- Mr. Jim Ovia of Zenith Bank of Nigeria, in concert with the UNITED NATIONS (his caps, not mine), wants to send me $250,000 -- because it's just laying around, you know.
- gerderh51@wxr7eo458.homepage.t-online.de from the UNITED NATIONS sends me an email attachment to download. How special of him!
- Joseph, from that same email address (no mention of the UNITED NATIONS, however), sends me another lovely email attachment, just in case I missed the first one.
- Mrs. Agnes Mba of the Republic of Benin weaves a fascinating tale involving a dead husband, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Mrs. Mba's decision not to remarry and her uncurable cancer. She wants me -- me -- to inherit 30% of the $18.2 million (USD!) that her husband left in his account in Benin so I can take care of the needy peoples. Praise God!
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No offense, but if this procedure works and is cheap and easy, then why aren't we using it here, instead of more costly and less effective procedures?
The procedure, known as VIA/cryo for visualization of the cervix with acetic acid (vinegar) and treatment with cryotherapy, can be done by a nurse, and only one visit is needed to detect and kill an incipient cancer.More please, and faster.
Thailand has gone further than any other nation in adopting it. More than 20 countries, including Ghana and Zimbabwe, have done pilot projects. But in Thailand, VIA/cryo is now routine in 29 of 75 provinces, and 500,000 of the 8 million women, ages 30 to 44, in the target population have been screened at least once.
Dr. Bandit Chumworathayi, a gynecologist at Khon Kaen University who helped run the first Thai study of VIA/cryo, explains that vinegar highlights the tumors because they have more DNA, and thus more protein and less water, than other tissue.
It reveals pre-tumors with more accuracy than a typical Pap smear. But it also has more false positives — spots that turn pale but are not malignant. As a result, some women get unnecessary cryotherapy.
But freezing is about 90 percent effective, and the main side effect is a burning sensation that fades in a day or two.
By contrast, biopsies, the old method, can cause bleeding.
“Some doctors resist” the cryotherapy approach, said Dr. Wachara Eamratsameekool, a gynecologist at rural Roi Et Hospital who helped pioneer the procedure. “They call it ‘poor care for poor people.’ This is a misunderstanding. It’s the most effective use of our resources.”
(I don't know about the rest of you ladies, but I'd personally rather err on the safe side, and the side effects don't sound so bad to me.)
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Okay, now I'm getting all tingly:
Amazon is holding a press conference this Wednesday where it's widely expected that the media giant will unveil a new colour Kindle that puts it on collision course with Apple - a device that could be half the price of iPad 2.I'll probably wait for the bigger one, but at around $250, the smaller version is still really, really tempting.
