On the 18th, I went to a lecture held by Kings College London (one of my uni choices) about Paediatric Asthma. Its a part of a series of lectures called "The Worshipful Company of Barbers’ Science and Medicine in Action Lecture Series" held by Kings College, every fortnight. They last for about an hour.
So the doctor giving us the lecture was of course a paediatrician. He spoke to us about what is asthma and the effects on children.
Heres some of the things I learnt from it (or took notes of) :
- In 2005, 5.7 million children in England were diagnosed with asthma.
- And 3 million of those required recent medical treatment.
(Data from QReasearch, from 422 practices which had 30 million patients from years of observation)
- Asthma affects 5% of children
- In the ratio of 3:2 (boys : girls at age 5 yrs)
- Its higher in 'westernised countries', in warmer climates than in Asia or Africa
- 40 children per year die of asthma
- Hospital admissions (in the year 2000) : 48 per 10,000 children less that 5 yrs, 16 per 10,000 children aged between 5 - 14 yrs
- 50% reduction in hospital admissions since 1990, why? There's a greater awareness of the problems and there's better management guidelines.
Also learnt about the causes, symptoms etc, but it was very brief. Its made me excited about what I'll be learning about in biology and of course, at medical school.
The next one I'll be going to is about emergency medicine, so looking forward to that!
Half term started today and I have a LOT of work to do, no rest for the wicked, eh?
I think getting into medical school is probably harder than med school itself!
Its not easy!
But I'll make it (by the grace of God) and everyone else that is interested in medicine and works really hard, shall too!
:)
Happy studying!
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