Category Archives: Health & Medicine

Health & Medicine, International, Law Enforcement

TOP PHILIPPINE HEALTH OFFICIALS PROPOSE MANDATORY HIV TESTING FOR FILIPINO HETEROSEXUAL MARRIED MEN

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Filipino activists protesting mandatory HIV testing (Photo: Rappler.com)
Filipino activists protesting mandatory HIV testing (Photo: Rappler.com)

Manila, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) is seriously pushing for the amendment of Republic Act 8504 or the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998 in order to allow for the implementation of mandatory human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening, particularly for high-risk groups.

In a press briefing, Dr. Lyndon Lee, spokesman for the DOH clarified that the mandatory HIV screening they have been pushing would not be for the general public. “There are talks going around that mandatory HIV screening means requiring all Filipinos to submit themselves to test, we don’t mean it that way,” he said.

Lee said the proposed mandatory testing will only be for heterosexual Filipino married men who he said are at the highest risk for HIV because of  their secret rendezvous during their out of town ‘business trips.’

“In our ‘macho society,’ ” Lee said, “it is the male heterosexual Filipino men who least practice protected sex with their spouses, mistresses and out-of-town flings because they feel they are less vulnerable to HIV exposure than the traditional high-risk groups like men who have sex with men, injection drug users and sex workers.  Lee added that these men are the least likely to use condoms for fear that if they do, their spouses would suspect that they are cheating on them or are having an extra-marital affair.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, still feeling betrayed by the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law, has refused to comment on the DOH proposal.  The RH law provides for the distribution of condoms and birth control devices at government clinics.

 

 

 

 

Health & Medicine, International, Politics, The Media

KARL ROVE APOLOGIZES TO HILLARY CLINTON, ADMITS HE HAS BRAIN DAMAGE

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Rove rapping and dancing in 2007
Rove rapping and dancing in 2007

Washington, D.C. (The Adobo Chronicles) – Republican strategist Karl Rove publicly questioned Hillary Clinton’s health last week, raising concerns about the damage she sustained during a fall in December 2012 that doctors say resulted in a blood clot.

According to the New York Post’s Page Six, Rove insinuated that Clinton suffered from more than a blood clot while onstage at a conference. The Post reported that Rove said, “Thirty days in the hospital? And when she reappears, she’s wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what’s up with that.”

Today, the former chief of staff during George W. Bush’s presidency, apologized to Clinton who is the Democratic frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination. Rove admitted that he, not Clinton, has brain damage, citing episodes ranging from memory loss and impeded analytical ability to erratic dancing.

Many will recall that in 2012, Rove kept on insisting on FOX News that Mitt Romney, not Barack Obama, had won the presidential elections. Rove also made news in 2007 when he was caught on video rapping and dancing like a runaway robot during a broadcasters’ black-tie dinner.

In his public apology, aired on CNN, FOX and MSNBC, Rove asked for Clinton’s pardon and wished her well in her  “quest to clinch the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination from Barack Obama.” (See what Rove means about memory loss?)

Rove also announced that he was voluntarily committing himself to an unnamed rehabilitaion facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Arts, Health & Medicine, Human Interest, International, The Media

A SATIRE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY, RESEARCHERS FIND

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imageSan Francisco, California (The Adobo Chronicles) – Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) have just released an earthshaking study that links satire to better health and longer life.

Satire is a centuries-old type of literature that uses humor and imitation to attack and ridicule individuals’ moral and character flaws, such as vice, unfairness, stupidity or vanity.

The study involved a large group of self-proclaimed netizens, half of whom admitted to reading news satire at least once every morning and the other half (control group) professed no interest at all in this art form while limiting their news reading to legitimate, traditional media sources.

The results showed that the satire group sought medical attention for health issues on an average of once a year, the bulk of which was for their routine annual checkup. The non-satire group saw their doctors anywhere from six to ten times a year for serious health conditions ranging from hypertension and high cholesterol to sleep deprivation and depression.  The satire group tended to be more mature, age-wise, leading the researchers to conclude that satire readers live a longer life.

The satire group also prefers to watch television shows like ‘The Daily News,’ ‘ The Colbert Report,’ and ‘ ‘Saturday Night Live’ over CNN, FOX and MSNBC News.

The study recommends that people add satire to their daily dose of fruits, vegetables, protein, Olive oil , 2 glasses of wine and a morning cup of freshly-brewed coffee.