Kim’s public health blog

The World Health Organization has discovered that the “AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44.” Indeed, “women enjoy a biological advantage because they tend to live six to eight years longer than men,” WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan pointed out. “But in many parts of the world they suffer serious disadvantages because of poverty [and] poorer access to healthcare:. The 91-page report by the organization “lays out the hurdles women face in getting the healthcare they need at various stages of life.”  The report said that “accidental injuries take a toll on girls and younger women,” while “chronic diseases account for almost half of the deaths among older women.” Dr. Chan noted, however, that the “obstacles that stand in the way of better health for women are not primarily technical or medical in nature.” Rather, “they are social and political, and the two go together.” Thus, the world “will not see significant progress as long as women are regarded as second-class citizens,” Dr. Chan argued.

In a new study, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that if vaccine coverage and efficacy are high in girls, a universal recommendation to vaccinate young boys is unlikely to provide comparatively good value for resources, compared with vaccinating girls only. The study was reported in the BMJ  October 9..

ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2009) — A person, usually a child, dies of rabies every 20 minutes. However, only one inoculation may be all it takes for rabies vaccination, according to new research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases by researchers at the Jefferson Vaccine Center.

An excellent paper in JAMA [JAMA. 2009;302(11):1221-1222. ] this week shows how a country can respond to a new virus H1N1) and that all of us can learn how effective methods can be used to maximize participation by everyone in the country.

In an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/17), Jim Fortenberry, MD, pediatrician-in-chief at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, discusses how, “time after time, parents are bringing children with flu symptoms to the emergency” department “when it’s not an emergency.” Dr. Fortenberry points out that even though the H1N1 “flu is a new strain, at present it is acting just like a mild-to-moderate case of the flu with the same type of outcomes as seasonal influenza.” Therefore, he suggests that “parents take away that H1N1 label and name, and think of this as the flu.” COMMENT: Overkill by the medical politicians overloads the system, time after time.  We saw the same behavior with swine flu in 1976 when the White House insisted everyone be vaccinated, yet evidence for severe outcome was missing.

The AP reports that researchers with the Institute of Public Health in Quebec are reporting that the end of a patient’s coughing “is probably a better sign of when a swine flu patient is no longer contagious,” noting that the CDC “has been telling people to stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others until a day after their fever breaks. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer — especially at home where the risk of spreading the germ is highest. Swine flu also appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.”

According to a recent study by researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder, dirty showerheads in homes may well be a potential breeding ground for infectious bacteria – Mycobacterium avium, which can cause lung infections when inhaled or swallowed.  The study, funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is part of a larger effort that is analyzing the microbiology of the indoor environment and its role in spreading to illness within the house. Comment: BUT, what evidence is there that people have been made ill by taking a shower? This seems to be an example of money looking for a spending source. In a depressed economy it is this kind of research that makes academics look bad,  It is certainly not a random sample of homes in the US. Ivan Illich would have loved this action.

New research published by Yale School of Public Health has found that more people are likely to avoid illness if vaccines are given out first to those most likely to transmit viruses, rather than to those at highest risk for complications. This research differs from current vaccination recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The Yale study appears in the August 20 issue of the journal Science online at the Science Express website, http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencexpress .

Scientists have used a new production technology to develop a vaccine for norovirus, the unpleasant package of diarrhea and vomiting that has destroyed the costly holidays of thousands of cruise ship vacationers.  Norovirus is the second most common viral infection in the U.S. after the flu, “can spread like wildfire through passenger liners, schools, offices and military bases.”

The decision to stop the standard treatment of flu patients with Tamiflu was due to its side effects, according to Professor Jaap van Dissel of the Leiden University Medical Centre. Giving Tamiflu to 200 otherwise healthy flu patients will only protect 1 patient from complications, but meanwhile 20 to 30 people will experience serious side effects. Comment: This looks like a science based decision rather than the political one made in the U.S.A. Also the Europeans are not so easily stampeded into mass action.