health news you can use
A little while ago, the head of HUD nationwide was questioned concerning the blackballing of the Philadelphia HUD chief. He and his secretaries were kind enough to write e-mails to each other about how they were going to make the Philly chief's job difficult. This came at a time when people were also questioning the HUD director on pushing contracts to his buddies. Well, the dude has been ousted. Amusingly enough, Ray Nagin, NOLA's esteemed mayor, had a bit of praise for Jackson. This runs quite contrary to Nagin's plans to knock down 4 out of 5 FHA projects in the city.
Brazil is having a dengue fever outbreak and the army is stepping in to aid the overwhelmed hospitals and health system overall. Unlike the band Dengue Fever, this disease is passed by mosquitoes. The first time you get it you might not even notice. The disease gets worse with every time you contract it; it is an oddity. The Garry lab here at Tulane is working on a dengue fever vaccine.
Chile, home of some very large fisheries, is having a massive salmon die-off due to a virus. The virus flourishes in environments where the fish are under a lot of stress (overcrowding, poor water chemistry, etc.), like many of the commercial fisheries located off the coast. Some of these fish manage to get into the US food supply, though the virus supposedly does not affect people. Some of the fisheries use antibiotics not permitted for the US food supply, but fail to report them and overuse them. Chileans are already suffering from the loss of thousands of jobs. Good times.
Researchers determined that eating breakfast as a kid helps to keep your BMI healthy. They conducted a longitudinal study of teenagers over 5 years and found that teens who ate breakfast regularly were more likely to eat less fat and more carbs, include fiber, etc., etc. A flaw in the study? Self-reporting of weight and eating habits.
The article was too short, but someone finally did a study that asked what your neighborhood has to do with your health. More specifically, are people in poorer neighborhoods less likely to exercise? According tot he synopsis, yes, because of the perception of a bad neighborhood, and that women were the most affected. I have a feeling that factors like criminal activity as well as social influence discourage people from exercising.
If pandemic flu occurs, who should get a ventilator when they start running out? Someone decided we should write up protocols to decide how to mete out health services in the event of emergency. This is a really smart move in the right direction. We need to think like this more often and make sure that the whole health infrastructure is on the same page. These matters should not be left to the last minute. Time to stop denying the inevitable, people.
Copper is going to be the first solid antimicrobial agent certified by the EPA. I'm really curious as to how valid a claim of "open a door, defend your hands" is, as usually more contact time between yourself and the microbial agent is required. More worrisome is the thought that people will move to dropping dirty items on copper trays for a few minutes before reusing them, thinking that they are "safe". Antimicrobials protect, disinfectants remove, sanitizers kill off the majority of pathogens.
If anyone has local or global health news, please feel free to share. I know my sources are not always that varied. I tend to pick them off my Google Reader feed.
Brazil is having a dengue fever outbreak and the army is stepping in to aid the overwhelmed hospitals and health system overall. Unlike the band Dengue Fever, this disease is passed by mosquitoes. The first time you get it you might not even notice. The disease gets worse with every time you contract it; it is an oddity. The Garry lab here at Tulane is working on a dengue fever vaccine.
Chile, home of some very large fisheries, is having a massive salmon die-off due to a virus. The virus flourishes in environments where the fish are under a lot of stress (overcrowding, poor water chemistry, etc.), like many of the commercial fisheries located off the coast. Some of these fish manage to get into the US food supply, though the virus supposedly does not affect people. Some of the fisheries use antibiotics not permitted for the US food supply, but fail to report them and overuse them. Chileans are already suffering from the loss of thousands of jobs. Good times.
Researchers determined that eating breakfast as a kid helps to keep your BMI healthy. They conducted a longitudinal study of teenagers over 5 years and found that teens who ate breakfast regularly were more likely to eat less fat and more carbs, include fiber, etc., etc. A flaw in the study? Self-reporting of weight and eating habits.
The article was too short, but someone finally did a study that asked what your neighborhood has to do with your health. More specifically, are people in poorer neighborhoods less likely to exercise? According tot he synopsis, yes, because of the perception of a bad neighborhood, and that women were the most affected. I have a feeling that factors like criminal activity as well as social influence discourage people from exercising.
If pandemic flu occurs, who should get a ventilator when they start running out? Someone decided we should write up protocols to decide how to mete out health services in the event of emergency. This is a really smart move in the right direction. We need to think like this more often and make sure that the whole health infrastructure is on the same page. These matters should not be left to the last minute. Time to stop denying the inevitable, people.
Copper is going to be the first solid antimicrobial agent certified by the EPA. I'm really curious as to how valid a claim of "open a door, defend your hands" is, as usually more contact time between yourself and the microbial agent is required. More worrisome is the thought that people will move to dropping dirty items on copper trays for a few minutes before reusing them, thinking that they are "safe". Antimicrobials protect, disinfectants remove, sanitizers kill off the majority of pathogens.
If anyone has local or global health news, please feel free to share. I know my sources are not always that varied. I tend to pick them off my Google Reader feed.