointing them out to your child can help. This makes your child more aware of their surroundings, and can provide you with peace of mind as they run around the park.</p><h4><b>Hydration</b></h4><p>When playing outdoors in high temperature, as is often the case here in Ho Chi Minh City, heat-related injuries or illness can occur. To mitigate this make sure your child stays hydrated, and is effectively covered from the sun during peak-times. This will help ensure they are less likely to suffer the effects of heat exhaustion.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Jonathan Halevy, Head of Pediatrics, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 591,
"title": "Baby’s First Test",
"slug": "babys-first-test",
"slug_en": "babys-first-test",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 828,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Babys_first_test.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Babys_first_test.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-07-26",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Newborn screening is important because affected babies do not show any problems at birth and look “normal.” By the time any symptoms appear, the baby’s development may already have been impaired.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
42,
41,
40
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>It’s sometimes said that “an ounce of prevention is worth a whole pound of cure.” Early identification of an illness or condition will almost certainly lead to better medical outcomes for a developing child. This is the essence of why newborn screening is so important—it is an opportunity to catch a problem in its earlier stages and identify it before it potentially gets worse or causes further complications.</p><p>Newborn screening has been around since the 1960s in Western countries. Due to technological advances throughout the years, the scope of this screening has expanded. In Vietnam, it has already been going on for a number of years, although the newborn screening center was only formally established in 2014.</p><p>Newborn screening is important because affected babies do not show any problems at birth and look “normal.” By the time any symptoms appear, the baby’s development may already have been impaired. Thus, newborn screening allows the conditions to be identified early. With early detection, the conditions can be treated or managed in most cases.</p><p>A standard screening involves a series of tests that are administered to newborn babies to identify illnesses that may cause a serious medical condition and could affect the child’s growth and development if left untreated. Because the test is performed before an individual has any observable symptoms, it allows for a condition to be identified and managed before any problem occurs.</p><p>It’s important for parents to understand that newborn screening DOES NOT diagnose an illness in itself—it is rather used to identify children who need further confirmatory tests. Children who test positive are referred to a pediatrician who will conduct an examination and make a diagnosis.</p><p>The usual procedure is to take a very small amount of blood from the heel of a newborn 24–48 hours after birth. The timing of the test is very important—doing it too early may decrease the sensitivity of the tests, and doing the test later after the newborn period may not be as accurate.</p><p>There is no universal format—different countries have different illnesses tested for under newborn screening programs. In Vietnam, public reports suggest that it is usually done as a matter of routine. There are a number of tests available (depending on the facility), but most of them come with a fee—whereas the government provides two free newborn screening tests to detect for Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and for congenital hypothyroidism in newborns. There are sometimes issues with parents being reluctant to have the test done, usually as a result of lack of knowledge or misinformation.</p><p>When a baby is lacking in the G6PD enzyme, they may develop bleeding and anemia if exposed to certain food or drugs. It’s very important to know if this is the case so a parent can avoid foods that will cause these symptoms. Congenital hypothyroidism is a condition resulting from a lack of thyroid hormones—if left untreated, it may lead to growth failure and intellectual impairment.</p><p>Some international hospitals in Vietnam offer a broader range of tests to check for more metabolic diseases. Likewise, a hearing screening is done prior to discharge—early identification and intervention of hearing loss can prevent severe psychosocial, educational, and speech delay. There is also a critical congenital heart disease screening that is usually performed during the first 24 hours of life. It’s a simple procedure and check of the baby’s O2 saturation (level of oxygen in the blood) with a probe. This test determines if there is any suspicion of a congenital heart disease, so that an early diagnosis can be made.</p><p>Common screening tests can include:</p><ul><li>Tandem Mass Spectrometry<ul><li>Fatty Acid Oxidation Disorders</li><li>Organic Acid Disorders</li><li>Amino Acid Disorders</li><li>Hyperalimentation</li><li>Medium Chain Triglyceride Oil Administration</li><li>Treatment with Benzoate, Pivalic Acid, or Valproic Acid</li><li>Liver Disease</li><li>Presence of EDTA Anticoagulants in blood specimen</li><li>Carnitine Uptake Deficiency</li></ul></li><li>Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH)</li><li>Galactosemia (GAL)</li><li>Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH)</li><li>Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency (G6PD)</li><li>Biotinidase Deficiency (BIOT)</li><li>Cystic Fibrosis (CF)</li><li>Sickle Cell Anemia (Hb S/S)</li><li>Sickle-C Disease (Hb S/C)</li><li>S-beta Thalassemia (Hb S/bTh)</li><li>Hb Variants (Var Hb)</li></ul><p>At Family Medical Practice, we have a comprehensive newborn screening package available in Hanoi, but this procedure is not usually requested in Ho Chi Minh City, although it can be arranged on request. Parents must remember that timing is critical, as the tests must be performed within 48 hours.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Agnes R. Viay</i></b> <b><i>- Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 696,
"title": "Ankle Sprains",
"slug": "ankle-sprains",
"slug_en": "ankle-sprains",
"slug_vi": "ankle-sprains",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 308,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_276800108.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_276800108.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-07-23",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "After twisting our ankle, the first thing we should do to relieve the pain and prevent more damage is to rest, keeping our foot elevated and applying ice for at least 10 minutes after covering the skin to avoid cold burns. We must visit a doctor as soon as possible to check if a fracture or any other major ligament injury is present.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
313,
312
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Twisting our ankles is a very common situation, especially when we are doing sports, using high heels, walking on the road or crossing the street. After a twist, our ankle will become painful and swollen and a purple mark or bruise might appear at the same side of the injured ligaments. This situation is medically known as an Ankle Sprain.</p><p>Ankle bones are supported by ligaments – resistant and flexible strings that protect our joints from unexpected or unnatural movements, keeping our bones in the right position. However, they can get lengthened, torn or broken if we overstretch them. Our ligaments have some special nerves inside acting like motion sensors to help our brain to control our balance and body posture.</p><p>After twisting our ankle, the first thing we should do to relieve the pain and prevent more damage is to rest, keeping our foot elevated and applying ice for at least 10 minutes after covering the skin to avoid cold burns. If someone nearby knows how to correctly apply a bandage, it might be helpful. However, we must visit a doctor as soon as possible to check if a fracture or any other major ligament injury is present.</p><p>If ligaments are seriously injured after a sprain this may lead to severe complications like subluxations, dislocations, consecutive sprains and fractures. Therefore, ankle sprains should not be underestimated. After the acute period, people could feel discomfort or instability while walking for long time or long distances, using the stairs, wearing high heels or practicing sports. This is the most common complication after a poorly treated Ankle Sprain and it is called Ankle Instability.</p><p>The appropriate orthopedic care for an ankle sprain includes an evaluation from a specialist, ankle X-rays to confirm the presence of fractures or serious ligament injuries, a soft or rigid immobilisation according to each case and a personalised therapy to reduce the swelling and to relieve the pain. Patients must be instructed to avoid stepping with the injured foot using a pair of crutches and to keep the foot elevated as much as possible. After one week, the ankle will be less swollen and painful and a second medical evaluation is necessary. Physical therapy is often required to improve our ligaments condition and to prevent ankle instability. </p><p>If an Ankle Instability is confirmed, then you will need additional image studies to evaluate your ligaments, such as ultrasound or Magnetic Resonance Image together with a dedicated and very specific Physical Therapy programme.</p><p>Sometimes, the injured ligaments may continue to hurt even after they have healed. In those cases, the application of a steroid injection therapy is recommended, a very simple procedure that can be carried out by the specialist in his own office.</p><p>In order to prevent ankle sprains while working out, remember to warm up well before training and to stretch enough at the end of every session. Be very careful on the roadsides and stairs when using high heels and try to prevent falls using closed shoes instead of sandals or flip flops. — <b>Family Medical Practice Vietnam</b></p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Andres Sosa - Orthopedic Surgeon, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 700,
"title": "Helicobacter Pylori",
"slug": "helicobacter-pylori",
"slug_en": "helicobacter-pylori",
"slug_vi": "helicobacter-pylori",
"slug_ko": "helicobacter-pylori",
"slug_ja": "helicobacter-pylori",
"overview_image": {
"id": 583,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Helicobacter-Pylori.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Helicobacter-Pylori.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-07-09",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a bacteria that can infect and live in the stomach. It’s presence in the stomach has been linked with gastritis, stomach ulcer and stomach cancer. However, most of the people infected are not symptomatic and the bacteria does not cause any problems.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
317
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Helicobacter pylori (<i>H. pylori</i>) is a bacteria that can infect and live in the stomach. It was identified for the first time in 1982. It’s presence in the stomach has been linked with gastritis, stomach ulcer and stomach cancer. However, most of the people infected with <i>H. Pylori</i> are not symptomatic and the bacteria does not cause any problems. The infection is more common in developing countries than in Western countries. This is usually a lifelong infection unless it is treated with medicines to eradicate the bacteria.</p><p><b>How do we catch H. pylori ?</b></p><p>The exact mechanism of transmission is not known with certainty. We probably catch it during childhood, from other child or family members. It is very rare to catch H. pylori as an adult, most of the people are infected during childhood. The bacteria stays in the stomach all the life if it is not treated. Possibilities of transmission include sharing food and utensils, contact with contaminated water, contact with vomit or stools from contaminated people.</p><p><b>How to prevent it?</b></p><p>Follow good hygiene practices. Wash hands with soap and water after going to the bathroom and before eating. Eat well washed and well cooked food. Drink water from a clean and safe source. Teach the children to do so.</p><p><b>What can</b> <b><i>H. pylori</i></b><b> do to our body?</b></p><p><i>H. pylori</i> bacteria can cause inflammation of the lining of the stomach. It can lead to chronic inflammation (gastritis), stomach ulcer and duodenum ulcer. An ulcer is a hole in the gut lining of the stomach or duodenum. <i>H. pylori</i> is the cause of the majority of the stomach and duodenum ulcers. Aspirin and non-steriodal anti-inflammatory drugs overuse can lead to ulcers. Indigestion (dyspepsia) can be caused by chronic inflammation and ulcers, secondary to <i>H. pylori</i> infection. Indigestion can have many other different origins, H. pylori is just one of them.</p><p>Some stomach cancers have been suspected to be caused by chronic inflammation and ulcers secondary to <i>H. pylori</i> infection.</p><p>Only 10 to 15 per cent of the people with <i>H. pylori</i> infection will develop symptoms or disease. Why some people will develop an ulcer or cancer and some others will not is not known yet.</p><p><b>How to be tested ?</b></p><p>Several tests are available for the diagnostic of <i>H. pylori</i> infection. One of them is a breath test. It analyses a sample of the breathing after drinking a liquid containing a substance called urea. To be accurate, the test must be performed after fasting and without having taken antibiotics and anti-acid/anti-ulcer drugs in the four previous weeks. It is simple and quick to perform.</p><p>Another possible test is a simple blood test, it will check for <i>H. pylori</i> antibodies and will say if there is an infection going on. <i>H. pylori</i> can also be detected in the stools, this test analyses a small portion of stool to look for proteins from the bacteria.</p><p>Finally, the presence of <i>H. pylori</i> can be checked during gastric endoscopy. The doctor will perform what is called a stomach biopsy, meaning taking a very small piece of the lining of the stomach for microscopic analysis.</p><p>To avoid false negative result, all those tests (except for the blood test) must be performed if the patient did not recently take anti-acid or antibiotics drugs, otherwise the test accuracy is not guaranteed.</p><p><b>Which treatment ?</b></p><p>Not everyone who is infected with <i>H. pylori</i> should be treated. Most of infected people do not have symptoms and their stomach is perfectly fine. Those people do not need treatment. For the ones with a gastritis, ulcer or a past history of ulcer, <i>H. pylori</i> should be eradicated. The reason is a successful treatment will promote the healing of the ulcer and will prevent recurrence.</p><p>The treatment include a combination of four drugs (three antibiotics and one anti-acid drug). The reason for drug combination is that it is reducing the risk of bacterial resistance to antibiotics and increase the chances for success. The duration of the treatment is usually 14 days. The possible side effects include nausea, bad taste in the mouth, diarrhea, rash and allergic reaction.</p><p>Others factors can play a role, for example smoking and drinking alcohol worsen ulcers and slow down healing. </p><p><b>After treatment</b></p><p>After a successful treatment, the risk of being reinfected is very low, the reason is most of infections occur during childhood. Children have a higher chance to get reinfected.</p><p>In a majority of people, <i>H. Pylori</i> infection does not cause any problem to the stomach. It could even contribute to the normal balance of the digestive system and have benefits for the body. That is why eradication with antibiotics is only indicated for symptomatic people.</p><p>It is usually not recommended to test all the family members if one of them is tested positive for <i>H. pylori</i> infection.— <b>Family Medical Practice</b></p><p><b><i>Dr. Mathieu Nalpas</i></b> <b><i>- Internist, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 578,
"title": "What to do after an accident?",
"slug": "what-do-after-accident",
"slug_en": "what-do-after-accident",
"slug_vi": "what-do-after-accident",
"slug_ko": "what-do-after-accident",
"slug_ja": "what-do-after-accident",
"overview_image": {
"id": 226,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/E162F400-2D29-4CC5-AF99-BBB3032331E1-5016-00000ECD91E32068.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/E162F400-2D29-4CC5-AF99-BBB30.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-07-07",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "In a lot of cases, the driver who caused the accident won’t stop, especially if a foreigner is involved, because they fear they’ll be required to pay for expensive medical treatment. Public ambulances can also be quite slow, and the emergency team may not speak English. Many locals opt to take a taxi to a medical clinic rather than rely on the public ambulance.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
86,
85,
84
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>Barbara Adam</b> <b>and Yendy Tsang</b> <b>look into what to do after a traffic accident. Photo by</b> <b>Romain Garrigue.</b></p><p>Australian Sue Wise was riding home from work on a Thursday evening when she was clipped by a large box on the back of a motorbike that zoomed past her.</p><p>The next thing she knew, she was rolling along the road watching her motorbike slide ahead of her.</p><p>“Shocked and dazed, I sat on the road for a while,” Sue said. “Suddenly two guys were trying to get me up. The guy who hit me had stopped, looked at me, and left.”</p><p>Passersby helped Sue to the side of the road, where she realised she was bleeding from her mouth, she had a broken tooth and her hands and knees were badly grazed. Someone offered to give her a lift home, but Sue knew she needed medical attention.</p><p>She tried calling friends for help, but no one picked up. “I decided to go to Family Medical Practice, as it was relatively close,” she said. “The people around me hailed a taxi and started helping me get in. Then I remembered my motorbike.”</p><p>Someone told her that “a girl” would take her motorbike to the clinic but Sue only realised she didn’t have the girl’s details once the taxi had driven away.</p><p>“I arrived at Family Medical, walked inside and they put me into a wheelchair. Then a girl came in and handed me the keys to my bike and a parking card. I was taken to the examination room and I didn’t get her name.”</p><p>Sue admits she was very lucky in the aftermath of her accident, with people stopping and helping her. She never did get the name of the girl who helped or the driver who clipped her and drove off.</p><p>This story is one of the more positive accident stories you hear in Vietnam. No major injuries, and people offering to assist.</p><p>But what are you actually supposed to do when you’ve been involved in a traffic accident?</p><p>Vietnam’s National Traffic Safety Committee advises people to notify police about any accidents by calling 113. In the event of an injury, call 115. However, it’s not clear whether any emergency operators speak English.</p><h4><b>General Medical Number</b></h4><p>If you call 115, you should be prepared to tell the operator the number of victims, the type of injuries, your location and phone number. The operator will organise the nearest traffic police and medical facility to come and help.</p><p>The National Traffic Safety Committee recommends recording as much information as you can at the scene of the accident, including the name, phone number and address of everyone involved, and any witnesses. Take photos of the scene, and any damage to the vehicles.</p><p>It’s probably also worth taking a photo of the license plates of all vehicles involved, even though not every vehicle sale is registered with authorities, so you may only be able to track the original buyer.</p><p>If the police arrive, they should give you an accident information statement, which you can use to claim insurance.</p><p>So that’s the official advice, but the reality may be very different. In a lot of cases, the driver who caused the accident won’t stop, especially if a foreigner is involved, because they fear they’ll be required to pay for expensive medical treatment.</p><p>Public ambulances can also be quite slow, and the emergency team may not speak English. Many locals opt to take a taxi to a medical clinic rather than rely on the public ambulance. </p><h4><b>Private Ambulance Service</b></h4><p>Family Medical Practice also has an ambulance service, which can be summoned by calling *9999.</p><p>You can call the number for free advice on how to handle your medical emergency, or you can call for an ambulance.</p><p>A one-year subscription to the FMP ambulance service is VND575,000 per person a year. Non-subscribers can also get an ambulance service, but the fee ranges from $80 to $225. The ambulance will take you to the most reasonable hospital and clinic for your situation.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 701,
"title": "HIV Testing and Treatment for an AIDS Free World",
"slug": "hiv-testing-and-treatment-aids-free-world",
"slug_en": "hiv-testing-and-treatment-aids-free-world",
"slug_vi": "hiv-testing-and-treatment-aids-free-world",
"slug_ko": "hiv-testing-and-treatment-aids-free-world",
"slug_ja": "hiv-testing-and-treatment-aids-free-world",
"overview_image": {
"id": 314,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_1171558306.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_1171558306.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-06-25",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "There is strong evidence to show that if enough persons living with HIV know their status by being tested and if enough people get treated, the HIV epidemic could be stopped.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
319,
318
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is spread through contaminated blood, unprotected sex, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. Healthy skin and other bodily fluids like saliva and tears do not transmit HIV.</p><p>Six to 10 years after contamination and without treatment, HIV infection leads to AIDS and death by general failure of the immune system. Since antiretroviral therapy treatment became widely available in the late 90s, HIV has become a chronic infection. People on treatment do not die from AIDS anymore and are able to live with the virus for the rest of their lives. However, there is still no vaccine against the virus available today.</p><p>Since 1981, the HIV epidemic killed 36 million people around the world. In 2016, the total number of infected people stood at 36 million people, while 1.2 million died and 1.8 million were newly infected.</p><p>Despite these terrible numbers, there is hope for the near future. The end of HIV epidemic is possible to happen within the next few decades.</p><p>In 2011, Scientists from Switzerland showed that persons living with HIV who were taking effective antiretroviral therapy were not contagious for their sexual partner.</p><p>The so-called “treatment as prevention” concept became fundamental in the fight against HIV.</p><p>Therefore, a new consensus emerged – the more people living with HIV will take treatment, the less contagious they will become and the less new contaminations will occur. A maximum of people who are living with HIV and who ignore there status must be tested. If they know they are HIV positive they are more unlikely to continue risky behaviors such as unprotected sex and unsafe intravenous drug injection, and they can access treatment</p><p>There is strong evidence to show that if enough persons living with HIV know their status by being tested and if enough people get treated, the HIV epidemic could be stopped.</p><p>It is based on this new hope that international HIV expert institutions have developed a new model of its goals called the 90-90-90 programme.</p><p>The 90-90-90 programme aims to ensure that 90 per cent of people living with HIV are aware of their infection, 90 per cent of people who know about their infection are given treatment, and 90 per cent of individuals receiving treatment do not have detectable virus in their blood.</p><p>If these goals are reached, the proportion of HIV-positive individuals who cannot infect others would increase immensely and the current epidemic would then be stopped, in the same way that the measles epidemic in young children was stopped through vaccination. A number of cases would still persist, but the scourge of AIDS would come to an end.</p><p>Access to generalised HIV testing and treatment are fundamental in reaching that goal.</p><p>In Việt Nam, where 260,000 persons live with HIV, the virus has become a public health threat. In addition to that figure, there were 11,000 new infections and 7,800 AIDS-related death in the country in 2016. According to the Ministry of Health, AIDS is one of the top 10 causes of death in Việt Nam.</p><p>The majority of Vietnamese living with HIV are residents of large cities and mountainous areas. Drug use through injections is the main mode of transmission in Vietnam and the epidemic remains concentrated in some key population groups, including female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs.</p><p>These population groups face strong stigma and discrimination from their families and society in general, making access to screening and treatment a tough challenge for them.</p><p>According to social research, recurrent barriers to HIV testing and treatment access in these populations include the dual stigmatisation of homosexuality, prostitution, and drug use with HIV/AIDS, as well as failure to protect patient confidentiality, difficulty for health providers to discuss certain issues such as sexual identity, lack of clear referral pathways and peer support, and low access to services in remote areas. In this context, HIV testing and disclosure of HIV status is often not an option for these persons.</p><p>In 2014, Việt Nam was the first country in Asia to adopt and commit to the 90-90-90 target. The Vietnamese government has set a target where 90 per cent of people living with HIV must know their status, 90 per cent of people who know their HIV-positive status must be on treatment and 90 per cent of people on treatment must have undetectable virus in their blood. </p><p>If this goal can finally be reached in the near future, it will mean the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Việt Nam. — <b>Family Medical Practice</b></p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Mathieu Nalpas - Internist, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 728,
"title": "Preventing Deep Vein Thrombosis When Traveling",
"slug": "preventing-deep-vein-thrombosis-when-traveling",
"slug_en": "preventing-deep-vein-thrombosis-when-traveling",
"slug_vi": "preventing-deep-vein-thrombosis-when-traveling",
"slug_ko": "preventing-deep-vein-thrombosis-when-traveling",
"slug_ja": "preventing-deep-vein-thrombosis-when-traveling",
"overview_image": {
"id": 331,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Preventing_Deep_Vein_Thrombosis_when_traveling.png",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Preventing_Deep_Vein_Thrombos.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-06-18",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Immobility is known to be one factor that can contribute to the formation of blood clots in the deep veins—so-called \"deep vein thrombosis” or DVT. Research has shown that DVT can result from prolonged immobility; for instance, during long-distance travel by car, bus, train or air.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
216,
215,
214,
213,
212
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Immobility is known to be one factor that can contribute to the formation of blood clots in the deep veins—so-called “deep vein thrombosis” or DVT. Research has shown that DVT can result from prolonged immobility; for instance, during long-distance travel by car, bus, train or air.</p><p>Most cases of DVT occur in the legs (calf area), but they can also occur in other parts of the body such as the thigh and arms. Blood normally flows quickly through these veins, helped along by the movement of the muscles, which squeeze the veins and protect against clotting. Prolonged immobility, especially when seated, can lead to the pooling of blood in the legs, which in turn may cause swelling, stiffness and discomfort.</p><h2><b>Diagnosis and Treatment</b></h2><p>The risk of developing DVT when traveling is increased in the presence of other risk factors, including:</p><ul><li>Older age—the risk is greater every year after 50 years old.</li><li>Cancers—sufferers of metastatic cancers, acute leukemias and myeloma carry a greatest risk.</li><li>Obesity—increased risk begins at greater than 35 kg/m BMI.</li><li>Hormone treatments—all forms of exogenous estrogen (e.g. oral contraceptive pills, transcutaneous, vaginal ring, depot progestin injections, hormone replacement), with worst risk in the first months of therapy.</li><li>Genetic predisposition, personal and/or family history of DVT—patients with inherited thrombophilias are often unaware of their condition until diagnosed with their first DVT.</li><li>Certain diseases and conditions—such as varicose veins, chronic atrial fibrillation, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus erytematosus, heart failure, heart attack, arterial disease.</li><li>Pregnancy—increasing risk with each trimester due to the increase in the concentration of clotting factors in the blood.</li><li>Surgical operation—surgical procedures lasting longer than 60 minutes, such as abdominal, hip or leg surgeries.</li><li>Any illness or injury that causes immobility—such as those with leg fracture(s), patients who are admitted at the ICU (bedridden for over three days).</li><li>Smoking—this is not an independent risk factor, but it increases the risk of cancers and other co-morbidities, working synergistically with other risk factors such as the contraindication for estrogen oral contraceptive pill use.</li></ul><p>The combination of long-distance travel with one or more of these risks may increase the likelihood of developing a blood clot. It is advisable for travelers with one or more of these risk factors to seek specific medical advice from your doctor well before embarking on a transportation mode of four or more hours to protect your health.</p><h2><b>Signs and Symptoms of DVT</b></h2><p>It’s helpful to know the signs and symptoms so you can recognize them if you develop DVT. The following are the ones that occur in the affected part of the body (usually in one leg, above or below the knee):</p><ul><li>Swelling—one calf or thigh may be larger than the other.</li><li>Edema—when the swollen area is pressed with a finger, a depression may remain.</li><li>Swelling—along the vein of the leg.</li><li>Warmth—A feeling of increased warmth in the leg area that is swollen or painful.</li><li>Leg pain—which may increase when standing or walking.</li><li>Tenderness of the leg—which may be confined to one area.</li><li>Color— bluish or red change in leg skin color.</li></ul><h2><b>Reducing Risk while Traveling</b></h2><p>You can reduce your risk of DVT by taking the following steps:</p><ul><li>Keep hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids. Dehydration causes blood vessels to narrow and the blood to thicken, increasing the risk for DVT; reduce alcohol and coffee consumption, which both contribute to dehydration.</li><li>Walk around for five minutes every one or two hours: keep moving your legs to help the blood flow, even when waiting in the airport terminal.</li><li>Avoid crossing your legs.</li><li>Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothing—consider wearing compression stockings, which put gentle pressure on the leg muscles If you’re at higher risk of getting DVT.</li><li>Do leg exercises while seated—stretch and move your legs frequently; try clenching and releasing your calves and thighs or lifting and lowering your heels with your toes on the floor.</li></ul><h2><b>Diagnosis and Treatment</b></h2><p>Sudden onset of chest pain, shortness of breath—these are serious symptoms that require medical attention right away. This can be a sign that a clot has broken loose and traveled to your lungs. This is called a Pulmonary Embolism (PE) which is a life-threatening condition.</p><p>Before seeing a doctor, what can you do?</p><ul><li>For symptom relief, apply a warm compress or heating pad on the affected leg to promote circulation and reduce pain.</li><li>Bed rest with legs elevated to reduce swelling.</li><li>Wear elastic support stockings to help increase the flow of blood from your legs.</li><li>Avoid rubbing or massaging the affected area (a clot could break loose).</li></ul><p>Specific treatment will be determined by your physician based on your history, her physical examination findings in conjunction with imaging studies, and laboratory test results taking into consideration your opinions or preferences and expectations for the course of the disease.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Hazel Gallardo-Paez, Internist, Family Medical Practice Danang</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 608,
"title": "Zika Virus in Vietnam",
"slug": "zika-virus-vietnam-dr-serge-gradstein",
"slug_en": "zika-virus-vietnam-dr-serge-gradstein",
"slug_vi": "zika-virus-vietnam",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 260,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/27910993-D490-4AD3-9278-E5846C36318F-5456-00000F559C10F3E3.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/27910993-D490-4AD3-9278-E5846.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-06-06",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Zika has been linked to developing the neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome, the potential health impacts among the pregnant population. Contracting the virus while expecting a child has serious birth defect implications, specifically to the brain and head.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
191,
190,
189,
188,
187
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>On a recent flight back from the US, I was bombarded with signs about the mosquito-transmission of the virus. News reports seem fewer and farther between than previous months, but recently an expat Facebook group in Vietnam posted three links, back-to-back, on the subject. As such, I have now adopted the delightful musk of DEET, and even carry an extra spray bottle in my purse.</p><p><b>Transmission</b></p><p>The virus is primarily spread through mosquitoes, technically only through the females of the Aedes specie of the hematophagous buzzers. It can also be transferred sexually. Most infected people show little or no symptoms, and may not even feel the need to visit the doctor. Rarely fatal, the most common symptoms include red eyes, skin rash, fever and pain in the joints. Overall the virus passes with mild ailments over the course of several days to a week. Currently there is no vaccine, but it is believed that after being infected, one is unlikely to contract the virus again.</p><p>Sounds mild? Well, it can be, when contained within a male population. Even still, Zika has been linked to developing the neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome. Of note. however, are the potential health impacts among the pregnant population. Contracting the virus while expecting a child has serious birth defect implications, specifically to the brain and head.</p><p><b>Taking it Seriously</b><br/>Central and South America are currently the most concentrated zones for Zika. Between October 2013 and March 2014, more than 30,000 cases were estimated in French Polynesia, according to Dr Stephen Berger, an expert on infectious diseases. <i>Reuters</i> also reported that between February and April 2016, Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the virus. With first-ever human cases reported in 1952, the virus has most recently skyrocketed to the forefront of the media, grabbing more than its fair share of attention from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Pasteur Institute, largely due to the linked birth defects, specifically microcephaly. Brazil is the hardest hit, with 4,908 cases as of late April 2016, reports <i>Reuters</i>. By comparison, in the same month, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long confirmed the first two cases of the virus in Vietnam.</p><p>Much of the western hemisphere is fighting it on the front lines. US President Obama has proposed to Congress a US$1.9 billion be found for emergency funding to combat Zika. The Major League Baseball Association relocated its exhibition games due to take place in Puerto Rico after players expressed their fears over transmission of the virus (Puerto Rico has nearly 800 confirmed cases). Some nations are even considering pulling their Olympians from the summer Rio games, as the country’s populous southeast registered the most diagnoses of any region, with 35,505 likely cases according to <i>Reuters</i>. Others, like South Korea, have rolled out uniforms covering as much of the body as functionally possible, and include built-in repellant to dispel mosquitos.</p><p>While there is not yet an outbreak of Zika in Asia, the CDC does warn, “Zika virus will likely continue to spread to new areas.” Unfortunately, Vietnam’s trifecta of a dense population, sexual activity and sometimes less than hygienic practices, seem to offer a pretty easy in-road for the virus. This is, of course, pretty speculative. I spoke with Pediatrician Dr Serge Gradstein at Ho Chi Minh City’s Family Medical Practice…</p><p><b>Expert Advice</b><br/>Dr Gradstein met me outside the clinic in a maelstrom of bug spray. “It’s not news to have a few cases,” he tells me calmly. “We’re seeing and hearing a lot about the potential of the virus because of its strong concentration in Brazil and the associated cases of fetal defects. The eyes of the medical community are trained on Central and South America at the moment, not Asia.” I lower my spray can. It seems there have been only a handful of tested cases for the virus here in Ho Chi Minh City, and, perhaps, the clinics are happy for a much needed break from such viruses after last year’s outbreak of Dengue Fever (a reported 40,000 cases within the first nine months of 2015).</p><p>“The concern over Zika is relative to transmission in pregnant women,” adds Dr Gradstein. “While we don’t yet know how long after exposure someone can transmit the disease, the general rule is to keep a safety period of two months from exposure. The virus can live in semen for more than a month.”. He concludes our discussion with this advice: “If you are ever sick while pregnant, you must see a doctor, and be sure to avoid exposed areas while pregnant.” He’s not the only one saying this. The CDC and most embassies have such warnings, and will highly advise you travel or work elsewhere if planning to head into the mozzie’s den.</p><p><b>Dress Not to Impress</b><br/>The above information is all about what happens when you’ve contracted the virus, but an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, said Benjamin Franklin. Avoiding transmission from an infected male during intercourse is easy – just wear a condom. If there wasn’t already enough reasons to wear one, Zika is another. All that’s left is the daunting task of avoiding mosquito bites.</p><p>Much of this is within our control: wear long sleeves and pants and use mosquito repellant that contains at least 20 percent DEET (or lemon and eucalyptus oil if you prefer an all-natural version). Shower regularly after excessive sweating – mosquitoes carrying Malaria are more drawn to those who have had sweat on their body for a day or two.</p><p>Some of this is, unfortunately, outside of our control. Mosquitoes are drawn to carbon dioxide emissions, which we all breathe out; some of us more than others, especially pregnant women or larger individuals. Additionally, a 2004 study revealed that type O blood types are 20 percent more likely to be bitten over type B, and even more likely than those with type A blood. Drinking beer in copious amounts is also linked to increased skeeter attention, either because of the increased body temperature or increased output of carbon dioxide while intoxicated.</p><p>Simply put, protect yourselves. In Vietnam it’s a bit of a watch-and-wait mentality, but you can still take all necessary precautions to be part of the prevention, not the transmission. </p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Serge Grainstein, Pediatrics, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 898,
"title": "Sleep Talk at British International School",
"slug": "introduction-simba-british-international-school",
"slug_en": "introduction-simba-british-international-school",
"slug_vi": "introduction-simba-british-international-school",
"slug_ko": "introduction-simba-british-international-school",
"slug_ja": "introduction-simba-british-international-school",
"overview_image": {
"id": 436,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Introduction_of_SIMBA_BIS_school_May_312018_1.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Introduction_of_SIMBA_BIS_sch.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-05-31",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 8,
"name": "Health Talks",
"slug": "health-talks"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
159
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>COUNTING SHEEP</p><p></p><p>On Thursday May 31st, 2018, FMP's Head Pediatrician Dr. Jonathan Halevy will be addressing the Saigon International Mother Baby Association (SIMBA) community at the British International School and will be leading a discussion on the subject of proper sleep.</p><p>Sleep disorders are common in babies and even teenagers. It may have a significant impact on the development, behavior, learning and wellbeing of the child. We will discuss patterns of normal sleep, causes and prevention of sleeping disorders.</p><p>Attend our discussion to learn more about this crucial parenting issue.</p><p>⏰DATE: 31 MAY 2018<br/> TIME: 1.30–3.00 pm<br/> Registration Fee: VND100,000 (for charity)</p><p></p><p>LOCATION: Fundinotots room, L3, BIS Early Years and Infant Campus, 110 Thao Dien<br/>Visitors will need to bring ID, sign in with the guard and wear a visitors tag.<br/>Refreshments will be provided.</p><p>All simba parents, parents of children under 12 months and expecting parents are welcome to join.</p><p>Please contact our marketing department on marketing@vietnammedicalpractice.com to register early!</p><p>--- ---<br/> SIMBA aims to provide prenatal and postnatal advice, support and companionship in the early years of parenting to mothers and expecting parents. Spread the word, bring your babies for group play, and come to have fun together!</p><p>Joining SIMBA sessions costs just VND100,000 per family, which is contributed to a local charity selected by SIMBA moms at the end of each year. Light refreshments are provided.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1150,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "benh-dong-mach-ngoai-bien-do-bien-chung-benh-tieu-duong",
"slug_en": "benh-dong-mach-ngoai-bien-do-bien-chung-benh-tieu-duong",
"slug_vi": "bệnh-động-mạch-ngoại-biên-do-biến-chứng-bệnh-tiểu-đường",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": null,
"post_date": "2018-05-21",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
899
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 846,
"title": "Nutrition and Feeding Disorders in Children at British International School",
"slug": "nutrition-and-feeding-disorders-children-british-international-school",
"slug_en": "nutrition-and-feeding-disorders-children-british-international-school",
"slug_vi": "nutrition-and-feeding-disorders-children-british-international-school",
"slug_ko": "nutrition-and-feeding-disorders-children-british-international-school",
"slug_ja": "nutrition-and-feeding-disorders-children-british-international-school",
"overview_image": {
"id": 375,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/NUTRITION_AND_FEEDING_DISORDERS_IN_CHILDREN__BIS_school_-_May_18_2018_4.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/NUTRITION_AND_FEEDING_DISORDE.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-05-18",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 8,
"name": "Health Talks",
"slug": "health-talks"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
142
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>FMP’s Head Pediatrician Dr. Jonathan Halevy presented a talk on NUTRITION AND FEEDING DISORDERS IN CHILDREN at the British International School’s Early Years and Infant Campus in Thao Dien yesterday. Held at FUNDINOTOTS, a comfortable and bright play environment setting with ample space for participants to join in the discussion, the talk was attended by a number of parents of the school, some of whom sought advice about their own children’s eating and dietary habits.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/NUTRITION_AND_FEEDING_DISORDERS_IN_CHILDREN__BIS_school_-_May_18_2018_8.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>Dr. Halevy’s discussion covered common eating disorders observed in children, opening the talk with a look at the problem of overfeeding and the potential for a child to suffer from obesity. He covered the various cultural and behavioral reasons why a child may develop an eating disorder, such as a refusal to eat. He presented a list of “Golden Rules for Better Feeding” to help parents encourage their children to eat better and enjoy the health benefits of eating well.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/NUTRITION_AND_FEEDING_DISORDERS_IN_CHILDREN__BIS_school_-_May_18_2018_3.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>The doctor also encouraged an awareness of food as the conduit for nutrition and the role that nutrition plays in a child’s early years of life. He led parents in a presentation on the nutritive value of different categories of food, as well as discussing related safety issues such as what kinds of food might present choking hazards to kids, urging parents to avoid feeding small children with food cut into large chunks or that are too soft and sticky to swallow safely.</p><p>The talk was well-received by parents who made light conversation with Dr. Jonathan at the end of the presentation, gaining further insights into these and related issues. On June the 6th, Dr. Halevy will present a further medical discussion on Basic First Aid for Young Children including Choking, which will also be held at Fundinotots.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/NUTRITION_AND_FEEDING_DISORDERS_IN_CHILDREN__BIS_school_-_May_18_2018.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>For more information, please contact our Marketing Dept. on (028) 3822 7848 or email marketing@vietnammedicalpractice.com.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 827,
"title": "First Aid For Babies",
"slug": "first-aid-babies",
"slug_en": "first-aid-babies",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 360,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/First_Aid_for_babies_ISHCMC-_May_17_2018_2.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/First_Aid_for_babies_ISHCMC-_.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-05-17",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 9,
"name": "First Aid Courses",
"slug": "first-aid-courses"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
136
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>At ISHCMC’s primary campus this morning, FMP doctors Agnes Viay and Anna Donovan presented an engaging discussion on FIRST AID FOR BABIES to a group of around 20 parents from the community of Saigon International Mother Baby Association (SIMBA). It was the first such presentation to be held at the school.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/First_Aid_for_babies_ISHCMC-_May_17_2018.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>Dr. Agnes led the group in a discussion of the signs and symptoms of choking in newborns, and how to properly administer back blows to clear a baby’s airways. FMP’s nurse from the the clinic was also present to demonstrate both this technique as well as how to perform CPR chest compressions on a baby-sized medical mannequin. Dr. Anna further illustrated these techniques and the circumstances under which they should be used, as well as other issues in emergency pediatric medicine such as the signs of anaphylaxis and the recovery position. Informative video presentations also served to familiarize parents with the subjects discussed.</p><p>After the talk, parents were given the opportunity to practice back blows and chest compressions on the mannequin under the supervision of the doctors.</p><p>The presentation was held in a relaxed setting on the school’s campus, with sufficient room for parents to sit with their babies while learning the medical information presented. While SIMBA gatherings are usually restricted to new and expecting mothers so as to put breastfeeding mothers at ease, on this occasion, fathers were also welcome to join the group and actively joined the discussion to learn the techniques that could equip them to save the lives of their children in the event of an unforeseen emergency.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/First_Aid_for_babies_ISHCMC-_May_17_2018_8.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>Please note that half-day first aid courses for children will be held on the 2nd of June (in English) and the 9th of June (in Vietnamese) at the FMP office at Diamond Plaza level 12. The course fee will be VND850,000/person.</p><p>For more information or registration, please email Family Medical Practice’s Marketing Dept.: marketing@vietnammedicalpractice.com or call (028) 3822 7848.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1149,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "mot-so-luu-y-khi-xu-tri-chay-mau-mui",
"slug_en": "mot-so-luu-y-khi-xu-tri-chay-mau-mui",
"slug_vi": "một-số-lưu-ý-khi-xử-trí-chảy-máu-mũi",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 880,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Chay_mau_mui.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Chay_mau_mui.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-05-14",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
898
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1148,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "su-that-ve-qua-trung",
"slug_en": "su-that-ve-qua-trung",
"slug_vi": "sự-thật-về-quả-trứng",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 892,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Su_that_ve_trung.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Su_that_ve_trung.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-05-07",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
897
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1151,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "cach-phong-mot-so-benh-trong-mua-mua-lu",
"slug_en": "cach-phong-mot-so-benh-trong-mua-mua-lu",
"slug_vi": "cách-phòng-một-số-bệnh-trong-mùa-mưa-lũ",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 881,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Phong_benh_mua_mua_lu.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Phong_benh_mua_mua_lu.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-05-01",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
900
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1147,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "viem-tai-giua",
"slug_en": "viem-tai-giua",
"slug_vi": "viêm-tai-giữa",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 896,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Viem_tai_giua.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Viem_tai_giua.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-04-30",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
896
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 611,
"title": "Gut Reaction",
"slug": "gut-reaction",
"slug_en": "gut-reaction",
"slug_vi": "gut-reaction",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 263,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/1A1B7C9F-A08F-4CC0-B13F-9BD00BE0E933-5016-00000ED5EA1145FB.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/1A1B7C9F-A08F-4CC0-B13F-9BD00.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-04-24",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Local people and Westerners who are living long-term in Asia should at least know that Helicobacter pylori is a risk and consider testing. Those from Western countries wouldn’t even have to worry about this at home, but by living here, they have a different risk.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
783
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>Learn about Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria that infects the stomachs of roughly 60 percent of the world’s adult population</b></p><p>Around 50 years ago, every doctor in the world believed that no bacteria could survive in such a hostile and acidic environment as the stomach. Even when pathologists and other doctors saw bacteria in stomach tissue samples, they presumed that those tissues were contaminated after removal. Eventually, two Australian doctors proved that there is a genus of bacteria— Helicobacter—that can survive in the stomach by neutralizing the acid around themselves with a special enzyme. This important discovery rightly won them the Nobel Prize, because it is now presumed that a very high proportion of stomach cancer is directly caused by Helicobacter pylori.</p><p>If you’re from a Western country and have lived most of your life there, you will probably never have come into contact with Helicobacter pylori. In those countries, cancer of the stomach is quite rare. If you’re living in Vietnam or Southeast Asia, your chances of being infected with this pathogen are greatly increased. This represents a significant problem, because most Westerners (as well as local Vietnamese people) have never heard of this threat and never get tested for it.</p><p>In my country, it is a well-known health concern. In Japan, about 80 percent of people over 80 have a Helicobacter pylori infection, and most likely they acquired it in their infancy from their mother, meaning they have carried this invader within them their entire lives. Accordingly, we have a very high prevalence of stomach cancer in Japan. Thanks to modern testing regimens and improved hygiene, fewer than 20 percent of people in their 20s have Helicobacter pylori.</p><p>So what does Helicobacter pylori do? Infected people are more likely to develop a peptic ulcer, which is an ulcer in the stomach or the duodenum, or stomach cancer. This doesn’t mean that you will surely develop an ulcer or cancer by having Helicobacter pylori. It just means that having this infection increases your risk. If you have a duodenal ulcer, there is a 90 percent chance that you have Helicobacter pylori. In addition, within a week or two after infection, you may experience minor discomfort or even severe stomach pain.</p><p>How do we find Helicobacter pylori? There are a variety of tests: blood, stool, breath, urine, and by running an endoscope. My professional opinion is that neither the stool nor the urine tests available in Vietnam are trustworthy. The blood tests are reasonably accurate, but the catch with those is that you can’t use them to evaluate the success or failure of eradication, because it takes the blood more than a year to change after the infection is gone. The breath test is the least invasive and most accurate test for Helicobacter pylori, however it will not work if you are taking specific medications.</p><p>If you have Helicobacter pylori, you should certainly eradicate it, in the same way as you would any parasite in your body. There is nothing good about having Helicobacter pylori. Eradication is relatively simple; you merely take a combination of antibiotics. However, being such resilient creatures, it takes at least two antibiotics to get rid of them, with supplemental acid medicine to control the method. Even so, the success rate is only about 70 percent. So after the eradication attempt, we must check again to see if you still have Helicobacter pylori or not. If the attempt was unsuccessful, we have to try a different regime, another combination of drugs.</p><p>Our clinic is the proud owner of a stateof-the-art BreathID breath test machine of the sort rarely seen outside of a large external laboratory. You don’t have to draw blood; there’s no pain—you just blow into a couple of bags before and after drinking a special agent that reacts with Helicobacter pylori, and then you can get the result immediately. Everyone concerned about their exposure to Helicobacter pylori should take this simple test, especially if you have had symptoms of abdominal pain or discomfort.</p><p>After eradication, you should also undergo an endoscopy. The reason for this is that we need to assess how much accumulated damage you have sustained to the stomach lining, and whether or not you are already in a high-risk category for stomach cancer or have already developed it. In my country, it is considered a malpractice to eradicate Helicobacter pylori without running an endoscopy.</p><p>By looking at the stomach lining through the endoscope, you can see if blood vessels are visible through the lining of the stomach, indicating some degree of atrophy or thinning. In more advanced cases, you can see strange growths—if you take cell samples from these areas, they look like cells from the intestine. These growths can be benign, but when they cross the border into malignancy, that is cancer. In the early stages we can remove it by endoscope, but at certain depths, it has to be a surgical operation.</p><p>In my country, we can now decrease the incidence of stomach cancer significantly—probably, we are already doing so. Local people and Westerners who are living long-term in Asia should at least know that Helicobacter pylori is a risk and consider testing. Those from Western countries wouldn’t even have to worry about this at home, but by living here, they have a different risk.</p><p><b>Dr. Masato Okuda - Internist, Family Medical Practice HCMC</b></p><p><b>Dr. Masato Okuda</b> joined Family Medical Practice in 2015. He is a graduate of Okayama University Medical School in Japan, where his appreciation for the rapid diagnosis and treatment that endoscopy offers led him to a specialty in gastroenterology.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1146,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "10-dieu-can-biet-ve-tre-so-sinh",
"slug_en": "10-dieu-can-biet-ve-tre-so-sinh",
"slug_vi": "10-điều-cần-biết-về-trẻ-sơ-sinh",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 893,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Tre_so_sinh.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Tre_so_sinh.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-04-23",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
895
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1145,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "xu-ly-cac-tinh-huong-ve-benh-tim-mach",
"slug_en": "xu-ly-cac-tinh-huong-ve-benh-tim-mach",
"slug_vi": "xử-lý-các-tình-huống-về-bệnh-tim-mạch",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 894,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Xu_ly_tim_mach.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Xu_ly_tim_mach.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-04-16",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
894
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 848,
"title": "Seminar For International school by Dr Rafi at Hotel Des Arts",
"slug": "seminar-international-school-dr-rafi-hotel-des-arts",
"slug_en": "seminar-international-school-dr-rafi-hotel-des-arts",
"slug_vi": "seminar-international-school-dr-rafi-hotel-des-arts",
"slug_ko": "seminar-international-school-dr-rafi-hotel-des-arts",
"slug_ja": "seminar-international-school-dr-rafi-hotel-des-arts",
"overview_image": {
"id": 382,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Seminar_For_International_school_by_Dr_Rafi_hotel_des_arts_-_April_13_2018.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Seminar_For_International_sch.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-04-13",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 8,
"name": "Health Talks",
"slug": "health-talks"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
145
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>Earlier this week, FMP convened a SEMINAR FOR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS at the Hotel des Arts, featuring presentations from our founder Dr. Rafi Kot; Business Development Director Mr. Ian Wilson; Head Pediatrician Dr. Jonathan Halevy; psychiatrist Dr. Miguel De Seixas, and road safety advocate Roy Eliezer. We were delighted to note that over 70 people participated in our clinic’s outreach.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Seminar_For_International_school_by_Dr_Rafi_hotel_des_arts_-_April_13_20_68AFZNF.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>After a welcome address that touched on the incredible changes Dr. Rafi has seen in Vietnam’s medical industry over his three decades here, Dr. Jonathan Halevy led the room with his presentation on “The School Nurse: A First Responder” which covered several likely areas of concern in the schoolyard—including the role of school nurses as first responders and new standards for OTC medications as well as protocols in specific medical situations such as managing allergies and asthma, teen issues and child abuse.</p><p>Following Dr. Jonathan, Dr. Miguel De Seixas spoke on the psychological challenges of being an international student, also addressing the lack of systemic support in Vietnam for people suffering from poor mental health—and the need for proactive support from the community of international schools to help ensure early recognition and treatment of mental illnesses such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, social pressure, stress and depression.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Seminar_For_International_school_by_Dr_Rafi_hotel_des_arts_-_April_13_20_Vw3y5Ca.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>In addition to the sessions presented by the doctors, Mr. Roy Ben Eliezer of the Interdisciplinary Center for Road Safety addressed the audience on the importance of safety for student pedestrians, cyclists, motorbike and car drivers on Vietnam’s perilous roads.</p><p>Rounding the session out, our Clinical Director Mr. Ian Wilson reintroduced the vital and lifesaving *9999 service to the audience, reminding them of our multilingual state-of-the-art service.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Seminar_For_International_school_by_Dr_Rafi_hotel_des_arts_-_April_13_20_oANAaib.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>During both the Q&A session and in our internal discussions later, it became apparent just how prevalent the need that schools in the community have for accurate and up-to-date medical information from dedicated professionals. As such, Family Medical Practice will be commencing a SCHOOL OUTREACH INITIATIVE designed to provide crucial and potentially life-saving advice to nurses, faculty and administrators (as well as directly to students themselves and their parents) at schools all around the city.</p><p>We welcome any enquiries into this initiative from schools around the city.</p><p></p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Seminar_For_International_school_by_Dr_Rafi_hotel_des_arts_-_April_13_20_mpAn2Qz.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>For more information, please contact Marketing at marketing@vietnammedicalpractice.com or call (028)3822-7848</p><p>--Family Medical Practice: <a href=\"https://www.vietnammedicalpractice.com/?fbclid=IwAR3oC__Kqcnp456iVrIat1ykLmIQYWmKE855JeTLe1FkLXypYIaWA6lWmag\">https://www.vietnammedicalpractice.com/</a></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 695,
"title": "Orthopedic Care for Children",
"slug": "orthopedic-care-children",
"slug_en": "orthopedic-care-children",
"slug_vi": "orthopedic-care-children",
"slug_ko": "orthopedic-care-children",
"slug_ja": "orthopedic-care-children",
"overview_image": {
"id": 681,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Orthopedic-Care-for-Children.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Orthopedic-Care-for-Children.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-04-09",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Our bone is alive and can repair itself if it is broken, a slow process that usually takes three weeks. Bones can get larger and stronger with exercise and smaller and weaker if we do not exercise enough.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
308,
307
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Humans are born with 270 bones. By the time we become adults, we only have 206 bones left because some of the bones join as we grow. Bones support and protect the organs in our body, produce blood cells, store minerals and allow our muscles and joints to move.</p><p>Our bone is alive and can repair itself if it is broken, a slow process that usually takes three weeks. Bones can get larger and stronger with exercise and smaller and weaker if we do not exercise enough.</p><p>Bones, muscles, ligaments, cartilages and joints together make us move, and movement is essential for life. All these elements work as a team called the “Musculoskeletal System”.</p><p><b>Who is an orthopedic surgeon?</b></p><p>Orthopedic surgeons are specialised doctors who treat musculoskeletal (bones, joints, ligaments or muscles) problems in adults and children. All orthopedic surgeons must finish six to seven years of medical school and then complete four to five years of residency (on-the-job) training in a hospital. After their residency, some surgeons complete one or two additional years of sub-specialty training (fellowship), among many other courses and academic programmes. On an average, they invest at least 12-15 years of their life improving their knowledge and skills to offer the best care to their patients.</p><p><b>When should I take my child to an orthopedic surgeon?</b></p><p>Orthopedic surgeons diagnose and treat a variety of problems with the arms, legs and spine. Problems in walking, crooked limbs, legs of different lengths, curves in the spine, broken bones, bone/joint infections or tumors and birth defects of the hands and feet are some examples of the conditions that may require an orthopedic surgeon.</p><p>Children with complex pediatric problems, such as developmental delay, skeletal dysplasias or other syndromes, are usually best managed by a multidisciplinary medical and surgical team.</p><p><b>Why does my child need a specialist?</b></p><p>Children are not small adults. Their growing bones pose different challenges than those of adults. Sometimes, what looks like a problem in a child is just a variation that the child will outgrow over time. Some common pediatric problems do not even occur in adults. Orthopedic surgeons, their offices and support staff are all equipped to deal with children and families to create a comfortable, patient-focused and family-friendly environment.</p><p><b>What are the most common orthopedic conditions that parents should be aware of?</b></p><p>Taking care of a child is not just about giving love, feeding him/her well and providing education, but also about preventing injuries and diseases. Orthopedic surgeons are prepared for early diagnosis. They can treat problems that might affect the musculoskeletal system of your child and give advice regarding your concerns.</p><p>An orthopedic surgeon must keep in mind the following screening protocols:</p><p><b>Hip Development Dysplasia (HDD):</b> All newborns should be examined by a pediatrician and referred to an orthopedic surgeon if HDD is suspected or if high risk factors are present. The specialist will check both the hips for signs and symptoms of dislocation. On the 28th day of the baby’s birth, a hip ultrasound must be done to confirm the diagnosis. If the child is one to three months old, a pelvic X-ray is mandatory. </p><p><b>Flat feet:</b> A common concern of many parents is the plantar arch formation. Flat feet is a condition considered normal in children under two. The pediatrician will refer grown-up children with flat feet to an orthopedic surgeon for diagnosis and treatment.</p><p><b>Internal-Rotated Gait:</b> Many parents notice than their children often fall because their feet seems to be pointing in when they walk or run. This situation should be evaluated by a specialist in order to apply the necessary measures. </p><p><b>Scoliosis and Kyphosis:</b> Many children and teenagers develop a wrong posture during their growing-up years. This is sometimes related to abnormal spine curvatures. Therefore, all children and teenagers (eight to 16 years) with wrong posture should be evaluated by a specialist.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Andres Sosa - Orthopedic Surgeon, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1143,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "top-20-loai-thuc-pham-chong-ung-thu",
"slug_en": "top-20-loai-thuc-pham-chong-ung-thu",
"slug_vi": "top-20-loại-thực-phẩm-chống-ung-thư",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 895,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Thuc_pham_chong_ung_thu.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Thuc_pham_chong_ung_thu.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-04-02",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
817
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 582,
"title": "Rosacea",
"slug": "rosacea",
"slug_en": "rosacea",
"slug_vi": "rosacea",
"slug_ko": "rosacea",
"slug_ja": "rosacea",
"overview_image": {
"id": 230,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/IMG-1701.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/IMG-1701.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-30",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "What is important to remeber is that rosacea is a chronic condition and it not ever going to go away. It’s only natural that patients will hope for a cure, but this is not realistic in this case. Realistically, patiens afflicted with rosacea will always be dealing with it to some degree, especially if they are living in tropical climates like this one.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
94,
93
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Diseases that affect the face can be very difficult to live with. They can interfere with people’s social lives and even limit the careers of those who need to present a pleasant appearance in public. One particular inflammatory infectious disease of the face affects 1–2% of the population and is predominant in white females. It is known as <i>rosacea</i>, a red irritation of the face that seemingly never goes away by itself.</p><p>We’ve had a working definition of inflammation since Roman times. Celsius described tissue as being inflamed when it is hot, red, swollen, and painful. That’s why we describe rosacea as an inflammatory disease, because it gives people a red face that gets redder with blushing, pimples, bumps, and in some cases, an increase in skin volume.</p><p>There are four types of rosacea, each of which have their own groups of symptoms. The most prevalent form has the longest name: <i>erythematotelangiectatic rosacea</i> – it’s less severe than the other forms, but it is quite disabling, as these people are always red-faced with visible networks of veins, and it feels hot, tense, itchy and even painful. It gets worse with alcohol, spicy food, heat, and exercise. So the average Anglo Saxon living in Saigon who has rosacea and goes to the gym every day, drinks with friends and eats spicy food will suffer terribly from this condition.</p><p>The second most common form is similar, but complicated by the presence of pimples. We call this <i>papulopustular rosacea</i>, because sufferers have red bumps, some of them with white heads, which are called pustules. They can appear all over the face, but typically spare the area around the eyes and the mouth.</p><p>The third form, <i>phymatous rosacea</i>, is the one that increases the volume of the tissue in the face – usually the nose, but also other parts such as the forehead, the chin, the cheeks, or the ears. This condition was seen on the famous actor Walter Matthau, who had what we call a “potato nose.” Interestingly, we also see this condition in some paintings of the 16th century. The fourth kind is very uncommon in normal consultations, <i>ocular rosacea</i>, which involves weepy red itchy eyes, more commonly diagnosed in ophthalmologist settings.</p><p>The first two types of rosacea are most frequently seen here. Rosacea is most common in white-skinned people, although I have seen it in Asian skin. It is so rare in Asian people that it is often misdiagnosed and treated with steroids, which worsens the condition. In general, it is more prevalent in women than in men.</p><p>Most doctors agree that rosacea appears to be a genetic condition that sparks an overreaction to natural irritants (such as a bacterial infection, radiation from light, or heat) in the form of chronic inflammation. Biopsies on skin with rosacea tend to reveal vessels with increased permeability and volume surrounded by cells (especially lymphocytes and mastocytes) that produce high quantities of proteins related to inflammation. We see the same combination of inflammatory cells with asthma and in allergic reactions.</p><p>In many people who suffer from rosacea, we find unusually high numbers of saprophytic dust mites (<i>Demodex folliculorum</i>), a small arthropod commonly found in hair follicles. It’s likely that the body’s reaction to this mite is also increased in these people.</p><p>There are two approaches to treating rosacea – cosmetic vasoconstrictors and anti-inflammatory medicines. With erythematotelangiectatic rosacea, we focus mainly on reducing the dilation of the vessels, which will make the face less red. The most common treatment is brimonidine; it’s a product that cuts off or closes the vessels, similar to what you might take when you have a cold. A second substance that is starting to prove successful against rosacea is the same medication we use for the nose – otrivin, which contains oxymetazoline, used as a gel or cream rubbed into the face. After applying it in the morning, two or three hours later you will have a much whiter and paler face, and this may last for the whole day.</p><p>The problem with this is that there may be a rebound effect. If you close the vessels, you can’t close them forever. At the end of the day, they will open again, and they may be angrier; and perhaps there will be a point when they will no longer respond to this kind of treatment. As of now, we don’t have enough experience to say if this can be a long term treatment.</p><p>Another option for reducing redness in the face is vascular laser or intense pulse light (IPL) treatments. These light sources emit wavelengths that mostly affect middle and small-sized vessels, which collapse and make the face appear paler. Some of these devices can also reduce the population of bacteria and mites.</p><p>We can medically treat the inflammation itself with antibiotics and antiseptics. One of the classic rosacea treatments is an antibiotic cream called metronidazole; there are other topical treatments and systemic treatments (pills), as well as combinations of both. Some natural plant extracts have also proved effective.</p><p>One of the best combination treatments is topical metronidazole and oral doxycycline, although there are many others. Treatments commonly prescribed for acne, such as azelaic acid cream on the skin or oral retinoids for severe cases, are also useful. The biggest therapeutic discovery in recent years has been that ivermectin, an antiparasitic and anti-inflammatory drug, is extremely effective against mites. It is used as a cream, but in Vietnam only oral treatments are available.</p><p>What is important to remember in all this is that rosacea is a chronic condition and is not ever going to go away. It’s only natural that patients will hope for a cure, but this is not realistic in this case. Realistically, patients afflicted with rosacea will always be dealing with it to some degree, especially if they are living in tropical climates like this one.</p><p>The good news is that with modern medicine, we can manage it effectively and make these patients feel much better. Just because it will always be there does not mean that people should resign themselves to accept it and not fight it. I have seen people who believe that this is part of them. I say to those people, “no – that is not YOU.” You can be different. We can do something for your rosacea. Jump from the cosmetic approach in non-professional hands and see a trained dermatologist, get a diagnosis so that we know what you have, and build a strategy for the short term and the long term that is good for you.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1142,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "su-dung-thuoc-khang-sinh-nhu-the-nao-la-hop-ly",
"slug_en": "su-dung-thuoc-khang-sinh-nhu-the-nao-la-hop-ly",
"slug_vi": "sử-dụng-thuốc-kháng-sinh-như-thế-nào-là-hợp-lý",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 897,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Su_dung_khang_sinh_2.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Su_dung_khang_sinh_2.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-26",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
816
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1154,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "tai-sao-nen-kiem-tra-suc-khoe-dinh-ky-cho-tre",
"slug_en": "tai-sao-nen-kiem-tra-suc-khoe-dinh-ky-cho-tre",
"slug_vi": "tại-sao-nên-kiểm-tra-sức-khỏe-định-kỳ-cho-trẻ",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 877,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Kiem_tra_suc_khoe_dinh_ky.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Kiem_tra_suc_khoe_dinh_ky.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-24",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
903
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1152,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "nhung-dieu-can-biet-ve-vitamin-C",
"slug_en": "nhung-dieu-can-biet-ve-vitamin-C",
"slug_vi": "những-điều-cần-biết-về-vitamin-c",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 876,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Vitamin_C.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Vitamin_C.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-23",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
901
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1153,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "tiem-phong-nhieu-mui-cung-luc-lieu-co-dang-so",
"slug_en": "tiem-phong-nhieu-mui-cung-luc-lieu-co-dang-so",
"slug_vi": "tiêm-phòng-nhiều-mũi-cùng-lúc-liệu-có-đáng-sợ",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 890,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Tiem_phong_nhieu_mui_cung_luc.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Tiem_phong_nhieu_mui_cung_luc.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-23",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
902
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1141,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "phat-hien-som-ung-thu-da",
"slug_en": "phat-hien-som-ung-thu-da",
"slug_vi": "phát-hiện-sớm-ung-thư-da",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 879,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Skin_cancer.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Skin_cancer.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-19",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
815
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 604,
"title": "Getting Tested For STDs in Ho Chi Minh City",
"slug": "getting-tested-stds-ho-chi-minh-city",
"slug_en": "getting-tested-stds-ho-chi-minh-city",
"slug_vi": "getting-tested-stds-ho-chi-minh-city",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 257,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/3CC25CF2-B8D1-48CA-8CEF-82E5E2012B6B-5456-00000F554AEE002B.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/3CC25CF2-B8D1-48CA-8CEF-82E5E.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-16",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "It’s important to know that STIs are common, especially in young people, and sometimes there are no symptoms, so a person can’t tell if they’re infected. Some people are shy to go to the clinic and may throw a few antibiotics to try to rid the infection. However, current scientific data is showing how this may not be the best idea given the increasing amount of antibiotic resistance we’re seeing.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
122,
121
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Sometimes you do the dirty. Sometimes you do the dirty with a lot of people. Sometimes you do the dirty with a lot of people, and it leaves a trace. It’s absolutely normal for this to happen, but you gotta make sure you get checked for STDs.<br/></p><p>If you’ve had multiple partners, unprotected sex, or haven’t been tested, you put yourself at risk for catching, keeping, and sharing STDs. With the cultural stigma in Vietnam around sex, people are reluctant to speak up and get consult when it comes to problems surrounding sexual activity.<br/></p><p>This stigma is further perpetuated with the government’s repressive policy towards people with these diseases. For instance, if you are a carrier of HIV, you may be refused a work visa in Vietnam, although I’ve yet to meet a person firsthand who’s experienced this. Throw in the sex industry and the issue of married persons living double lives, and we’re left with a whole lot of uncertainty about what’s going on below the belt.<br/></p><p>Data on STDs in Vietnam is limited and hard to come by, so it’s difficult to understand of the full story. Information I’ve come by group the country as a total, so it doesn’t split data by city vs countryside or locals vs expatriates, further making it harder to grasp the scope of this issue.<br/></p><p>What makes Vietnam a special case in this region is its rise in antibiotic resistance, likely from the ease of purchasing and taking over-the-counter antibiotics. Huân Đồng – currently a NIH-Fogarty Global Health Fellow researching antibiotic resistance at Hanoi Medical University and a medical student at Charles R Drew/David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA – shares some of his research:<br/></p><p><i>“It’s important to know that STIs are common, especially in young people, and sometimes there are no symptoms, so a person can’t tell if they’re infected. Some STIs are treatable with simple antibiotics but it’s important to get tested to know which one to treat specifically. Some people are shy to go to the clinic and may throw a few antibiotics to try to rid the infection. However, current scientific data is showing how this may not be the best idea given the increasing amount of antibiotic resistance we’re seeing (and what I am studying here in Vietnam).”</i><br/></p><p>To complicate things further, some studies indicate that different medications may be needed for say chlamydia in a person’s throat versus genitals. With different doctors and pharmacists in Vietnam suggesting differing tests and treatment plans, “it’s important to get proper information and not treat syndromically even though antibiotics are available from the drug stores,” says Đồng.<br/></p><p>While you can get STD testing at local clinics for very cheap, they may not readily offer the best tests. Some private and international clinics will charge a lot more, especially for treatment, so it’s best to ask around for test options and pricing.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 863,
"title": "Tedx Event at British International School",
"slug": "tedx-event-british-international-school",
"slug_en": "tedx-event-british-international-school",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 400,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Tedx_Event__BIS_school-_March_12_2018.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Tedx_Event__BIS_school-_March.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-12",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 8,
"name": "Health Talks",
"slug": "health-talks"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
151
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>Last Thursday Family Medical Practice’s founder DR. RAFI KOT presented a fascinating talk at the first TEDx event held in Ho Chi Minh City for 2018, which was convened in the British International School theater in District 2.</p><p>In his presentation, “The Art of Cheating Death,” Dr. Rafi’s TEDx talk focused on the groundbreaking Vietnamese innovations that allowed his team to perform a complex medical evacuation that counts among the region’s first in its category, with local ingenuity surpassing the capacities of other nearby countries in terms of technical difficulty. No one in the region had ever undertaken such a move, and no one was willing to try, citing liability as a key concern.</p><p>“I sat with her father,” explained Dr. Rafi. “I explained to him the risks, and he said a phrase I will never forget: ‘Doctor, for you it is a risk. For me, it is a chance.’”</p><p>In this case, the risk was indeed critical. “How do you move a patient to another country, when she is simply unable to draw breath?” Dr. Rafi asked in his address. “But in an acute life and death situation where failure is not an option, ingenuity and innovation are paramount and it is amazing what kind of ideas you are able to come up with.”</p><p>“With just some scribbles on a notepad,” said Dr. Kot, “four hours later we had custom-built a rig that included a ventilator, a Dr. Lucas machine, two oxygen tanks, an ECMO monitor, a mounted mechanical heart and lung, four syringe pumps for ongoing medication, and thermo-blankets, all mounted on a custom built rig with its own working table.”</p><p>A forthright visionary in regional medical care, Tel Aviv native Dr. Rafi Kot is the C.E.O. and founder of FMP, first opening the practice in 1994 after running a number of health care projects for remote minority groups in the Vietnamese North. He has developed Family Medical Practice into one of the leading primary healthcare providers in Vietnam.</p><ul><li>About TEDx, x = independently organized event ▪<br/> In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)</li><li>About TED ▪<br/> TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on <a href=\"https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FTED.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1ckaUOR588wUCWnCKYHmz2S1uU0qejBYx3sEYKkFquhW2ZrkffdLXJRPs&h=AT0uCfYJQ4C5k8Blk5pQWBxCvPfqfDfsRBWTu5G1yTGMOopRK2bZS9LPybZwtls1AH_IUeUw9ZtvgDIypkXqSSuMuwBTU25e3rAt0DXs4yG4yV6OgwrWGroHxnUHTwe5KecZiJ8Q9NUtr8KN9vBRGI335b9K6z9cTMNnbDvCqju-MJkmoWQaNm9As4dtK2M9-7NoLJUN70uFOh9N3x-ewFdsSy-u4XxLBzF2_kS9PXokVB_IQXjXACYYOZ2HysIV_QTfN1D7fv2CnkDovAqEVHjJtj5SbTAa6Ytw5o0yhJtj0DaWuLzoRxpRRoz_Vj5tTjBV1R4qmogeGHwhVJM4QmiP1wf4dPPGC-zLYuHWISV9IiltYjWSk_3Fg5nqx2TkDxyjt5-iC_MSm6Ur62ztP09qUwEulXWHmZPabdznuFzheMKp9xJRZfKpwG7QITOUuPtupBq-AE2wBkr1aJyOumP8xoiE5YHU1ZROQJmmYGFha533g1yrRmkQ-AlK8xU8UlofdTmr9c4fftEgJqUn4u-PdzakaZniO8gkfa3oz11zzYWTAVxuFzYeu_7-cuP_PFevPiQijDwrwGWwQXnOn9ZsCdv6XRMKP7c7GH3XbSbZFNHIRNy62dobmK5p93lf0v1j-Uk\">TED.com.</a> TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.</li></ul><p>TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include <a href=\"http://ted.com/?fbclid=IwAR22pMIRjsr8JM0Fk8x6brvmhkY5NXNI-8Fx1J5KjKVYhxJSrSqS9mBJNaI\">TED.com</a>, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a "wish," or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.</p><p>👉 Follow TED on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TEDTalks?fbclid=IwAR3b0WGnZsrhZCsQTvKGDf7n47cn3QLbHodKBut0asyhKM3N1IbPLSXj8q8\">http://twitter.com/TEDTalks</a>, on Facebook at <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/TED/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBMZLGymT8vw-686xh7ef-fC5kCHsdFwiYdcxc6mR0CL_SnJTUXC6gntQcAsIDSfcBaHE252k7ku9yxoOamXTmlnLmLVtOF-b-99T8ORJVk6fS9LV9gNdiD_-l65jmtXTgHiGzmFB0qY_QvTS1wabO6svv82AfydfLQaNKbEWRZg4BSIf__SuFGjdB2J4iPlDjn0MkcD31QTshGJ4zlQNLAcvPbQl7D3pUVx48dQBXDflh9BfdttU8sJTcMRRE5Y8eg80JgIM85NkvAQEssyt5M1m_Fc2B3hDyTIj2NZlH4VTG3HPm_GPdoKc7NsDVNn0SEoLuBZVg_85GK4eIte2aUF7-Q&__xts__%5B1%5D=68.ARA1GCca8VIfDrjGzMuXDpZl12AQPTwUdG1ACp_hdJhp4884MaLFwTESuhnZCTaDX6wL9CSTkdEwOTD9eBr-a5nsVaP4AinFk35uKwGUynnFaNOhAfSj3ZaH5TdgJ5cUCB6rwiIlMTjBUyFanZB-YT9o7p5nm2yVKAlnJ6cOwmUydZtb1da9K2zIkPcgtHHd3kTrX4Lw_wImQpNHbnbU9D1TByoUAh6UDipa33_pKA3QzIj7R2NkJ8gSHD5RTuOJl4UbUL9loutvpsSyXVBS1dayWVGbTzm22K4SsQ0OXU8i7Y3BRV4WJI3MocQt0k0o6Nm6rgDIM9FZtzYcSWyhTrk-ZlS_&__tn__=K-R&eid=ARDDcaXEftzj9A0wkl55wumFgAksDadiH07EbaOlh6aSn3k9hrd-mk1QHaw5xjp4nGuQgngoTSZfI9v0&fref=mentions\">http://www.facebook.com/TED</a> or Instagram at <a href=\"https://instagram.com/ted?fbclid=IwAR3mmFgRt47CRnZQwhqzrQD-m1k0Pjrl87_qV2RrA2TqRnO2OdWkGi2l74Y\">https://instagram.com/ted</a>.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 583,
"title": "Hair Loss in Ho Chi Minh City",
"slug": "hair-loss-ho-chi-minh-city",
"slug_en": "hair-loss-ho-chi-minh-city",
"slug_vi": "hair-loss-ho-chi-minh-city",
"slug_ko": "hair-loss-ho-chi-minh-city",
"slug_ja": "hair-loss-ho-chi-minh-city",
"overview_image": {
"id": 231,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/5A7225F0-07B2-4F89-BAE3-CC199F43EB66-5016-00000ECE273F7B2E.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/5A7225F0-07B2-4F89-BAE3-CC199.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-07",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "While it may be easy to jump to the conclusion that your hair loss is being caused by water pollutants, the truth is that around 50% of people will suffer some degree of pattern hair loss before turning 50.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
96,
95
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>In an average day, people lose up to 100 hairs from their scalp. This is completely normal and in most cases the hairs grow back. But if your hair is not growing back at the normal rate, it is likely that you are beginning to experience Androgenic Alopecia – or put simply, ‘hair loss’. While it is completely natural to experience this as part of the ageing process it can be alarming when it happens prematurely.</p><p>Hair loss can be attributed to many causes: it can be hereditary; it can follow a period of excessive stress, for example a major surgery; serious illness; pregnancy or drastic weight loss; or it can be the result of a sudden change in diet or lifestyle. You can also lose your hair if you have certain diseases, such as thyroid problems, diabetes, or lupus. The weather and pollution can also have an impact on the health of one’s hair. But there is one other factor that people living or spending a lot of time in Vietnam question – and that is water quality.</p><p>Many expats or newcomers to Vietnam believe their sudden and unprecedented hair loss upon arrival is the consequence of the poor quality of water in which they are showering, with many claiming that changing one’s shower filter produces remarkable results. But the truth is there is no scientific evidence this is the case. Beyond impacting the quality of one’s hair, poor shower water quality has not been scientifically linked to the phenomenon of hair loss.</p><p>That being said, it must be acknowledged there are significant health concerns relating to Vietnam’s water quality. Water pollution in Vietnam is the serious result of rapid urbanisation without adequate environmental considerations. The Saigon-Dong Nai river system is a significant source of water for the 15 million people living in Ho Chi Minh City – an alarming fact considering the high levels of waste discharged into the basin, some 29,700 cubic meters a day in 2017, in fact. According to a study by the Institute for Environment and Resources, Dong Nai is severely polluted by discharge from residential areas, hospitals, mining companies, factories, waterway transport vessels, farms – even garbage dumps.</p><p>Furthermore “hard water”, which describes the type of water used by residential households across much of Ho Chi Minh City, contains large amounts of chemicals and metals such as magnesium, barium, calcium, silica and dissolved minerals, as well as organic micro-pollutants that can cause disruption to the reproductive system, central nervous system or immune system.</p><p>According to Family Medical Practice internist Dr. Ruben Martinez-Castejon, the main pollutant that can affect hair growth is arsenic, and the problem of arsenic poisoning was solved by health authorities many years ago.</p><p>“It was found that Red River water in Hanoi was rich in arsenic — tens of times higher than internationally accepted for drinking,” he said. “Now it is only those people drinking from natural sources – in other words, rural, untreated water – who could be at risk of arsenic exposure. Anyhow environmental arsenic influence on hair growth is something that takes a very long time to happen.”</p><p>Dr. Martinez-Castejon added that acute exposure to high quantities of thallium could also lead to acute and severe hair loss, but many other symptoms will occur before hair loss.</p><p>“Cadmium exposure also looks to be related to chronic telogen effluvium, and in such a case it would be good to check levels in your water supply,” he added. Overall, Dr. Martinez-Castejon concluded that the quality of water coming from household taps and showers in Ho Chi Minh had not been proven to affect hair loss, but rather hair quality.</p><p>“It’s true that there are hard and soft waters and that distilled waters will lead to a lower amount of calcium carbonate deposition on hair, which makes hair look thicker and nicer,” he said.</p><p>While it may be easy to jump to the conclusion that your hair loss is being caused by water pollutants, the truth is that around 50% of people will suffer some degree of pattern hair loss before turning 50, with the most common causes of hair loss experienced in Ho Chi Minh City being androgenic alopecia in men, female pattern hair loss, female androgenic alopecia, telogen effluvium acute and chronic, and alopecia areata, all of which are normally associated with infection, general autoimmune or rheumatic disease.</p><p>Hypothyroidism, ringworm of the scalp – even your haircare routine may be responsible for your hair loss, and it is important to rule these out before anything else.</p><p>Health professionals recommend consulting with your doctor to explore exactly why you are experiencing hair loss.</p><h4><b>WHAT KIND OF HAIR LOSS ARE YOU EXPERIENCING?</b></h4><p><b>Telogen effluvium</b>: rapid hair loss (by handfuls), normally occurs after severe weight loss, stress, sickness or post-pregnancy</p><p><b>Female pattern hair loss</b>: hair thins on sides and apex, slowly and progressively, supposedly a result of increased activity of an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase on the scalp.</p><p><b>Male or androgenic alopecia</b>: caused by the same as female pattern hair loss, but instead the front line and apex recedes.</p><p><b>Alopecia areata</b>: an autoimmune but not scarring alopecia and may be associated to other autoimmune diseases such as diabetes or thyroiditis. </p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1140,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "benh-lay-nhiem-qua-duong-tinh-duc-thuong-gap",
"slug_en": "benh-lay-nhiem-qua-duong-tinh-duc-thuong-gap",
"slug_vi": "bệnh-lây-nhiễm-qua-đường-tình-dục-thường-gặp",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 889,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Benh_lay_qua_duong_tinh_duc.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Benh_lay_qua_duong_tinh_duc.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-05",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
814
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1068,
"title": "Influenza A",
"slug": "influenza-a",
"slug_en": "influenza-a",
"slug_vi": "cúm-tuýp-a",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 667,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/GettyImages_140872570.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/GettyImages_140872570.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-04",
"category": {
"id": 1,
"name": "Announcement board",
"slug": "announcement"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 12,
"name": "Medical Alerts",
"slug": "medical-alerts"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
926,
750
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><i>MEDICAL ALERT: OCTOBER 2018</i></p><h2><b>Influenza A</b></h2><p>Influenza A is a serious and highly transmissible strain of the flu virus, which is more severe than the common cold. We advise any patient suffering from the symptoms of a respiratory illness to remain at home to avoid transmitting this virus to other people.<br/></p><p><b>WHAT IS INFLUENZA A?</b></p><p>Influenza A is the most virulent form of the flu. It is highly adaptable and constantly evolving. It can adapt to infect animals as well, including birds and swine, and can give rise to serious pandemics. In some cases, people infected with influenza A can develop pneumonia and other more serious conditions.<br/></p><p><b>WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?</b></p><p>If you contract influenza A, you may suffer from:</p><ul><li>Fever and chills</li><li>Headache and muscle aches</li><li>Feeling tired and weak</li><li>Sneezing, and stuffy or runny nose</li><li>Sore throat and cough.</li></ul><p><b>WHAT IS THE RISK?</b></p><p>The current risk of catching influenza A in Ho Chi Minh City is very high. You should reduce contact with anyone manifesting cold symptoms. Thoroughly wash your hands as frequently as possible, and consider getting the most recent flu vaccination.<br/></p><p><b>WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I’M INFECTED?</b></p><p>If you contract influenza A, stay at home and get as much rest as possible. Drink plenty of fluids and take pain relief medication to relieve your symptoms if you experience any discomfort. Eat light, healthy meals and take plenty of fluids. If you have any chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness or confusion, or vomiting, you should visit your doctor. Stay well away from children, elderly people, pregnant women, and people who live in countryside areas with less comprehensive medical care, as these groups are particularly susceptible to this disease.<br/></p><p><b>The new influenza vaccine will be available at our medical facilities in 1–2 weeks. Our supplier is waiting for</b></p><p><b>approval from the Ministry of Health.</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1117,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "evacuationbusiness",
"slug_en": "evacuationbusiness",
"slug_vi": "chuyển-viện-cấp-cứu",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": null,
"post_date": "2018-03-04",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
793
],
"content": null,
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 731,
"title": "The Truth About Flu",
"slug": "truth-about-flu-dr-elvie-joy-atanque-basa",
"slug_en": "truth-about-flu-dr-elvie-joy-atanque-basa",
"slug_vi": "truth-about-flu",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 327,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/The-Truth-about-Flu.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/The-Truth-about-Flu.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-03-02",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Influenza can cause severe illness or other complications like otitis media, pneumonia and even death.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
201,
200,
199,
198,
197
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Millions of people around the world get sick with the flu every year. In tropical regions like Vietnam, influenza may occur throughout the year, causing outbreaks to be more irregular than they are elsewhere.</p><p>Seasonal influenza (or “flu”) is an acute respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses which circulate in all parts of the world. It is characterized by a sudden onset of fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, malaise, sore throat, a runny nose and non-productive cough. The cough can be severe and can last two or more weeks. The disease is contagious during the 24 hours before the onset of symptoms.</p><p>Most people recover from fever and other symptoms within a week without requiring medical attention. However, influenza can cause severe illness or other complications like otitis media, pneumonia and even death.</p><p>The flu is a very contagious illness that spreads easily, especially in crowded areas such as schools; public places like markets; auditoriums and public transportation; and nursing homes. When an infected person coughs or sneezes, droplets containing viruses are dispersed into the air and can spread up to one meter, and infected persons nearby can breathe these droplets in. The virus can also be spread by hands contaminated with influenza viruses. You can also get the flu through personal contact (handshakes or hugs), saliva (kissing or sharing drinks), and by touching contaminated surfaces (doorknobs or faucets).</p><p>Bed rest and adequate fluid intake are important supportive measures. Control of fever with antipyretics is important. Specific therapy for influenza is offered to patients with severe and progressive infections, and to those with underlying medical conditions. It may also be given to shorten the duration of the illness, especially if the benefits outweigh the side effects of the drugs.</p><p>The most effective way to prevent the disease is vaccination. Safe and effective vaccines are available and have been used for more than 60 years. Immunity from vaccination wanes over time, so annual vaccination is recommended to protect against influenza.</p><p>Annual vaccination is recommended for:</p><ul><li>Pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy</li><li>Children aged between 6 months to 5 years</li><li>Elderly individuals (aged more than 65 years)</li><li>Individuals with chronic medical conditions</li><li>Health care workers.</li></ul><p>In addition to vaccination and antiviral treatment, public health management including personal protective measures to reduce the spread of infection is essential:</p><ul><li>Regular hand washing with proper drying of the hands</li><li>Good respiratory hygiene—covering mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, using tissues and disposing of them correctly</li><li>Early self-isolation of those feeling unwell, feverish and having other symptoms of influenza</li><li>Avoiding close contact with sick people</li><li>Avoiding touching one’s eyes, nose or mouth</li><li>Avoid crowded places. By avoiding crowds during peak flu season, you reduce your chances of infection. And, if you’re sick, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever subsides so that you lessen your chance of infecting others.</li></ul><p><b><i>Dr. Elvie Joy Atanque-Basa - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Danang</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1139,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "non-mua-o-tre-em-co-nguy-hiem",
"slug_en": "non-mua-o-tre-em-co-nguy-hiem",
"slug_vi": "nôn-mửa-ở-trẻ-em-có-nguy-hiểm",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": null,
"post_date": "2018-02-12",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
813
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 694,
"title": "Curing Lower Back Pain During Pregnancy",
"slug": "curing-lower-back-pain-during-pregnancy",
"slug_en": "curing-lower-back-pain-during-pregnancy",
"slug_vi": "curing-lower-back-pain-during-pregnancy",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 683,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_1640488003.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_1640488003.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-02-12",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Lower back pain is a common issue during the two last trimesters of pregnancy. The female pelvic bone increases its diameter to allow the baby’s transit during labour.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
306,
305
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Lower back pain is a common issue during the two last trimesters of pregnancy. The female pelvic bone increases its diameter to allow the baby’s transit during labour. This process begins around the thirty fourth week. After birth, the pelvic ring closes, but usually does not reach its original size. This is the reason why many women with children notice a small increase in the size of their hips after pregnancy.</p><p>During the third trimester, the female pelvic bone opens like a hinge thanks to the sacroiliac joints that allow more space for the baby to descend and find a good position for delivery. This situation can cause severe pain on both sides of the lower back (sacroiliac joints) and the lower abdomen above the genitals (pubic area). This pain makes walking, sitting and sleeping very difficult.</p><p>It is important to say that this pelvic opening process is a normal biological change that prepares your body to have your baby in a natural way.</p><p><b>What can I do if I am pregnant and I have lower back pain?</b></p><p>Most painkillers are not recommended during pregnancy. Therefore, if you feel lower back pain, take a rest laying down on your left side for a couple of hours, meanwhile applying a warm bag or cushion on your lower back to relax the muscles. If this does not work, visit a doctor.</p><p>First, a gynecologist/obstetrician needs to ensure that everything is all right with you and your baby. If all is well, you can be referred to an orthopedic surgeon, who can offer a safe option to treat the pain.</p><p>In the meantime, try to keep a good posture. This is difficult because your body is different and heavier, but you need to avoid flexing your hips as much as possible, specifically when trying to pick something up from the floor. Keep your back straight, no matter if you are walking, sitting or sleeping.</p><p><b>What might the orthopaedic surgeon offer?</b></p><p>An orthopaedic surgeon can offer a safe, quick and minimally-invasive pain management therapy directly applied to both of your sacroiliac joints. This procedure is 100 per cent safe for your baby and also for you because the applied medicines will not reach your bloodstgream. It is also safe after delivery for breast-feeding mothers who feel pain.</p><p>During the procedure you will feel the same as with any other injection, like a blood test or vaccination. Pain relief can be immediate and it may last for 60 to 90 days on average. Taking painkillers will be unnecessary and you will feel more comfortable while walking, sleeping or resting until the end of your pregnancy. — <b>Family Medical Practice Vietnam</b></p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Andres Sosa</i></b> <b><i>- Orthopedic Surgeon, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1138,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "cach-so-cuu-khi-bi-chay-mau",
"slug_en": "cach-so-cuu-khi-bi-chay-mau",
"slug_vi": "cách-sơ-cứu-khi-bị-chảy-máu",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 888,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Cach_so_cuu_khi_bi_chay_mau.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Cach_so_cuu_khi_bi_chay_mau.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-02-05",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
812
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 606,
"title": "Otitis",
"slug": "otitis",
"slug_en": "otitis",
"slug_vi": "otitis",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 270,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/ADCA826E-6239-427B-82EC-C2F9CB04F247-5016-00000ED3C3CD8AF0.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/ADCA826E-6239-427B-82EC-C2F9C.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-02-01",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Vaccination will not prevent 100% of cases of otitis, but it will prevent some, and decrease the risk of cases that slip past its effects due to those resistant and virulent bacteria.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
59,
58,
57,
56,
55
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Behind the eardrum is a space called the middle ear. It’s a resonating chamber, like the body of a violin or guitar. It amplifies sounds coming from the outside through the eardrum, and within it is a system of small bones that transmit sound signals to the inner ear and onward to the brain.</p><p>This space is connected to the nasopharynx (nasal cavity) by a canal, one of the spaces in the upper respiratory tract that can fill with mucus or pus whenever inflammation occurs. When this happens in the middle ear, the surrounding tissues become engorged by mucus or swelling, and this impairs drainage toward the nasal cavity—creating ideal conditions for bacteria to proliferate there and causing a condition we call otitis media.<br/></p><p>It’s very common in small children for a number of reasons. Some kids are always getting congested, and because of their smaller anatomy, the drainage canal is narrow and can block easily. The middle ear is not a sterile space, so if it fills with fluid, it’s easy for flora from the nasal and oral cavities to spread there and cause a serious infection, as well as a constant sensation of pressure and painful discomfort within the ear.<br/></p><p>There are a few types of bacteria that are generally responsible for this condition. The most dreaded of these is now a thing of the past: the Haemophilus influenzae bacteria, a very virulent organism that used to be an enormous problem in children’s medicine before the advent of the HIB vaccine—which is now given to almost every child, including kids in Vietnam.<br/></p><p>An efficient HIB vaccine was difficult to create. Haemophilus proteins alone cannot stimulate a strong immune response, so an ingenious vaccination method had to be used to jolt the body’s immunity into action. To do this, researchers tried combining Haemophilus with a protein issued from an unrelated pathogen like diphtheria, known to have a powerful impact on the immune system. The vaccine that resulted stimulated a protection that worked strongly against Haemophilus. Nowadays, Haemophilus infections have dropped to almost zero, so this vaccine was very successful.<br/></p><p>Unfortunately, vaccination has not been as effective against the second bacteria in the list that usually causes otitis media: pneumococcus. The problem with pneumococcus is that it has a lot of serotypes, which means that no single vaccine can work against all the varieties that exist. But there are around a dozen types that are more common, and the vaccines we have against these are actively sufficient.<br/></p><p>Vaccination is extremely important in fighting serious infections and also has a beneficial effect in reducing the incidence of otitis media, because it is a very good preventive measure against Haemophilus influenzae—and to some extent, also against pneumococcus. By contrast, treating the condition after it takes hold is quite problematic.<br/></p><p>The trouble with otitis is that it occurs within an enclosed space that is not well irrigated by blood vessels. Normally to treat a bacterial infection, we administer antibiotics that will be carried by the blood to the site of the infection. With otitis, because you don’t have blood vessels in the middle ear, you’ve got nothing that can deliver the medicine.<br/></p><p>It’s not enough to have a good antibiotic that kills the bacteria in the lab; you need one that you can give in higher doses without being toxic—such as antibiotics from the penicillin family. Derivates of penicillin (amoxycillin, cefuroxime, etc.) have a particularly safe profile that enables us to increase their dosages significantly without the risk of increased side effects, so we often prescribe these kinds of antibiotics for children. Pneumococcus, however, develops a resistance to penicillins quite easily. This sometimes makes treating otitis more difficult.<br/></p><p>First of all, we need to use high doses to address the low-grade resistance of the bacteria, or prescribe antibiotics that can overcome that resistance. If the simple antibiotics don’t work, perhaps we have to escalate and use a more potent medicine. But due to the problem of poor irrigation within the middle ear, even this treatment can fail. The pus and fluid within the middle ear will continue to build up and cause pain, discomfort and disorientation.<br/></p><p>Nature has a solution for this problem, in that there is a little triangular membrane in the eardrum that is a bit weaker than the rest, like a security door. It can perforate when the pressure builds inside the middle ear without causing functional damage, and then the pus can drain out and the tissue will eventually heal. It’s the body’s answer to how not to get an ear infection that can’t be controlled.<br/></p><p>Of course, when the child’s mother sees the pus draining out of the ear, she will certainly panic. In fact, the baby will feel much better at that point, because the pressure will immediately vanish. This is where the ENT doctor is sometimes necessary—when we have a child with unbearably painful otitis who is not responding to antibiotics, we may decide to do the perforation surgically. Generally once the pus has been removed, you don’t need any more antibiotics.<br/></p><p>The procedure hurts, but it lasts a fraction of a second, and after that there is no further pain. It’s painful because the exquisitely tender eardrum is particularly sensitive to pain, as a membrane that is supposed to feel delicate vibrations. After it’s over, thankfully, the pain is gone. The difficult thing is to get the child to accept the surgeon to get to the ear!<br/></p><p>Young children are at risk because of their anatomy; secondly, their immune system is immature, which is why they cannot mount a good immunological response on their own. After the age of two or three years, infection by Haemophilus influenzae and pneumococcus is naturally less of a problem. Older children and adults have a natural way to cope against these bacteria because of the maturation of their immune system. Children below the age of two have no good defense. This is why it’s important to vaccinate against HIB and pneumococcus early, and this will also protect your young child against otitis media. After a certain age, it’s not as important anymore.<br/></p><p>When the otitis is not treated, there are sometimes complications. The most serious of these is that the infection can spread to the brain and cause meningitis or a brain abscess. In the era of vaccines, antibiotics and good access to medical care, this should not happen. Thanks also to the perforation, it is a rare event. But sometimes it still does happen. Some particularly virulent bacteria can occasionally cause a very fast-spreading infection, where all the security systems, including the antibiotics, have no time to control the infection, and so it rapidly enters the brain. By that point, treatment becomes very complicated and an intensive care setting is necessary. The emergence of bacteria more resistant to antibiotics is another argument in favor of prevention via vaccines rather than a reliance on antibiotics.<br/></p><p>The bottom line is, it’s important to vaccinate. Vaccination will not prevent 100% of cases of otitis, but it will prevent some, and decrease the risk of cases that slip past its effects due to those resistant and virulent bacteria. As always, prevention is the most important way to fight diseases and their consequences.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Serge Gradstein - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</i></b></p><p><i>A French native with over three decades of experience in medicine,</i> <b><i>Dr. Serge Gradstein</i></b><i> received his MD from the Rene Descartes University Paris 5, and completed his residency in pediatrics at Israel’s Kaplan University.</i></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1137,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "thuc-uong-co-con-va-suc-khoe",
"slug_en": "thuc-uong-co-con-va-suc-khoe",
"slug_vi": "thức-uống-có-cồn-và-sức-khỏe",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 887,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Thuc_uong_co_con.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Thuc_uong_co_con.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-29",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
811
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1136,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "cach-xu-ly-tac-nghen-duong-tho",
"slug_en": "cach-xu-ly-tac-nghen-duong-tho",
"slug_vi": "cách-xử-lý-tắc-nghẽn-đường-thở",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 886,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Xu_ly_tac_nghen_duong_tho.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Xu_ly_tac_nghen_duong_tho.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-22",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
810
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 723,
"title": "Dengue Fever",
"slug": "dengue-fever",
"slug_en": "dengue-fever",
"slug_vi": "dengue-fever",
"slug_ko": "dengue-fever",
"slug_ja": "dengue-fever",
"overview_image": {
"id": 1007,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_1472783954.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_1472783954.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-19",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "On the whole, the risk of catching dengue while travelling in Vietnam is fairly low if you take all the correct precautions. Your risk, of course, depends on where you're going and how.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
877,
878,
881,
880,
879
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>What is dengue fever?</b></p><p>Dengue fever is an acute mosquito-borne viral infection. It is currently regarded as the most important mosquito-borne disease internationally. In its classic form, Dengue is a flu-like disease, though more severe. It is caused by a virus that is transmitted by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito and, to a lesser extent, its cousin Aedes albopictus. This mosquito also transmits chikungunya, yellow fever, and the Zika virus. At one time, dengue was considered an uncommon and relatively benign disease. In recent decades, however, that picture has changed dramatically. Today, epidemics of dengue are more frequent and virulent—even potentially fatal—and they affect larger numbers of people than ever. </p><p><b>What's the risk of me catching Dengue Fever in vietnam?</b></p><p>Dengue occurs year-round in Vietnam, however, as Dengue epidemics tend to be seasonal (with peak transmissions times occurring during warmer the rainy season), with Vietnam's coast covering more than 3,000 kilometres travellers intending to explore the length and breadth of the country during their vacation will most likely experience a rainy season somewhere along the way. For central Vietnam and Hoi An the warm monsoon months from June/July through December pose the greatest risk. Before setting out, check the I Am At Web site <a href=\"https://www.iamat.org/country/vietnam/risk/dengue\">(www.iamat.org) </a>for specifics on your destination. </p><p>On the whole, the risk of catching dengue while travelling in Vietnam is fairly low if you take all the correct precautions. Your risk, of course, depends on where you're going and how. Are you paddling up the Mekong Delta in a canoe or relaxing in a Four Seasons villa? </p><p><b>What preventative measures should I be taking?</b></p><p>For prevention, travellers should take meticulous measures to prevent mosquito bites during the daytime (the Dengue mosquito feeds from dawn to dusk). </p><p>The measures to follow:-</p><p>Wear light, breathable clothing in neutral colours </p><p>Covering exposed skin with mosquito repellents (20-30% DEET or 20% Picaridin). If you are using sunscreen, apply this first and wait for twenty minutes before applying a layer of mosquito repellant on top.</p><p>In holiday rentals and at hotels, be wary of water containers situated around dwellings - these form the perfect breeding grounds for the Dengue mosquito and should be thoroughly cleaned out and emptied weekly.</p><p>Check rooms and indoor living areas are well screened and utilise fans, air-conditioners and mosquito nets if you are taking a nap.</p><p><b>How long after exposure does the virus begin to show symptoms?</b></p><p>For those that suffer symptoms (some do not) they usually present themselves four to seven days after the bite. This is handy to know for an early diagnosis as Dengue is a disease with a wide array of clinical symptoms, which often go unrecognised or are misdiagnosed as other fever-causing tropical diseases. Early diagnosis enables the doctor to get the patient on the correct treatment course immediately and to monitor further symptoms (and act upon them) should the virus progress or worsen.</p><p><b>What are the symptoms of dengue?</b></p><p>Classic dengue fever begins with the sudden onset of fever, chills, a severe aching of the head, back, and extremities (termed “breakbone”) and retro-orbital pain. Others may lose their appetite, develop diarrhea and a red skin rash. The fever usually lasts 3–7 days, and may reach 41°C.</p><p><b>Should I see a doctor?</b></p><p>For tourists or international travelers, we highly recommend that they be aware of these symptoms and seek medical attention should they occur. Some people may not develop the classic dengue symptoms. I would advise everyone that once any fever persists for more than 48 hours, they have to seek medical consultation.</p><p>For those who have no immediate medical access, we highly advise them to keep themselves hydrated, take fever medications, and monitor for any signs of bleeding such as nosebleeds, gum bleeding, and skin rashes.</p><p><b>What is the treatment for dengue?</b></p><p>The majority of the population experience a self-limiting course of dengue that doesn’t develop into the severe forms (such as dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome). Recovery takes time, with fatigue and exhaustion persisting after the fever has subsided.</p><p>There’s no specific antiviral treatment for dengue. Supportive treatment such as paracetamol tablets can help to control the fever and body aches; fluid replacement and bed rest is usually enough to see a patient through to recovery. No specific dietary change is necessary.</p><p><b>Can't I just get a vaccination?</b></p><p>In terms of the vaccine, Dengvaxia by Sanofi Pasteur is the first available dengue vaccine against all the four strains of dengue virus. It is approved in 10 Dengue endemic countries.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Doctor Christopher M. Suazon, Director, Danang Family Medical Practice</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 697,
"title": "Knee Pain—a Common Situation After Fifties",
"slug": "knee-pain-common-situation-after-fifties",
"slug_en": "knee-pain-common-situation-after-fifties",
"slug_vi": "knee-pain-common-situation-after-fifties",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 684,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_537131944.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_537131944.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-15",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Many people around or after their fifties complain about knee pain that occurs apparently without reason and it is described as an uncomfortable sensation that comes and goes but not bad enough to visit a doctor.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
311,
310
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Many people around or after their fifties complain about knee pain that occurs apparently without reason and it is described as an uncomfortable sensation that comes and goes but not bad enough to visit a doctor.</p><p>Sometimes pain becomes aggressive, causing difficulties in daily activities like using the stairs, bending down or standing up from a chair. Most people will think that visiting a doctor is now necessary.</p><p>After consulting with a specialist and hearing some new words like Knee Osteoarthritis, people immediately wonder if pain will decrease somehow and if they could ever be able to move freely again. Under the appropriate orthopedic care the answer is “YES” for both questions.</p><p>Inside our knees, bones are covered by cartilage, a spongy soft tissue that protects bone surfaces from touching each other, acting like a shock absorber. Space between bones is filled by articular liquid, a fluid that serves as a lubricant, facilitating bone displacement during movement.</p><p>There are many circumstances in later life in which cartilage cannot support weigh bearing, articular liquid looses its lubricant properties, space between bones becomes narrow and bones begin touching each other with movement. This is known as initial knee osteoarthritis.</p><p>If nothing is done to improve this condition, repetitive rubbing will change bones surfaces, cartilage damage will continue and the local inflammatory response will be to overproduce bad quality articular liquid. This translates into symptoms such as severe pain, swelling, limited range of motion, tenderness and mild deformity of the knee.</p><p>The goal of medical treatment is to reduce pain, allowing the patient to get back to common activities but the outcome strongly depends on how early it is diagnosed and treated. Initial knee osteoarthritis (stage I) can be treated conservatively, improving lifestyle and using specific medication.</p><p>Mild knee osteoarthritis (stage II) may require intra-articular injections with steroids and local anesthetics, a very effective option to manage pain and improve movement. Injections are also useful to drain the excessive quantity of articular liquid and to replace it with a high-lubricant synthetic fluid to prevent additional cartilage damage. Some other treatment options like platelet rich plasma or stem cells matrix are commonly applied at this stage.</p><p>Advanced knee osteoarthritis (stage III) may be treated using arthroscopy techniques, a minimally invasive video-camera assisted procedure that allows the surgeon to check the joint from inside, repairing or removing the affected tissues. Severe knee osteoarthritis (stage IV) involves irreparable cartilage damage and the knee may need to be replaced using a joint prosthesis, a surgical procedure that is very safe and successful nowadays. </p><p>Lastly, it is very important to remark that treatment for all stages of knee osteoarthritis require dedicated physical therapy for better results.</p><p>If you have been feeling knee pain, the best thing you can do is to arrange an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. Meanwhile, try applying coldpacks three times per day for 10 minutes but do not forget to use a cloth between the coldpack and your skin to avoid burns. Cold therapy will help to decrease inflammation and pain.</p><p>Avoid applying heat on a painful knee. Knee osteoarthritis is related to inflammatory conditions and a warm environment around the joint can only make things worse. Try also to avoid using expensive ointments and creams that will make you lose your time and money. — <b>Family Medical Practice Vietnam.</b></p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Andres Sosa - Orthopedic Surgeon, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 615,
"title": "That Nagging Cough",
"slug": "nagging-cough-dr-jonathan-halevy",
"slug_en": "nagging-cough-dr-jonathan-halevy",
"slug_vi": "nagging-cough",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 838,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/That_nagging_cough.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/That_nagging_cough.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-12",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "There are so many different types of cough medications that it can be quite confusing to choose the right one for you. As my mentor used to say: when you have so many medications to treat one symptom, it usually means that none of them really works.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
181,
180,
179,
178,
177
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>A simple guide to cough medications</b></p><p>When you walk into a pharmacy, you’ll notice that the majority of medications on the shelves are for cough. There are so many different types of cough medications that it can be quite confusing to choose the “right one” for you. As my mentor used to say: when you have so many medications to treat one symptom, it usually means that none of them really works.</p><p>Cough medications are a four-billiondollar-a-year industry in the US alone, so the urge to sell them is very high. But the simple truth that many doctors and pharmacists won’t tell you—and this may come as a surprise—is that most cough medications are completely ineffective.</p><p>As a pediatrician, when I prescribe medication to my little patients, I must always consider the benefits of the medication versus the possible side effects. If the potential harm is greater than the benefit, then this medication should not be given.</p><p>Cough can be a symptom of many different conditions and disorders. The most common of these is viral respiratory tract infection, causing cold or flu symptoms. Unfortunately, many children will be prescribed antibiotics for this condition, even though they have no effect on viruses.</p><p>“Post viral cough” is another common cause. Sometimes, a cough may last for several weeks after a viral infection. The cause is not clear, and usually the cough gradually improves with time.</p><p>Air pollution is one of the most common causes of chronic respiratory problems. Sadly, Saigon is one of the most polluted cities in the world—if you live in Saigon and you don’t cough, something is wrong with your lungs! In a similar vein, children of smoking parents suffer much more from respiratory problems, infections and asthma than others. If you or your spouse smoke, you are going to be seeing your pediatrician quite frequently.</p><p>Asthma is another common cause of chronic cough—more than 10 percent of children suffer from it, and it remains one of the most misdiagnosed conditions around, often mistaken for bronchitis, bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Many parents (and doctors) believe that asthma always comes with wheezing or breathing difficulties—actually, the most common symptom is just a cough that goes on and on, and when you listen to the child’s lungs they may be clear. Asthma does not respond to regular cough or allergy medications, and some may even worsen asthma (e.g. cough suppressants).</p><p><b>Cough Medications</b></p><p>Cough medications presumably work in different ways:</p><p>Expectorants: These are medications that increase the volume of water in the mucus (phlegm) and thus loosen it so it’s easier to cough out. The most common expectorant is guaifenesin. Unfortunately, studies have not proven that guaifenesin has any effect at all, while potential side effects of guaifenesin are urinary retention (difficulty to pee) and kidney stones.</p><p>Oral Decongestants: These are medications that constrict blood vessels in the nasal membranes and reduce the production of mucus. They include pseudoephedrine, which was commonly used in cough medications combinations and was very effective—however, since it is very easy to turn this chemical into the narcotic methamphetamine, it has been removed from the market in most countries.</p><p>Phenylephrine has replaced pseudoephedrine as a systemic decongestant. It has been used for years as a medication to raise blood pressure, administered by infusion into the vein. However, many studies have demonstrated no effect when taking this medication orally, since most of it breaks down in the stomach when swallowed. It also has the potential for serious side effects, including high blood pressure, low heart rate, loss of appetite, restlessness and difficulty falling asleep.</p><p>Nasal Decongestants: These include steroid sprays, which are very effective in reducing nasal congestion and relatively safe to use even for several weeks. The effect is built up over several days, so it takes time to achieve the maximum effect. It is usually given for 7–10 days. Nasonex spray is somewhat better, since it can be used once a day and there is no absorption into the blood.</p><p>These sprays are the first line in treating allergic rhinitis (hay fever), and are helpful in treating colds.</p><p>Oxymetazoline (Otrivin and similar) is a very effective spray decongestant, and it works fast. However, if used for more than 3–4 days, it can worsen congestion. Use of this spray must be stopped after four days, and not be used more than once a month.</p><p>Antihistamines: There are two types of antihistamine medication.</p><p>The “old” generation antihistamines have many side effects, including drying up the nose and mouth; causing drowsiness, sleepiness or irritability; behavioral problems; and increased heart rate. An overdose on these medications can cause a baby to suffer seizures, become comatose, reduce blood pressure, stop breathing, or even die. Babies below two years old are at higher risk, and these medications are not approved for them. They are used as cough medications, not because of their anti-allergic effect, but actually because of their side effects in reducing mucus and drying the membranes, as well as causing drowsiness and suppressing the cough reflex. Studies have not shown significant effects in improving “cold” symptoms in babies and little children; moreover, suppressing the cough and causing the mucus to become thicker can worsen asthma and should be avoided in asthmatic children.</p><p>The “new” generation antihistamines don’t have the side effects common to the old generation varieties. Therefore, they are only useful in coughs caused by allergic rhinitis. They don’t have any effect on coughs caused by colds, viral or bacterial infections, or asthma. Mucolytics: These are medications that break down chemical connections between proteins within the mucus, making it thinner, less sticky, and easier to expel. The most commonly used are Bisolvon (bromhexine); Mucomyst and Azimuc (acetylcysteine) and Halixol (ambroxol). Mucolytics have been shown to have some benefit in treating the common cold and bronchitis, and they are relatively safe. Acetylcysteine may cause spasms of the airways, so if a child has wheezing or asthma, it’s better to avoid this medication.</p><p>Ambroxol: This is an exceptional medication: besides its mucolytic action, a few studies have shown that it also has an antiviral effect, reducing the ability of certain viruses to multiply; an anaesthetic effect, giving relief from sore throat; and an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect, reducing tissue damage. It has even been shown to reduce injury to the lungs after heart surgery. It is the only cough medication that has been safely studied in little babies, and it has even been shown to be effective in reducing chronic lung disease in preterm babies. Recent studies suggest that Ambroxol may have a protective effect on brain cells, and this year a large study in the US is being conducted to see if ambroxol can improve brain function in Parkinson’s disease. Ambroxol is my personal choice of medication to treat cold and flu, and as a secondary treatment in pneumonia, sinusitis and asthma.</p><p>Herbal Medications: Among the many “herbal cough medications” you may find in local pharmacies (some are real and some are fake), only “Prospan” (ivy leaf extract) has been studied and shown to have some benefits in treating cough.</p><p><b>What to Avoid</b></p><p>There are some simple precautions that you should follow when taking cough medications or administering it to your children:</p><ol><li>Avoid any cough medication that has more than one ingredient (for example, Ameflu, Toplexil, Theralene, and so on).</li><li>Antihistamines (Aerius, Zyrtec Loratadine, Benadryl, Phenergan etc) are only effective against an allergy-induced cough. They are useless in respiratory infections or asthma.</li><li>Cough suppressants should be avoided in children (medications to “stop” the cough).</li><li>Salbutamol (Ventolin) is a specific medication for asthma. It has no effect in respiratory infections. If your child has asthma, he or she should receive this medication only by inhalation, not as a syrup! Oral treatment is not effective and may cause significant side effects such as tremors, fast heart rhythm, loss of appetite and more.</li><li>Singulair is another specific medication to treat asthma only. It has no effect on respiratory infections. It is only given to children with chronic asthma (not for an acute attack).</li></ol><p><b>What’s Safe</b></p><p>The following medicines may be used without a doctor’s prescription:</p><ol><li>Ambroxol (Halixol) is an excellent medication for productive cough of different causes. It has been proven to be effective and safe in many studies. It also has antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects.</li><li>Prospan (ivy leaf extract) is the only tested herbal medication for cough that has been shown to have benefits and is safe to use. It can be used for dry cough or in combination with Ambroxol.</li><li>Nasal washing (Sterimar, Physiomer, Xixat, Saline) is an efficient way to clean your baby’s nose and give relief. Proper nasal washing has been shown to improve infections and reduce the risk of developing sinusitis. (There is no need to use suction on your baby’s nose after proper washing).</li></ol><p>For any other medication, you should consult with your pediatrician first!</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Jonathan Halevy, Head of Pediatrics, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1135,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "nguoi-cao-tuoi-an-lanh-song-khoe",
"slug_en": "nguoi-cao-tuoi-an-lanh-song-khoe",
"slug_vi": "người-cao-tuổi-ăn-lành-sống-khỏe",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 885,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/nguoi_cao_tuoi_song_khoe.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/nguoi_cao_tuoi_song_khoe.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-08",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
809
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 607,
"title": "Vietnam's over-the-counter medicine",
"slug": "vietnams-over-counter-medicine",
"slug_en": "vietnams-over-counter-medicine",
"slug_vi": "vietnams-over-counter-medicine",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 803,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Vietnams_over-the-counter_medicine.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Vietnams_over-the-counter_med.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-05",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "The overuse and misuse of antibiotics has created a serious problem: bacteria are growing stronger and more resistant to modern medicine. Many drugs that are used to fight bacterial infections are no longer effective.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
64,
63,
62,
61,
60
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Antibiotics are life-saving drugs that have been improving health outcomes since 1928, the year Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But the overuse and misuse of antibiotics has created a serious problem: bacteria are growing stronger and more resistant to modern medicine. Many drugs that are used to fight bacterial infections are no longer effective. While this is not a new problem, public consciousness seems to be waking up and wondering what to do next. </p><p>Multi-disciplinarian experts agree that antimicrobial resistance is a huge public health threat, and most nations have committed to developing strategies to combat it. The strategies listed by the American Centre for Disease Control include preventing infections, tracking drug-resistant infections, improving antibiotic prescription stewardship, and developing new drugs and diagnostic tests. However, implementing these strategies in developing countries has proven especially difficult. In emerging economies, there are usually fewer regulations, fewer well-trained medical practitioners, less-educated patients, and far fewer research studies. Vietnam is no exception.</p><p>In 2013, a situation analysis of the issue was undertaken by a group of researchers. Vietnam was chosen as a case-study due to its large population, high infectious disease burden, and relatively unrestricted access to medication.</p><p>The analysis explained that while market reforms have improved healthcare outcomes, access has been accompanied by excessive antibiotic use in hospitals and within the community. Their report, published in BMC Public Health, stated “Prescribing practices are poor and self-medication is common – often being the most affordable way to access healthcare. Many policies exist to regulate antibiotic use but enforcement is insufficient or lacking.”</p><p>The Ministry of Health has been keeping an eye on this matter for nearly a decade. In 2010, the MOH released a survey of 3,000 pharmacies which indicated 88% of antibiotics sold in cities and 91% of antibiotics sold in rural areas were not accompanied by a prescription.</p><p>The survey also reported that Amoxicillin, Cephalexin, and Azithromycin were the three antibiotics sold most often. Vietnamese health officials have been encouraging citizens to use antibiotics only when prescribed by a doctor and to cut down on the use of these drugs for livestock, but their suggestions fall short of inducing actual behavioral change.</p><p>The World Health Organisation has declared antimicrobial resistance a major problem in Southeast Asia and named Vietnam among the countries with the highest rate of antibiotic-resistant infections. Saigoneer reported in 2015 that resistance to carbapenems, the strongest form of antibiotics, had risen to 50%, and powerful third-generation cephalosporins had a resistance rate of 60%.</p><p>Dr Serge Gradstein, a pediatrician at Family Medical Practice, says the rates of resistance are only getting higher. “In countries like Vietnam, where there is a high demand from the population to get antibiotics coupled with the tendency of practitioners to prescribe them, it is no surprise that rates of bacterial resistances to antibiotics are huge. Add to this the weak implementation of regulations and the ability to get these drugs over-the-counter and you have a recipe for disaster. Ten times higher rates of resistance compared to northern Europe is probably an understatement.”</p><p>You don’t have to swear off antibiotics forever to keep yourself and your family safe, but it is wise to limit them. Developing healthy habits to prevent infections is the first goal. Make sure to wash your hands regularly, stay up-to-date with your vaccinations, and prevent the spread of disease through water and food. When you are sick, use antibiotics in the right way. Flus, colds, sore throats, many respiratory conditions, and bronchitis are all caused by viruses and untreatable with antibiotics. Unneeded antibiotics may lead to future infections that are drug-resistant.</p><p>Dr Gradstein hopes for a future where regulations are tighter and both doctors and patients are more educated. “The emphasis should be on prevention by restricting and regulating the use of antibiotics and by educating ourselves as doctors to prescribe the right antibiotic at the right dose for the right duration and only when absolutely necessary. Also, we have to educate our patients to use antibiotics only when prescribed – and even then should they question their doctors about the absolute necessity of it and not hesitate to be critical.”</p><p>Above all, stop self-diagnosing and see a doctor if you are ill. Doctors are there to help and have the necessary tools and knowledge to prescribe medicine if, and only if, it is necessary.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr Serge Gradstein - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 710,
"title": "Not Just a Broken Heart",
"slug": "not-just-broken-heart",
"slug_en": "not-just-broken-heart",
"slug_vi": "not-just-broken-heart",
"slug_ko": "not-just-broken-heart",
"slug_ja": "not-just-broken-heart",
"overview_image": {
"id": 241,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/F6D4EAF6-2F3D-4ED9-81EF-F07B685F74EE-5016-00000ED216805C3A.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/F6D4EAF6-2F3D-4ED9-81EF-F07B6.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-03",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "In Asia, many people view food additives as a major food threat. However, in terms of health risk, food additives come in at the end of the line, after food-borne microorganisms (like salmonella), inappropriate hygiene and eating habits, environmental containments and naturally occuring toxins.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
888
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>A student turned traveller turned up at the FMP clinic on Saturday night at 10.45pm with pains across the chest and an uncomfortable heartbeat; he'd spent the day with friends walking the streets of Hanoi looking at some of the old buildings and having great fun. He told the staff he'd had a few late nights with friends drinking the local beers and enjoying the new tasty food. He was having a really great time; but now he felt strange with pains and dizziness.</p><p><b>Welcome to Holiday Heart Syndrome!</b></p><p>You are on holiday, first time in Asia and there are always lots of reasons to celebrate and enjoy the holiday spirit. Unfortunately, it is often a time in which many people end up going to the emergency department because of too much holiday in the heart. We often see patients presenting themselves with atrial fibrillation or a very rapid abnormal heart rhythm in the upper heart chambers associated with symptoms of palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain, light-headedness, stroke and heart failure.</p><p><b>Factors & Causes?</b></p><p>The honest answer is we don't fully know. Dehydration; change of temperature, new food, food additives, coffee, alcohol, MSG and tiredness are just the start of the contributing factors. Several factors may contribute to Holiday Heart syndrome. Over-Eating. Eating a large amount of food at one sitting causes the stomach and bowels to stretch and distend to accommodate it. This activates the nervous system in our body called the vagal or parasympathetic nervous system we use to digest food, rest and sleep. This nervous system, when activated, typically slows the heart rate. However, in people susceptible to atrial fibrillation, small areas in the upper chambers of the heart are actually triggered and beat very fast, leading to the abnormal heart rhythm. These areas often reside in the small veins that drain blood from the lungs into the left upper heart chamber. Salt Consumption: Our bodies need salt, but when we consume a lot of salt our bodies can retain fluid and our blood pressure can rise. In people with a history of high blood pressure, heart valve problems, or heart failure, the increase in blood pressure and higher amount of fluid in the body stretches the upper heart chambers, and atrial fibrillation develops. MSG & Food Additives: Sensitivity to particular food additives can also give you reactions like hives or diarrhoea. This doesn't mean all foods containing additives need to be automatically treated with suspicion, as foods with naturally occurring chemicals can also use issues. Many food additives occur naturally within foods people eat every day; for example, MSG is found naturally in Parmesan cheese, sardines and tomato. People with food allergies and intolerances are also often sensitive to chemicals found naturally in certain foods, such as nuts or shellfish. Everyday foods that contain natural MSG or glutamate include: corn, green peas, grapes, grape juice, mushrooms, Parmesan, Roquefort, tomatoes and tomato juice.</p><p><b>How to stay safe?</b></p><p>If you have a history of heart symptoms, go to the hospital early. Take everything in moderation and avoid excess. Try to minimize eating large quantities of food at once. Avoid adding salt to your diet and finally, if you know someone who is depressed, alone, or isolated during the holiday season, reach out and cheer them up, it may be the best thing you do for them. But there are worse things to fear than food additives. In Asia many people view food additives as a major food threat. However, in terms of health risk, food additives come in at the end of the fine, after food-borne microorganisms (like salmonella), inappropriate hygiene and eating habits, environmental contaminants and naturally occurring toxins.</p><p><b><i>Dr Michael Santos is an internist at Family Medical Practice Hanoi.</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 895,
"title": "SIMBA Charity 2018",
"slug": "simba-charity-2018",
"slug_en": "simba-charity-2018",
"slug_vi": "simba-charity-2018",
"slug_ko": "simba-charity-2018",
"slug_ja": "simba-charity-2018",
"overview_image": {
"id": 429,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Simba_Charity_2018_10.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Simba_Charity_2018_10.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-01",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 5,
"name": "SIMBA",
"slug": "simba"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
158
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>For our ANNUAL CHARITY DRIVE, Family Medical Practice visited Linh Xuan orphanage last week with proceeds of more than VND10,500,000 donated by mothers from our Saigon International Mother Baby Association (SIMBA). The funds were used to provide gifts of milk, dry food, sauces, shower gels, and candies. To extend this contribution, our District 2 clinic called for additional offerings from the public, who presented donations of new and used toys, clothes, shoes, dry food, and other necessities.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Simba_Charity_2018_1.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Simba_Charity_2018_2.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>Our charity drive was kindly supported by the European International School HCMC, which generously provided two vans to help transport the goods and our team—the FMP medical team, staff, and various members of our community.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Simba_Charity_2018_5.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Simba_Charity_2018_8.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>FMP also hired a magician clown who amused the children with magic, jokes, and balloons as well as doing some tricks with a live pigeon and rabbit. The joy and excitement of the orphans at receiving their gifts was highly moving to all present, and we were amazed at how much the kids we’d met last year had grown, from as young as newborns ranging to toddlers and secondary school students.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Simba_Charity_2018_6.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>What mattered most to us all on that day was to see the smiles and laughter of these brave children, and in this small way to share in the festivity of a wonderful day with them.</p><p>The center was very welcoming and invited us to come back next year. We met the center VP, who also serves as the resident GP of the center—she warmly welcomed us and showed our FMP doctors and staff members around the facility.</p><p>There are 117 children being cared for at the orphanage, from babies to teenagers (the older children were attending school during our visit). All of the children suffer from long term illnesses, including disabilities, mental illness, and other ailments caused by immune deficiency.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Simba_Charity_2018_12.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>The center usually needs donations twice a year, most urgently for books and stationery in July before the new school term, and new clothing before the Tet holiday. Over the course of the year, it is also in need of basic over-the-counter medications (including painkillers, cough/flu medicines and dermatological creams (anti ringworm/fungal, scar/wound treatments, etc). Linh Xuan also requires cooking ingredients and utensils; pillows & blankets; and cleaning detergents.</p><p>Anyone interested in making their own contribution may contact the center directly at 30/3 Street 5, Linh Xuan Ward, Thu Duc District, HCMC.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 595,
"title": "Japanese Encephalitis",
"slug": "japanese-encephalitis",
"slug_en": "japanese-encephalitis",
"slug_vi": "japanese-encephalitis",
"slug_ko": "japanese-encephalitis",
"slug_ja": "japanese-encephalitis",
"overview_image": {
"id": 237,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Japanese-Encephalitis.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Japanese-Encephalitis.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-01",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "The duration of the Japanese encephalitis vaccine protection is unknown. For persons aged 17 years and older, a booster dose should be given if the primary dose vaccination series was given one year or more previously and if there is risk of exposure. There are several other vaccines available in Asian countries, so it’s advisable to consult your doctor about whether this vaccine is right for you.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
106,
105,
104,
103,
102
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Japanese Encephalitis is a potentially severe neurological infection. It is caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus, and occurs in rural areas of Asia and the western Pacific. The disease is spread through these regions by mosquito bites.</p><p>The Japanese encephalitis virus is transmitted to humans via the bite of infected Culex mosquitoes. These mosquitoes breed in pools of water (typically in rice paddies) and there is a high risk of infection in rural areas. The mosquitoes prefer to bite outdoors, and are more active in the evening and at night, when the risk of infection is greatest. Pigs and aquatic birds serve as amplifying hosts. Humans are incidental and dead-end hosts, since the mosquito cannot transmit the virus from one person to another.</p><p>Japanese encephalitis is a seasonal disease that occurs mostly in rural and agricultural areas. In subtropical areas, Japanese encephalitis can occur all year round, with a peak in the summer and fall (from March to October, with most cases occurring from June to September).</p><p>In endemic countries, the annual incidence is about 5.4/100,000 in children aged 0-14 years, and 0.6/100,000 in individuals older than 15 years. In developing countries, the mortality rate of Japanese encephalitis is high, and can exceed 35%. There are around 10,000 deaths attributable to Japanese encephalitis reported worldwide per year.<br/></p><p><b>Japanese Encephalitis in Vietnam</b></p><p>In Vietnam, the first case of Japanese encephalitis was reported in 1952. The disease can occur throughout the country, but mostly in rural and agricultural areas in the North of Vietnam where people cultivate rice, fruit, vegetables, and farm pigs. In the past, it has been estimated that there were 2000-3000 cases of encephalitis annually, among them Japanese encephalitis accounting for 61.3%. Thanks to the Vietnam National Immunization program, the Japanese encephalitis vaccine is now provided to Vietnamese children.</p><p>Nowadays, only 10–15% of encephalitis diseases are caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus. From January 2017 until now, there have been 325 encephalitis cases in 31 provinces across Vietnam and five deaths reported. The incidence of encephalitis is at 65.8%, 12.3%, 17.5% and 4.4% in the Northern, Central, Southern, and Highlands regions respectively. Japanese encephalitis accounts for 15% of all encephalitis cases.</p><p></p><p><b>Signs and Symptoms</b></p><p>The symptoms of Japanese encephalitis vary. Infected individuals are likely to have been exposed to mosquitoes in an endemic area. The symptoms may include fever, headache, vomiting, and/or myalgia. After this, symptoms become worse with the onset of neurological signs such as altered mental states, seizure, flaccid paralysis, hyperpneic breathing and cranial nerve findings.</p><p></p><p><b>Management</b></p><p>No antiviral agent is effective to treat the Japanese encephalitis disease. The treatment focuses on supportive care, including management of intracranial pressure, airway protection and seizure control.</p><p></p><p><b>Prevention</b></p><p>A Japanese encephalitis vaccine is available. Other modes of prevention such as avoiding mosquito bites, decreasing the mosquito population and viral spread should be implemented.</p><p>Avoidance of mosquito exposure, particularly at night, is another good mode of prevention. People living in or traveling to endemic areas should strongly consider the use of bednets while sleeping and mosquito repellents with diethyltoluamide (DEET) during times of risk of mosquito contact. Wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants in endemic areas is also important.</p><p>Decreasing the mosquito population and controlling viral spread can include the use of insecticides and larvae-killing agents, breeding larvivorous fish in rice paddies, and draining the rice paddies.</p><p></p><p><b>Vaccines</b></p><p>There are about four classes of Japanese encephalitis vaccines worldwide, including inactivated mouse brain vaccines, inactivated Vero cell-derived vaccines, live attenuated vaccines and live recombinant (chimeric) vaccines, which are derived from the yellow fever virus strain. The dosage schedule for vaccines vary by country and also depend on the kind of vaccine that is used. For example, the schedule for the Vietnamese vaccine is three doses administered intramuscularly: the first dose when the child is above one year of age and the second 1–2 weeks after the first shot. The third dose is given one year after the second shot. Then child will need a booster shot after every 3–4 years until 15 years of age.</p><p>In adults, if they have not had the vaccine in the past, they will need three primary shots as per the child schedule. If they have previously had the vaccine, they will need a booster shot.<br/>The duration of the Japanese encephalitis vaccine protection is unknown. For persons aged 17 years and older, a booster dose should be given if the primary dose vaccination series was given one year or more previously and if there is risk of exposure. There are several other vaccines available in Asian countries, so it’s advisable to consult your doctor about whether this vaccine is right for you.</p><p></p><p>FMP Pediatrician <b><i>Dr. Truong Hoang Quy</i></b><i> has core medical competencies in internal medicine, nutrition, vaccination and infectious disease. He studied at Thai Binh Medical University, Hanoi Medical University and at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia.</i></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1064,
"title": "Chicken Pox",
"slug": "chicken-pox",
"slug_en": "chicken-pox",
"slug_vi": "chicken-pox",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 669,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/ShutterStock-723338824.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/ShutterStock-723338824.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2018-01-01",
"category": {
"id": 1,
"name": "Announcement board",
"slug": "announcement"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 12,
"name": "Medical Alerts",
"slug": "medical-alerts"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Chicken pox affects both children and adults. It is generally a mild disease, but it can cause severe complications, especially in babies, adolescents, elderly people, pregnant women and people whose immune system is compromised (e.g. those under steroid treatment, cancer therapy, who have certain genetic disorders, or who suffer from HIV).",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
905,
904,
747
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>Chicken Pox</b></p><p>Chicken pox affects both children and adults. It is generally a mild disease, but it can cause severe complications, especially in babies, adolescents, elderly people, pregnant women and people whose immune system is compromised (e.g. those under steroid treatment, cancer therapy, who have certain genetic disorders, or who suffer from HIV). Typically, chicken pox presents as a mild fever and rash that spreads over a period of 5–6 days and then resolves. It takes about 10–21 days from the time of infection until the time when symptoms appear. A person can be infectious to others while still well, a day or two before becoming sick. The infective period lasts until all the lesions become crusted and dry.</p><p>Chicken pox is known to suppress the activity of the immune system and can cause rare but severe complications:</p><p><b>ENCEPHALITIS:</b></p><p>Infection and inflammation of the brain, that may lead to severe neurological damage and death.</p><p><b>PNEUMONIA:</b></p><p>Due to the virus itself or a secondary bacterial complication. The pneumonia can be severe and lead to respiratory failure and need of mechanical ventilation support.</p><p><b>SECONDARY SKIN INFECTIONS:</b></p><p>Chicken pox lesions can allow bacteria to penetrate through the skin and cause severe skin and soft tissue infections. It may even spread throughout the body and develop into a multi system failure and shock.</p><p><b>PREGNANCY COMPLICATIONS AND CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS:</b></p><p>Pregnant women tend to develop much more severe chicken pox, and are at a higher risk of developing the above complications.</p><p>The chicken pox virus can endanger the fetus as well. It can affect the skin, skeleton, brain and eyes. It causes neurological damage, a smaller head (microcephaly) and a smaller baby. It may even lead to miscarriage. Later on, the child may suffer from cataracts,</p><p>blindness, learning disabilities and mental retardation. If the mother contracted the virus close to delivery, the baby is at high risk to develop a severe chicken pox infection.</p><p>The chicken pox vaccine can significantly reduce the risk of contracting the disease and can prevent these complications.</p><p>Every child needs two doses (the first is given between 12–18 months) at least three months apart.</p><p>Every woman who plans on becoming pregnant should have her immunity checked, and if needed, receive a booster prior to conception. Since the vaccine is live attenuated, it is not recommended during pregnancy.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 900,
"title": "Orphanage Visit at Linh Xuan Orphanage",
"slug": "orphanage-visit-linh-xuan-orphanage",
"slug_en": "orphanage-visit-linh-xuan-orphanage",
"slug_vi": "orphanage-visit-linh-xuan-orphanage",
"slug_ko": "orphanage-visit-linh-xuan-orphanage",
"slug_ja": "orphanage-visit-linh-xuan-orphanage",
"overview_image": {
"id": 447,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/ORPHANAGE_VISIT__Linh_Xuan_Orphanage_Dec_21_2017_14.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/ORPHANAGE_VISIT__Linh_Xuan_Or.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75_VTOnbLG.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-12-21",
"category": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Events",
"slug": "events"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 5,
"name": "SIMBA",
"slug": "simba"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
161
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>For our annual charity drive, Family Medical Practice visited Linh Xuan orphanage today with proceeds of approximately $700 donated by mothers from our Saigon International Mother Baby Association (SIMBA). To extend this contribution, our District 2 clinic called for additional donations from the public: members of the community and representatives from the AIA life insurance group responded by joining us to present gifts of stationery, clothes, toys, books, milk, diapers, food, and other necessities.<br/> FMP also hired an entertaining clown who made balloon animals for the children. The joy and excitement of the orphans at receiving their gifts was highly moving to all present.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/ORPHANAGE_VISIT__Linh_Xuan_Orphanage_Dec_21_2017_5_L8BubHh.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p></p><p>There are 117 children being cared for at the orphanage, from babies to teenagers (the older children were attending school during our visit). All of the children suffer from long term illnesses, including disabilities, mental illness, and other ailments caused by immune deficiency.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/ORPHANAGE_VISIT__Linh_Xuan_Orphanage_Dec_21_2017_15.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/ORPHANAGE_VISIT__Linh_Xuan_Orphanage_Dec_21_2017_16.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p><p>The center usually needs donations twice a year, most urgently for books and stationery in July before the new school term, and new clothing before the Tet holiday. Over the course of the year, it is also in need of basic over-the-counter medications (including painkillers, cough/flu medicines and dermatological creams (anti ringworm/fungal, scar/wound treatments, etc). Linh Xuan also requires cooking ingredients and utensils; pillows & blankets; and cleaning detergents.</p><p></p><img src=\"https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/ORPHANAGE_VISIT__Linh_Xuan_Orphanage_Dec_21_2017_13.jpg\" class=\"format-left\" /><p></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1134,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "an-hai-san-sao-cho-dung",
"slug_en": "an-hai-san-sao-cho-dung",
"slug_vi": "ăn-hải-sản-sao-cho-đúng",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 898,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/An_hai_san_sao_cho_dung.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/An_hai_san_sao_cho_dung.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-12-18",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
808
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 614,
"title": "Pain and Needles",
"slug": "pain-and-needles-dr-jonathan-halevy",
"slug_en": "pain-and-needles-dr-jonathan-halevy",
"slug_vi": "pain-and-needles",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 832,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Pain_and_needles.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Pain_and_needles.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-12-17",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Many parents are very anxious when it comes to giving vaccinations to their baby. They don’t like causing pain, even though they know how important it is. Many parents are afraid of letting their child get several shots at the same time, and they try to postpone the vaccines and only give them just one at a time... but is that the smart way to go?",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
186,
185,
184,
183,
182
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like needles. I don’t like getting a shot myself, and I hate having to give one to a baby. It’s one of the reasons why I think very carefully every time I need to do a blood test for my patients, making sure it’s really necessary.</p><p>Of course, I’m not the only adult who doesn’t like needles. Many parents are very anxious when it comes to giving vaccinations to their baby. They don’t like causing pain, even though they know how important it is. Many parents are afraid of letting their child get several shots at the same time, and they try to postpone the vaccines and only give them just one at a time... but is that the smart way to go?</p><p><b>The Effect on the Immune System</b></p><p>From the moment a baby is born, his immune system is exposed to thousands of different types of germs, every hour of every day. Every time the baby breathes, eats or puts his hand in his mouth, bacteria and viruses enter his body, his nose, his mouth, his lungs and stomach. While millions of germs are constantly inhabiting his skin, his immune system has no difficulty protecting him from any harm. Compared to that, a vaccine containing only a few particles of bacteria or viruses (and sometimes only in fragments) is no challenge to the immune system at all. Giving multiple vaccinations at once doesn’t make our immune system weaker; on the contrary, it’s an excellent boost to immunity. And despite what parents may think, it doesn’t increase the risk of any significant side effects.</p><p><b>The “Fear of Needles”</b></p><p>This is the main concern of most parents. They’re afraid that giving a child several shots at the same time will cause more pain to their child. Actually, the major problem with getting a shot is the <i>fear</i>, the anxiety that comes with the knowledge that something painful is going to happen. The actual pain itself is very brief. It only lasts for a second or two.</p><p>From a psychological point of view, it’s much better for the child to endure one stressful visit to the doctor, getting a few shots and being done with it, than having to go through this unpleasant experience again and again and again. If a parent decides to give a child only one shot at a time, he actually causes the child to experience even more stress and anxiety.</p><p><b>Missing the Opportunity</b></p><p>When a parent decides to postpone vaccinations, it means it will take a much longer time for the baby to reach protective levels of immunity. Occasionally, the baby will miss the vaccine altogether. It is much safer and much better for the baby’s health to receive all the vaccinations at the recommended scheduled time rather than delaying the inevitable.</p><p><b>What can we parents do to help our child?</b><br/>There are a number of ways to reduce a child's anxiety and fear of needles.</p><p>One of the most important factors in a child’s response to stress or pain is the parents' reaction. When a child runs and falls, his first reaction will be to look at one of his parents. If the parent is calm and relaxed, the baby will usually just stand up and keep on running. If the parent acts in an anxious way, the baby will become anxious and will start crying. If a parent stays calm while his child is getting a vaccination, the baby often won't cry or only cry for a very short time and quickly relax.</p><p>Distractions are another means of dealing with the stress and pain—including hugging the baby and singing him a quiet song; allowing the child to hug her favorite toy or comfort object; or playing a cartoon. These can be used depending on the child's age.</p><p>Anesthetic cream (EMLA) can be used to reduce pain, and sometimes putting ice on the location of the injection just before giving the vaccination can be helpful in minimizing a painful sensation.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Jonathan Halevy, Head of Pediatrics, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1132,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "chay-o-tre-em",
"slug_en": "chay-o-tre-em",
"slug_vi": "chấy-ở-trẻ-em",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 883,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Head_lice.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Head_lice.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-12-04",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
806
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 581,
"title": "Early Melanoma Detection",
"slug": "early-melanoma-detection",
"slug_en": "early-melanoma-detection",
"slug_vi": "early-melanoma-detection",
"slug_ko": "early-melanoma-detection",
"slug_ja": "early-melanoma-detection",
"overview_image": {
"id": 229,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/FA2A0386-B9F3-453D-B1CB-1755CCDD1DDE-5016-00000ECE113DD8B7.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/FA2A0386-B9F3-453D-B1CB-1755C.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-12-01",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Screening the moles on your body substantially reduces the chances of succumbing to skin cancer thanks to early diagnosis. If a melanoma grows unchecked into the skin to a depth of 4 mm, this reduces your chances of survival by 20% at five years. The importance of dermoscopy is about specificity, helping doctors to cut out early malignant tumors and not to cut out benign lesions.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
92,
91
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>“My wife has been bugging me to get this checked out for a while, what do you think?”</p><p>I lean forward and peer at the dark, ugly mole. It appears to be what we call a seborrheic keratosis, something completely harmless. But clinical experience tells me that it pays to be thorough, so I fetch my dermatoscope from my pocket.</p><p>My patient suddenly appears nervous. “What’s that, doctor?” he asks. “Will it hurt?”</p><p>“Not at all,” I reassure him. “This will just help me to distinguish if you have a good or a bad mole.”</p><p>“Is it like a biopsy?”</p><p>“No, but it’s almost as accurate as a biopsy in good hands,” I tell him. “This is just an augmentation lens with polarized light so that I can get a closer look. If your mole looks benign under the dermatoscope, then we don’t need to make a cut.”</p><p>“That’s great!” he says.</p><h3>Dermoscopy</h3><p>He’s certainly not the only patient I’ve had this conversation with. Skin tumors are probably the most common cancers in the world, and one of my most frequent tasks is to examine moles such as these. The skin is a very large organ, frequently exposed to the sun and to viral infections—and these two factors put together are chiefly responsible for the emergence of skin cancer. The danger is especially high in fair-skinned people of northern European origins who live and work in the subtropical zone (as do many Western expatriates in our community here) because their skin is not genetically prepared for solar radiation levels in these parts. For these people in particular, early diagnosis of melanoma is critical.</p><p>This is why dermoscopy is so important. A dermatoscope is a magnifying lens with a polarizing light. The way you position the lens and whether or not you use polarization reveals different tissue structures within the mole with great clarity. This simple instrument makes it much more straightforward to diagnose and distinguish melanomas that need to be removed from benign lesions, which do not need to be removed at all.</p><p>When I place the dermatoscope on the patient’s mole, I get a very different picture of the seemingly benign tumor. Through the lens, I see variations in color. I see irregular blue-white veil. I see a honeycomb-like structure at the edges. I see whitish areas of atrophy. All of this tells me that there is nothing benign about this mole after all. This patient is in fact harboring a malignant melanoma in his skin—a mass of cancerous tissue that will certainly kill him if he doesn’t have the whole tumor removed as soon as possible.</p><p>My point is this: you can’t always trust the naked eye when it comes to distinguishing a melanoma from a harmless mole. That’s a problem, because there are people out there with hundreds of moles all over their body, and you can’t simply dig them all out. I had another patient who was covered in moles, and there was melanoma history in her family, which meant that her risk was higher than normal. When I examined her, I did indeed find a lesion that I suspected to be a melanoma, which had to be removed. But there were also other lesions that may or may not have been cancerous; it was too hard to tell just by looking. To make things more complicated, this patient suffered from keloids—meaning that every surgical procedure would leave an ugly scar. If we removed too few, it might kill her eventually—she would die from a melanoma. But if we cut out too many, she would become a Frankenstein.</p><h3>On the Safe Side</h3><p>You’d think that a dermatologist would carry a dermatoscope like a cardiologist would a stethoscope, but in fact the whole field of dermoscopy isn’t widely practiced outside of Europe and Australia. I would say that probably half of American dermatologists wouldn’t use it regularly. This is a pity, because it’s an incredibly effective diagnostic method.</p><p>Dermoscopy has been known since the seventeenth century, but consistent research really got going around 40 years ago, with most activity based in Graz, Austria. It was conducted to increase the accuracy of skin cancer diagnosis by classifying structures in moles that are visible under a dermatoscope against biopsy findings from confirmed melanomas and other cancers. By slowly matching their data to the results of tissue examination, these researchers confirmed that dermoscopy could be used to accurately identify a melanoma. This is why we can trust this medical field, because it has been subjected to a rigorous scientific process based on a very large number of cases.</p><p>Screening the moles on your body substantially reduces the chances of succumbing to skin cancer thanks to early diagnosis. If a melanoma grows unchecked into the skin to a depth of 4 mm, this reduces your chances of survival by 20% at five years. The importance of dermoscopy is about specificity, helping doctors to cut out early malignant tumors and not to cut out benign lesions.</p><p>Early diagnosis is only possible if you check suspicious moles regularly, at least once a year, or even more frequently if you have a family history of melanoma. Dermoscopy ensures that you will only get a biopsy if necessary. Our facility is one of the few in Ho Chi Minh City that offers this diagnostic opportunity.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1133,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "u-xo-tu-cung-va-phuong-phap-dieu-tri",
"slug_en": "u-xo-tu-cung-va-phuong-phap-dieu-tri",
"slug_vi": "u-xơ-tử-cung-và-phương-pháp-điều-trị",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 882,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/U_xo_tu_cung.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/U_xo_tu_cung.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-11-12",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "u xơ tử cung",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
807
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 730,
"title": "How to Prevent Common Diseases During Raining Season",
"slug": "how-prevent-common-diseases-during-raining-season-dr-elvie-joy-atanque-basa",
"slug_en": "how-prevent-common-diseases-during-raining-season-dr-elvie-joy-atanque-basa",
"slug_vi": "how-prevent-common-diseases-during-raining-season",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 329,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/How_to_prevent_common_diseases_during_raining_season.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/How_to_prevent_common_disease.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-11-06",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "High rainfall [during the rainy season] can cause widespread flooding, and stagnant water can be a breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria as well as mosquitoes, increasing the transmission of a number of communicable diseases.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
206,
205,
204,
203,
202
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>The weather is changing and the traditional November rain has arrived. We can feel the cool breeze and the quality of the air is improving. However, high rainfall can cause <b>widespread flooding</b>, and <b>stagnant water</b> can be a breeding ground for all sorts of <b>bacteria</b> as well as <b>mosquitoes</b>, increasing the transmission of a number of <b>communicable diseases</b>.</p><p>Direct contact with <b>polluted water</b> carries a high risk of infection by <b>waterborne diseases</b> such as dermatitis, conjunctivitis, and ear, nose and throat or wound infections. Eating or drinking anything contaminated by floodwater can cause <b>diarrhea</b>. One particular infection that can cause an outbreak that spreads directly from contaminated water is <b>leptospirosis</b>, a zoonotic bacterial disease—transmission occurs when water, damp soil or mud contaminated with rodent urine comes in direct contact with the skin or mucosal membranes.</p><p>Flooding may lead to an increase in the indirect transmission of diseases via the expansion in the number and range of <b>breeding grounds</b> for organisms that transmit pathogens or parasites. Standing water caused by heavy rainfall or river overflows can serve as breeding sites for mosquitoes, and thus increase the chances of exposure to infections such as dengue, malaria, chikungunya or Japanese encephalitis. Flooding may initially flush out mosquito breeding, but it comes back in force when the waters recede.</p><h3>Prevention and Control</h3><p>Basic precautions should be taken by people travelling to or living near risk areas. To protect yourself, your family, and your community:</p><ul><li>Always maintain good hygiene (handwashing) after contact with flood water.</li><li>Do not allow children to play in flood water areas.</li><li><b>Wash children’s hands</b> frequently (always before meals).</li><li>Do not allow children to play with toys that have been contaminated by flood water and have not been disinfected.</li></ul><p>The proximity of mosquito breeding sites to human habitation is a significant risk factor for diseases that these species transmit. <b>Disrupting the mosquito life cycle and habitat</b> may reduce the number of mosquitoes around you and your environment.</p><ul><li>Find and remove any puddles of water or standing water around your home to reduce breeding sites.</li><li>Puncture unusable tires in the yard to prevent pools of water from forming inside them.</li><li>Wipe out your bird-bath and pet water bowls every few days.</li><li>Keep grass and shrubs trimmed short; this will reduce places for flying mosquitoes to rest.</li><li>Consider adding mosquito fish to your water garden or small pond if it’s not connected to natural water.</li><li>During outbreaks, insecticides may be sprayed to kill flying mosquitoes.</li></ul><h4><i>To prevent mosquito bites:</i></h4><ul><li>Cover exposed skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and hats.</li><li>Use an appropriate <b>insect repellent</b> as directed to exposed skin or on clothing.</li><li>Always follow product directions and re-apply in strict accordance with product label instructions.</li><li>If you are also using sunscreen, apply sunscreen first and insect repellent second.</li><li>Follow package directions when applying <a href=\"https://www.fda.gov/default.htm\">repellent on children.</a> Avoid applying repellent to their hands, eyes, and mouth.</li><li>Stay and sleep in screened or <b>air-conditioned rooms</b>.</li><li>Use a <b>bed net</b> if the area where you are sleeping is exposed to the outdoors.</li><li><b>Mosquito coils</b> or other insecticide vaporizers may also reduce indoor biting.</li></ul><p>Open wounds and rashes exposed to flood water can become infected. How can we prevent this?</p><ul><li>Always <b>wear slippers or shoes</b> when walking along flood or stagnant water.</li><li>Avoid exposure to flood water if you have an open wound.</li><li>Cover clean, open wounds with a waterproof bandage to reduce chances of infection.</li><li>Keep open wounds as clean as possible by washing well with soap and clean water.</li><li>If a wound develops redness, swelling, or drainage, seek immediate medical attention.</li></ul><p>We should all be safety-conscious. Wear appropriate footwear that allows better traction; don’t wear shoes or slippers that have worn, smooth soles or high heels during the rainy weather. Being alert and responsible for our surroundings is the surest way to reduce these different diseases.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Elvie Joy Atanque-Basa - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Danang</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 703,
"title": "Cough and Cold",
"slug": "cough-and-cold",
"slug_en": "cough-and-cold",
"slug_vi": "cough-and-cold",
"slug_ko": "cough-and-cold",
"slug_ja": "cough-and-cold",
"overview_image": {
"id": 314,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_1171558306.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_1171558306.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-10-30",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Colds often last longer than most people think: The average length of a cold is 10 days, but the length of symptoms can vary widely.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
217
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>What we commonly call a cold is a benign and frequent infection of the nose and throat. The medical term is viral rhinitis or acute rhino-pharyngitis. The cause is a virus. There are over 100 different viruses that can cause a cold.</p><p>This infection is different from the flu, which is also a viral infection (influenza virus) but with more generalized and intense symptoms (high fever, body and muscle pain, fatigue, headaches).</p><p>The main symptoms of a cold include sore throat — often the first sign to arise — sneezing, nasal congestion, runny nose with clear secretions, mild tiredness, mild headache and sometimes cough and mild fever.</p><p>Colds often last longer than most people think: The average length of a cold is 10 days, but the length of symptoms can vary widely.</p><p>Doctor Mathieu Nalpas.— Photo Courtesy of Family Medical Practice</p><p>There are clear risk factors for catching a cold. Stress and tiredness are a very significant risk factor. Stress weakens the immune system and makes you more vulnerable to virus infection. Smoking, too, is an important risk factor. It weakens the immune system as well and causes a local irritation, which allows virus to penetrate more easily into your body. Recent travel by flight, long exposure to dry air and the practice of very intense physical activities are also known to be risk factors for colds.</p><p>A cold is a contagious infection. Contamination occurs through saliva, nasal secretions and contaminated hands or surfaces (glass, toys etc…). The virus cannot penetrate through healthy skin but can easily enter your body through contact with mucous membranes of the nose, the mouth and the eyes. Very thin drops of infected secretions can reach your mucous membranes after someone coughs or sneezes next to you.</p><p>The incubation period is short, from 12 hours to a few days.</p><p>It is usually not necessary to see the doctor in case of a simple cold. Symptoms will clear by themselves after a few days.</p><p>In some cases, you should see your doctor. Complications are rare but possible. Symptoms like very high fever with sweats and shivering, intense ears, throat and face pain, persistent symptoms more than 10 days, and persistent cough more than seven days after all other symptoms are gone are all cause for concern and should lead you to seek the opinion of a doctor.</p><p><b>Treating the pesky cold</b></p><p>No treatment can kill the virus or make it clear faster. In most cases, a cold will clear on its own.</p><p>Antibiotics are completely useless during a cold, as they attack bacteria and not viruses. Taking antibiotics will increase the risk of side effects and will disrupt your normal bacterial flora, which can lead to more health problems. And you will not recover faster.</p><p>Instead, treatment focuses on reducing the effects of symptoms. Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is a medicine that reduces all kind of pain and lowers fevers. Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory medicine with the same effects. Without a doctor’s opinion, it is better to use paracetamol alone for children because they will tolerate it more easily than an anti-inflammatory medicine. Nasal sprays of saline water should be used to drain and wash the nose. In case of severe nasal congestion, use a decongestant but not for more than three days. Decongestants should not be used in young children because they might cause side effects like chronic irritation of the nose.</p><p>You should not use aspirin in case of a cold. Its action is similar as paracetamol but with more side effects. Aspirin is contraindicated for children.</p><p>About coughs, try to be patient and avoid taking anti-cough medicine. Cough is a natural symptom that helps to evacuate all the infected secretions from the bronchus. Taking an anti-cough medicine can increase the risk of infection and bronchitis. Anti-cough syrup or tablets can help only in case of very irritating dry cough.</p><p>Simple measures are very effective, too. Rest a lot, increase intake of water (at least 2 liters a day), drink hot tea and soups, gargle with warm salty water three or four times a day and drain and wash the nose as often as necessary. Take warm showers or baths and stay in a warm atmosphere.</p><p>Prevention is simple. It includes basics hygiene and lifestyle habits. Wash your hands regularly, especially before manipulating any objects or food that could be share with other person. Teach children to do the same.</p><p>Avoid sharing personal objects (glass, dishes, towel, tooth brush etc…) during the time of the infection. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue in case of cough and sneeze. If you do not have a tissue, it is better to cover your mouth with the inside of the elbow than with your hands.</p><p>Stay home if possible, rest and avoid very close contact with your friends and family for the time of the illness.— <b>Family Medical Practice Vietnam</b></p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Mathieu Nalpas - Internist, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 733,
"title": "Take My Breath Away",
"slug": "take-my-breath-away",
"slug_en": "take-my-breath-away",
"slug_vi": "take-my-breath-away",
"slug_ko": "take-my-breath-away",
"slug_ja": "take-my-breath-away",
"overview_image": {
"id": 841,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Take-My-Breath-Away.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Take-My-Breath-Away.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-10-27",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "The construction site doesn’t have to be next door. It can even be hundreds of meters away and still have a heavy effect on your children’s health. The same goes for construction sites near schools and kindergartens.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
360,
359,
358,
357,
356
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>What happens when you live near a construction site? Here is a typical story. I recently saw a three-year-old child who has been suffering from a recurrent runny nose, ongoing cough, sneezing, and sometimes sticky red eyes for the past three months. Previously he was a very healthy kid, but now he has these symptoms almost daily. He was prescribed many different types of medications (cough medications, allergy medications, and antibiotics) which sometimes helped a little—but as soon as he stopped taking them, he would become sick again. His mother was very concerned that his immune system was weakening. Upon questioning the mother, we found out that just before the child became sick, a construction site had been set up not far from their home.</p><p>If you have lived in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City over the past decade, you almost certainly had this problem at some point—a site in your neighborhood where an apartment building, house, road or bridge was demolished, built up or renovated.</p><p>How does this affect your health and your children’s health? As it turns out, it’s much more than just the noise at night that won’t let you sleep.</p><ul><li>The heaviest toll on our health of having a construction site near home is the air pollution. This is not just the regular dust that you might find in any home: construction dust contains many different types of chemicals, including cement dust, heavy metals, synthetic fibers, sawdust and even asbestos (a known cause of lung cancer) and silica (a cause of chronic lung disease).</li><li>Fumes from cars, trucks, bulldozers, generators and other fuel-operated machinery in and around the site can significantly contribute to the pollution of the air you breathe.</li><li>Radon is a radioactive gas which is released from the soil. In construction sites, its levels tend to increase as it is released into the atmosphere. Radon is one of the leading causes of lung cancer (second only to cigarette smoking).</li><li>Aspergillus is a fungus (mold) that is ubiquitous in the soil. During the construction, renovation or demolishment of buildings, it spreads easily into the air and may cause significant respiratory problems and chronic allergic symptoms to those people who live nearby.</li><li>Construction sites promote infestations such as rats and cockroaches. These animals can shed their skins into the environment. These are known to be strong triggers of allergies and asthma.</li><li>Chemicals and heavy metals from construction sites can be absorbed into the soil and water in the neighborhood and cause further pollution and health problems.</li><li>Airborne chemicals and dust particles can also cause irritation to your skin and eyes as well as dermatitis (skin inflammation) and eye infections (stye, conjunctivitis).</li></ul><p>The construction site doesn’t have to be next door. It can even be hundreds of meters away and still have a heavy effect on your children’s health. The same goes for construction sites near schools and kindergartens.</p><p>I see many children from different areas of the city who suffer from chronic nasal congestion, sinusitis and enlarged adenoids, chronic bronchitis, asthma, and eye infections—and it’s not because their immune system is weaker, it’s because their immune system is desperately trying to fight a losing battle with air pollution.</p><p>What can we as parents do? We can’t stop the construction obviously, but there are ways to reduce your child’s exposure to dust.</p><ul><li>If you live near busy roads or construction sites, you may need to keep your windows closed.</li><li>If you use air conditioners, make sure the filters are cleaned frequently, at least monthly. These filters tend to accumulate dust and mold and spread them into the room.</li><li>Vacuum your home with proper vacuum cleaners (with HEFA filters) daily.</li><li>Remove objects that may accumulate dust from your child's room (carpets, heavy curtains, furry toys, pillows)</li><li>Clean and air bedsheets and mattresses frequently.</li><li>If you live near construction sites, busy roads or in a dusty neighborhood, use a special mask (N95) every time your child leaves home. They may help reduce exposure to large dust particles (unfortunately, most are not useful against tiny particles, chemicals or gases).</li></ul><p>Sometimes, taking a holiday on the beach where the air is clean can do wonders for your health.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Jonathan Halevy, Head of Pediatrics, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 596,
"title": "Nothing to Sneeze At",
"slug": "nothing-sneeze",
"slug_en": "nothing-sneeze",
"slug_vi": "nothing-sneeze",
"slug_ko": "nothing-sneeze",
"slug_ja": "nothing-sneeze",
"overview_image": {
"id": 836,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Nothing_to_Sneeze_At.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Nothing_to_Sneeze_At.format-j.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-10-26",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "The fact that influenza spreads so easily is what makes it such an important health problem. People become contagious from the very beginning, one or two days before the onset of symptoms... You can still pass on the virus to others for the next four or five days after the onset of symptoms.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
111,
110,
109,
108,
107
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>Everyone gets the flu now and then. You know the symptoms—sore throat, fever, coughing, a runny nose, and a lack of energy that will likely see you bedridden for a couple of days. Most people call this the flu, which comes from the word “influenza”—but for doctors, that word refers to a very specific group of viruses that are a particularly dangerous subset of the various common colds and flus we’re familiar with. While many countries undergo an annual flu season, Vietnam doesn’t have one; you can get it at any time of the year.</p><p>True influenza is actually a very specific and serious respiratory infection that can result in hospitalization and death. The most common complication of influenza is bacterial pneumonia, but it can also aggravate chronic diseases such as asthma, chronic rhinitis, and diabetes. It’s a highly contagious viral infection transmitted by coughing, sneezing, or contact with someone who is infected, and it can also be transmitted by direct contact if you touch surfaces on which infected influenza droplets have landed. After being exposed, it usually takes an average of two days to develop symptoms, but it can range from one to four days. Typical influenza disease causes the onset of fever, headache, a runny or stuffy nose, eye pain, and sensitivity to light. Kids may also suffer from nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.</p><p>The fact that it spreads so easily is what makes it such an important health problem. People become contagious from the very beginning, one or two days before the onset of symptoms—so you can be contagious even though you don’t yet know you have it. You can still pass on the virus to others for the next four or five days after the onset of symptoms.</p><p>The virus group falls into three basic categories. There are two common types, which we label A and B. There’s also a C-type, but it’s detected much less frequently and is only a mild infection. At our clinic we use nasal swabs to test for A and B—influenza A can cause a moderate to severe illness in all groups, and affects people and some animals; while influenza B causes mild disease and usually affects only humans.</p><p>Once you’re infected, there’s no going back. The virus will collect in the upper respiratory tract, producing phlegm in the airway in response to the inflammation of the surrounding organs. Your immune system (provided it’s functioning normally) will start to detect the presence of the virus multiplying in your body, and get to work on developing an antibody to fight it. The symptoms you experience are a combination of the spread of the virus and your body’s countermeasures, which will cause inflammation, fever and discomfort. Once your body has produced these antibodies, you’ll be protected from reinfection—and if you ever do contact the same virus again, it will be swiftly and invisibly dealt with.</p><p>So how is it that you can get the flu again and again? It’s not just that there are different types of influenza (your antibodies to type A influenza won’t work at all against influenza B); it’s also that each virus type gradually morphs into different forms as it spreads, making it resistant to antibodies that worked against it before. This means that every time the body catches a new strain of influenza, it must start from the beginning.</p><p>How can people protect themselves from a shape-shifting disease that keeps turning out new forms to infect us again and again? Firstly, we can try our best not to put ourselves and others at risk in the first place, considering how virulent this illness is. For a start, remember to cover your nose and mouth with your sleeve or a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Wash your hands often with soap and water—and if you’re not near water, you can also use alcohol-based hand cleansers. Stay away from people who are sick as much as possible. If you already have influenza, you should stay at home from work or school for at least 24 hours after the fever has ended.</p><p>Secondly, there is specific medication for influenza—tamiflu, which protects against both A & B type influenza. If you suspect you have have been infected, tamiflu is very useful if taken during the first 48 hours after coming into contact with the virus, significantly reducing recovery time and preventing complications of the illness. Unfortunately, it’s largely ineffective during the later stages of infection.</p><p>The best way to prevent influenza, of course, is vaccination. Because the strains of viruses change every year, pharmaceutical companies conduct research to find out which strains will be typical for the coming season worldwide. According to their results, they produce a new vaccine to match the circulating strains. Every year, we receive new vaccines that are different from the older ones and more effective against the forms of influenza that are likely to be ascendant during the following twelve months.</p><p>In accordance with international supply, we usually receive our annual vaccines in October, which is the best time to get vaccinated. We use an inactivated vaccine (made from killed viruses) produced by Influvac that doesn’t cause the disease. Unlike some vaccines, Influvac does not contain eggs, meaning those with egg allergies (including pregnant women) can take it safely. This vaccination is given intramuscularly, and it usually contains three or four types of viruses considered to be the most dangerous in the coming year. It will protect you only from the more common strains of the influenza virus, however—if you’re unlucky, you could still contract a less prevalent strain.</p><p>It is my recommendation that all people aged six months and older should get the influenza vaccine, unless they suffer from an immunodeficiency condition. Kids under six months old should not get vaccinated because they’re too small—usually at that age, however, the mother is breastfeeding, so she can pass on some immunity to the baby if she is vaccinated. It’s recommended that everyone in a family with a baby should get vaccinated while the baby is still too young to receive or develop its own antibodies. It’s also important to note that kids under eight years old who receive their first-ever flu vaccine should get two shots one month apart to fully trigger their immune response.</p><p>If all else fails and you do get influenza, it’s simple: drink a lot of water, rest, stay at home, and don’t go to school or work. Take some medication to treat the fever and symptoms, and wait for your body to beat the disease back. The most important thing is to keep to yourself, and don’t pass it on to anybody else—that is ultimately the best way we have to contain this sometimes lethal virus.</p><p><b><i>Dr. Kate Naumova</i></b><i> from Moscow focused on pediatrics early in her career, drawn by her love for children. She joined Family Medical Practice in 2014.</i></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 713,
"title": "Medical Tests Every Woman Must Have",
"slug": "medical-tests-every-woman-must-have",
"slug_en": "medical-tests-every-woman-must-have",
"slug_vi": "medical-tests-every-woman-must-have",
"slug_ko": "medical-tests-every-woman-must-have",
"slug_ja": "medical-tests-every-woman-must-have",
"overview_image": {
"id": 899,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Medical_test.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Medical_test.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-10-23",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "As modern-day women, it’s all too easy to use the “I’m too busy” excuse, so you may be tempted to let your annual breast screening or a lipid profile test slip. Don’t let that happen.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
854,
853,
852
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b><i>October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month</i></b></p><p>As modern-day women, it’s all too easy to use the “I’m too busy” excuse, so you may be tempted to let your annual breast screening or a lipid profile test slip. Don’t let that happen. As busy as you are as a modern women, there is no reason why you cannot have a healthy life. Here are five of the most important medical tests that all women should take:</p><p><b>Pelvic Examination and Pap smear</b></p><p>With cervical cancer said to be the second leading cause of death for women, uterine and pelvic health should be given prime importance. It is always advisable that you visit your gynecologist periodically and have a complete pelvic examination and a Pap smear test.</p><p>Do not get scared as most do on hearing about these tests. A pelvic exam checks for abnormalities such as growths while Pap smear is a simple screening test to check if any cancerous cells are present in the cervix, which is the connecting part of the vagina to the uterus. A swab is inserted into the vagina to remove cells from the cervix. The cells are then examined in a laboratory for signs of pre-cancerous or cancerous changes. Any female who is sexually active requires this test. Age is no limit but generally it is required for those females who are sexually active.</p><p><i>How often:</i> Ideally, the testing should be done every year after 30.</p><p><i>Tips:</i> For the most accurate Pap results, avoid having sex or using vaginal medications (such as anti-yeast creams) one to two days before your appointment.</p><p><b>HPV (Human PapillomaVirus) Test</b></p><p>You might be surprised to learn that Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the second-most common cause of female cancer after breast cancer. Do you also know that 80 per cent of all males and females up to the age of 60 get infected with human papilloma virus at least once in their lifetime? For women, screening is critical to detect most HPV-related diseases. Now, HPV vaccines offer the best protection. All young women from 9-26 years old, should get the 3-dose vaccine to protect themselves against this potentially fatal disease.</p><p><b>Physical Breast Examination</b></p><p>Breast cancer cases have been rising steadily in the last decade, and it is now the most common cancer in women, way ahead of cervical cancer. Both the incidence of as well as deaths due to breast cancer are more than that of cervical cancer. Hence, regular physical breast examination becomes compulsory. Females undergo many hormonal changes starting from puberty to menopause, which causes changes in her breasts and glands around them. These changes can be examined physically by noticing it or by touching and feeling the changes. Checking breasts for lumps, skin changes, thickening, and nipple discharge is the best way to be vigilant about preventing breast cancer.</p><p><i>What should be done:</i> Palpation of the breast and underarm area to check for lumps, dimpling, pain or tenderness, inflamed skin, and any other changes in the breasts. A nipple exam checking for discharge, crustiness, or blockage. A self-breast examination is also recommended.</p><p><i>When to get it done:</i> Around the age of 18 years and above. Do them about a week after you start your period, when breasts tend to be less swollen and tender. </p><p><i>How often;</i> Once a year for women in their 30s, if you’re healthy, to make sure there haven’t been any changes for the worse. Younger women may not need a yearly screening if they’re healthy.</p><p><b>Mammography</b></p><p>Mammograms are low-dose X-rays that can often find a lump before you ever feel it, though normal results don’t completely rule out cancer. It is recommended that while you’re in your 40s, you have a mammogram every year. Then during your 50s through your 70s, you can switch to every other year. Of course, your doctor may recommend more frequent screenings if you’re at higher risk.</p><p><b>Lipid Profile</b></p><p>This test checks for good (LDL) and bad cholesterol (HDL) along with triglycerides and total cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is a fat molecule, which if present in higher levels can get accumulated in the blood vessels and can affect the health of your heart, blood vessels, and brain. These tests help determine your level of risk for heart disease (the number-one killer of women) and stroke.</p><p>When to get it done? A lipid profile is best done after fasting for 9 to 12 hours, so book a morning appointment and skip breakfast.</p><p>How often? This test is advised after the age of 30 years and should be done once in five years if previous test results were in normal range. However, high levels require regular screenings, for instance, once in six months. Women who have other risk factors such as family history of heart disease, diabetes, and blood pressure would also be advised other specific tests such as high-sensitivity CRP test (hs-CRP), which measures inflammation, an indicator of heart health. If you have a history of depression, you may have increased levels of inflammation.</p><p>FMP Hanoi not only focuses on quality treatment, but also puts strong emphasis on preventive care services. To fit into your busy life, we offer one stop services and tailor female checkup packages to suit your age, family history, and personal risk factors. – <b>Family Medical Practice Vietnam</b></p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Catherine Gonzalez - Internist, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 674,
"title": "The Rise of Diabetes",
"slug": "rise-diabetes",
"slug_en": "rise-diabetes",
"slug_vi": "rise-diabetes",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 804,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/The_Rise_of_Diabetes.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/The_Rise_of_Diabetes.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-10-17",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Asians are at risk from diabetes due to a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than Caucasians, meaning looks can be deceiving. You may look relatively healthy, but inside your body, you may already be suffering the consequences without showing the signs that you might expect.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
265,
264,
263,
262,
261
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>30 years ago Vietnam suffered from widespread malnutrition. Now its type 2 diabetes that is affecting people’s health.</p><p>Inside a shopping mall on a Saturday afternoon in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, several groups of Vietnamese children and their families are perched on plastic chairs eating burgers and fries and sipping fizzy drinks. Outside in the shade, a group of men take a smoke break from shopping. It’s a sign of the times in Vietnam, and it’s a scene that reveals several red flags for diabetes.</p><p>The Vietnam Association of Diabetes and Endocrinology (VADE) recently reported that in Vietnam there are now 5 million diabetics, which accounts for around 5.4% of the population. It’s believed that the real figure could be closer to 10%, after factoring in those who are living undiagnosed. It’s an alarming rise from the figure of 3.3% just three years ago, and it means that Vietnam has one of the fastest- growing rates of diabetes in the world.</p><p>The main concern is type 2 diabetes, which used to be called Adult-Onset Diabetes before its rapid rise began to be charted in children. Unlike the genetic nature of type 1 diabetes, type 2 is characterised by lifestyle choices; eating refined sugars and flour, high-fructose corn syrup, heavily processed food, lack of dietary fibre and smoking. Fast-food outlets get most of the blame, but look around your local Family Mart or Circle K and see how much of the food and drink is quietly crammed with sugar.</p><p>The problem is stark; just 30 years ago, Vietnam was in the grip of malnutrition, and now it faces obesity and diabetes problems, with over 50,000 deaths attributed to diabetes in Vietnam in 2015, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). That number is sure to rise as the country gets wealthier. The list of complications of diabetes is long; ulcers, gangrene and resulting amputations, cardiovascular diseases, blindness and kidney failures.</p><p>Dr Pedro Trigo, a hepatology and internal medicine specialist at Family Medical Practice in District 1, has been practising in Vietnam for seven years, and in that time he’s seen great changes in lifestyle for the general population. Vietnam is on the road to becoming a developed country, and a burgeoning middle class have new money in their pockets.</p><p>“When the culture says ‘wow you are wealthy, you have to enjoy your time, your car etcetera’, they become lazy, eat more proteins and fatty foods and become obese,” he says.</p><p><b>Cigarettes and Alcohol</b></p><p>Another key risk factor in developing type 2 diabetes is smoking, but the link between smoking and diabetes is one that is often overlooked by both the public and by doctors.</p><p>“I think sometimes even doctors are not aware [of the risk],” says Dr Trigo.</p><p>A 2015 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) survey estimated that 22% of Vietnam’s population are smokers (45% of men, 1.1% of women), a figure that is not declining, as in the West. The link between drinking alcohol and type 2 diabetes is disputed. In moderation, many studies suggest you are safe. But doctors agree that binge drinking and excessive consumption of alcohol is a big risk factor, particularly when looking at the link between diabetes, pancreatitis and heavy drinking.</p><p>With new eating, drinking and overall lifestyle habits come many differing risk factors, which are now combining to create a perfect storm for diabetes in the country. Dr Trigo says these can create further problems, such as depression and anxiety, which can also contribute to the disease.</p><p>Worse, Asians are at risk from diabetes due to a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than Caucasians, meaning looks can be deceiving. You may look relatively healthy, but inside your body, you may already be suffering the consequences without showing the signs that you might expect.</p><p><b>Symptoms</b></p><p>Symptoms of diabetes are often subtle and range from irritability to increased thirst to frequent urination. But Dr Trigo says patients are never surprised when they receive the diagnosis.</p><p>“Nowadays everyone knows, if you have bad habits you will get in trouble,” he says. “Even poor people know that if you eat well, sleep well, you will be healthy. If you drink and smoke a lot it will be a problem. Human beings pretend this will not happen to them.”</p><p>Additionally, with resources stretched, many diabetics may be too far from the services that they require, which Dr Trigo says has cost lives in Vietnam. Diagnosis rates are also low, as it’s uncommon in Vietnam for people to go for a check-up.</p><p>“The people live quite far [away], and the roads are often bad,” he adds. “The problem is how much they comply with the treatment, even to pick up the medication. They don’t go because, an hour and a half on a motorbike [is too far] so they don’t go, and they die.”</p><p><b>Living with Diabetes</b></p><p>Dang Ngoc Tran is 56 years old, and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes towards the end of last year.</p><p>“I felt tired. I was losing weight without control for a couple of months,” says Tran.</p><p>“I drank three to four times per week. That is the big factor plus family medical history. I smoke, but I’m not a smoker, and only smoke one when seeing friends and I wasn’t aware of the link between them [smoking and diabetes],” he adds.</p><p>“Of course, it was difficult at the beginning when I had to care about what I eat.”</p><p>Even though he worries about complications that may arise from his diagnosis, he is retired and still hopes to enjoy life. “You can’t ask people to stop eating nice food or stop drinking which is the fun part when you hang out.”</p><p>Marvin Mesina is 35 and was born in the Philippines but grew up in Canada. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes aged 24 and it came as a big shock.</p><p>“The main symptoms were sudden weight loss, always thirsty and hungry, frequent urination, especially at night and being unable to concentrate,” he says, “My family has a history of diabetes. My father and grandfather had it, but I think what triggered it was that level of stress I was under back at that time.</p><p>“I felt devastated when I heard the news, I thought I was going to be immune from it regardless of our family history, so when I heard the confirmation from the doctor, I felt depressed and was in denial for a while.”</p><p>Living as a foreigner with diabetes in Vietnam comes with its own challenges. Mesina struggled to find a proper endocrinologist when he first arrived in the country, and it was also difficult to find the same brand of medication that he was taking back in Canada; the cost of his insulin and oral medication is higher than it was back home. But Marvin says the hardest aspect of life for a diabetic in Vietnam, is trying to maintain a suitable diet.</p><p>“I feel like it’s hard to adopt a diet here in Vietnam, in Saigon in particular,” he says. “People here love eating rice and anything sweet. I feel like they put sugar in everything. I have yet to try an authentic <i>ca phe sua da</i>.”</p><p><b>Hospitals</b></p><p>Marvin and Tran are fortunate in that they both receive their care at a local clinic, but diabetes is a condition where the poorest suffer disproportionately. According to the International Diabetes Federation, in 2015 diabetes-related expenditures in Vietnam were on average US$162.70 per patient, per year. This is more than the average monthly salary of US$150 in Vietnam, and the public hospitals that treat the poorest are not being built and new doctors are not being trained at a rate that can support the need.</p><p>“To create a new generation of doctors takes six years, but to build a hospital takes one year,” says Dr. Trigo. “There are massive needs. They are building new universities but there is a big gap between the needs and the ability to support these needs. It’s very difficult.”</p><p>He adds: “When I arrived in Vietnam I was in shock when I visited a local hospital. There were horrible corridors, horrible beds, no mattresses, everything dirty, chaos. Now it’s the opposite, except the chaos. Because they have everything new but the doctors and nurses are extremely overloaded. You can have the best F1 race car, but if you don’t have someone who can manage the car, it’s a disaster.”</p><p>Dr Trigo believes it’s inevitable that there will be more and more blind people in Vietnam due to diabetes, and there will be more cases of diabetics who require kidney dialysis or amputations.</p><p>“The best is to be prepared to avoid this, not to deal with the consequences,” he says. “The doctors have good training, but it’s not enough.”</p><p><b>Malnutrition and Obesity</b></p><p>Vietnam’s lightning-fast but unequal development means that it is a country that deals with malnutrition at one end of the economic scale, and obesity and diabetes at the other.</p><p>Efforts to educate the citizens on the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle have so far been ineffective, and the diabetes rates are relentlessly climbing. If old habits die hard, then new habits will die even harder.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Pedro Trigo -</i></b> <b><i>Internal Medicine, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 675,
"title": "Peripheral Artery Disease",
"slug": "peripheral-artery-disease",
"slug_en": "peripheral-artery-disease",
"slug_vi": "peripheral-artery-disease",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 292,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Peripheral-Artery-Disease.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Peripheral-Artery-Disease.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-10-10",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "The incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol is escalating at an alarming rate. It’s not the pure numbers that are so dramatic; it’s the speed at which this is growing.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
270,
269,
268,
267,
266
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>In the 21st century, Vietnam has entered an age of relative prosperity. One of the immediate benefits of this is that life expectancy has soared, at least for the time being. But with the good comes the bad; there’s more smoking, less walking, and more fatty fast foods. The number of cars and bikes is growing almost every day, and people are happy to have more Western comforts. How many people have cheered that we <i>finally</i> have McDonald’s in Saigon? But with all this, the incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol is escalating at an alarming rate. It’s not the pure numbers that are so dramatic; it’s the speed at which this is growing. Going from poor to wealthy in Europe and America was a smooth transition that took 30 to 50 years, allowing the development of a health system to match gradually unfolding needs. But in Vietnam, it’s happened within just 10 years. That’s why the rise in number of patients with these problems is making a big impact on the health system. In the West, if you’re considered obese, the risk for many diseases sharply increases. But in Asia, we see diseases such as diabetes in people who are nowhere near as chubby as Westerners can be, which indicates that the number of those affected here may grow even higher. In the case of diabetes, it’s expected that more than 10 percent of the Vietnamese population will be affected.</p><p><b>Amputations</b></p><p>One of the most visible consequences of diabetes is the development of peripheral artery disease (PAD), which can lead to foot amputations. It’s said that in Western countries, between 10 to 15% of the diabetic population will one day face amputation. Here in Saigon, where people commonly wear open sandals that expose their feet to friction and dust, the expectation is that the incidence of PAD and foot amputation will be much higher. The population of Vietnam is more than 90 million; if the incidence of diabetes reaches 10 percent, this means that at least 90,000 to 135,000 amputations are on the way!</p><p>With PAD, everything starts from a tiny spot with some discomfort that you don’t pay much attention to. From there, it develops into a little blister that becomes infected. The infection starts to grow deep and can reach the bone. At that point, even the best antibiotic cannot reach the lesion, because the arteries become obstructed. Finally, the only way to prevent the infection from spreading and killing the patient is to cut off the lower leg.</p><p><b>Prevention</b></p><p>Prevention is not difficult, and information is everywhere. I don’t know the exact percentage of the population with a smartphone, but in Vietnam, it’s one of the highest — almost everyone on the streets seems to have one. That means the information is in their <i>hands</i>. There are so many websites on how to take care of your skin when you are a diabetic. The issue is that people have to jump from Instagram and Facebook to read educational material. The key problem comes down to human behaviour.</p><p>Fifty percent of amputations caused by PAD can be prevented with just a few easy steps. Firstly, take a look at your feet every day. Check between the toes, and keep them dry and clean. Secondly, before putting your shoes on, check that there is nothing inside. Not even a tiny stone. Pull on the tongue of each shoe to make sure that there isn’t any kind of fold. Wear snug-fitting cotton socks to avoid friction, and make sure that both shoes and socks fit comfortably.</p><p>Why all of this? It’s because the early biology of the amputation starts with the tiny nerves around your skin. Normally, you can feel any light touch, but when you have diabetes, your high blood sugar prevents these nerves from working properly. This is called neuropathy. At the same time, the high sugar also pushes up your cholesterol levels, which can obstruct the arteries. A minor blister or ulcer in the foot can start to grow, and if the area is even slightly dirty, bacteria can infect the lesion. It may not look so bad on the surface, but it can spread deep beneath the skin. By the time you see the doctor, it can be enormous.</p><p><b>Consultation</b></p><p>Consult your doctor early if you notice something unusual on your feet. A small ulcer can be treated to remove the necrotic tissue, and special dressings can be applied to promote regrowth of the removed area — we stock these at our clinic. In serious cases, immersion in a hyperbaric chamber can force oxygen into tissue with insufficient arterial reach.</p><p>As with most such diseases, it’s best to avoid the complications of diabetes by leading a healthy lifestyle. For diabetes type two, the medication isn’t enough — you need to decrease your food intake and burn off extra weight. Besides avoiding smoking, the treatment for diabetes really rests on four pillars: diet, exercise, medication, and water. Eat well, move your body, and take the proper amount of water, and your reliance on medicines will decrease. I have seen successful cases where patients have stopped taking medicine altogether after adopting healthy living practices. All it takes is a little discipline.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Pedro Trigo -</i></b> <b><i>Internal Medicine, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 727,
"title": "Cervical Cancer Screening",
"slug": "cervical-cancer-screening",
"slug_en": "cervical-cancer-screening",
"slug_vi": "cervical-cancer-screening",
"slug_ko": "여성-질환-자궁경부암-알아보기",
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 807,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/cervical_cancer_1.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/cervical_cancer_1.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-10-10",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Cervical cancer is preventable if precancerous cell changes are detected and treated early. This is done with regular screening.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
914,
375,
373,
372,
371
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b><i>Cervical cancer</i></b> <i>was one of the most common causes of cancer death among women worldwide several decades ago. This situation significantly improved over time however, primarily due to the use of</i> <b><i>Pap tests</i></b> <i>– a screening procedure that can find changes in the cervix before cancer develops.</i></p><p><b>Risk Factors</b></p><p>Infection by the <b>Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)</b> – a very common virus – is the most important risk factor for cervical cancer. Most sexually active individuals will have HPV infection at some point. It is transmitted through sexual contact (oral, genital or anal) with an infected partner. HPV is usually harmless, most people have no symptoms of HPV infection and most are cleared by the body in a year or two.</p><p>Some types of HPV may cause genital warts (HPV types 6 and 11) and cervical lesions (HPV type 16 and 18) which over a period can develop into cervical cancer if undetected.</p><p>Other things can increase your risk of cervical cancer:</p><ul><li>Smoking: Studies have shown that <b>women who smoke</b> are twice as likely to have cervical cancer as opposed to non-smokers.</li><li>Having <b>HIV</b> or another condition that makes it hard for your body to fight off health problems such as autoimmune diseases and after an organ transplant.</li><li>Using <b>birth control pills</b> for a long time (five or more years).</li><li>Having given <b>birth to three or more children</b>.</li><li>Having <b>several sexual partners</b>.</li></ul><p><b>Screening</b></p><p>Cervical cancer is preventable if precancerous cell changes are detected and treated early. This is done with <b>regular screening</b> through:</p><p>– <b>Pap Smear/Test</b><br/>A test to find abnormal cell changes on the cervix before they turn into cancer. A small brush or cotton tipped applicator is used to take a sample of the cervical cells. These cells are then examined for abnormal cell changes.</p><p>– <b>HPV Test</b><br/>This test can detect “high-risk” types of HPV which lead to cervical cancer and help healthcare providers know which women are at greater risk.</p><p><b>When to get tested?</b></p><p>It is recommended that women aged 21-29 years should have Pap test every 3 years.</p><p>Women 30-65 years should have a Pap test and an HPV test (co-testing) every 5 years (preferred) although it is acceptable to have Pap test alone every 3 years.</p><p>Women should stop having cervical cancer screening after age 65 if they do not have any history of cervical cell changes or cancer. In addition, if they have had either three negative Pap test results in a row or two negative co-test results in a row within the past 10 years, with the most recent test within the past 5 years, then they need no further screening.</p><p><b>HPV Vaccines</b></p><p>There are currently two <b>HPV vaccines</b> available in the market namely:</p><p>– <b>Gardasil</b>: for both males and females, is close to 100 % effective at preventing infection associated with HPV types 6,11,16 & 18.</p><p>– <b>Cervarix</b>: vaccine just for women, is also close to 100% effective in preventing infection associated with HPV 16 &18.</p><p>It is recommended that <i>ALL females</i> between the ages of 9 to 26 get an HPV vaccination.</p><p>The majority of women diagnosed with cervical cancer either have never had a Pap test or did not have one in the last five years. Cervical cancer is completely preventable if precancerous cell changes are detected and treated early, before cervical cancer develops.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Hazel Gallardo-Paez - Family and Community Medicine, Family Medical Practice Danang</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1131,
"title": "NO_ENGLISH",
"slug": "chung-roi-loan-an-o-tre-em",
"slug_en": "chung-roi-loan-an-o-tre-em",
"slug_vi": "chứng-rối-loạn-ăn-ở-trẻ-em",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 884,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/chung_roi_loan_an_uong_o_tre_em.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/chung_roi_loan_an_uong_o_tre_.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-10-02",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 1,
"name": "News",
"slug": "news"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Chứng rối loạn ăn ở trẻ em",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
805
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>NO_ENGLISH</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 616,
"title": "Constipation — a Painful Problem",
"slug": "constipation-a-painful-problem-by-dr-jonathan-halevy",
"slug_en": "constipation-a-painful-problem-by-dr-jonathan-halevy",
"slug_vi": "constipation-a-painful-problem",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 829,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Constipation_gKDVLIJ.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Constipation_gKDVLIJ.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-09-21",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Constipation has a significant impact on a child, both physically and psychologically. A child who has passed painful stools will try to avoid going to the toilet again to prevent pain. That creates a vicious cycle that will cause the retention of more stool in the colon, stretching it to a point at which the colon doesn’t function properly and the constipation will get worse.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
176,
175,
174,
173,
172
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p><b>Constipation in toddlers can lead to an unhappy little one, so learn how to keep them regular and happy</b></p><p>Constipation is a common problem that almost every child will experience at some point in time. It is a condition where a child infrequently passes hard painful stools over a long period of time. Unfortunately, in many cases this problem goes unnoticed. Recently a mother brought her three-year-old child to the clinic. Her concern was her child’s loss of appetite. He would often start eating and then suddenly stop and refuse to continue. When I examined the child, I noticed hard masses in his belly. He hadn’t passed stools for three days, and the mother told me that when he did, they were usually hard and painful. Constipation can cause abdominal pain and loss of appetite in children. Normally when we eat, a bodily reaction called the gastrocolic reflex will cause the colon (large intestine) to constrict, creating the urge to defecate. If a child’s colon is filled with hard stools, this reflex will cause pain, and the child will stop eating. Eventually, he will refuse eating altogether to avoid this painful sensation. Constipation has a significant impact on a child, both physically and psychologically. A child who has passed painful stools will try to avoid going to the toilet again to prevent pain. That creates a vicious cycle that will cause the retention of more stool in the colon, stretching it to a point at which the colon doesn’t function properly and the constipation will get worse. A child that suffers from long-standing constipation may lose the ability to control his anal sphincter and may suffer from “leakage” of small amounts of loose stools and staining of his underpants.<br/>This problem has a great emotional impact on a child. It causes the child to be afraid of the toilet. It will cause a child to feel embarrassed, to try to avoid certain social situations (avoiding public toilets at school, avoiding visiting friends) and to suffer from low self-esteem.</p><p><b>Constipation In Babies</b></p><p>Constipation is a common condition in toddlers and children, but it’s quite uncommon in little babies. Sometimes, normal phenomena might be mistaken for constipation:<br/>• Breastfed and formula-fed babies can pass stools anywhere from six times a day to even once a week. Usually, when they do pass a stool, it is soft and not painful.<br/>• A baby might seem to be struggling to pass stools, grunting and straining, even turning red, eventually passing soft stools. This is a result of uncoordination between the abdominal muscles pushing the stool out and the squeezing of the anal sphincter, which makes it difficult to defecate. Eventually, the baby learns to relax his sphincter and the straining situation is resolved.</p><p><b>Reasons</b></p><p>If a baby does suffer from true constipation, we need to search for a cause:<br/>• Constipation may be the only sign of milk allergy in little babies. Sometimes there can be blood in the stool.<br/>• Anatomic conditions such as bowel obstruction, Hirschsprung disease, or hernia.<br/>• Hypothyroidism (Low thyroid hormone)<br/>• Dehydration, Malnutrition<br/>• Botulism (from exposure to honey)<br/>• Rare metabolic disorders</p><p><b>Treatment</b></p><p>The treatment of constipation involves three aspects:</p><ol><li><b>Nutrition</b><br/>• Avoid sugary sweet foods and drinks (including fruit juices); fatty foods; large amounts of white rice; and bananas. These may worsen constipation.<br/>• It’s better to blend the whole fruit than to provide only the juice; your child will get more vitamins, minerals and fiber this way.<br/>• Give your child foods rich in fibers (whole rice, cereals such as oats, whole fruits and vegetables, whole grain bread).<br/>• Blended prunes (especially dried prunes) can sometimes help with constipation.<br/>• Adding 1–2 spoons of olive oil to your child’s food may help.<br/>• Make sure your child drinks plenty of water (not juice!).</li><li><b>Stool Softeners</b><br/>If nutritional changes don’t help, the next step is to use stool softeners. There are different types on the market: I usually recommend Duphalac or Lactulose. This is a special type of sugar that is not absorbed, retaining water inside the gut and loosening the stool. I prefer not to prescribe suppositories (such as microlet or glycerine) as they are less effective, and sometimes may even be traumatic for the child. The goal is to get stools as soft as toothpaste—not firm, and not too loose. Start with a low dose (0.5–1 sachet) and gradually increase every 2–3 days until you reach the desired goal. Continue this dose daily for at least 3–4 months. The treatment usually lasts for several months for a couple of reasons:<br/>• It takes time for the dilated rectum to get back to its normal size and function.<br/>• It takes even longer for the child to forget the pain of passing hard stools.<br/>• There is no risk of “addiction” or “getting used to” this treatment.</li><li><b>Behavioral Plan</b><br/>• Encourage your child to sit on the toilet twice a day after breakfast and after dinner. This way you can take advantage of the gastrocolic reflex that occurs after eating. Let the child sit there for a few moments even if nothing happens, just to get him familiar with the situation.<br/>• Remember, when your child is on the potty or the toilet seat, make sure his knees are higher than his hips. Squatting is even better. This position makes it easier to pass stools.<br/>• Make it fun—in toddlers and preschool children, prepare a calendar. Every time your child successfully passes stools, put a little sticker there. Let him choose a little gift as a reward for every seventh sticker. This will motivate the child to “make an effort”!</li></ol><p><b>Dr. Jonathan Halevy, Head of Pediatrics, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 594,
"title": "Fever Fears",
"slug": "fever-fears",
"slug_en": "fever-fears",
"slug_vi": "fever-fears",
"slug_ko": "fever-fears",
"slug_ja": "fever-fears",
"overview_image": {
"id": 847,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Fever_fear.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Fever_fear.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-08-26",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "When a child is fighting off an infection, one of the most common side effects is fever... As the mercury rises, parents will often become greatly distressed and seek to treat the fever as quickly as possible. It’s a pity that sometimes, despite their best intentions, these efforts can end up being contrary to the needs of the child, and can even make the symptoms worse.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
101,
100,
99,
98,
97
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>When a child is fighting off an infection, one of the most common side effects is fever. As the body’s natural immune response gets to work, the heat given off and the energy expended in the defense effort will raise a child’s body temperature and cause significant drowsiness and suffering. As the mercury rises, parents will often become greatly distressed and seek to treat the fever as quickly as possible. It’s a pity that sometimes, despite their best intentions, these efforts can end up being contrary to the needs of the child, and can even make the symptoms worse.</p><p>Firstly, it's important to remember that fever is not a disease, it’s just a symptom. Although a child may be suffering during an episode of fever, it’s really a positive indication that the body is actively fighting off an infection. There are many root causes that can bring on a fever—including viral, bacterial, and sometimes even parasitical infection. Sometimes a fever is caused by other more serious diseases such as cancer, while at other times it’s the result of taking medication for another illness.</p><p>While it’s certainly important to monitor your child during a fever, parents are sometimes overly concerned when their child has a temperature, and they will try to do everything within their power to reduce it. Sometimes the fever is brought on by taking unnecessary or inappropriate medication, leading the parent to think that the fever was caused by the original illness rather than the attempted cure. Bronchiolitis in children under two, for example, is mostly caused by viruses—which as most parents should know cannot be treated with antibiotics (in fact, we do not yet have a medicine that kills viruses within the body). In some case, if antibiotics are given for bronchiolitis, they can inadvertently cause excessive coughing and difficulty in breathing.</p><p>Some parents will wake up their child to give medicine or apply wet towels to reduce a fever. In fact, if a child has fever during sleep, everything is already being managed by the nervous system, so there is no need to wake them up to do anything at all. The fact that a child can sleep during fever is an indication that everything is under control—if not, the child would certainly wake up independently.</p><p>Another common mistake parents make is to use medicine to prevent the onset of fever. Medicine taken to reduce fever is only effective if the temperature is higher than 38.5. Lower than that, and it doesn’t work at all. Some mothers administer the medicine out of concern that the child’s temperature may be about to rise, but there is actually no medical benefit to the child in doing this.</p><p>It’s important to pay attention to what other symptoms the child has, such as a runny nose, coughing, or diarrhea. If the child is coughing a lot, has a rash, finds it difficult to breathe and also has a fever, or if a fever lasts longer than three days, then that’s certainly a cause for concern. That is the point when a child should be taken to see a doctor for an assessment. A baby under three months old who has a fever at any stage should be taken to see a doctor immediately, as fevers can be very dangerous at that age. Otherwise, especially if a fever is the only obvious symptom, it’s best to let the child rest and wait until the symptoms subside, providing plenty of rest and water.</p><p>If you do see a doctor regarding a fever, it’s still not always necessary to prescribe medicine. According to information I have learned from my colleagues in local Vietnamese hospitals, when a child is taken to see a doctor for symptoms of upper respiratory infection (such as cough, runny nose and/or fever), antibiotics will be prescribed 99% of the time. This is despite the fact that antibiotics are only effective against a limited number of the illnesses that cause fever.</p><p>Many doctors feel a sense of obligation to provide medication rather than send a child home without it. Parents can be very upset if a doctor examines their sick child and then sends them away without drugs. Unfortunately, this practice has given rise to very dangerous levels of antibiotic resistance in Vietnam—and this is a very serious issue, as a child who has developed resistance to antibiotics may not be able to benefit from them at later times when they are urgently needed.</p><p>This problem is compounded by the fact that antibiotics are easily available over the counter in Vietnam, meaning parents who do not want to take their children to see a doctor will go direct to a pharmacy or a private clinic for their medicine. If the child’s problem is not resolved within a couple of days, the parent may then decide to take him or her to hospital—but during the intervening time, the antibiotics may have altered the symptoms of the illness, making it far more difficult for the doctor to diagnose.</p><p>Sometimes I tell Vietnamese parents who go to a public hospital or clinic that a very good question is to ask the doctor is whether their case needs antibiotics or not. If the parent asks this question, the doctor will consider whether this case can perhaps wait.</p><p>In any case, it is certainly counterintuitive for a parent to try to persuade a doctor to give medicines, making them feel that they must prescribe something that may make matters worse. Sometimes, the only fever medicine necessary is simply to wait for it to go away.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Truong Hoang Quy - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 605,
"title": "Common Sexually Transmitted Infections",
"slug": "common-sexually-transmitted-infections",
"slug_en": "common-sexually-transmitted-infections",
"slug_vi": "common-sexually-transmitted-infections",
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 258,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/6ED99CAD-C1A5-4FC1-81CE-D60B39AA1F97-5016-00000ED2FADA4E6D.PNG",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/6ED99CAD-C1A5-4FC1-81CE-D60B3.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-08-14",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "The problem with being infected without having any symptoms is that you can pass a disease on to someone else—and even if you are just keeping it to yourself, the effects of carrying a long-term bacterial STI that you don’t even know you have can be very serious. In short, if you’ve had any kind of risky contact at all, it’s not a bad idea to get tested for these infections so that you can be sure you’re clear.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
124,
123
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>People are far more worried about contracting HIV than they are about getting any other sexually transmitted infection (STI).<br/></p><p>Maybe that’s because this disease is better known than any other STI, but it’s also because of the seriousness of HIV and the implications of contracting it. This doesn’t mean that the rest of the STIs can be safely ignored — the others are not only much more common, they’re far more infective too.<br/></p><p>The thought of getting an STI tends to freak people out. From the moment it strikes them that whatever risky behaviour they’ve enjoyed may have real-world consequences, they tend to seek a diagnosis and solution immediately. That panic is usually out of proportion to the severity of whatever they may have picked up, and it’s often brought on by a mixture of stigma and a lack of knowledge — but when you know the facts, that’s part of the solution.<br/></p><p>Some common conditions are bacterial urethritis and vulvovaginitis — both of which are the unpleasant result of an infection by either one or a cocktail of bacteria — usually chlamydia and/or gonorrhea. These bacterial infections are more symptomatic in men than in women; there will be discomfort, pain, or an unusual discharge that alerts the infected person that they have an STI. Gonorrhea tends to be more severe — more pain, more discharge, and eventually a higher risk of systemic symptoms like fever, dissemination and rash — but it’s very difficult to tell just by looking at the symptoms alone what the infection is. In both sexes, it can also be entirely asymptomatic, and you can be a carrier without knowing at all.<br/></p><p><b>Transmission</b><br/></p><p>The problem with being infected without having any symptoms is that you can pass a disease on to someone else — and even if you are just keeping it to yourself, the effects of carrying a long-term bacterial STI that you don’t even know you have can be very serious. In short, if you’ve had any kind of risky contact at all, it’s not a bad idea to get tested for these infections so that you can be sure you’re clear.<br/></p><p>The stakes are even higher now that another bacterial STI is making a big comeback — syphilis. This disease had its heyday in the era before there were antibiotics. It’s super-easy to treat, as the bacteria isn’t particularly resistant to any antibiotic (even penicillin will do the trick) but because it has been off the scene for so long, neither patients nor doctors are looking for the signs anymore, and so it can often be missed.<br/></p><p>While it’s really the bacterial infections I see most often, they’re still not the most common STIs around. That honour goes to HPV genital warts, with the majority of cases being entirely invisible. I would say that roughly only 2% of people who contract the infection will get the warts, so the vast majority of people don’t know they have it at all. This is why it’s spreading so much — it can infect up to 70% of sexually active adults.<br/></p><p>The good news is that genital warts resolve themselves spontaneously — at least the warts do, if not the infection itself. They’re also quite different from the female genital tract lesions that can eventually become cancerous, which are caused by a different strain of the HPV virus. They’re contracted the same way and they are related, but they’re not the same thing at all.<br/></p><p><b>Easy Treatment</b><br/></p><p>If your diagnosis is positive for an STI, the treatment is usually straightforward. HIV is treatable, even though it’s still not curable. This is a far better prognosis than it was 15 years ago when HIV was considered a death sentence — with medication, you can now expect to live an (almost) normal life, and it seems likely that a cure will be developed within your lifetime. All the bacterial diseases can be resolved with antibiotics, including syphilis, as long as it’s diagnosed early enough. Chlamydia in particular is important to treat, because you can still infect other people and it may cause complications, such as pelvic inflammatory disease or sterility — at least in women.<br/></p><p>With HPV genital warts, there’s no reason to treat the infection, but you can still burn off the warts with liquid nitrogen. I try to reassure people with warts by welcoming them to the club — “you’re among the 70% of people who carry the virus!” At the same time, I advise them to do a screening for everything else. If you’re in my clinic, you’ve proved you’re not a monk or a virgin — at least once in your life, you’ve done the deed, and here we are. Warts may be the least of your problems.<br/></p><p>It’s quite possibly more dangerous to cross the street in Saigon than it is to engage in sexual relations. However, the simple fact that you’ve been exposed (whether you have symptoms or not) should prompt some kind of screening.</p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 584,
"title": "What it Takes to Work in an Emergency Room",
"slug": "what-it-takes-work-emergency-room",
"slug_en": "what-it-takes-work-emergency-room",
"slug_vi": "what-it-takes-work-emergency-room",
"slug_ko": "what-it-takes-work-emergency-room",
"slug_ja": "what-it-takes-work-emergency-room",
"overview_image": {
"id": 833,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Working_in_ER.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Working_in_ER.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-08-02",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "In the ER room, you need a certain kind of compassion just as much as a heart of stone. You can’t get attached to death. It’s not colds and flu that we see here, but the real challenging cases—trauma, vehicular crashes, motorcycles, a little violence.... It’s like this every night—the skies darken and the streetlights flicker to life, while those of us on night shift steel ourselves for another round of trauma, injury, and saving lives.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
39,
38
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>In the ER room, you need a certain kind of compassion just as much as a heart of stone. You can’t get attached to death. It’s not colds and flu that we see here, but the real challenging cases—trauma, vehicular crashes, motorcycles, a little violence. Some high-projectile mechanism of injury; like speeding on the road. It’s like this every night—the skies darken and the streetlights flicker to life, while those of us on night shift steel ourselves for another round of trauma, injury, and saving lives.</p><p>The worst case I saw here was a drunk tourist who jumped from the 5th floor of a classy hotel. Once he hit the ground, his bone was totally exposed, gushing blood, and squirting—and if a wound is squirting, it must be very, very deep. He was pale, he was still mumbling, but the sounds were incomprehensible. We really needed blood and pain relief. But it was also a hazard for my staff and me, because when there’s so much blood everywhere, we have to protect ourselves. I had to manage all the bystanders as well, all the people who wanted to stop and take photos and then publish them online. If you’re the doctor on site, you’re the first responder, the captain of the ship. You’re responsible for everything.</p><p>In the evening, you have to be fast, it has to be “blink and think.” If a patient comes in convulsing, is he having a febrile fever seizure? Is he intoxicated? Did he take isoniazid drugs? You have to diagnose the cases fast, especially in Vietnam where they dispense medicines left and right, where everything is complicated and people don’t know what prescription drugs they’re taking. Then, if the emergency bell rings, you have to drop everything; quickly hand over to your nurse and the backup doctor, get on the ambulance, and just go.</p><p>You can’t always tell what’s waiting for you at the end of the ride. Sometimes when an English-speaking patient has an emergency, they ask their driver or someone Vietnamese to call us. But Vietnamese people don’t always like to give so many details over the phone. On one call, the information we received was “someone has stomach pain”. When we got there, we found ourselves having to deliver a baby in the bathroom.</p><p>It was about two in the morning. She was British, it was her second child, so she knew the pain. Her water had broken, and she thought she could do it by herself, but of course, the toilet was dirty, and with all the blood spilling out, the baby coming out, and the placenta, how would you get it?</p><p>The mother was really submissive. PUSH! The baby popped out, it only took about 20 minutes. That was my first home delivery in Vietnam. Of course, in my home town in the Philippines, we do it a lot, on the floor, everywhere. But here, yes, the baby was well, crying and pinkish; we cut the cord, we delivered the placenta, then we let the mother hold the baby to her breasts to smell the mother’s pheromones for attachment. Then of course we took them to definitive care, all before the sun came up.</p><p>There’s a cultural barrier here, a cultural difference. We have to understand how they perceive life in Vietnam. We also have to understand that, when someone dies, we have to sterilize the room, even if the patient died from cancer, something not infectious. People do die in here—not as often as you might imagine, but when it happens, they like to bring relatives back home to rest there. We have to compromise as well. They want to apply some heating oil, some coins, they ask us about this. Part of our job here is to get immersed with the old ways of traditional medicine.</p><p>We’re lucky here in Vietnam that we don’t have so many mass casualty incidents. My specialty may be emergency, but in my sub-specialty, I’m really inclined toward disaster medicine. In my home town, we see terrorist activities. There was a policeman who ran amok because he got fired from his job, so he held an entire busload of tourists hostage and then he killed five people. It was a rainy night, and I was just in training at the time, working that night shift. The whole ER was so congested because it was under renovation. Then, boom! Five dead, three critical, and others moaning. You don’t just see the critical cases, you also see the patients from the tear gas, from the blast injury. They have shrapnel, hot glass. The noise, the heat, the pale light of the ER room lamps.</p><p>Another mass incident was a bomb blast. Someone had left a bag with explosives outside an examination center. They brought about 30 people into our hospital, and everyone was in pain. Of course, the parents were wailing. There was a young student, first year in college, who lost both of her legs. She was shaking, her blood pressure was going down, and she was asking, “Doctor, I cannot feel my legs”. What could I say? I wanted to turn around and shout for a doctor, but I was the emergency specialist at that time. That’s when it hit home, that realization of the responsibility of my role. Here, we don’t have many incidents like that. That’s very good. But we’re still prepared for them if they occur.</p><p>If it’s the middle of the night, and you have an emergency, then do call us. Our number is ∗<b>9999</b>. We will respond to your calls. House call, road call, hotel call—we will get there with a prepared team. Give us good information, vital, pertinent information. Give us the easiest route to get to where you are. If possible, have someone wait outside your door on the ground floor—for example, so that we don’t get stuck at your elevator without an access card. Meet us, keep your phone line open, be mentally and emotionally strong, because we need that, and your patient needs it too at that moment. Even though it’s late at night, we all need to think sharp.</p><p>In an emergency case, if there’s a problem with the airways, breathing, circulation… patients go straight into ER, they get prioritized. It’s going to be very busy during the first few minutes. Nurses are going to be hovering around them. A lot of questions, a lot of activities—like inserting an IV line, doing a chest ECG, administration of oxygen, lights flashing, X-ray—a lot of movement. It’s difficult for the patient and for the family, because they’re anxious already, and they want to get treated. But bear with us. We have to know what’s going on. We have to ask pertinent questions. Other things can be left for the secondary survey, but for the primary survey, there may be a lot of questions—last medicine intake, last food intake, what happened within the past five hours, things like that. ER has to be fast. So bear with us if we ask straight-to-the-point questions, if we seem heartless sometimes. This is our job. We have to save you, we have to do what you’re paying us for, in order to save your life, right?</p><p>Our job is to protect people whenever a medical emergency strikes, no matter what time of night it is. We doubled our ambulance fleet recently, and the real beauty in that is more community education. I believe we’re making this community a healthier place, and that people are becoming more aware of their health. ∗9999 is an ambitious project, I think it’s very courageous. The ambulances may be expensive, but it’s a sacrifice for the community, it’s how we give back. High visibility of medical access. It feels like Saigon will be a safer place to live.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Allan Paras, Emergency Medicine, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 592,
"title": "First Year of Life",
"slug": "first-year-life",
"slug_en": "first-year-life",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 805,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/First-Year-of-Life.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/First-Year-of-Life.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-07-25",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "In Western countries, newborn screening is usually routine, while in Vietnam this is not guaranteed... medication can be prescribed that should ensure the child leads a normal, healthy life. This is the importance of the well-baby check, to find clues that can help us to intervene and make dramatic changes to improve a child’s lifelong health.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
49,
48,
47,
46,
45
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>As pediatricians, we see children every day—that’s the joy of this profession. Of course, we usually see children when they are sick, but it’s also very important that we see them when they’re healthy. Wellness checks are our main tool to monitor the growth and development of a child from birth until late adolescence, not only physically but also mentally. We need to ensure that they’re achieving their milestones, looking for red flags that may indicate an underlying problem. As with everything, prevention is better than cure, so if we catch something earlier, we can then address it earlier—which is far better than catching it late.</p><p>A good example of this is language acquisition. Research is very clear about what a developing child should be able to express linguistically at each stage in their growth. Sometimes a child may be a bit slower than is normal, and this could be because the child suffers from a condition such as autism spectrum disorder. It could also be due to completely benign reasons—it’s not uncommon for a child growing up in a multilingual household to fall short of their milestones while their speaking skills develop in two or more languages at once. It’s also less of a concern if a child has difficulty expressing him or herself verbally, but is still perfectly capable of understanding complex instructions such as “go into the bedroom and bring me my phone.”</p><p>Sometimes a problem can be caught during a wellness check and corrected easily—if you notice that a two-year-old child has the linguistic capacity typical of a one-and-a-half-year-old, there is only a six-month gap between what is expected and what the child is able to do. With special attention this issue may be resolved, whereas if a child does not receive a wellness check until four years old and is discovered to have the developmental level of a two-year-old, that’s a far more challenging problem. If we see things that are not quite right, we advise parents to see a specialist.</p><p>During the first year of life, there are many things happening—so the frequency of wellness visits is higher compared to when a child is older. Children should ideally receive the first wellness check straight after birth following being discharged from hospital. This should be followed by checks at one month, two months, four months, six months, nine months and then at 12 months; and then after that, every three months until 18 months; and then at two years, 30 months, and then yearly after that.</p><p>In Western countries, screening for illnesses at birth is usually routine, while in Vietnam this is not guaranteed. One example of a congenital condition that will be screened for is hyperthyroidism. If you catch this condition early, medication can be prescribed that should ensure the child leads a normal, healthy life. This is the importance of the well-baby check, to find clues that can help us to intervene and make dramatic changes to improve a child’s lifelong health.</p><p>Normally we do wellness checks, especially for younger kids, together with vaccinations. This is a perfect opportunity to discuss with parents any concerns they might have. We can ask about developmental milestones as well as checking nutrition and other physical attributes, such as head circumference. As we administer the vaccinations, we give appropriate advisory guidance on topics such as healthy eating or accident prevention if a child has just started to crawl or walk.</p><p>Parents usually appreciate professional advice, although not always—sometimes for cultural reasons we run into differences of opinion. In this culture, an overweight baby might be seen as being healthy and happy, whereas as a doctor I find myself having to warn parents of the potential for heart disease, diabetes, and other serious problems later in life brought on by childhood obesity. I often refer parents of overweight children to a specialist.</p><p>So far, I’ve never come across a parent who refuses vaccinations in Saigon, although there are some who choose only certain vaccines that they want and refuse others. Some parents do not understand why we vaccinate against certain diseases here when this is not done in their home country. In fact, it is always recommended to follow the immunization schedule of the country where you are living, because the dangers can vary from place to place. In the case of chickenpox, for example, the best protection is gained by contracting the virus naturally in childhood, so in areas where it is common it is not normal to vaccinate against it. However in Asia, where chickenpox is far less common, it is advisable to vaccinate—contracting the disease naturally later in life, especially during pregnancy, can be a far more serious problem.</p><p>International schools here usually specify a list of vaccinations a child must have before being admitted. A physical examination is also required—different schools have different forms, but the format of these wellness checks is generally the same. It used to be the case that we would need to run skin tests and check for TB, but blood and urine testing are no longer required. Usually these kinds of study-placement tests are only asked for by parents sending their children to schools overseas.</p><p>Parents should be very careful to ensure their child receives all their wellness checks, especially during the early stages of life. We can monitor physical growth, cognitive skills, eyesight, and a number of issues that are most easily resolved following correct diagnoses as early in life as possible. A child should also visit a dentist six months after the eruption of the first tooth. By looking at the overall picture when a child is well rather than only focusing on healing when he or she is ill, we can help to ensure a healthy passage into adulthood.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Agnes R. Viay - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice Ho Chi Minh City</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 711,
"title": "Keeping Fit in the Vietnamese Summer",
"slug": "keeping-fit-vietnamese-summer",
"slug_en": "keeping-fit-vietnamese-summer",
"slug_vi": "keeping-fit-vietnamese-summer",
"slug_ko": "keeping-fit-vietnamese-summer",
"slug_ja": "keeping-fit-vietnamese-summer",
"overview_image": {
"id": 1001,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/shutterstock_1467237899.jpg",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/shutterstock_1467237899.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-06-19",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "Exercising in hot weather puts extra stress on your heart and lungs. Both the exercise itself and the air temperature increases your body temperature.",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
846,
845,
844,
843,
842
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p></p><p>Ever seen the exhausted runners staggering around Hoàn Kiếm Lake, Hà Nội, on a hot summer evening? Outdoor exercise can be challenging when the temperature soars and the pall of humidity descends on the city. So stay safe during hot-weather exercise by drinking enough fluids, wearing proper clothing and timing your workout to avoid extreme dehydration.</p><p>Even during that friendly round of golf, you might not notice the temperature rising — but your body will. If you exercise outdoors in the heat, use caution and common sense to prevent heat-related illnesses.</p><p>Exercising in hot weather puts extra stress on your heart and lungs. Both the exercise itself and the air temperature increases your body temperature. To dissipate heat, more blood circulates through your skin. This leaves less blood for your muscles, which increases your heart rate. If the humidity is high, your body faces added stress because sweat doesn’t readily evaporate from your skin — which only pushes your body temperature higher.</p><p>Under normal conditions, your skin, blood vessels and perspiration level adjust to the heat. But these natural cooling systems may fail if you’re exposed to high temperatures and humidity for too long. The result may be a heat-related illness, such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion or heatstroke.</p><p><b>How to avoid heat-related illness</b></p><p>To keep “cool” during hot-weather exercise, keep these basic precautions in mind:</p><p>1. <b> Slow and Easy.</b> If you’re used to exercising indoors or in cooler weather, take it easy at first. As your body adapts to the heat, gradually increase the length and intensity of your workouts. If you have a chronic medical condition or take medication, ask your doctor if you need to take additional precautions.</p><p>2. <b>Drink plenty of fluids.</b> Your body’s ability to sweat and cool down depends on adequate rehydration. Drink plenty of water while you’re working out — even if you don’t feel thirsty. Consider sports drinks for longer work outs. These drinks can replace the sodium, chloride and potassium you lose through sweating. Avoid caffeine or alcohol, which both actually promote fluid loss.</p><p>3. <b>Dress appropriately.</b> Lightweight, loose-fitting clothing promotes sweat evaporation and cooling by letting more air pass over your body. Avoid dark colors, which can absorb the heat. Wear a light-colored hat.</p><p>4. <b>Avoid midday sun.</b> Exercise in the morning or evening — when it’s likely to be cooler outdoors — rather than the middle of the day.</p><p>5. <b>Wear sunscreen.</b> Sunburned skin decreases your body’s ability to cool itself. If you’re concerned about the heat or humidity, stay indoors. Work out at the gym, walk laps inside the mall or climb stairs inside an air-conditioned building.</p><p><b>How do I know when I need to stop exercising?</b></p><p>During hot-weather exercise, be on the lookout for heat-related illness. Signs and symptoms may include: Weakness, headache, dizziness, muscle cramps, nausea or vomiting. Rapid heart beat. If you suspect a heat-related illness, stop exercising and get out of the heat. Drink water, and wet and fan your skin. If you don’t feel better within 30 minutes, contact your doctor. If you develop a fever higher than 102oF (38.9oC) or become faint or confused, seek immediate medical help.</p><p>Regular physical activity is important — but don’t let hot-weather workouts put your health at risk.Be sensible about exercising in the heat.</p><p></p><p><b><i>Dr. Catherine Gonzalez - Internist, Family Medical Practice Hanoi</i></b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
},
{
"id": 1118,
"title": "Autism: A Lonely World",
"slug": "autism-lonely-world",
"slug_en": "autism-lonely-world",
"slug_vi": null,
"slug_ko": null,
"slug_ja": null,
"overview_image": {
"id": 996,
"url": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/original_images/Autism_VI.png",
"compressed": "https://media.fmp-data.bliss.build/images/Autism_VI.format-jpeg.jpegquality-75.jpg"
},
"post_date": "2017-06-01",
"category": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Media & Press",
"slug": "media-press"
},
"subcategory": {
"id": 2,
"name": "Articles by our Doctors",
"slug": "Articlesbyourdoctors"
},
"tags": "",
"summary": "There are so many misconceptions about autism, and so many things that have been blamed for causing it, from vaccinations to poor parenting. But what is it, and what is the real cause?",
"related_pages_title": null,
"related_pages": [],
"locations": [
952,
802
],
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<p>There are so many misconceptions about autism, and so many things that have been blamed for causing it, from vaccinations to poor parenting. But what is it, and what is the real cause?</p><p>A child with autism has difficulty learning social and communication skills. Such a child will have trouble understanding and developing language, will not be interested in communicating with other children or adults, and won’t be seeking their attention or even pay attention to them. The child will have difficulty interpreting gestures, body language, expressions, and emotions. Autistic children are not mentally retarded—in fact, many of them exhibit higher intelligence than average, and some have extraordinary capabilities in different fields, such as memory, mathematics, the arts, and physics.</p><p>Today in the US, the prevalence of autism is estimated to be 30 times higher than it was 40 years ago. In part, this is because our understanding and definitions of autism have changed over the years. Children who were wrongly considered mentally retarded in the past are now recognized as being autistic. Children who were thought to be “very shy and introverted” in the past actually had mild symptoms of autism. But this still doesn’t explain the exponential rise in the condition.</p><p>Over recent years, science has shown that autism has a genetic basis. We also know that environmental factors make a significant impact on the stability and quality of our genes— advanced paternal age, air pollution, Vitamin D deficiency, heavy metals, and exposure to certain infections during pregnancy have all been related to a higher risk of autism. But even these factors do not explain why the incidence of autism has risen so much over the last decades. So what is it in our environment that can explain this rise? What do we have now so abundantly, that we didn’t have 40 years ago?</p><p>Exposure to electromagnetic radiation through mobile phones, Wi- Fi routers, cellular networks, radio and TV antennas—and even high voltage electricity lines—has rapidly increased over the past four decades. Today it is all around us, in our pockets, in our homes, on the streets, in shopping malls, cafés and restaurants. You can’t escape it. Open your Wi-Fi app on your phone and see how many routers are currently transmitting to you. You can be in a remote village in the countryside and still be surrounded by this radiation. Even if you never use a cellular phone in your life, you will still be heavily exposed.</p><p>Proving that EM radiation is a direct cause of autism is very difficult. It’s impossible to quantify exposure, and to eliminate the influence of other factors such as different types of environmental pollution that definitely could be contributing to the rise in autism. But the circumstantial evidence is accumulating: Increases in RF exposure rates and autism rates have closely correlated over the years; cellular examinations and behavioral studies on rats have suggested negative effects from EM radiation exposure; some studies indicate that carrying mobile phones affects the quality of sperm; while others link early cellular phone use with the development of brain tumors later on in life. Pediatric neurologist Professor Martha Herbert has published several articles showing the connection between EM radiation and autism.</p><p>I am certain that in the near future, more studies will reveal more evidence of the effects of EM radiation on our health. The question is, what can we do about it? Unfortunately, at the moment, no one has a good answer.</p><p>Autism should be detected at an early age to allow for early intervention, which is very important for both autistic children and their parents. Teaching and raising a child with autism is very different from raising an ordinary child—these parents need to learn a new way of teaching their children, showing them how to behave and how to cope in different situations.</p><p>Red flags for autism include:</p><ul><li>A baby who doesn’t have a “social smile” by the age of two to three months (such as smiling back at a parent).</li><li>A baby who avoids long eye contact.</li></ul><p>By the age of two to three months, most babies should be able to gaze at their parents and even try to imitate facial expressions.</p><ul><li>A baby who doesn’t show interest in his or her environment within six months. Most babies at this age will try to reach for new objects and explore them, manipulate them, turn them around, pass them from hand to hand, and so on.</li><li>No babbling back to parent or communicative expressions by nine months.</li><li>No “separation anxiety” or fear of strangers by nine months. Children with autism will not show anxiety when their parents leave them alone or with a stranger.</li><li>No understanding of nonverbal communication (such as gestures) after one year—blowing a kiss, waving bye- bye, or pointing at objects of interest to get the parent to notice them. Babies with autism will rather draw the parent by the hand toward the object, or stare at the toy and grunt.</li><li>Not saying a word by 16 months.</li><li>No imaginative play at 18 months (e.g. pretending to talk on the phone, pretending to feed a doll).</li><li>No meaningful two-word sentence by two years old (not just repeating words).</li><li>Restricted behavior (doing the same activity over and over again—for example, walking around in circles or flapping the hands repeatedly).</li><li>Restricted interest (showing interest in only certain objects and neglecting others).</li><li>Unusual play (e.g. continuously banging cars together instead of “driving” them).</li><li>Showing no interest in other children by 18 months old.</li><li>Any loss of previously acquired social or communicative skills.</li></ul><p>If your child shows any of these red flags, this does not automatically mean that he is autistic—hearing loss is another possible cause of these behaviors. In any case, he should certainly be evaluated by his pediatrician, as early diagnosis and early intervention will result in a much better outcome.</p><p></p><p><b>Dr. Jonathan Halevy - Pediatrician, Family Medical Practice HCMC</b></p>"
}
],
"meta_title": "",
"meta_description": "",
"social_title": "",
"social_description": "",
"social_image": null
}
]
}
