Health
Dr. Kim and the Future of the World Bank
Photograph by Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg/Getty Images
by John Cassidy - newyorker.com - March 23, 2012
So President Obama’s pick to head the World Bank wasn’t Larry Summers, and it wasn’t Susan Rice, and it wasn’t Jeff Sachs. It was Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College—a man most Americans have never heard of. . .
. . . Kim, a Korean-born physician and anthropologist who taught at Harvard Medical School, is a pioneering figure in building public-health delivery systems for developing countries. . .
. . . In the past twenty years, the biggest change in the field of economic development and poverty reduction has been the integration of public-health initiatives with traditional lending programs.
Planet Under Pressure 2012 - Download Policy Briefs
submitted by Janine Rees
A series of policy briefs have been prepared as part of the scientific preparations for the conference.
The briefs specifically target policy-makers in the Rio+20 process, aiming to give them access to the latest scientific thinking on sustainable development issues.
Each brief tackles an issue of importance to the Rio+20 conference, with a focus on the 'Green Economy' and the 'Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development'.
Global Health: A Story Rarely Told
by Stefanie Friedhoff - Harvard's Nieman Watchdog - March 22, 2012
Last fall I pitched a story to a few colleagues at U.S. news organizations. I thought it would make a great investigative piece. The pitch started like this:
"Almost two years after the devastating earthquake, Haiti is home to the largest cholera epidemic in the world. Cholera is a disease that can be prevented and treated easily—yet over 6,000 Haitians have died of it within the past year and over 450,000 have fallen ill. In the aftermath of a disaster, outbreaks of water-borne infectious diseases are typical but the inadequate response to the cholera epidemic in Haiti is shocking."
My pitch didn't succeed for a variety of reasons.
Firefly Technology Sheds New Light
The light-producing enzyme in the firefly is the key to rapid pathogen detection // Source: cri.cn
submitted by Luis Kun
Homeland Security News Wire - March 22, 2012
A new device, employing the same chemical which lights up fireflies, can easily detect food contamination; the researchers who developed the system hope it will soon be used to test for other diseases, including HIV-AIDS.
Food contamination can now be detected easily by a new device based on the chemical which lights up fireflies.
The Bioluminescent Assay in Real-Time (BART), jointly invented by Professor Jim Murray of the Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences and Dr. Laurence Tisi of Lumora, allows users to test rapidly and simply for food poisoning bacteria. Professor Murray and his partners at technology company Lumora Ltd. hope to develop the system to test for other diseases, including HIV-AIDS.
Antimicrobial Resistance in the European Union and the World
Dr Margaret Chan
Director-General of the World Health Organization
An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report: Climate Change and Human Health
Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society - March 15, 2012
Worldwide increases in the incidences of asthma, allergies, infectious and cardiovascular diseases will result from a variety of impacts of global climate change, including rising temperatures, worsening ozone levels in urban areas, the spread of desertification, and expansions of the ranges of communicable diseases as the planet heats up, the professional organization representing respiratory and airway physicians stated in a new position paper released today.
The paper is published online and in print in the Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/uoc--lde030912.php
An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report: Climate Change and Human Health
Colonialism in Africa Helped Launch the HIV Epidemic a Century Ago
To export ivory and rubber from what is now Cameroon, traders created routes that enabled the first cases of HIV to reach large population centers. This photograph is from a collection by Alice Seeley Harris and her husband, John Harris, who were missionaries in the Belgian Congo at the turn of the century. They documented the horrific abuses of the indigenous people of the Congo by Belgian King Leopold II's regime. Anti-Slavery International/PANOS
Without “The Scramble for Africa,” it’s hard to see how HIV could have made it out of southeastern Cameroon to eventually kill tens of millions of people, according to a new book by Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin.
By Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin - The Washington Post - February 27, 2012
We are unlikely to ever know all the details of the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But a series of recent genetic discoveries have shed new light on it, starting with the moment when a connection from chimp to human changed the course of history.
Kenyans Going Mobile to Stay Healthy - medAfrica
submitted by Albert Gomez
by Zak Stone - good.is - January 6, 2012
More than 25 million Kenyans have mobile phones, making apps a logical way to disseminate essential information about health. MedAfrica, a new smartphone app, has positioned itself as the go-to service for wired Kenyans in search of reputable health care. The app operates like a mobile yellow pages for medical services, providing basic listings of professionals in the area. Additional features include a symptom checker for patients to compare their ailments with different diseases and make decisions about seeking medical attention.
Cholera and Social Media - JAMA
Photo of Dr. Megan Coffee
Researchers used Twitter and a public health Internet tool called HealthMap to gather informal reports that help them in tracking the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti.
(Photo credit: Paul Sebring/MMRC Global)
The Journal of the American Medical Association
After cholera spread across Haiti months after a massive earthquake in January 2010, the researchers used a public health Internet tool called HealthMap to capture references to cholera in news media and discussion groups from October 20, 2010, to January 28, 2011. The investigators also probed Twitter posts during this time to find mentions of cholera. The Haitian Ministry of Public Health tracked the epidemic using standard tools.
Social and News Media Enable Estimation of Epidemiological Patterns Early in the 2010 Haitian Cholera Outbreak
"Mystery Disease in Central America Kills Thousands"
Mysterious epidemic Killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and the Pacific coast of Central America.
Agriculture Chemicals seems to be a factor in kidney disease,kidney damage and death. Field workers seem to be most affected.
(ARTICLE FOUND HERE) HUFF POST WORLD February 13,2012 by Filadelfo Aleman and Michael Weissenstein
