Y1: Check!

Hey all!

Sorry for disappearing suddenly. After 4 weeks of nursing assistant interns, I'd had enough of it ('it' being the healthcare world), so I decided to take a break.
It's a good thing we have 2 months of summer holidays over here (provided you pass all your courses in one go, which I did. Luckily.).

I've passed my 1st year of med school with acceptable to awesome grades, so the propaedeutics (or the 'P', as we Dutchies call it) is in the pocket.
Med school starts in 1.5wk, and we'll be starting with 2.1 - Reproduction and Development. I'll also be starting Forensics as an elective. I'm rather looking forward to that.
Did you know I once considered a career in Criminology (to be more specific, criminal profiling)?

I'm also secretly very proud of my unofficial sorts-of mentee, who will be starting med school this year. Kid, if you're reading this, I wish you the best of luck. You worked hard to get there, and you've really earned your spot amongst us, fair and square.

So here I am, sorts-of-back. I hope I'll be writing more regularly in the future, but I can't promise you anything.

Ainyria

Influenza

Seeing as the Netherlands is suffering some mild epidemic (over 51 out of every 100.000 people with flu-like symptoms), I might as well dedicate a post on the well-known and fearsome Influenza virus.

Influenza is a pesky disease affecting the respiratory system. I think about everyone's had it at some point in their lives.

Bacterial/Viral/Fungal/Parasitic: Viral
Causative agent: Influenza A / Influenza B / Influenza C
Incubation time: about 2 days
Antibiotics of choice: - 
Antivirals of choice: Adamantanes, amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir (Tamiflu), zanamivir (Relenza)
Toxins / Factors: - 
Bioterrorism agent category: ? (I think it's a potentially good weapon, though..)
Vaccine available: Yes, although none of them grant full immunity [1]

The info regarding Influenza has been updated as of January 11th, 2013.

Salmonellosis

Mhm.. Smoked Salmon..

I like salmon. Especially smoked salmon. It's also one of the only kinds of fish I'll eat without fussing. Until my stomach started acting up after eating smoked salmon for lunch.
I figured it was because my salmon was several days past the "Use By.." date. Either that, or it contained some pathogen. But the diarrhea was only short-lived and very mild, so I continued eating salmon, because smoked salmon is so very expensive (yeah, yeah, I'm a cheapskate, I know). I figured I was immune to the pathogen anyways, because when I continued eating the salmon on a daily basis, it never bothered me anymore.
2 weeks later, somewhere between the 4th and 6th of October, I received a letter from the store telling me that it might have been infected with Salmonella. Oops?

So how do you get into med school? II

Of course, there are a few unusual ways of getting into med school too.

Last time, I rambled on about the central selections.
Maybe I should tell you something about the school selections, lateral entries and SUMMA.

For those of you who have not read the first part, go read it. Unless you're familiar with the Dutch education system, that is.

So how do you get into med school? I

So how do you get into med school?

Can you get into med school without taking biochemical subjects?

In the States, there are things with GPA and MCAT (don't ask me, someone explain this to me, please). I've heard it was surprisingly hard to get into med school with a 3.5 GPA.
In Belgium, everyone has to take a test, and only the best get into med school.

So what about the Netherlands? It sort of sucks.