Indian is youngest South African journal writer

An article by 12-year-old Safura Karim has been published in the prestigious South African Medical Journal.

A 12-year-old South African Indian girl has become the youngest ever person to have an article published in the prestigious South African Medical Journal.

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Safura Abdool Karim, who is just finishing primary school, is being flooded by calls from local and international media after her article on her research at her school into 'Playstation thumb' appeared in the journal.

'Playstation thumb' is a variety of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) among children engaging in excessive use of the controls for the game console made famous worldwide by Sony.

It manifests itself as pain in the thumbs and blisters on the tips of the thumbs. Other associated symptoms include pain, stiffness, swelling, numbness and tingling of the hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, back or neck.

Karim, whose parents are both doctors and respected HIV/AIDS researchers, decided to do a survey at her school after reading a letter to the editor in the British medical journal Lancet about a case of a girl diagnosed with the symptoms there.

The survey, as part of a science project, was conducted among 120 students in Grades 4 to 7 at the Crawford Preparatory School in Durban, who had to say how often and how long, on average, they played games, and whether they showed any of the identified RSI symptoms.

"Those who played more Playstation had more symptoms, especially if they played for more than three hours per day," Karim wrote.

"My results show that more boys played Playstation games regularly. However, the boys had fewer symptoms of Playstation thumb. No one had serious problems or symptoms.

"Today computers and computer games are creating new medical problems, such as Playstation thumb, which are becoming common in children, " Karim concluded.

Asked whether she would go into the medical field like her parents after finishing school, Karim said she might consider paediatrics, with a specialty in HIV/AIDS among children.