PSMID-Cebu/PPS Cebu Prevnar Vaccination Program for Indigent Children

altThe Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Cebu chapter (PSMID-Cebu) together with the Philippine Pediatric Society-Cebu conducted a Prevnar (7 or 13-valent Conjugate vaccine) Vaccination Program for indigent children yesterday, September 25, 2010 2-4 PM at the Cebu Medical Society (CMS) Grounds.

This followed a series of activities participated in by PSMID Cebu commemorating CMS Medicine week.

Prevnar ^®7 or 13 (Pneumococcal 7 or 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine [Diphtheria CRM₁₉₇ Protein]) is a pediatric vaccine that has been given to infants and young children to help protect against 7 or 13 strains of pneumococcal bacteria, respectively.

It is indicated for active immunization of infants and toddlers against serious invasive disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, including bacteremia (bloodstream infection) and meningitis (infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord).

CIM alumnus William Larida needs your support

Dr. William Larida, an alumnus of Cebu Institute of Medicine who finished training in Cebu Velez General Hospital's Family and Preventive Medicine training program is recovering from Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and still needs your support.

Sometime last August, he was admitted in the ICU of Chong Hua Hospital and received IVIg which we know is very expensive. Thankfully, the response was good.

However, full recovery will take time. He may be out of the ICU but GBS has left him unable to resume work yet. He is expected to undergo physical therapy for some time.

William is a fellow alumnus who helped me before in my thesis. This is the least I could do for him right now.

For those interested to give support of any kind or any financial help, just contact Dr. Florence Malou Watin-Siao or Dr. Nanette Noel-Odilao by sending them a message on facebook. These two have been working hard to get help for their batchmate especially during the critical times when Dr. Larida was in the ICU.

God bless!

Performance of Cebu Medical schools in the August 2010 Board Exams

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced that 1,597 out of 2,300 (69.43%) passed the August 2010 Board Exams.


Below is the statistics for Cebu Medical schools in the most recent August 2010 Board Exams:

Cebu Institute of Medicine - 40 passed among 40 who took the exam or 100%
Cebu Doctors' University College of Medicine - 41/50 or 82%
Southwestern University (listed as Southwestern University and Southwestern University College of Medicine combined) - 28/52
University of the Visayas Mandaue - 12/62

Congratulations to the new doctors!

CIM Alumnus awarded Teacher of the Year abroad

A clinician can be a good teacher at the same time sharing his time and knowledge to medical students despite the busy schedule. This was proven by David Veloso Lardizabal, M.D., a neurologist and medical director of University of Missouri Health Care’s Epilepsy Program who has been awarded the Teacher of the Year for 2010 at the University of Missouri.

 In 2005, Dr. Lardizabal was also the Teacher of the Year in Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Dr. Lardizabal graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1991 from Cebu Institute of Medicine and prior to his adult neurology residency in the Philippine General Hospital, he finished his internal medicine residency training at Cebu Velez General Hospital.

This online publication promptly documents this achievement by our fellow CIM alumnus.

Congratulations to Dr. Lardizabal. May there be more people like him not just abroad but also locally.

ASOCIMAI is in Facebook!

ASOCIMAI or the American Society of CIM Alumni Inc. has joined the social networking trend and is in Facebook. You can access the ASOCIMAI Facebook page by typing ASOCIMAI at the Facebook searchbox and clicking the LIKE button. After that, you can post comments, post and join the discussion among fellow CIM alumni. You can also receive regular updates. Cool, isn't it? So far, 114 people has LIKED the page.

Why not join the ASOCIMAI activities especially if you are a CIM Alumni based in the US and Canada? For after all, this organization is dedicated to the fellowship and support of the alumni of the Cebu Institute of Medicine, Cebu City, Philippines. Of course, the ASOCIMAI official website is still at http://www.asocimai.org.

A Review of Panglao Tropical Villa, Bohol

Doctors take vacations too and one favorite place often visited by doctors in Cebu is Bohol. This blog post gets to review one particular destination in Bohol which is Panglao Tropical Villa.

Panglao Tropical Villa is located in Panglao Island, Bohol. Panglao Island is known for each beautiful beaches. Unfortunately, the beaches in Panglao Tropical Villa is not its strong selling point. However, the location is, as advertised, a good place for guests to feel at home. It is probably a good taking point for those who will tour Bohol and go for dolphin watching, diving and other adventures. The villas themselves have themes. The Villa Angelus (where we stayed) for example has a Filipino theme with its nipa materials and bahay kubo appearance.

The villa provides a temporary home complete with amenities such as cable TV, some cooking utensils, a cooking grill, gas stove, refrigerator, water dispenser (hot and warm only, not cold) and comfortable rooms that give a "home-y" atmosphere. You can do the cooking yourself with your own raw ingredients or have the cooking done by in-house staff using the villa's own stock of ingredients of course with a fee. The price for the stay is reasonable. (Refer to their website at http://www.panglaotropicalvillas.com/ for their rates). But prices of goods such as softdrinks or sodas are double the regular price and 1 gallon water refill is much higher at P100.00 per gallon.

The villa also has vehicles for rent like a motorcycle which you yourself can use for travelling to the market for instance. They also have a van for hire with driver for your travel needs like touring Bohol.

The villa is good for families who prefer a private vacation spot. It has 2 pools. A swimming pool for kids and a swimming pool for adults which may go as deep as 8 feet perhaps equipped with a diving board. They appear to be well-maintained and clean. There are no lifeguards so dive at your own risk and make sure children really are accompanied by adults when swimming.

There are other ways for recreation in the villa. There is a beach volleyball "court", a billiards table and pingpong table with net. You can borrow the respective balls from the restaurant.

Speaking of restaurant, the villa does have a restaurant although we haven't tried dining there but it seems nice. We once had "sinugbang" milkfish and "molmol" done by their personnel and they tasted good.

It might be boring though to just stay in the villa the whole time without exploring Bohol. The villa have people who offer dolphin watching at around P2000. There are several small boats or "bancas" standing by in the resort for this.

They also offer tour packages to the Chocolate Hills, Loboc River Cruise, Hanging Bridge, Tarsier site, Bilar man-made forest, and many more.

But when it comes to the beach, do not expect a very nice beach for swimming. Most of the time when we were there, it was low tide and the beaches are not as crystal clear as other beaches such as those found in Camotes in Cebu. The view is not also as nice. I did not appreciate the sunrise as well as the sunset. Perhaps there was a better location in Panglao or Alona Beach where sunsets are better appreciated.

Dog lover that I am, I noted there are few friendly dogs which I encountered there. One of them I even named Scooby Doo. The white dog with brown spots is the friendliest of them all. She is called Maggie. All of their dogs are "chubby".

Overall, Villa Angelus is still okay as a place to stay in Bohol especially considering the price as compared to a hotel. During our stay, the villa always has guests coming in replacing those who checked out. Thus it seemed to be always booked. Bring your mosquito-repellants though, for at night when you are outside your airconditioned room, mosquitoes are plenty.

This is not a sponsored review so I hope I have objectively provided a useful review for this place.