Extras · 1 of 4

A typical day

A stack of hospital consults: a fever after heart surgery, a traveller back from Thailand with chills, a patient in the ICU (intensive care unit) whose antibiotics are not working. You take long histories, check the lab's cultures, look at wounds and X-rays, and pick the drug. Afternoon clinic for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), hepatitis or tuberculosis patients. A meeting with the infection control team about a hospital outbreak. Call is mostly phone advice, sometimes all night.