Visiting Linda...

My previous entry about Paro Airport’s security, prompted Linda Wangmo, a regular contributor, to cry out for help about a situation at our hospital. Listen to her!

Security security…….. Lucky our OL and other big shots do not have to spend a night in our hospital… The ward reminds me of a prison in one of [...]

Active Thimphu...

I

Gyamtsho and I went biking today. We started from our home in Taba and rode through Dechenchholing, Samteling, Zilukha and the Royal Boulevard to the Clocktower Square where we had lunch at the Musk. From there, we cycled uphill: to the Memorial Chorten, then, via the Ring Road (above the hospital), to the Buddha Statue [...]

Dr Chencho for Changemakers...

Helping out

Ashoka Changemakers have announced the finalists in a competition to select the three most innovative solutions that radically rethink mental health to achieve individual and community well being. And, Dr Chencho Dorji’s project, Promoting Mental Health Treatment in Traditional Bhutanese Society, has made it to the final12 entries.
Dr Chencho Dorji needs your vote to make [...]

On the warpath...

Six weeks ago, the Annual Health Bulletin announced that 37% of our children are stunting, that 4.6% of them are wasting, and that 11.1% are underweight.
This week, we learnt that the Right to Food Assessment Study concluded that 26.6% of our households are undernourished. That would also roughly mean that about a quarter of our [...]

GAVI award...

“I think I know why babies today hardly cry,” my father remarked as he bounced his granddaughter on his knee, ten years ago. “They hardly fall ill – they are vaccinated!” Father was right.
And, GAVI, which recently honoured 15 low-income countries for excelling in child health and immunization, thinks so too. They recognized Bhutan [...]

More food for thought...

Sangay made three critical observations to my last entry. Most of you would already know that I try not to reply to criticism, especially those targeted at me. But Sangay’s comments are constructive. So they deserve serious consideration.
First, Sangay cautioned: “… don’t just add up those figures – I am pretty sure that these are [...]

Traditional fertility treatment...

Fertile grounds

I read, with interest, Kuensel’s story about Tibetan traditional infertility treatment that is said to be effective in treating 70% of women who are unable to conceive. The same article quotes the National Institute for Traditional Medicine as confirming that serkhaps (golden needle acupuncture) and traditional medicine can successfully treat infertility.
But, in addition to traditional [...]

Painful solutions...

I couldn’t sleep well last night. I shivered and shook, and tossed and turned as powerful antibiotics tried to fight off an infection and a growing fever. I’m a lot better now. But my whole body aches. I feel drowsy. And I spent most of the day in bed.
The cause of my misery is my [...]

A big problem...

We have a problem. In our last poll, 94% of you claimed to either know or think that drug abuse is already a problem in Bhutan. On the other hand, only 5% of you said that drug abuse is not a problem in our country. 1% admitted that they don’t have a clue.
I suspected that [...]

A problem...

Last Friday, an MP asked the health minister, Lyonpo Zangley Dukpa, what his ministry was doing to address the growing problem of drug abuse in our country. In his response, Lyonpo Zangley informed the National Assembly that, in 2008, a total of 418 people had been arrested for drug abuse. And that, in the same [...]

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