Teaching An Old Blog New Tricks

FIRSTLY,  is AllergyNet Australia the oldest medical blog in the world?

Possibly. Until proved otherwise.

My case rests on the Wayback Machine. The earliest recorded “crawl” for AllergyNet Australia is December 1998. My records go back to January 1998. So I looked again at Wayback Machine and I was astounded that it took an actual picture of my site on 27th April 1999, and if you hit “News” on the menu it goes back to my original news items. And more. You can hit “Click here for previous editions of the newsletter”, and, blow me down, up pops my first ever post! On the 4th February 1998.

The original AllergyNet Australia logo. This website started in January 1998.

The original AllergyNet Australia logo. This website started in January 1998.

 

It is titled “The latest on who needs allergy tests”. Here it is:

*All people who have been treated for asthma in the last 12 months should have a skin test or blood test for inhalant (airborne) allergies….This is a recommendation by the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institue in the USA. Boy, what a mouthful! But this advice, published in 1997 (NIH publication 97-4051), has important implications.
Firstly, it recognises the place of allergy as a trigger factor for asthma. Allergy is important in about 90% of people with asthma.
Secondly, it tells us that you can’t guess about your allergies. In order to determine whether you are allergic to airborne (inhalant) allergies (such as dust mite or pollens or animal hair or moulds), you must have a scientifically authenticated skin test or blood test. Speak to your doctor.

It’s more difficult to determine whether foods are triggering your asthma. You can be easily fooled! And so can your health carer. Please read the information sheets on “food allergy and asthma” and on “allergy tests”.*

This piece is still relevant 15 years later!

Please let me know if your medical site, or one you know of, is older.

Thanks to the input of many generous people via social media, I have learned, slowly and painfully, that social media is a two-way street. In Web 2.0, there is no Punch without Judy. Communication is two-way. Otherwise, as Dr Ves Dimov says, it becomes a broadcast.

The resurrection of AllergyNet into the 21st century should be completed shortly.

I would appreciate your comments. What do you want from a medical blog?

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