While most news on Nepal has focussed on its recent political problems, we here at Mutiny HQ take a longer term perspective. We know what really interests our readers. You’re all asking yourself (a) does sex in the Himalayas qualify me for membership in the Mile High Club and (b) can I catch something? [I’m just breathing heavy because the air is thin]

Well, researchers from Scotland’s Aberdeen University have been wondering the same thing. They plan to examine “sexual behaviour of Nepalese trekking guides and tourists.” It seems that Nepal is becoming a more popular vacation destination (despite the Maoist insurgency?), Nepali men don’t use condoms (they are considered “socially taboo”) and (gasp!) “visitors have become `high-risk’ as they lower their inhibitions when abroad.” Foolish yet exotic vacation sex; it’s not just for Ibiza any more.

Dr Padam Simkhada, of the university’s public health department, said: “There is an urgent need to undertake this study to understand more fully the nature and extent of high-risk sexual activity among young Nepalese trekking guides. “Medical problems and health risks of trekkers or tourists are documented to some extent, but little information is known about the sexual activity of trekkers’ guides. ” About 500 questionnaires will be distributed to trekking guides and the companies which hire them. Researchers also plan to carry out in-depth interviews with guides. [BBC]

Ah yes. A study of STD’s contracted by Trekkers willing to boldly go where no man has gone before! Continue reading →

More on how islands of quality are proliferating in India — the Guardian covers British medical tourism (via Political Animal):

Last year some 150,000 foreigners visited India for treatment, with the number rising by 15% a year… Naresh Trehan, who earned $2m… a year as a heart surgeon in Manhattan… said that his hospital in Delhi completed 4,200 heart operations last year. “That is more than anyone else in the world. The death rate for coronary bypass patients… is well below the first-world averages… Nobody questions the capability of an Indian doctor, because there isn’t a big hospital in the United States or Britain where there isn’t an Indian doctor working…”

“Everyone’s been really great here. I have been in the NHS and gone private in Britain in the past, but I can say that the care and facilities in India are easily comparable,” says Mr Marshall, sitting in hospital-blue pyjamas. “I’d have no problem coming again…”

As in most of India, the well-off live very comfortably after walling off the world outside:

“When I was in the car coming from the airport we got stuck in really heavy traffic… I thought, ‘Oh hell, I’ve made a mistake.’ ” But once in his airconditioned room [in Bangalore], with cable television and a personalised nursing service, the 73-year-old says that his stay has been “pretty relaxing. I go for a walk in the morning when it is cool but really I don’t have to deal with what’s outside”.

But high-end private hospitals far outstrip public ones in quality of care:

“The poor in India have no access to healthcare… We have doctors but they are busy treating the rich in India… For years we have been providing doctors to the western world. Now they are coming back and serving foreign patients at home.”

The island effect is natural, the public sector usually lags the private. But the disparity can become a flashpoint in the long run.

Continue reading →

You might think the hardest working shrink in the world would be in LA or NYC, dealing with rich neurotics. Or, perhaps this person is working with the armed forces, helping soldiers deal with the tragedies of war.

But you would be wrong. The clear winner for the hardest working shrink in the world goes to … [tabla roll please] ….

Ganesan, the “only psychiatrist for 1.3 million of the world’s most traumatized people. His roving practice along this island nation’s eastern shore stretches over 150 miles, all of it devastated by last week’s tsunami.”

Huh? These people don’t need to be asked about their mothers, they need somebody to patch up their bodies! Well, that’s what he thinks too:

“To talk about psychological needs when you’ve got thousands of people using one toilet in a refugee camp — it’s absurd,” says Ganesan, who goes by one name as is common here, talking above the din in the office where he is coordinating medical supplies for refugees. “It’s not what a doctor should do.” In these traumatic days, Ganesan has tossed dozens of corpses into the back of his pickup, distributed medicine to children, coordinated efforts of hundreds of foreign aid workers from dozens of countries, buried a friend and, just for a moment yesterday, had a quiet session with a violently psychotic young man crippled by delusions and drug addiction.

Continue reading →

The Boston Globe and several others report on researcher’s findings that many herbal pills and powders sold in Indian stores in the U.S. are dangerously high in heavy metals.

The scientists, first alerted to the danger by reports of patients suffering seizures after taking herbs, discovered that one in five of the imported products they bought in local shops had levels of heavy metals sometimes hundreds of times higher than the daily amount considered safe for oral consumption. The same products are sold nationwide.

The herbal pills, powders, and liquids are a cornerstone in the practice of Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient holistic system of health that originated in India and that emphasizes the mind-body connection. It relies on herbs and oils to treat illness and prevent disease. An estimated 80 percent of India’s 1 billion adults and children use the remedies as a routine part of health care.

The herbs are not regulated in India, and in this country, unlike prescription drugs or over-the-counter medicines, the imported products can be sold without rigorous scientific testing, subject only to the same standards that apply to food.

Continue reading →