The Weekly News, October 7, 2017 31

n A BLOOD test that A team from King’s beds and sending well could rule out a heart College London claim it patients home. attack in under 20 could be rolled out in five About two-thirds of minutes should be used years and would save the patients with chest pain routinely say UK NHS millions of pounds will not have had a heart researchers. each year by freeing up attack.

Paris Syndrome is not a joke for the Japanese tourists hit with panic

ABOUT 20 Japanese tourists every year have to be repatriated from the French capital, writes Alan Shaw. They have fallen prey to an affliction that only affects the Japanese — Paris Syndrome. This is what some of the super- polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that — shock, horror — Parisians can be a bit rude or that the city doesn’t quite meet their idealistic expectations. ThIS week — J It’s basically extreme culture shock magnified by travel fatigue europeans, but for those from the and the experience can become so Land Of The Rising Sun — used to a stressful for some that they actually more polite and helpful society in suffer a psychiatric breakdown. which voices are rarely raised in Around six million Japanese travel anger — the experience of their to France every year and many of dream city turning into a nightmare them come with deeply romantic can be too much to bear. visions of Paris, all cobbled streets, As a result, the Japanese beautiful mademoiselles, high embassy in Paris regularly has to culture and museums packed with repatriate people accompanied by a classic art. doctor or nurse to help them get Japanese magazines have been over the shock. blamed for creating the syndrome, Symptoms can include acute depicting Paris as a place where delusional states, hallucinations, most people on the street are stick- feelings of persecution, anxiety, thin models clad in Louis Vuitton. dizziness, tachycardia, sweating and But the reality can come as a vomiting. shock. It was a Japanese psychiatrist All it can take is an encounter working in France, Professor hiroaki n Maddi is doing her best to remain positive despite her diagnosis. with a rude taxi driver, or one of Ota, who first identified the those stereotypical Parisian waiters syndrome in the mid-1980s. “We’re under Great Ormond “She can’t get about like she by, really. She’s quite a strong who shouts at customers who can’t It affects mainly women in their Street and they look after did, she just can’t do the girl so she’s not falling apart at speak fluent French. 30s with high expectations of what Maddi’s symptoms, but there’s things she used to do. the moment. It ain’t the tranquil city of the may very well be their first trip abroad. nothing they can give us to “She can’t walk very far, just “She’s trying to deal with it cinema, it’s noisy and there is also help stop the progress of the down the road a little bit and as best she can and remain a school of thought that the The embassy has a 24-hour disease. she’ll have to have a sit down positive — we all are.” hygiene-obsessed Japanese simply hotline for those suffering from Paris can’t cope with the somewhat Syndrome and can help find hospital “So we do feel a little bit as it’s just too painful for her. n The Maddi Foundation is a grubby, shabby-chic look of Paris, treatment for anyone in need. alone at times. “But she’s a trooper and in charity that aims to fund gene and the trademark piles of dog poo. But the only permanent cure is to “Because she’s losing every photograph she’s got the therapy research at Sheffield That might be met with an jet back to Japan and never return muscle tone, her mobility’s biggest smile. People say how University. ironically Gallic shrug by most to Paris again. compromised. She walks with amazing she is to do that. For more information visit a cane and she’s struggling. “Maddi’s just trying to get www.saveourmaddi.co.uk against drug-resistant fungus

Dr Colin Brown of the Candida auris belongs to a clothing or medical equipment, national infection service says family of fungi or yeasts that but this can be limited by most UK cases had been live on the skin and inside the frequent hand-washing and detected by screening rather human body. using alcohol gel. than investigations for A more common “cousin” is If a patient is found to be patients with symptoms. Candida albicans, causing the infected, visitors may be “Our enhanced surveillance yeast infection thrush. asked to wear a gown, plastic shows a low risk to patients in Patients in hospital who aprons and gloves. healthcare settings,” he says. catch it may become sick, A biosafety unit at the “Most cases detected have although infections are still government’s military not shown symptoms or usually minor. research base is testing developed an infection as a Experts think it is spread by disinfectants and antiseptics result of the fungus.” contact on people’s hands, to see if they can kill it. n Paris is popular, but has proven to be a culture shock to some.