Author: Hans Jesper Del Mundo Editors: Motoi Miura, Akihiko Ozaki (This essay was written when the author stayed in Japan in summer 2017.) I am a 22 year old incoming fourth year medical student at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. I am also a registered medical technologist and graduated from BS Public Health prior to taking medicine. My father is a marine engineer while my mother is a businesswoman. I have three siblings with me being the eldest one. I came from Maddela, Quirino, Philippines, which is a small town found to the north of Manila. I am currently taking an elective program in vascular surgery in Jikei University School of Medicine for a month. I chose to do
Author: Hans Jesper Del Mundo Editors: Motoi Miura, Akihiko Ozaki (This essay was written when the author stayed in Japan in summer 2017.) The Philippines is a Southeast Asian country consisting of 7,641 islands. It has a land area of 343,282 km2 and tropical climate with an average of twenty typhoons a year. It currently has a population of 100.98 million with the median age being 24.4 years, sex ratio (M:F) of almost 1 and a population growth rate of 1.51%. Our official languages are Filipino and English. Although the Philippines currently faces the numerous health problems, only 4.2% of the country’s total budget is spent on health. One of its most important health problems is the high ma
