Tag: Doctor's Note

Thirty-three million people have been affected by the recent floods in Pakistan. The disaster has left more than 1,300 people – including more than 400 children – dead, displaced millions and put one-third of the country under water. The floods were brought on by a severe heatwave which caused ...

Most people will agree the key to easing COVID-19 restrictions has been the use of vaccinations. Although they are imperfect in that they do not prevent a person from getting COVID-19 itself, they do offer a good level of protection against serious illness. Some argue their protection wanes over ...

As the war in Ukraine continues, ongoing damage to infrastructure, limited access to medical supplies and the shelling of hospitals has caused concern about the provision of medicines and healthcare – not only for people fleeing the conflict but also for those left behind. Sadly, the conditions of war ...

Soon after the pandemic began, we knew that certain groups of people are more at risk of dying from COVID-19 than others. It was immediately clear that those with specific underlying health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease were at increased risk, but slowly it became evident that ...

Last week, I was having a cup of tea during a rare break from the clinic, chatting with one of the nurses I work with. We were talking about the rising number of people we were seeing with coronavirus when she said: “It’s a crafty little bugger this virus, ...

This week I counselled a patient who lost a family member to COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. My patient has been suffering from clinical depression ever since. It is easy to get caught up in the positivity surrounding the successful rollout of the coronavirus vaccines here ...

Children have been largely overlooked during the COVID-19 pandemic; thankfully the majority of them get mild or even no symptoms if they catch the virus. Much of the discussion around the role of children in the pandemic has been about how they may spread the virus. However, over time ...

Since its original outbreak in Wuhan we have seen the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic move from the Far East to Europe and the US and, as wealthier countries vaccinate their way out of their own crises, the epicentre has swung back to hit less developed nations in South ...

The mass production of the COVID-19 vaccines has been nothing short of a feat of medical science, and the rollout across many countries has been incredible. But there is a fly in the ointment – two, to be precise: How long does the protection provided by a vaccine last? ...