Second Week of Classes: Monday, September 3rd, 2012

Schedule

9-12pm: PHM Lecture 4: Infectious Disease (Tropical Medicine)

12-1pm: Lunch

1-4pm: Thai Language

4:30pm: Team 1 Discussion Preparation

Key Points of Lecture: Liver Fluke (Opisthorchiasis) and Cholangiocarcinoma

1. Northeastern Thailand has high prevalence (almost 80%!) of Opisthorchiasis due to their cultural value of consuming raw fish (such as Koi Pla and Pla Som) infected with Opisthorchis viverrini.
2. Opisthorchiasis can further develop into Cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the bile ducts, due to free radicals that damage DNA released from inflammation and oxidation of nearby cells
3. There is medicine available to treat the infection, but people rely on the  medicine too much in that they continue to eat raw fish and become re-infected, causing a broader range of complications such as a heightened chance of developing Cholangiocarcinoma. 

Main question: How do you control the incidence of Opisthorchiasis? 

--Do you educate the individuals about the infection?

--Do you change the cultural value of consuming the raw fish?

--Do you take away medicine to treat the infection?

--Do you create better sanitation systems in order to avoid fecal matter from being deposited into the water source?

Lunch: Paneng Curry at Jayporn Ratatouille restaurant. Still not as much curry as I would have hoped!

Thai Class

We learned words that would be useful in the market such as:

-soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo

-shirt, pants, skirt, purse, bag, shoe, sock

-pen, pencil, book, notebook

-all the colors!

-large, small, discount, try on

This will definitely come in handy-- especially when I ask for discounts!

Thoughts on Thailand thus far: I am definitely still in the "romantic" stage of my study abroad experience. Everything is amazing, no matter how small it is, everyone is nice, even if they don't even make eye contact with me and the food is delicious, even if I don't necessarily receive the food that I ordered.