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The mission of the Global Health Working Group is to explore and improve current and emerging states of health and human security worldwide.

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This Working Group is focused on exploring current and emerging states of health and human security worldwide.
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Aboubacar Conte admin Albert Gomez Allan Anthony Carrielaj
Chisina Kapungu ChrisAllen Corey Watts CPetry DeannaPolk Elhadj Drame
Gavin Macgregor... Hadiatou Balde hank_test jranck JSole Kathy Gilbeaux
Lisa Stelly Thomas loguest Maeryn Obley mdmcdonald MDMcDonald_me_com Mika Shimizu
mike kraft njchapman Norea Tiaji Salaam-Blyther tnovotny

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'Wi-fi Refugees' Shelter in West Virginia Mountains

BBC News - September 12, 2011

       

Nichols Fox lives alone in a home powered primarily by gas just outside the Quiet Zone

Dozens of Americans who claim to have been made ill by wi-fi and mobile phones have flocked to the town of Green Bank, West Virginia

There are five billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide and advances in wireless technology make it increasingly difficult to escape the influence of mobile devices. But while most Americans seem to embrace continuous connectivity, some believe it's making them physically ill.

Diane Schou is unable to hold back the tears as she describes how she once lived in a shielded cage to protect her from the electromagnetic radiation caused by waves from wireless communication.

"It's a horrible thing to have to be a prisoner," she says. "You become a technological leper because you can't be around people.

"It's not that you would be contagious to them - it's what they're carrying that is harmful to you."

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Explosion at French Nuclear Waste Plant

The Guardian - September 12, 2011

      

Rescue workers and medics land by helicopter at the Marcoule nuclear site, in France. Photograph: Claude Paris/AP

An explosion at a French nuclear waste processing plant that killed one person and injured four others sparked fears of a radioactive leak on Monday.

An emergency safety cordon was thrown around the Marcoule nuclear site near Nimes in the south of France immediately after a furnace used to melt nuclear waste exploded and caused a fire. It was lifted later in the day after France's nuclear safety agency, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), said there was no danger to the public.

Reports said the body of one male worker at the plant had been "found carbonised", but there was no evidence that the explosion had caused any radioactive leak, though the ASN admitted there was the "possibility of a leak of low-level radioactivity, but no shooting of radioactivity in the air". There was no information as to the cause of the explosion.

The accident came just a week after the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, bucked the anti-nuclear trend following Japan's Fukushima disaster and pledged €1bn (£860m) of new investment in atomic power.

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Mobile Phone Keeps Tabs on Malaria

submitted by Albert Gomez

Israel21c.org - July 28, 2011

A Gates Foundation grant will help an Israeli scientist further develop his cell-phone imaging system for diagnosing and staging the serious African disease.

                      

Mosquitoes carry Malaria, a disease that is now the second-leading cause of death in Africa.

A simple mobile-phone imaging system developed in Israel for diagnosing and monitoring malaria has won its developers a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant is shared by biomedical engineer Dr. Alberto Bilenca of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and his research partner, Dr. Linnie Golightly of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

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Anti-Infectives and Antimicrobials Review and Outlook 2011

submitted by Albert Gomez

pharmalive.com - July 2011

Steady Growth Anticipated

The global market for anti-infective drugs is anticipated to exceed $100 billion by 2015, driven by significant unmet needs, growing patient populations, better diagnostics, and innovative new drugs. Because viruses mutate rapidly and acquire drug resistance, the antiviral pipeline needs to be continuously replenished with better treatments. 

Six infectious diseases account for half of all premature deaths worldwide: pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, malaria, measles, and HIV/AIDS. Antimicrobials have been the standard for treating infectious diseases for more than 70 years and have greatly reduced illness and death from such diseases.

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Video - Somalia is 'World's Worst Humanitarian Disaster'

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Fears of 'Death on an Epic Scale' in Somalia Crisis

channel4.com - July 14, 2011

An aid worker in Somalia, the centre of the East Africa drought crisis which has hit 12m people, tells Channel 4 News he fears "death on an epic, unimaginable scale" if more is not done.

Jens Opperman, the head of charity Action Against Hunger in Somalia, said the situation is deterioriating and will continue to do so unless there is a significant increase in international support.

"We are witnessing unimaginable human suffering," he told Channel 4 News.

The Horn of Africa's worst drought in 60 years has hit people across Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. It has caused perhaps the most serious emergency in Somalia, where hundreds of thousands have become displaced as they desperately seek food and water.

Mr Opperman estimated that 2.8m people in Somalia are in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian assistance. He estimated that one in three children is currently on the brink of starvation.

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Infographic - We Can End Malaria

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We Can End Malaria

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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Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) - Code of Practice for the Hygienic Production of Sprouted Seeds

submitted by Stuart Leiderman

The Code of Practice for the Hygienic Production of Sprouted Seeds, developed with the sprout industry’s input in 2001 and amended in February 2007, continues to be the current Canadian regulatory guideline used to assess sprout manufacturers’ compliance with Canada’s Food and Drugs Act and Regulations. The HACCP Generic Model for Sprouts Grown in Water and its companion document, Food Safety Practices Guidance for Sprout Manufacturers (FSPGSM), were developed by a committee consisting of representatives from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada. These documents are intended to be food safety resources for the sprout industry.

CFIA - Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) - (a 42 page .PDF file)

http://www.sproutnet.com/Reports/CFIA_HACCP_EN.pdf

CFIA - Food Safety Practices Guidance For Sprout Manufacturers (FSPGSM) - (a 79 page .PDF file)

http://www.sproutnet.com/Reports/CFIA_FSPG_EN.pdf

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

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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