The Newest Vital Sign developed by Pfizer along with experts of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. The NVS is designed as a questionnaire with a picture of a Nutrition Label at the back of a pint of ice cream. Patients are asked to interpret what it is.

See Picture of the Nutrition Label used for the test.

The questions asked are the following:

1. If you eat the entire container, how many calories will you eat? 
2. If you are allowed to eat 60 grams of carbohydrates as a snack, how much ice cream would you have?
3. Your doctor advises you to reduce the amount of staturated fat in your diet. you usually have 42 grams of saturated fact each day, which includes one serving of ice cream. If you stop eating ice cream, how many grams saturated fat would you be consuming each day?
4. If you usually eat 2500 calories in a day, what percentage of your daily value of calories will you be eating if you eat one serving?

The right answers to these questions should be the following

For the first question: 1000

For the second question: Any of the following is correct---1 cup (or any amount up to 1 cup), half the container. (Be sure to clarify if the patient answers "two serving". Ask "How much ice cream would that be if you were to measure it into a bowl?")

For the Third question: 33

For the fourth question: 10%


Once you are through with these four questions, read to the patient or subject the following:

Pretend that you are allergic to the following substances: penicillin, peanuts, latex gloves, and bee stings.

5. Is it safe for you to eat this ice cream?

6. (Ask only if the patient responds "no" to question 5): Why not?

The fifth question should have a "No" answer to qualify as correct.

Lastly, the sixth question should have a correct answer similar to "because it has peanut oil".


Tally the number of correct answers.

Scores of 0-1 suggests high likelihood (50% or more) of limited literacy.
Scores of 2-3 indicates the possibility of limited literacy.
Scores of 4-6 almost always indicates adequate literacy.

Health Workers Certify  Virginity of Prostitutes


Wikileaks, the international non-profit organization that publishes private, secret, classified documents have been vilified and praised at many corners of this world. Detractors would say that it opened a Pandora's box that may appear good at the outset but may just unleash something beyond the control of anyone. Its few supporters---New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais, and Der Spiegel---were angered in recent weeks as Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, allowed unredacted publication of materials that these media outlets specifically censored. 

The unredacted materials of United States Embassy cables included numbers of key Vatican officials, names of victims of sex offences, people persecuted by the US government and other sensitive materials such as secret US facilities. 

Whether offensive or not the reports provide readers with insights that are mind-blowing for some and mundane for locals. 

Recently, however, an embarrassing report that is beyond the public eye pointed to misdeeds within the Philippine health care system. Wikileaks revealed cable reports made by Kristie Kenney regarding the collusion among health workers and syndicates running prostitution dens.

Government health facilities provided prostitutes with certificates that they are virgin. The certificate enabled the handlers, mamasan (bugaw), with a leverage for better negotiations. In a country that holds in high esteem virginity (and yet never bats an eyelash on prostitution and the practice of "bunyag"), a virgin peddled in the streets can fetch for a better price.

The Wikileaks data also revealed how local government enforce the law against prostitutions (which is illegal in the country, by the way). With the aid of the local police units, sex dens, bars, motels, pimps and prostitutes are "protected". Owners of these facilities give protection money thus allowing them to avoid arrests. Only prostitutes are rounded up.

The protection provided by the government not only serves their personal agenda but also that of the wider socio-economic cycle. Prostitutes enable a segment of the economy and tourism to move forward. By ensuring the "health" of the community and the prostitutes through the Social Hygiene unit, the beauty of the Philippines and the tourism industry is kept at its prime.

It is unnerving how the health sector is dragged into this but it surely has an obligation to the public regardless of occupation and orientation. Sadly this has been exploited by scrupulous sectors.  The tolerance exhibited by the government and the general public over the proliferation of illegal sex trade and the requisite human trafficking that comes with this practice should be stirred by media outlets and rightly so by Wikileaks.