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Hepatitis A Vaccine – Better Safe Than Sorry

Hepatitis is making a comeback-and doing it big time. As the years come and go, there seems to be a natural ebb and flow to certain diseases. Hepatitis is currently peaking, with new antibiotic-resistant strains popping up in every corner of the country, to boot. Your best bet for protection against hepatitis A in this day and age is the vaccine. And you can easily have one administered at one of many fine, certified Travel clinics.

One must accept the responsibilities of having sexual relations as they accept the responsibilities of other things that they do in their lives. The hepatitis A vaccine should be administered if you happen to fall into any of these high risk groups: people with chronic liver disease, men who have sex with men, individuals who inject drugs intravenously-and all children (along with their other inoculations). In this article we shall take a look at the ABC’s of hepatitis A and the reasons why you need to get hepatitis A vaccination.

A for Analysis. Let’s take a moment to begin with the facts. What exactly is hepatitis A? Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease caused by the HAV virus. It lives in the fecal matter of infected individuals, so one form of transmission is through the touching of food and drink without properly washing hands. Look, we all get lazy from time to time, but if you are in the food industry you should always keep proper hygiene methods high on your ethical list of things to do. And if you are in any of the high risk groups, you should receive the vaccine before you become infected and pass this dastardly disease on to others.

To some degree the symptoms of hepatitis A are different in every person, but they generally include: fever, fatigue, nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea and/or dark urine. Also included in this loathsome list is jaundice, that yellowing of the skin and eyes that clearly indicates liver problems.

There is no specific treatment for hepatitis A after it is caught. It is a virus and you will have it for the rest of your life. Receiving the vaccine from travel immunization clinic for this potentially deadly disease is the best way to safeguard against catching it sometime in your future.

B for Bucks. When you think it through, a vaccine has to be the most affordable weapon in a doctor’s arsenal of protection. The dollars that it costs to receive the hepatitis A vaccine is surely thousands of times cheaper than catching the disease and spending money for a lifetime of care. Some people are risk takers. They rather roll the dice than spend the money up front. Well, ironically, it is the sort of person most likely to be deemed a risk taker who is more likely to catch a disease like hepatitis in the first place! See the irony? Don’t let it bite you in the butt now that you do.

C for Clinic. A certified travel clinic is the place to go to receive a vaccine for any STD. With over twenty five separate diseases falling into this category, maybe it’s time you saunter on over to one?

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The Hospital Handshake

Today, during my psychiatry rotation, a very grateful patient confronted my attending and thanked him profusely for saving him. The patient had been severely depressed and was at his wit’s end before they met. The doctor listened to him, analyzed his situation, and came up with a plan to help which included involving the patient’ family as well as using proper medication. The patient had a great response to this and now wanted to express this to my attending. Thus entered the ‘hospital handshake.’

After spending enough time in the hospital, I have come to the conclusion that it’s a dirty place. This was not an epiphany that I experienced; rather, it’s just a simple conclusion after seeing/experiencing the dirtiest parts of people throughout the hospital. I’ve even seen a psych patient throw his own feces at his roommate because he ‘didn’t like the way he was looking at him.’

Therefore, when the grateful patient offered his hand to the doctor to shake as a sign of being thankful, I could sort of understand why the attending hesitated for a second. It was not just the hesitation that tickled me. As we were leaving the floor, the attending walked out of his way to douse his hands in hand cleanser.

A lot of people may have found that action as perfectly reasonable. Especially in this day and age in which around every corner you turn there is a sign about washing hands and stopping infection. And to add to that, I had to complete a form upon starting the rotation that quizzed me on the proper length of time of hand washing (it’s 15 to 20 seconds if you’re curious). However, the attending and I both knew that we were merely heading back to the psych floor where we were going to continue our conversation about his recent trip to India. There would be no spread of infection (there was no reason to believe this patient had an infection anyway) to other patients.

I don’t bring this up because I have a problem with hand washing after physical contact with patients; in fact, I think it’s a great habit to get in to. I bring it up because the scene struck me as borderline disrespectful to the patient.

Imagine this, you go to your parents house for Thanksgiving. It’s been months since you’ve seen them and your father has still not thanked you for helping him with a medical problem that he’d been dealing with. He remembers that he forgot to tell you how grateful he was, thus he elaborates his appreciation as you greet each other. He finishes by giving you a stern, fatherly handshake to demonstrate how strongly he feels. In this particular case, neither your father nor yourself have any signs of an infection. Despite this, you walk past him to the nearest bathroom to wash your hands (for 15 to 20 seconds, of course).

Is this something your father would take offense to? If that was my child, I would feel like he just took my sign of appreciation and smacked me in the face with it. So why is this not the case when a patient wants to shake the hand of the caregiver that had such a profound effect on their life?

In this particular interaction with the attending and patient, I did not perceive the attending as respecting the patient. From the hesitation to shake his hand to cleansing the physical contact from himself once he turned from the patient, the attending came across as cold and uncaring.

My fear is that this lack of respect can be extrapolated to all patients. This would be even more prominent on an inpatient psychiatry floor in which many patients do not have a firm grasp on reality. Will I soon find myself losing respect for patients; declining handshakes and ignoring their displays of gratitude? I hope not.

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The Benefits of Your Child Wearing a Plagiocephaly Helmet

Plagiocephaly helmets or remodelling bands are a safe, non-invasive treatment for an asymmetric or unusually wide head shape. They do not interfere with his or her emotional or social development and are similar in action to teeth bracing in older children and young adults. The helmets are lightweight and available with a range of patterns. They let babies continue to be babies, but ensure corrective alignment and a more normal head shape that will allow your little one to participate fully throughout schools years and into adulthood.

What Is Plagiocephaly?

Plagiocephaly is the medical term for a common condition in which the back or one side of an infant’s skull shows significant flattening. It is often noticed as the bald patch that infants develop appears to be on the flattened side of the head. Clinical reports estimate that plagiocephaly may affect as many as one out of every 30 infants. Babies are born with soft, mouldable skulls so that they can pass through the birth canal and continue to be flexible to accommodate the rapid brain growth that occurs in the first two years after birth. When infants spend a lot of time sleeping with their heads in one position, a positional or developmental plagiocephaly may result.

In most cases, the early signs of positional plagiocephaly are detected by parents or grandparents and the first thing to do is to simply by reposition the head away from the flattening while he or she sleeps. Babies must always be placed on their back to sleep. Some infants with a flattening will need more targeted intervention and this can be physiotherapy or osteopathy to help release a tight muscle allowing full range of motion in the neck. If this is unsuccessful, a helmet will return the head shape to a more normal shape gently and quickly. If you do decide that helmet therapy is the appropriate choice, there is plenty of help and advice available to you.

Helmet Therapy for Plagiocephaly

Helmet therapy works by applying a gentle, continuous pressure to your baby’s developing skull, rounding it out throughout the day. This pressure does not hurt, and once your baby gets used to wearing this new piece of clothing, it will not interfere with any of your baby’s normal developmental activities. The helmet is adjusted so that your baby’s head can keep growing normally. It is made to an accurate photographic scan of your baby’s head shape and is made of light foam with a semi flexible shell is moulded. Helmet therapy may be recommended between four and five months if repositioning therapy has proven ineffective. Treatment effectiveness varies with the age of the infant and the severity of the plagiocephaly, but in most cases, your infant will usually wear the helmet for about five months.

Advantages of Helmet Treatment

There are many advantages to plagiocephaly helmet therapy. It will lead to a more normal symmetric skull shape, which will allow children to participate more fully in sports activities for which they will need to wear protective headgear. A more symmetric skull means more symmetrical facial features! This can affect many aspects of your child’s subsequent life. Helmet therapy will also reduce disorders that may occur in later life due to asymmetry. Many dentists now believe that TMJ (temporomandibular joint disorder) is due to a misalignment of the jaw. TMJ is often linked to severe pain and speech disorders in its adult sufferers.

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