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Traces of Radiation Found in 2 Whales Off Japan

Fri, 2011-07-15 16:38 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Luis Kun

by Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press - June 15, 2011

In this Monday, June 13, 2011 photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co., a machine collects radioactive substances in the air for sampling at the Unit 3 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese whalers caught two animals along the northern coast that had traces of radiation, presumably from leaks at a damaged nuclear power plant, officials said Wednesday.

Two of 17 minke whales caught off the Pacific coast of Hokkaido showed traces of radioactive cesium, both about one-twentieth of the legal limit, fisheries officials said.

They are the first whales thought to have been affected by radiation leaked from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant since it was hit by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

"The levels are far below the limit, and the meat from the catch is safe for consumption," Fisheries Agency official Kosei Takekoshi said.

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Infographic - We Can End Malaria

Thu, 2011-07-07 23:24 — Kathy Gilbeaux
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We Can End Malaria

Thu, 2011-07-07 23:10 — Kathy Gilbeaux

We are making progress in preventing and treating malaria, but together, we can do more. Learn about the number of lives we can save with increased interventions, the methods used to fight malaria, and more. Browse more infographics and learn more about our work in malaria.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/infographics/Pages/we-can-end-malaria.aspx

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Alarm Spreads as E. Coli Cases Rise Sharply (in Europe) - With Unusual Neurological Effects

Thu, 2011-06-02 11:31 — Kathy Gilbeaux

June 1, 2011

The number of E. coli cases has risen dramatically in northern Germany, authorities announced Wednesday, with at least 180 new cases emerging in the past 24 hours in Hamburg and Lower Saxony alone.

The new figures came as doctors in Schleswig-Holstein reported that the bacterial illness was also causing unusual neurological effects including epilepsy.

Seventeen people – one in Sweden and the rest in Germany – have now died from the virulent form of enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), which can cause bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure known as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS).

In the past day, the number of cases rose in Lower Saxony by 80 to 344, while in Hamburg another 99 cases were identified, bringing the total in the port city to 668.

“We are again seeing a clear rise in cases of people sick with EHEC and HUS,” Hamburg’s Health Minister Cornelia Prüfer-Storcks said. “The situation remains worrying and it is definitely too early to give any kind of all-clear.”

An 84-year-old woman who died on Sunday has now been identified as the 17th confirmed victim, the Lower Saxony Health Ministry announced Wednesday.

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Where is the Evidence-base for Health Policy and Health System Management?

Mon, 2010-09-27 11:48 — mdmcdonald

There is a need for a One Health Knowledge Management System that addresses the need for evidence in health policy and health system management in the U.S. as well as overseas. The article below rightly claims that evidence-based medicine is growing and is positively impacting clinical practice. That said, there needs to be a One Health Knowledge Management System that can inform policy makers, planners, and health systems managers about the cascading health issues and impacts within their domains and jurisdictions. See below.

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Nosocomial Infections: Drug-resistant "Superbugs"

Thu, 2010-09-23 13:45 — mdmcdonald

September 17, USA TODAY – (International) Drug-resistant ‘superbugs’ hit 35 states, spread worldwide. Bacteria that are able to survive every modern antibiotic are cropping up in many U.S. hospitals and are spreading outside the country, public health officials said. The bugs, reported by hospitals in more than 35 states, typically strike the critically ill and are fatal in 30 percent to 60 percent of cases. Israeli doctors are battling an outbreak in Tel Aviv that has been traced to a patient from northern New Jersey, said the director of infection control and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiologists. The bacteria are equipped with a gene that enables them to produce an enzyme that disables antibiotics. The enzyme is called Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenamase. It disables carbapenam antibiotics, last-ditch treatments for infections that don’t respond to other drugs. “We’ve lost our drug of last resort,” he said. Source: http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/2010-09-17-1Asuperbug17_ST_N.htm

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President Obama on Health Care Reform

Sat, 2009-05-16 09:03 — admin

Dear Friend,

I recently began work as the Director of the HHS Office of Health Reform, and I wanted to share President Obama's weekly address with all of you.

This weekend the President's address focuses on the urgent need for comprehensive health reform. The President noted:
"...We know that our families, our economy, and our nation itself will not succeed in the 21st century if we continue to be held down by the weight of rapidly rising health care costs and a broken health care system."

You can watch the President's address now by visiting www.whitehouse.gov.

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One Health

Fri, 2009-03-13 10:34 — mdmcdonald

The mission of the OneHealth Working Group is to integrate all health domains into one discipline worldwide.

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Health System Transformation Working Group

Fri, 2009-01-16 10:12 — mdmcdonald

The mission of this Working Group is to articulate and shape issues of health care reform as well as contemplate and make recommendations for more extensive critiques and proposals for health system transformation, as may be necessary or desirable beyond the scope of traditional health care reform.

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