Isaac Alva

Peru: Remembering Bagua - Video Documentary

2012-01-14T00:57:00.000-08:00

Peru: Child Labour in Gold Mines

2012-01-13T23:58:00.000-08:00

Other Worlds : A Journey Into The Heart Of Shipibo Shamanism

2012-01-13T23:16:00.001-08:00

Guillermo Arevalo

"Shipibo... the Movie of our Memories" Trailer

2012-01-13T22:53:00.000-08:00

Peru's Manu National Park

2012-01-13T22:21:00.000-08:00

Progress in Peru - Hydroelectric power for remote villages

2012-01-13T21:59:00.001-08:00

Choro Blanco (Cajamarca)
Alberto Villanueva

In Peru, Gold Rush Leads to Mercury Contamination Concerns

2012-01-13T21:53:00.000-08:00

Interview to Dr. Manrique Arada Estrada and Ernesto Montanos (Ministry of Energy)

Consortium of Universities for Global Health: Hugo Garcia

2011-12-13T22:48:00.000-08:00

Amazon: Land of the Flooded Forest

2011-05-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

Watch more free documentaries

The Rainforest Wisdom of Moises Chavez

2011-05-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

Watch more free documentaries

Super size me

2011-05-06T23:20:00.001-07:00

Watch more free documentaries

Western eyes

2011-05-06T22:06:00.001-07:00

The deadly deception

2011-05-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

Organ Donation after Cardiac Death

2011-05-02T21:56:00.000-07:00

“Is it a boy or girl?”

2011-04-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

http://youtu.be/XEir4IWHYrY (Part I)

http://youtu.be/aVaMKMqcL6o (Part II)

http://youtu.be/_9OAG1X6ix4 (Part III)

House MD: Season V

2011-01-30T16:58:00.001-08:00

SEASON FIVE
5.01 - Dying Changes Everything / Diffuse lepromatous leprosy
5.02 - Not Cancer / Transplanted cancer stem cells
5.03 - Adverse Events / Bezoar caused by massive drug intake
5.04 - Birthmarks / Metal pins in brain displaced by a magnet.
5.05 - Lucky Thirteen / Candidiasis secondary to Sjögren's syndrome
5.06 - Joy /Familial Mediterranean fever /Pulmonary hypoplasia
5.07 - The Itch / Lead poisoning
5.08 - Emancipation /Acute promyelocytic leukemia & arsenic poisoning /Iron toxicity
5.09 - Last Resort / Melioidosis
5.10 - Let Them Eat Cake /Hereditary coproporphyria /Malingering
5.11 - Joy to the World / Post-partum Eclampsia
5.12 - Painless
5.13 - Big Baby / Patent ductus arteriosus
5.14 - The Greater Good / Endometriosis
5.15 - Unfaithful /Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
5.16 - The Softer Side / Kidney dysfunction secondary to dehydration and Contrast-induced nephropathy
5.17 - The Social Contract / Autoimmunity secondary to Doege-Potter syndrome
5.18 - Here Kitty / Corticoid producing tumor secondary to Appendiceal cancer
5.19 - Locked In / Locked-in syndrome secondary to Leptospirosis
5.20 - Simple Explanation / Visceral leishmaniasis and Blastomycosis
5.21 - Saviors / Sporotrichosis
5.22 - House Divided / Sarcoidosis
5.23 - Under My Skin / Gonorrhea and Vicodin addiction
5.24 - Both Sides Now / Propylene glycol toxicity, Pancreatic tumor and Psychosis

SEASON SIX
6.01 Broken (Part 1) /
6.02 Broken (Part 2) /
6.03 Epic Fail / Fabry disease
6.04 The Tyrant / Blastomycosis and Phantom Limb
6.05 Instant Karma / Primary Antiphospholipid syndrome
6.06 Brave Heart / Intracranial berry aneurysm of the brain stem
6.07 Known Unknowns / Vibrio vulnificus and haemochromatosis
6.08 Teamwork / Strongyloidiasis and extraintestinal Crohn's disease
6.09 Ignorance Is Bliss / Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and multiple accessory spleens
6.10 Wilson / Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
6.11 The Down Low / Hughes-Stovin Syndrome
6.12 Remorse / Psychopathy secondary
to Wilson's disease
6.13 Moving the Chains / Paraneoplastic syndrome secondary to melanoma
6.14 5 to 9 /
6.15 Private Lives / Whipple's disease
6.16 Black Hole / Cerebellar schistosomiasis hypersensitivity allergy
6.17 Lockdown /
6.18 Knight Fall / Anabolic steroid abuse accelerated by hemlock poison
6.19 Open and Shut / Henoch–Schönlein purpura
6.20 The Choice / Arnold-Chiari Malformation
6.21 Baggage / Allergic reaction to tattoo ink.
6.22 Help Me / Fat embolism due to amputation ; Arachnoid cyst on lower spine

SEASON SEVEN
7.01 Now What? / Toad egg toxicity
7.02 Selfish / Sickle cell trait
7.03 Unwritten / Trauma-related syringomyelia
7.04 Massage Therapy / Side effects of risperidone; schizophrenia
7.05 Unplanned Parenthood / Pulmonary embolism secondary to lung cancer and melanoma. hereditary melanoma
7.06 Office Politics / Hepatitis C
7.07 A Pox on Our House / Rickettsialpox
7.08 Small Sacrifices / Marburg multiple sclerosis, malnutrition and Rhodococcus
7.09 Larger Than Life / Chickenpox
7.10 Carrot or Stick / Variegate porphyria
7.11 Family Practice

The Shipibo Women, their Peruvian doctors and the collision of two cultures

2011-01-29T21:05:00.000-08:00

After reading "The spirit catches you and you fall down by Anne Fadiman I realize there are many similar problems between the Shipibo women and the Peruvian health providers. Most of medical doctors in Peru are trained in Lima or other important cities without any speciific training in cultural pertinence.

Women´s Health in Native Communities: Proyecto Ainbo

2011-01-29T19:22:00.000-08:00

Here you will find some opinions written by an American volunteer of the AINBO Project

http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-561884.html

Medical Spanish in Peru: Más mejor

2010-03-12T14:15:00.000-08:00

A very popular phrase in Peru is "más mejor" which means only "mejor" (better). You will probably listen this phrase from patients coming from the andes when they are trying to emphasize they feel much better.

Medical Spanish in Peru: O sea

2010-03-12T13:05:00.001-08:00

You will probably read the word "osea" (wrong spelling) instead "o sea" (right spelling) in some patient notes. "O sea" is a pet phrase and it means " I mean". Dont confuse with "ósea" (bone)

Medical Spanish in Peru: De repente

2010-03-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

Sometimes "de repente" (suddenly) is written with the wrong spelling "derrepente"

Peruvianisms: Huachafo

2010-03-10T16:45:00.001-08:00

Huachafo is a very popular word in Peru. Recently, Cesar Hildebrandt has written an interesting article about this word in La Primera newspaper. You can read the article clicking here.

RAE

huachafo, fa.

1. adj. Bol. y Perú. cursi. U. t. c. s.

Peruvianisms: Calato

2010-03-10T16:38:00.000-08:00

Calato is a Quechua word. It means naked.
Definitions:

RAE

calato, ta.

1. adj. Bol. y Perú. Desnudo, en cueros.

For more info read this article: APL

La patarashca in Lima

2009-10-02T22:55:00.001-07:00

La Patarascha is the name of a traditional dish from the amazon region. It is also the name of a famous restaurante in Tarapoto. This year the restaurante was recognized in Lima as one of the ten best restaurants promoting traditioanl dishes in Peru.

The Milk of Sorrow

2009-10-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

The Milk of Sorrow "La teta asustada" is the second film by Claudia Llosa. This film won important prizes in Europe and it has become the first Peruvian film to be nominated for the Oscar Awards.

Daniel Alarcón: Lost City Radio

2009-10-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

In 2007, Daniel Alarcón published Lost City Radio his debut novel. Since then, he was recognized in many places as an excelent writer. He was raised in the United States and this novel was written in English and then translated in many languages including Spanish. He is now considered by the critics as one of the better young Peruvian writers .This year, House of World Cultures in Berlin gave him a prize.

María Landó

2009-10-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

The dawn breaks like a statue
like a statue with wings
that spread accross the city
And the noon sings like a bell of water
golden bell of water
that prohibits our solitude
And the night lifts its large cup
its large cup, large early moon
over the sea
(translation found in the book Black rhythms of Peru: reviving African musical heritage in the Black Pacific)

Musicophilia. Tales of music and the brain

2009-01-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

Musicophilia is the lastest book of Oliver Sacks.

Here there is an interview to Oliver Sacks talking about Music and Alzheimer disease

The man who mistook his wife for a hat

2009-01-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

When I was taking the neurology course in the UPCH, Dr. Cabrera mentioned a book called The man who mistook his wife for a hat. I remember that day because of my interest of the connection between Medicine and Art. So I was looking for the book many months in Lima. I found it in the library of the Asociacion Cultural Peruano Britanica. It's an amazing book and I wanted to know more about Oliver Sacks, the author and realized that he wrote a very famous book called Awakenings. This book inspired a play with the same name Awakenings starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. On June 2006 Oliver Sacks was invited to a meeting in Lima by the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. I knew about his presence in Peru reading the Moleskine Literario. I couldn't go to listen him because I was out of Peru.

Today I was looking for information about Michael Nyman (composer of The Piano movie) and I found he wrote an opera based in the book The man who mistook his wife for a hat. So, now I'm looking for the videos or audios of this opera on the Internet.

Here there is an interview to Oliver Sacks

HOUSE MD: Season I-IV

2008-12-21T18:06:00.000-08:00

SEASON ONE
1.01 - Pilot / Neurocysticercosis
1.02 - Paternity / Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis
1.03 - Occam's Razor / Colchicine poisoning
1.04 - Maternity / Echovirus 11
1.05 - Damned If You Do / Copper allergy
1.06 - The Socratic Method / Vit. K deficiency, hepatocellular carcinoma, and Wilson's disease
1.07 - Fidelity / African trypanosomiasis
1.08 - Poison / Phosmet poisoning
1.09 - DNR / Arteriovenous malformation
1.10 - Histories / Tuberculoma and rabies
1.11 - Detox / Naphthalene poisoning
1.12 - Sports Medicine / Cadmium poisoning
1.13 - Cursed / Anthrax and leprosy
1.14 - Control / Congestive heart failure onset by bulimia and regular use of ipecac
1.15 - Mob Rules / Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency
1.16 - Heavy / Cushing's disease secondary to pituitary adenoma
1.17 - Role Model / CVID secondary to phenytoin-mediated Epstein-Barr virus infection.
1.18 - Babies and Bathwater / LEMS secondary to Small cell lung carcinoma
1.19 - Kids / Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura secondary to pregnancy
1.20 - Love Hurts / Fulminating osteomyelitis
1.21 - Three Stories /Streptococcal infection, Osteosarcoma, Thigh muscle infarction
1.22 - The Honeymoon / Acute intermittent porphyria

SEASON TWO
2.01 - Acceptance /Methanol poisoning and pheochromocytoma / Lung cancer
2.02 - Autopsy / Thrombosis
2.03 - Humpty Dumpty / Endocarditis due to psittacosis
2.04 - TB or Not TB / Nesidioblastoma and tuberculosis
2.05 - Daddy's Boy / Cavernous angioma and Radiation poisoning
2.06 - Spin / Air embolism, pure red cell aplasia, thymoma, and myasthenia gravis
2.07 - Hunting / Echinococcosis
2.08 - The Mistake / Behcet's Disease, Hepatitis C and hepatocellular carcinoma
2.09 - Deception / Clostridium perfringens and Munchausen syndrome
2.10 - Failure to Communicate / Cerebral malaria
2.11 - Need to Know / Ritalin use and Hepatocellular adenoma
2.12 - Distractions / Serotonin syndrome
2.13 - Skin Deep / Male pseudohermaphroditism and testicular cancer
2.14 - Sex Kills /Brucellosis /Gonorrhea
2.15 - Clueless / Gold sodium thiomalate poisoning
2.16 - Safe / Tick paralysis
2.17 - All In / Erdheim-Chester disease
2.18 - Sleeping Dogs Lie / Bubonic plague
2.19 - House vs. God / Tuberous sclerosis and herpes encephalitis
2.20 - Euphoria (1)
2.21 - Euphoria (2) / Legionellosis and primary amoebic meningoencephalitis
2.22 - Forever / Pellagra, Coeliac disease and MALT lymphoma
2.23 - Who's Your Daddy? / Haemochromatosis and zygomycosis
2.24 - No Reason

SEASON THREE
3.01 - Meaning /Addison's disease /Scurvy
3.02 - Cane & Able / Chimerism
3.03 - Informed Consent / Congestive heart failure secondary to senile cardiac amyloidosis
3.04 - Lines in the Sand / Baylisascaris
3.05 - Fools for Love / Hereditary angioedema
3.06 - Que Será Será / Small cell lung carcinoma
3.07 - Son of a Coma Guy / MERRF syndrome
3.08 - Whac-A-Mole / Chronic granulomatous disease
3.09 - Finding Judas / Erythropoietic protoporphyria
3.10 - Merry Little Christmas / Langerhans cell histiocytosis
3.11 - Words and Deeds / Spinal meningioma
3.12 - One Day, One Room / Chlamydia and pregnancy due to rape
3.13 - Needle in a Haystack / Undigested toothpick
3.14 - Insensitive / Diphyllobothrium latum causing Vitamin B12 deficiency
3.15 - Half-Wit / Takayasu's arteritis
3.16 - Top Secret / Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia
3.17 - Fetal Position /Maternal mirror syndrome /Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation
3.18 - Airborne /Decompression sickness /Methyl bromide /Mass hysteria
3.19 - Act Your Age / Precocious puberty due to externally applied testosterone
3.20 - House Training / Staphylococcus aureus infection
3.21 - Family / Histoplasmosis
3.22 - Resignation / Bacterial infection due to suicide attempt
3.23 - The Jerk / Haemochromatosis
3.24 - Human Error / Congenital heart defect

SEASON FOUR
4.01 - Alone / Allergic reaction to cephalosporins in misidentified patient
4.02 - The Right Stuff / Von Hippel-Lindau disease
4.03 - 97 Seconds / Strongyloidiasis
4.04 - Guardian Angels / Ergotism
4.05 - Mirror, Mirror / Eperythrozoon (Rickettsiaceae resulting from exposure to pig feces)
4.06 - Whatever It Takes /Selenosis /Heat stroke and Thallium poisoning
4.07 - Ugly / Lyme disease
4.08 - You Don't Want to Know / Autoimmune hemolytic anemia in systemic lupus erythematosus
4.09 - Games / Measles
4.10 - It's a Wonderful Lie / Breast cancer in displaced breast tissue
4.11 - Frozen / Fat embolism from unrepaired broken toe
4.12 - Don't Ever Change / Nephroptosis
4.13 - No More Mr. Nice Guy / Chagas disease
4.14 - Living the Dream / Hypersensitivity vasculitis due to Quinine allergy
4.15 - House's Head / Air embolism from dental work
4.16 - Wilson's Heart / Amantadine poisoning

Symphonie - Silbermond (English Translation)

2008-12-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

Pandemic (South Park)

2008-11-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

Pandemic is one interesting episody of South Park.
"Furry Death"
2008 movie Cloverfield

Watch Pandemic

Watch Pandemic 2: Tha startling

Secret of the Incas

2008-11-04T00:39:00.000-08:00

Burden of Dreams

2008-10-05T22:55:00.001-07:00

Burden of Dreams is a documentary by Les Blank about Werner Herzog challenges filming Fitzcarraldo in the Peruvian jungle.

You can see a trial in youtube, by clicking here

A recording made during the shooting of Aguirre.

2008-10-05T22:49:00.000-07:00

Werneg Herzog showing an interesting recording that was secretly made during the shooting of Aguirre.
Klaus Kinski, during a screaming bout, is telling him: You are not the director!!! You have to learn from me!!!

Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski

2008-10-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski is a 1999 documentary film by Werner Herzog about his tumultuous yet productive relationship with German actor Klaus Kinski.
I watched this film twice this year. The first time in Lima (cable magico) and the second time in Everett (Netflix)
In youtube there are many scenes of this film

Here, we get to see footage of Jason Robards (the original "Fitzcarraldo") with his sidekick, Mick Jagger. Herzog then shows us Klaus Kinski's performance, which puts them to shame.

In this scene we can see a shot of Klaus flipping out on the set of Fitzcarraldo, one of several incidents that Herzog discusses in the film.

Here, Herzog discusses the Matshiguenga's offer to murder Klaus for him on the set of Fitzcarraldo

The End. Kinski playing with a butterfly

AVISPAS

2008-08-15T00:38:00.001-07:00

AVISPAS is a blog created to share relevant information about HIV among indigenous people of the amazon region.

Dr. Green

2008-08-15T00:36:00.001-07:00

Dr. Green is a e-counseling targeted to men who have sex with men in Peru. This service is being conducted to help thi population to be informed about sexually transmitted infections and is cby common effort between Via Libre and gayperu.com

Limesurvey in Via Libre

2008-08-14T23:17:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard about PHPsurveyor was in 2005 when Magaly and I were planing to do online surveys in Via Libre for the Via Net project. This project was a collaboration of three institutions Via Libre, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and the University of Washington. Of these three institutions only the University of Washington had a tool to do online surveys: WebQ/Catalyst . So, that was our first and only option. However, Marc Redmond one of our collaborators told us about the importance to use PHPsurveyor in the future. He thought this tool was perfect to do research in Peru because it is open source and there is a version in Spanish among other advantages. Marc was working in the SHAPE project of the School of Social Work of the University of Washington. In that project he was envolved in online surveys to do HIV prevention.
To learn how to use this tool we needed a server and a smart person. Fortunately, we found it: Luis Maguina. We tested this new tool with him in the Via Libre server. He soon learned how to deal with the basic commands but he coudn't use the email and token options. Once Jesus Castagneto showed up in Via Libre and he gave some ideas to Luis to solve that problem. But there was some changes in Via Libre (new server and Luis left Via Libre) and we coudn't finish our lessons of PHPsurveyor. In 2006 we continued learning PHPsurveyor with the team of Epired (Arturo Villarino and Luis). But we coudnt finish to understand all the benefits of this tool. There was a change in name from PHPsurveyor to LimeSurvey. Finally, we discovered all the advandtages of the tool with the help of Milagros Zorrilla. We used Limesurvey in the Project Somos to test the effectiveness of some videos to improve the HIV testing. And now we are still using it in other survey among people living with HIV in Peru. We wrote an abstract about our experience with LimeSurvey in the AIDS 2008 conference.

Salud Global Peru

2008-05-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

Global Health is being a new and interesting area to do research in the School of Public Health in Cayetano Heredia University. There is a team called Salud Global Perú

Proyecto PREVEN

2008-05-18T21:07:00.001-07:00

Proyecto PREVEN, Community Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS, is a joint effort among research scientists from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Lima, Peru), the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) and Imperial College of London (UK), resulting from more than 10 years of collaborative work in the area of STD and HIV/AIDS.

SOMOS

2008-05-18T21:06:00.001-07:00

Via Libre has many projects about HIV prevention. One of them is SOMOS that is targeted to men who have sex with men (MSM) in Peru and was created to improve the access to HIV testing among this population. This Project is leadered by Silvana Santos and the main objective is to reach more than 2000 MSM to provide them fre HIV testing through many venues principally Internet and movile units.
SOMOS has delivered by the Internet three videos created for three different MSM sub populations. It has been proved that the video targered to MSM who don't sef identifies as gay is better to incentivate the HIV testing.

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

2007-07-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

The Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) is the top Peruvian university in research and also one of the most important in health progrms.
The Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia has been working on projects related to HIV and STD at a national level since 1995 in stretch collaboration with the University of Washington a worldwide recognized center for HIV and STD research.

Thai Dinner in Lima

2007-04-30T22:13:00.001-07:00

I don't know how many Thai Restaurants are in Lima. I went twice to Siam Restaurant and I think its a quite place to talk with your friends. Last week Fogarty scholars went there.

Fogarty Fellows dining in Siam Restaurant

Just in case, the restaurant address is Av. Caminos del Inca 467 - Surco.

Via Libre

2007-04-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

Vía Libre, created in 1990 in Lima, has currently the responsibility of the strategic approach for the AIDS control in Peru. This organization has always prioritized preventive interventions for bisexual, homosexual and transgender population. Via Libre is currently providing services of quality for the attention of Sexual Transmitted Diseases (STD), including HIV/AIDS for more than a decade always respecting the rights of the people affected.

Via Libre is one of the largest private HIV/STI clinic in Lima, Peru, logging approximately 200 HIV patient visits per month

Via Libre is located in downtown Lima close to Bolognesi square.

Dr Robinson Cabello is the medical director and he is conducting many clinical trial about antiretrovirals and HPV/HIV vaccines. There are many projects with vulnerable population such as male who have sex with men, and female sex workers.

Pucallpa

2006-12-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

Pucallpa ("red earth" in quechua language) is the capital of the Ucayali Department and it is one of the most important cities in the Peruvian rainforest. This city sits on the banks of the Ucayali River, a major tributary which feeds the Amazon River.

Carolina and Mirtha went to Pucallpa to continue with their project. I went with them to help them with a Focus Group with men.

This is a typical view of Pucallpa: there are a lot of Mototaxis.

Here we are in a meeting with people of Asociacion Civil Cayetano Heredia, an NGO conducting clinical trials with MSM.

Just 7 kilometers away is Lake Yarinacocha, where the native community of San Francisco resides.

In these pictures Carolina Mirtha and I are traveling trough Lake Yarinacocha

The Shipibo-Conibo are an indigenous people of Pucallpa.

Here Carolina and her family are in San Francisco among Shipibo Conibo people

Ica

2006-12-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

Ica is one of the most important cities on the southern coast of Peru. It is also a very important place to do prevention in STI and HIV/AIDS because after Lima (the capital ) and Callao (the largest and most important port) is the third place in Peru in prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
PREVEN project is a urban community randomization trial of STD prevention in 24 Peruvian cities (included Ica) conducted by the School of Public Health of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.
The last month I had the opportunity to accompany Carolina Mejia (US Fogarty Fellow 2005) and Mirtha Nunez (Peruvian Fogarty Fellow 2005) in their travel to Ica. They are doing a project with Female Sex Workers and Focus Groups about social desirability in general population in 6 cities.

In this picture we are in a "polleria" (a restaurant where you can find Pollo a la Brasa, a typical peruvian food) in Ica after a Focus Group. The PREVEN team from Ica are seated at front. In the second line are Carolina Mejia , Mirtha Nunez and me.

Fogarty Scholars 2006-2007 in Seattle

2006-08-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

After the training in Bethesda, we went to Seattle to be trained in HIV and research.

Here we are in the University of Washington before traveling to Peru

At the end of the course, we had an informal meeting in Dr. Holmes home.

Fogarty Scholars 2006-2007 in Bethesda

2006-07-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

I was selected as a Fogarty Peruvian Scholars for the 2006-2007 period. This scholarship begins with a intense training in the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.
It was my first time in that part of the United States.

In this picture, the Peruvian team and the organizers of the meeting