Public Health
New Orleans Doctors Recount Katrina Experiences
|
|
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, New Orleans hospitals were on the front lines of the crisis. In November’s special issue of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (AJMS), the official journal of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (SSCI), physicians from New Orleans hospitals and medical schools relate their experiences in coping with the destruction and loss of Katrina- as well as their determination to overcome those losses by rebuilding the city’s clinical and educational health care infrastructure.
Several articles in the special issue tell stories of doctors stranded along with patients at New Orleans hospitals - their shock as they realized the extent of the disaster, the heartbreaking scenes of loss and despair they witnessed, and the inspiring responses of dedicated health professionals. Other contributions highlight the arduous process of recovery, from initial efforts to save stranded patients and provide immediate care for evacuees, to ongoing plans for restoring New Orleans’ capacity to provide top-quality care for patients and educational experiences for medical students and residents.
Bone research that grows on you
|
|
Rapid and guided healing of bones has moved a step closer with research by two biomedical engineering students who have found new ways to deliver bone growth enhancers directly to broken or weakened bones.
Major ongoing research at Queensland University of Technology focuses on biodegradable materials that carry bone growth enhancing substances to encourage bones to heal quickly with much less intervention.
The research is ultimately aimed at repairing fractured bones or replacing bone weakened or lost from osteoporosis, cancer or trauma with minimal intervention and without painful and expensive bone grafts or pins and plates.
Dozens die of alcohol poisoning in Russia
|
|
A Russian region has imposed a state of emergency after more than 400 people were taken to hospital and 15 died as a result of drinking tainted alcohol, Russian television reported on Thursday.
The state of emergency was declared in the Pskov region, about 700 km (435 miles) west of Moscow, but other regions across the country also reported mass outbreaks of alcohol poisoning with dozens of deaths.
Public health officials who seized alcohol on sale in the Pskov region found it contained substances usually used in medicines, Channel One television said.
Vaccination levels for kids enter school high
|
|
More than half of the states in the US already meet the “Healthy People 2010” goal of vaccinating at least 95 percent of children entering school for the first time, based on the 2005-2006 school year, according to investigators at the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC).
This excellent level of coverage is due, at least in part, to state laws requiring proof of vaccination at school entry, Dr. C Stanwyck and associates at the CDC note in their report, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Portugal parliament approves abortion referendum
|
|
Portugal’s parliament on Thursday approved a motion for a referendum to legalise abortion, starting what could be a bitter campaign in this deeply Catholic country.
In a foretaste of the campaign to come, the head of the ruling Socialists in parliament called the present law making it a criminal offence to have an abortion an abhorrent.
“Our current laws leave us isolated in Europe and give the idea of the Portuguese state as retrograde and inhuman,” lawmaker Alberto Martins said in a speech to the packed chamber.
U.S. Medical School Enrollment Continues to Climb
|
|
The number of U. S. medical students rose for the second year in a row, according to new data released today by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges). First-time enrollees in the 2006 entering class totaled almost 17,400, a 2.2 percent increase over last year.
The number of applications also increased for the fourth consecutive year. More than 39,000 individuals applied to attend medical school this fall, a 4.6 percent increase over last year’s total of 37,373. The grade point averages and MCAT scores of this year’s applicant pool were the highest in more than a decade.
Warnings to be placed on all booze in the UK
|
|
In an attempt to deal with the problem of binge drinking, the British government wants health warnings to be printed on all wine bottles, cans and bottles containing alcohol.
The government is looking at ways of making the drinks industry place labels on bottles and cans with details of the dangers of alcohol, as part of a campaign to tackle Britain’s growing booze culture.
Apparently officials are in negotiations with the drinks industry over the plan, which could mean warnings similar to those on cigarette packets could also appear on all wine, beers and spirits within the next two years.
High rates of pertussis found in States with easy immunization exemptions
|
|
States that easily permit parents to opt out of vaccinating their children for nonmedical reasons are at increased risk of pertussis (whooping cough), according to a new study from researchers with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of Florida and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
States that easily grant exemptions or offer personal belief exemptions have higher nonmedical exemption rates than states that offered only religious exemptions. The study is published in the October 11, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Pertussis is caused by a bacterial toxin that is spread easily through person-to-person contact, coughing and sneezing. It is more severe in infants and young children, who consequently have a greater risk of pneumonia, seizures, encephalopathy (a brain disorder) and other potentially deadly complications. Pertussis, which is characterized by severe coughing, is endemic in the United States. The incidence of the disease has increased nationwide in the last 20 years, with 25,827 cases reported in 2004, according to the CDC.
Six children die, 76 infected in Kazakh HIV case
|
|
Six children have died in Kazakhstan and at least 76 have been infected after transfusions of blood suspected of containing HIV, officials said on Tuesday.
Health Minister Anatoly Dernovoi told a government meeting the virus was also found in eight of the children’s mothers.
Health officials have tested 10,000 children for the virus near the southern city of Shymkent since the outbreak started earlier this year. The number of reported cases has been growing steadily over the past weeks.
2007 Medicare prescription drug plans
|
|
Private health insurers that market Medicare prescription drug plans in 2007 will offer more plans, several of which will have lower premiums and more of which will provide coverage during the so-called “doughnut hole,” Bush administration officials said on Friday, the New York Times reports.
Health insurers on Sunday began to market 2007 Medicare prescription drug plans, and the six-week open enrollment period for the 2007 plan year begins on Nov. 15. In 2007, all states except Alaska and Hawaii will have more than 50 Medicare prescription drug plans available, and 23 states will have at least 55 plans available. Most states in 2006 had 40 Medicare prescription drug plans available (Pear, New York Times, 10/1). Seventeen health insurers will market nationwide Medicare prescription drug plans in 2007, compared with nine in 2006, administration officials said (Zhang/Fuhrmans, Wall Street Journal, 9/30). Almost none of the health insurers that marketed Medicare prescription drug plans in 2006 will end participation in the program in 2007 (Lopes, Washington Times, 9/30).
Scientists Make World Breakthrough
|
|
A team of scientists from the University of Adelaide, Monash University and the United States has made a world breakthrough in understanding how bacterial toxins cause severe gastrointestinal diseases.
The scientists, led by Dr Adrienne Paton from the University of Adelaide’s School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, have discovered that a highly potent bacterial toxin kills cells by inactivating an essential component in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The latter is part of the cell that is essential for packaging newly-synthesized proteins.
The toxin, called subtilase cytotoxin, is produced by certain strains of E. coli bacteria responsible for severe gastrointestinal disease in humans. Dr Paton discovered the toxin in 2003 in a bacterium responsible for an outbreak of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (severe food poisoning) in South Australia. Subtilase cytotoxin is so potent that it is a potential bio-terrorism agent.
More medical students enter dermatology, leave other specialties
|
|
The Detroit News on Tuesday examined how “droves” of medical students nationwide are opting to pursue careers in dermatology “as doctors flee some of the most critical medical fields—family practice, internal medicine and obstetrics.”
According to the News, “dermatology promises good pay, flexible hours and job opportunities,” while fields like internal medicine and obstetrics often are accompanied by “high malpractice rates, long hours and health insurance woes.”
In addition, “[m]oney ... is a major issue” for medical students, who “easily run up more then $100,000 in education costs by the time they’re ready to practice.”
China contains 1st bird flu outbreak in weeks: media
|
|
The first bird flu outbreak to hit Chinese birds in more than a month has been brought under control in Inner Mongolia but Beijing has banned imports of poultry from the area, local media said on Tuesday.
A national laboratory on Friday confirmed that about 1,000 birds at a poultry wholesaler in the Jiuyuan district of Inner Mongolia’s Baotou city had died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
“There have been no new deaths of birds or human infection,” the Beijing News said, quoting the local government.
Five year old dies after dental visit
|
|
A routine visit to the dentist has ended in death for a 5-year-old girl in Chicago.
Diamond Brownridge lapsed into a coma after a dental procedure at Little Angel Dental in the Little Village neighborhood, on Saturday.
During the procedure to fill two cavities and put caps on some lower front teeth the little girl stopped breathing; she suffered suffered organ damage and had been in a comatose state since being taken to the hospital.
WHO influenza pandemic task force meets for first time
|
|
The World Health Organization (WHO) Influenza Pandemic Task Force (IPTF) met for the first time on 25 September at WHO Headquarters in Geneva.
The Task Force, whose current full membership is 21 members, has been established to comply with the 2006 World Health Assembly Resolution It will advise WHO on potential public health issues of international concern related to avian and pandemic influenza, including issues such as the appropriate phase of pandemic alert, the declaration of an influenza pandemic, and appropriate international response measures to a pandemic.
The Task Force is a temporary body which will advise WHO until the International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR) come into force on 15 June 2007. At that time, an emergency committee will be convened if and when needed to advise WHO on disease events of international public health importance, but the creation of this temporary Task Force already allows WHO to begin implement the spirit of the IHR.
