The one thing I fear most about travelling in a developing country is getting sick. The image of musty overcrowded waiting rooms and dirty needles stuck in my mind all of last week as I became increasingly ill. What I found, however, was quite unexpected.

Walking into the hospital lobby, I wondered if I was hallucinating. The place looked like the Ritz! Marble floors, large glass windows, and a beautiful receptionist with a big smile greeted me at the front desk. The whole experience was totally painless. Within one hour I had visited the doctor, had a blood test done, picked up my medication in the in-house pharmacy, and was out the door. And the best part? The whole bill (not just the co-pay) for the checkup, blood test, and drugs was under $30!

Welcome to the rapidly growing Indian private health care sector. The “Max Super Specialty Hospital” is one of many new private hospitals popping up all around Delhi. Low costs for medical care coupled with a rising middle and upper class have caused the industry to boom. But the real market for these hospitals aren’t Indians – It’s Americans.

An increasing number of people from around the world are beginning to travel to India to receive health care at a fraction of the cost of what they would pay at home. This new phenomenon is known as Medical Tourism, and its only going to get bigger as health care costs continue to grow in the US.

So the next time you need a heart transplant or even a face lift, think globally. I know I will.

Talk of the bird flu seems to be heating up lately; there’s even a whole blog dedicated to H5N1. After reflecting on the media blitz, I found myself wondering what, if anything, citizens can do to prepare for the bird flu. What follows is a list of the top suggestions that seem to be circulating.

1. Dietitians recommend a combination of herbs and spices, including ginger, onion, garlic, and horseradish, that are powerfully antiviral. A new product containing those ingredients that is specifically marketed for use against the avian flu can be found here.

2. The United States government has released a list of ways to “hold your own against colds and the flu.”

3. Christian Scientists recommend praying for safety from the coming pandemic.

Honestly, given the complete lack of practical advice, I can only conclude we might have a rather large problem on our hands.

Here’s a follow-up on the quickly spreading H5N1 strain of influenza, “Bird Flu.” Europe is showing new fear for the impending pandemic. A full-blown flu pandemic has the potential to kill a significant portion of the world’s population. Once human-to-human transmission occurs, and if it’s out of the watchful eye of nations that are monitoring the spread of H5N1, the disease will rapidly spread through developing nations and into the Western world.

After reading a New York Times article about the origins of Mad Cow disease in Britain, and possibly in the United States, I’ve been thinking about coming epidemics in general. Because “the incubation for the human disease is 7 to 30 years” and “only 15 cases of human disease have been confirmed, many experts fear a latent epidemic.” Basically, experts suggest the disease is silently waiting in millions of unknowing human brains for just the right time to outbreak and cause a “28 Days Later”-type scenario. Check out the details of “animal rendering” from the More Information pull-down link, “Where does waste vegetable oil usually go?” on the greasenotgas.com home page. Another Times article about the quickly progressing Avian Flu in Europe and in Asia, which has killed up to 89 humans and sparked mass killings of hundreds of millions of domesticated birds, gives more reason to worry. In reading these articles, this omenous statement must be said, “WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!”