BIDI

Greetings!

Today we visited BIDI which is one of the hospitals in Thailand that deals with HIV and TB patients.  Let me get to explaining these pictures that I can tell you are very curious about. The first picture is us as a whole group in the elevator. These elevators had very specific weight limits (as most elevators do) however what made them different that any others was that when it hit its desired weight it actually started beeping and wouldn't move until someone stepped out. Pretty cool! The second picture is us in front of the TB/HIV ward. What made this part so special was that they just recently (within the past year) installed a negative pressure room, which is awesome for the hospital and their patients. The third picture was inside the ward. These are obviously mannequins but what was so cool is that they show how to garb up with each specific disease that you are going to see. For example the furthest to the left (all white) was for SARS/MARS patients. From right to left it got more and more intense on how much you had to wear. All in all today was super informative with learning more information about HIV/TB. Some of the similarities that I found between Thailand and USA was that the medications/first line treatments were the same along with they follow up time. One of the main differences I found was that the government in Thailand actually covers the first line treatments for Thai residents for FREE! That would never happen in the USA!! Its amazing to compare the different cultures and makes me wonder how other cultures around the world act as well. Thanks for tuning in!

Till next time - Carly Wershoven