H1N1 pandemic declaration appears inevitable!

Protect yourself... wear a mask

The World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting of experts on Thursday 11 June 2009 to discuss the spreading H1N1 flu outbreak, in a sign that the U.N agency may be poised to declare the first pandemic in more than 40 years.
There have been 27,737 cases reported in 74 countries to date, including 141 deaths, according to the WHO's latest tally.

Confirmed community spread in a second region beyond North America would trigger moving phase 6, signifying full-blown pandemic, from the current phase 5 on the WHO’s 6-level pandemic alert.

The above Reuter report sounded urgent ,as already, Hong Kong has reported its first cluster of cases of H1N1 contracted through community spread! And the ICU cases in Australia are severe enough to warrant some kind of fear among the public and heighten global awareness. It seems people are canceling their air travels causing huge losses in the airline and tourism industries. WHO however clarifies that the raising of the full alert (pandemic level) has everything to do with geography (more countries are reporting H1N1 cases) rather than severity of the disease.

Indeed throughout history, humanity is often humbled by the microscopic virus. Some people, perhaps due to certain underlying conditions, seem to get the severe forms of the disease. We have to be overcautious when we are dealing with something new.... see, humans have never encountered this particular "designer" virus before so we have no immunity against it.... we are waiting anxiously for that special vaccine to be produced!

In the meantime, protect yourself by practicing good personal hygiene, cough into a tissue, wash your hands and wear a mask in specific areas.

Missed the train...

There appears to be a rally at the stock market for the last eight weeks or so. In fact I detected it in early April but did not do much about it eventhough I posted in my blog telling people to go for a walk at the market! I was busy buying the low risk BNM Bond (sukkuk)! Looking at the trend now, I would say I have missed the train... as Alex of nexttrade says it is now a "stoopers' " market! Most of the finance stock has gone up by almost 100% since early April...too high to go in and have to wait for the correction which I doubt will go down to the pre-April figures.

Sometimes in this wealth creation activities , you have got to trust your gut's feelings and not your head! ( very unprofessional expression!). And of course you need to expand your risk taking and read about those economic reports from US and China to look at the recovery following the global financial meltdown in October 2008. Reading of relevant blogs would also help you gauge the market's behaviour and directions. I am very thankful to these bloggers who are kind enough to share with us their market analysis.

Incidently, the relationship between USD performance and trend in KLCI is worth pondering... so I will be trend-monitoring the exchange rate of USD to make my moves on my SIME shares and will try not to miss the next train...

Stamp collection.... a dying hobby?

Commemorative stamp
Malaysia-China Diplomatic Relations


Hobbies are something you enjoy doing and may come to regard them as a form of relaxation. Besides reading, stamp collection has been my hobby since primary school. I used to keep the stamps received via letters sent to me or my friends. In fact I used to have penpals from Burma, the Philippines, UK and Singapore and we exchanged , what else but stamps. I supposed in this digital era, stamps are no longer ubiquitous as they used to be. And they will become rarer by the day.

Current modes of communication by SMS, e-mail,fax and handphone with 3G and skype, are gradually pushing the stamps into antiquity! Letters and documents are now mostly sent by courier service and even if they are sent through ordinary mail, they now use the franking machine, that sterile chop which replaces good old stamps. No wonder kids nowadays hardly know about stamp collection. To enable you to collect stamps now you need to register as a member of the philatelic club established by Postal authorities and need to pay upfront for the stamps which they issue regularly. This itself acts as a barrier for kids to collect stamps.

I arrange my stamps according to subjects, such as birds, fruits, marine life, insects, science/technology and according to countries. I used to get many foreign stamps during my official and personal travels and from colleagues working with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF as they traveled to many countries and would get stamps from those countries for me. Now I get foreign stamps from a specialty shop in the capital city. I am particularly fond of stamps from China. They are designed beautifully with interesting subjects and are printed on high quality paper, unlike years ago! Some of their stamps , especially those on animal zodiacs fetch a high price on the market . Special edition UK stamps are also my favourites.

Whenever I want to relax, I will look at my stamp collection... yes, a thing of beauty is a joy forever.

PICORP.... what is happening?

An Early Bird Gets a Fat Worm!

This morning a close friend rang up excitedly that he was disposing his Picorp shares at 0.42 sen per share.. what's the hurry? The stock had actually gone down to 0.26 sen this week and I had been unhappy as I bought a lot of the shares more than 18 months ago hoping to capitalise on its growth rather than hike in its share price. I bought at 0.41sen and when it reached 0.80 sen in the middle of 2008, I did not sell!! Told you .. I am not savvy.

Before I bought TM shares two weeks ago I did check Picorp and I did not like what I saw... but my friend was buying in large numbers at 0.30 sen, then it went down and down and I was smiling , congratulating myself for not adding some more shares to my bloated stock... then this happens, the stock is climbing up wildly... what is happening? Small investors' gathering and playing... I do not like this and anyway I congratulated my friend on his lucky streak... must belanja ok?

Picorp is the only first board listed company which carries out environmental works on a large scale and it has contracts in the Middle East as well thus my trust on the company all these long months...

Diabetes Cure .... Penchant for Direct Selling Products.

Sugar... sweet yet deadly?


An elderly couple came in yesterday looking extremely anxious and sad. The husband, about 60 years old virtually hobbled in and sat unsteadily on the chair. Looking frail with that greyish tint around his face, he complained of general body weakness as well as pain and numbness in both his legs and hands. Both legs appeared,skinny ,dry, darkish and marked with multiple ulcers in various stages of healing.

Old record showed that he had been diagnosed as suffering from diabetes for some years back but had defaulted regular follow up. To make matters worse, he was also a heavy smoker. He misplaced/lost his diabetes card on several occasions and when asked why he did not come for his regular review, the wife quickly answered that they had been busy. She spoke too fast with her eyes looking everywhere except at me.

On examination, it was noted that he had lost sensation on his feet and hands. His pulses (dorsalis pedis) on both feet were absent. His feet felt cold due to lack of blood coursing through. In short, he is sufffering from two of the complications of uncontrolled diabetes, that is, blocked small blood vessels and damaged peripheral nerves supplying his feet and hands to some extent. Under these circumstances, tissue death and gangrene will gradually set in and amputation of affected legs is inevitable.

Medical jargon refers to small blood vessel damage as vasculopathy and peripheral nerve damage as neuropathy and his blurring of vision due to damage to blood vessels to the retina is known as retinopathy. And most likely his kidneys are also damaged by the same process and this condition is known as nephropathy, a condition preceding kidney failure.

It happened that the wife was an agent of a direct selling product which claimed that it could cure diabetes and the husband had been taking the product for some time. In fact the wife had previously been promoting her products to some of our patients by claiming that the husband had then been cured of diabetes since using the product and no longer had any need of doctor's medicine and monitoring! Now those patients were mocking her.

His blood and urine tests showed up excessive sugar and the wife whispered that her husband's urine smelled like "animal's urine".... and could anything be done to save his legs?..... What could I say ?

My Favourite Flowers

Magnolias

I love flowers for their beauty,fragrance ,shades of colour and varied and unique petal arrangements. Flowers are a part of natural propagation scheme through pollination by bees. The brighter the colour, the more fragrant it is, the better is its chances of being propagated. Flowers add colour and a sense of vibrancy to the environment, exuding freshness and joy to those who would stop and appreciate this wonder of nature.


Jacaranda
It takes me back to my student's days in Queensland, Australia when the purple jacaranda bloomed in the spring time , it was time to "swot" as examination was just around the corner! The road to the university would be covered in purple and there I stood transfixed, admiring those intricate flowers. I also recall the bloomings of sakura or cherry blossoms in Japan which brings so much joy to the people.

The wisteria is another wonderful and elegant flower, its lilac bunches are not
only pleasant to behold but very fragrant as well. In fact the best selling perfume by Evelyn and Crabtree is wisteria. It has got such a magical and fresh scent that I am never bored wearing it..... simply sublime!

World Milk Day on 1st June... aRe YoU CeLeBrAtInG?

Today is World Milk Day! The day when the whole world comes together, every year, to celebrate the goodness of milk since 2001. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation ) of the UN (United Nation) is instrumental in creating greater awareness of this important global food source.

Milk is one of the most nutritionally complete foods. It is the best source for calcium and vitamin D, nutrients essential for building strong bones and teeth. It is protein-rich and great for building and repairing body tissues. Studies have shown that milk, when consumed as part of a healthy balanced diet provides several health benefits including lower risk of cardiovascular disease and lower risk of colon and breast cancer. No wonder, in Hindu culture, the cow which produces milk, is held sacred.

There are people, especially elderly post-menopausal Asian women who complain of abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhoea after taking milk. In most cases, this unfortunate condition can be overcome if you take milk every day in small volumes. This is to enable the enzyme lactase in your gut to be slowly reactivated so that your milk digestion would return to normal. Normal milk digestion will prevent the above symptoms so that you can fully reap the health benefits of MILK.

Lactase activity is usually low in the gut of non-milk drinking people, making them intolerant to milk.. do not despair, you can try the above gut sensitisation exercise.... if after four to six months, it still fails, go see you healthcare provider as your lactase enzyme might not be there at all.... but this should not be an excuse for you not to celebrate World Milk Day!