Clin Med
-
The history of the control of infectious disease reflects the balance between our understanding of the nature of infection, the mechanisms of host resistance and the available technology to deliver an intervention. However, behind this 'biomedical' construct lies a deeper set of issues which embody serendipity, public understanding, and population-based intervention and its acceptability by the wider community, often complicated by the decisions and subsequent vacillations of policy makers.
-
This is a report of a Royal College of Physicians-sponsored study visit to the U. K. The 'Taking knowledge overseas' scheme enables promising, talented and motivated physicians to have access to high-quality postgraduate educational experience early in their career which will stimulate learning and encourage them to share good practice and knowledge on their return home. By the end of 2008, 26 doctors from low-income countries had benefited from the programme.
-
During recent decades, discoveries in genetic skin disease have produced insights into the biology of the skin, and in some cases permitted preventive prenatal diagnosis, but application of this knowledge in palliation or cure remains a tantalising prospect.