Via AP, excerpt :
" LONDON : People traveling to India for medical procedures have brought back to Britain a new gene that allows any bacteria to become a superbug, and scientists are warning this type of drug resistance could soon appear worldwide.
Though already widespread in India, the new superbug gene is being increasingly spotted in Britain and elsewhere. Experts warn the booming medical tourism industries in India and Pakistan could fuel a surge in antibiotic resistance, as patients import dangerous bugs to their home countries.
The superbug gene, which can be swapped between different bacteria to make them resistant to most drugs, has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to the U.K. after undergoing surgery in India or Pakistan."
The study is in Lancet.
Showing posts with label AP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AP. Show all posts
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
China : Tiny mushrooms blamed for 400 deaths
Via AP :
" BEIJING : Every year during the height of the rainy season, villagers of all ages in a corner of southwestern China would suddenly die of cardiac arrest.
No one knew what caused Yunnan Sudden Death Syndrome, blamed for an estimated 400 deaths in the past three decades.
After a five-year study, an elite investigative unit from China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention believes it has pinpointed the cause: an innocuous-looking mushroom known as Little White.
The search for the culprit took investigators to remote villages spread over the rural highlands of Yunnan province, said Robert Fontaine, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There was "this very obvious clustering of deaths in villages in very short periods of time in the summer," said Fontaine, who helped in the investigation. "It appears that there was something a little different going on."
" BEIJING : Every year during the height of the rainy season, villagers of all ages in a corner of southwestern China would suddenly die of cardiac arrest.
No one knew what caused Yunnan Sudden Death Syndrome, blamed for an estimated 400 deaths in the past three decades.
After a five-year study, an elite investigative unit from China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention believes it has pinpointed the cause: an innocuous-looking mushroom known as Little White.
The search for the culprit took investigators to remote villages spread over the rural highlands of Yunnan province, said Robert Fontaine, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There was "this very obvious clustering of deaths in villages in very short periods of time in the summer," said Fontaine, who helped in the investigation. "It appears that there was something a little different going on."
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
New Zealand : Yuck: Few people correctly cover coughs, sneezes
An interesting from the Associated Press, exceprt :
" Alas, here's more proof that most people have habits that aren't very sanitary - and sometimes can be plain disgusting.
For a study, medical students secretly watched hundreds of people cough or sneeze at a train station, a shopping mall and a hospital in New Zealand. What they saw wasn't pretty, with most people failing to properly prevent an airborne explosion of infectious germs.
The work was done in the capital city of Wellington over two weeks last August, at the tail end of a worrisome but fairly mild wave of swine flu illnesses. It was a time when the pandemic was international news, and public health campaigns were telling children and adults to be careful about spreading the virus.
The good news is that about three of every four people tried to cover their cough or sneeze, in at least a token attempt to prevent germs from flying through the air.
The bad news is that most people - about two of three - used their hands to do it."
" Alas, here's more proof that most people have habits that aren't very sanitary - and sometimes can be plain disgusting.
For a study, medical students secretly watched hundreds of people cough or sneeze at a train station, a shopping mall and a hospital in New Zealand. What they saw wasn't pretty, with most people failing to properly prevent an airborne explosion of infectious germs.
The work was done in the capital city of Wellington over two weeks last August, at the tail end of a worrisome but fairly mild wave of swine flu illnesses. It was a time when the pandemic was international news, and public health campaigns were telling children and adults to be careful about spreading the virus.
The good news is that about three of every four people tried to cover their cough or sneeze, in at least a token attempt to prevent germs from flying through the air.
The bad news is that most people - about two of three - used their hands to do it."
Friday, July 2, 2010
US : Millions of vaccine doses to be burned
Via AP :
" ATLANTA : About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has expired - meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about $260 million are being written off as trash.
"It's a lot, by historical standards," said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The outdated vaccine, some of which expired Wednesday, will be incinerated. The amount, as much as four times the usual leftover seasonal flu vaccine, likely sets a record. And that's not even all of it.
About 30 million more doses will expire later and may go unused, according to one government estimate. If all that vaccine expires, more than 43 percent of the supply for the U.S. public will have gone to waste.
Federal officials defended the huge purchase as a necessary risk in the face of a never-before-seen virus. Many health experts had feared the new flu could be the deadly global epidemic they had long warned about, but it ended up killing fewer people than seasonal flu."
" ATLANTA : About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has expired - meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about $260 million are being written off as trash.
"It's a lot, by historical standards," said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The outdated vaccine, some of which expired Wednesday, will be incinerated. The amount, as much as four times the usual leftover seasonal flu vaccine, likely sets a record. And that's not even all of it.
About 30 million more doses will expire later and may go unused, according to one government estimate. If all that vaccine expires, more than 43 percent of the supply for the U.S. public will have gone to waste.
Federal officials defended the huge purchase as a necessary risk in the face of a never-before-seen virus. Many health experts had feared the new flu could be the deadly global epidemic they had long warned about, but it ended up killing fewer people than seasonal flu."
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
AP : Cambodian PM and 3 ministers treated for swine flu
Via AP :
" PHNOM PENH, Cambodia : Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and three other Cabinet ministers have contracted swine flu and the premier is recovering after several days of medical care, the health ministry said Tuesday.
Hun Sen, 59, required "urgent treatment" after Friday's weekly Cabinet meeting, the Public Health Ministry said in a brief statement released late Tuesday.
"After receiving treatment from medical specialists, the health of Prime Minister Hun Sen is back to normal," the statement said.
The prime minister publicly mentioned last week he had come down with fever and flu-like symptoms, and he was absent from the 59th anniversary of his ruling Cambodian People's Party on Monday.
"Prime Minister Hun Sen has canceled some of his schedule because of his health," said government spokesman Khieu Kanharith."
" PHNOM PENH, Cambodia : Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and three other Cabinet ministers have contracted swine flu and the premier is recovering after several days of medical care, the health ministry said Tuesday.
Hun Sen, 59, required "urgent treatment" after Friday's weekly Cabinet meeting, the Public Health Ministry said in a brief statement released late Tuesday.
"After receiving treatment from medical specialists, the health of Prime Minister Hun Sen is back to normal," the statement said.
The prime minister publicly mentioned last week he had come down with fever and flu-like symptoms, and he was absent from the 59th anniversary of his ruling Cambodian People's Party on Monday.
"Prime Minister Hun Sen has canceled some of his schedule because of his health," said government spokesman Khieu Kanharith."
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
China, US open disease study center in Shanghai
Via AP :
" SHANGHAI : American and Shanghai health authorities opened an epidemiology center in the Chinese city Tuesday to train experts in sleuthing out ways to prevent chronic and epidemic diseases.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is helping with training and technical assistance at the center that will be "driven by what are the major public health issues in this country," said CDC deputy director Stephen B. Thacker.
"We need more field epidemiologists in China and around the world and we need them better trained," Thacker told The Associated Press.
Outbreaks of SARS (sudden acute respiratory syndrome) and bird flu since 2003, and last year's swine flu epidemic have driven home the rising risks from new diseases or deadly mutations of epidemic ailments, especially in developing countries that may lack the infrastructure to cope with them before they get out of hand."
" SHANGHAI : American and Shanghai health authorities opened an epidemiology center in the Chinese city Tuesday to train experts in sleuthing out ways to prevent chronic and epidemic diseases.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is helping with training and technical assistance at the center that will be "driven by what are the major public health issues in this country," said CDC deputy director Stephen B. Thacker.
"We need more field epidemiologists in China and around the world and we need them better trained," Thacker told The Associated Press.
Outbreaks of SARS (sudden acute respiratory syndrome) and bird flu since 2003, and last year's swine flu epidemic have driven home the rising risks from new diseases or deadly mutations of epidemic ailments, especially in developing countries that may lack the infrastructure to cope with them before they get out of hand."
Monday, June 28, 2010
Arsenic water killing 1 in 5 exposed in Bangladesh
Via AP :
" CHANDIPUR, Bangladesh : Hanufa Bibi stoops in a worn sari and mismatched flip-flops to work the hand pump on her backyard well. Spurts of clear water wash grains of rice from her hands, but she can never get them clean.
Thick black warts tattoo her palms and fingers, the result of drinking arsenic-laced well water for years. It's a legacy that new research has linked to 1 in 5 deaths among those exposed in Bangladesh - an impoverished country where up to half of its 150 million people have guzzled tainted groundwater.
The World Health Organization has called it "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history," as countless new wells continue to be dug here daily without testing the water for toxins.
"The magnitude of the arsenic problem is 50 times worse than Chernobyl," said Richard Wilson, president of the nonprofit Arsenic Foundation and a physics professor emeritus at Harvard University who was not involved in the study. "But it doesn't have 50 times the attention paid to it."
The issue surfaced about two decades ago, after some 10 million shallow hand-pump wells like Bibi's were sunk across the country in the 1970s with money from international donors."
" CHANDIPUR, Bangladesh : Hanufa Bibi stoops in a worn sari and mismatched flip-flops to work the hand pump on her backyard well. Spurts of clear water wash grains of rice from her hands, but she can never get them clean.
Thick black warts tattoo her palms and fingers, the result of drinking arsenic-laced well water for years. It's a legacy that new research has linked to 1 in 5 deaths among those exposed in Bangladesh - an impoverished country where up to half of its 150 million people have guzzled tainted groundwater.
The World Health Organization has called it "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history," as countless new wells continue to be dug here daily without testing the water for toxins.
"The magnitude of the arsenic problem is 50 times worse than Chernobyl," said Richard Wilson, president of the nonprofit Arsenic Foundation and a physics professor emeritus at Harvard University who was not involved in the study. "But it doesn't have 50 times the attention paid to it."
The issue surfaced about two decades ago, after some 10 million shallow hand-pump wells like Bibi's were sunk across the country in the 1970s with money from international donors."
Friday, June 11, 2010
AP : Gold, and lead, bring illness and death in Nigeria
Via AP :
" YARGALMA, Nigeria : Mound after tiny mound of red clay earth dots the cemetery on the outskirts of this impoverished Nigerian village where grieving parents come to pray.
Children began falling ill months ago here and in a half-dozen other villages in this remote northern region on the cusp of the Sahara Desert. Some could not stand, some went blind or deaf.
Then they began dying.
Doctors suspected malaria. But they were wrong - after 160 died and hundreds more were ailing, blood tests revealed the real killer: Lead unearthed by villagers digging for gold.
In a tragedy described by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "unprecedented" in its work with lead poisoning worldwide, most victims are children.
Many had played in homes or village common areas contaminated by lead. The level of exposure was so high that most blood samples were off the scale on lead screening machines.
The existence of gold deposits in this area along the Niger border had been long known. But it wasn't until gold prices soared in recent years that villagers began heading into the bush to search for it."
" YARGALMA, Nigeria : Mound after tiny mound of red clay earth dots the cemetery on the outskirts of this impoverished Nigerian village where grieving parents come to pray.
Children began falling ill months ago here and in a half-dozen other villages in this remote northern region on the cusp of the Sahara Desert. Some could not stand, some went blind or deaf.
Then they began dying.
Doctors suspected malaria. But they were wrong - after 160 died and hundreds more were ailing, blood tests revealed the real killer: Lead unearthed by villagers digging for gold.
In a tragedy described by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "unprecedented" in its work with lead poisoning worldwide, most victims are children.
Many had played in homes or village common areas contaminated by lead. The level of exposure was so high that most blood samples were off the scale on lead screening machines.
The existence of gold deposits in this area along the Niger border had been long known. But it wasn't until gold prices soared in recent years that villagers began heading into the bush to search for it."
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
WHO: Pharma interests didn't influence flu verdict
Via AP :
" GENEVA : The head of the World Health Organization said Tuesday that her decisions about swine flu were not influenced by advisers' links to pharmaceutical companies, which were pointed out in a critical journal article this month.
The article last week in the BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal, pointed out that WHO did not disclose potential conflicts of interest among some of the experts involved in writing guidelines for pandemic flu preparations. Three scientists out of 22 who worked on the guidelines were named as having received some money from pharmaceuticals. The scientists did not work at the drug companies, but were paid for things like speaking at meetings sponsored by them.
The guidelines recommend, among other things, that countries consider buying antivirals and vaccines to combat a pandemic.
The authors of the BMJ article suggest, without providing direct evidence, that these scientists' ties to pharmaceutical companies influenced WHO's recommendation that countries buy drugs and vaccines - adding to those drug companies' profits.
"Our investigation has revealed damaging issues," wrote Deborah Cohen of BMJ and journalist Philip Carter. "These conflicts of interest have never been disclosed by WHO."
" GENEVA : The head of the World Health Organization said Tuesday that her decisions about swine flu were not influenced by advisers' links to pharmaceutical companies, which were pointed out in a critical journal article this month.
The article last week in the BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal, pointed out that WHO did not disclose potential conflicts of interest among some of the experts involved in writing guidelines for pandemic flu preparations. Three scientists out of 22 who worked on the guidelines were named as having received some money from pharmaceuticals. The scientists did not work at the drug companies, but were paid for things like speaking at meetings sponsored by them.
The guidelines recommend, among other things, that countries consider buying antivirals and vaccines to combat a pandemic.
The authors of the BMJ article suggest, without providing direct evidence, that these scientists' ties to pharmaceutical companies influenced WHO's recommendation that countries buy drugs and vaccines - adding to those drug companies' profits.
"Our investigation has revealed damaging issues," wrote Deborah Cohen of BMJ and journalist Philip Carter. "These conflicts of interest have never been disclosed by WHO."
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Venezuela : Malaria epidemic hits southern Venezuela
Via AP :
" CARACAS, Venezuela : Malaria cases have doubled in Venezuela so far this year as health officials confront an epidemic in a vast southern region where wildcat gold miners are often infected in remote jungle camps.
Health Ministry statistics published this week show there have been 21,601 malaria cases nationwide so far this year, up from 10,758 during the same period last year.
A vast majority of the patients - 19,750 - were diagnosed in southern Bolivar state, where government officials say there is an epidemic. The statistics, which are updated weekly and circulated among some health officials, cover the period running from the start of the year through May 22.
Miners in search of gold and diamonds have long caught the disease by venturing into forests where malaria-carrying mosquitoes live. Their strip-mines destroy patches of forest, leaving behind muddy pools and water contaminated with the mercury they use to separate gold from rock.
Public health officials attribute the rise in malaria cases in part to a government-led operation this year in which soldiers have evicted thousands of miners from their illegal strip-mines."
" CARACAS, Venezuela : Malaria cases have doubled in Venezuela so far this year as health officials confront an epidemic in a vast southern region where wildcat gold miners are often infected in remote jungle camps.
Health Ministry statistics published this week show there have been 21,601 malaria cases nationwide so far this year, up from 10,758 during the same period last year.
A vast majority of the patients - 19,750 - were diagnosed in southern Bolivar state, where government officials say there is an epidemic. The statistics, which are updated weekly and circulated among some health officials, cover the period running from the start of the year through May 22.
Miners in search of gold and diamonds have long caught the disease by venturing into forests where malaria-carrying mosquitoes live. Their strip-mines destroy patches of forest, leaving behind muddy pools and water contaminated with the mercury they use to separate gold from rock.
Public health officials attribute the rise in malaria cases in part to a government-led operation this year in which soldiers have evicted thousands of miners from their illegal strip-mines."
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
US : FDA approves swine flu test for permanent use
Via AP :
" WASHINGTON : The Food and Drug Administration says it has approved the first diagnostic test for 2009 swine flu under its traditional approval system.
The FDA previously cleared several tests on a limited basis for use during the declared public health emergency related to swine flu.
The new Simplexa Influenza test from Focus Diagnostics in Cypress, Calif., uses specimens from nasal swabs to detect the H1N1 virus.
Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's center for devices, says the FDA clearance means the availability of the Simplexa H1N1 test will not be affected when the public health emergency expires.
The federal government estimates between 43 and 88 million cases of swine flu occurred between April last year and March 2010."
" WASHINGTON : The Food and Drug Administration says it has approved the first diagnostic test for 2009 swine flu under its traditional approval system.
The FDA previously cleared several tests on a limited basis for use during the declared public health emergency related to swine flu.
The new Simplexa Influenza test from Focus Diagnostics in Cypress, Calif., uses specimens from nasal swabs to detect the H1N1 virus.
Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's center for devices, says the FDA clearance means the availability of the Simplexa H1N1 test will not be affected when the public health emergency expires.
The federal government estimates between 43 and 88 million cases of swine flu occurred between April last year and March 2010."
Saturday, May 22, 2010
WHO : Measles making 'rapid comeback'
Via AP :
" Measles is making a rapid comeback in African, Asian and even some European countries despite being easily avoided through vaccination, the World Health Organizations said Friday as countries pledged to sharply cut infections and deaths worldwide by 2015.
Since 2008, funding cuts for vaccination campaigns have allowed measles to spread again where previously it was close to being eradicated, the global body said.
"Being one of the most contagious diseases, measles is making a rapid comeback," said Dr. Peter Strebel, who leads WHO's work on measles.
Measles deaths among young children fell to 118,000 in 2008, compared with 1.1 million in 2000, according to WHO.
But the number of cases has surged over the past year, with large outbreaks reported in 30 African countries - from Mauritania to Zambia and Angola to Ethiopia - and Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Bulgaria."
" Measles is making a rapid comeback in African, Asian and even some European countries despite being easily avoided through vaccination, the World Health Organizations said Friday as countries pledged to sharply cut infections and deaths worldwide by 2015.
Since 2008, funding cuts for vaccination campaigns have allowed measles to spread again where previously it was close to being eradicated, the global body said.
"Being one of the most contagious diseases, measles is making a rapid comeback," said Dr. Peter Strebel, who leads WHO's work on measles.
Measles deaths among young children fell to 118,000 in 2008, compared with 1.1 million in 2000, according to WHO.
But the number of cases has surged over the past year, with large outbreaks reported in 30 African countries - from Mauritania to Zambia and Angola to Ethiopia - and Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Bulgaria."
Friday, May 21, 2010
Geneva : New strategy may be last shot to get rid of polio
Via AP, polio is still a threat, excerpt from a long and informative report :
" GENEVA : For years, the world has been on the brink of wiping out polio, the deadly disease that can paralyze and kill children.
At the World Health Organization's annual meeting of health ministers this week, experts are unveiling what they describe as a new strategy to get rid of the feared disease.
But others say there is little new and that if this effort fails, there are serious questions about whether to continue the campaign should be raised.
Some experts say eradicating polio is impossible and should be abandoned. With a new target of stopping the virus by the end of 2012, this may be WHO and partners' best chance to get rid of polio before donors run out of money and patience.
Since WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF and Rotary International set out to eradicate polio in 1988, they have come tantalizingly close. By 2003, cases had dropped by more than 99 percent. But progress has stalled since and several deadlines have been missed."
" GENEVA : For years, the world has been on the brink of wiping out polio, the deadly disease that can paralyze and kill children.
At the World Health Organization's annual meeting of health ministers this week, experts are unveiling what they describe as a new strategy to get rid of the feared disease.
But others say there is little new and that if this effort fails, there are serious questions about whether to continue the campaign should be raised.
Some experts say eradicating polio is impossible and should be abandoned. With a new target of stopping the virus by the end of 2012, this may be WHO and partners' best chance to get rid of polio before donors run out of money and patience.
Since WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF and Rotary International set out to eradicate polio in 1988, they have come tantalizingly close. By 2003, cases had dropped by more than 99 percent. But progress has stalled since and several deadlines have been missed."
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
World : Vaccine body supports WHO action on pneumonia
Via AP :
" GENEVA : A global vaccine group hopes the World Health Organization will pass a resolution later this week to step up efforts against pneumonia.
Former Irish President Mary Robinson says the GAVI alliance, a partner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wants to send pneumonia and rotavirus vaccines to more than 40 developing countries. But it needs $2.6 billion in funding through 2015.
Robinson, GAVI's chairwoman, said Tuesday that WHO's support would be a "terrific step forward.
Pneumonia is the biggest child killer, and there's such an inequity to it."
Britain proposed the resolution at WHO's 193-nation World Health Assembly.
It should come to a vote by Friday.
Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and U.S.-based Pfizer Inc. make pneumonia vaccines."
" GENEVA : A global vaccine group hopes the World Health Organization will pass a resolution later this week to step up efforts against pneumonia.
Former Irish President Mary Robinson says the GAVI alliance, a partner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wants to send pneumonia and rotavirus vaccines to more than 40 developing countries. But it needs $2.6 billion in funding through 2015.
Robinson, GAVI's chairwoman, said Tuesday that WHO's support would be a "terrific step forward.
Pneumonia is the biggest child killer, and there's such an inequity to it."
Britain proposed the resolution at WHO's 193-nation World Health Assembly.
It should come to a vote by Friday.
Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and U.S.-based Pfizer Inc. make pneumonia vaccines."
Monday, May 17, 2010
US : Dramatic surge seen in kids hospitalized with MRSA
From AP :
" CHICAGO : The number of children hospitalized with dangerous drug-resistant staph infections surged 10-fold in recent years, a study found.
Disease incidence increased from 2 cases to 21 cases per 1,000 hospital admissions from 1999 to 2008. Most infections were caught in the community, not in the hospital.
The study involved methicillin-resistant staph infections, called MRSA. These used to occur mostly in hospitals and nursing homes but they are increasingly showing up in other settings in children and adults. Recent evidence suggests hospital-acquired MRSA cases may be declining while community-acquired cases are becoming more common.
The results are "a good example of how something that is not unexpected remains alarming," said Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. He was not involved in the study.
The study involved 25 children's hospitals; the 10-fold increase in hospitalizations likely occurred nationwide, said Dr. Jason Newland, the lead author and an infectious disease physician at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics and the University of Missouri-Kansas City."
" CHICAGO : The number of children hospitalized with dangerous drug-resistant staph infections surged 10-fold in recent years, a study found.
Disease incidence increased from 2 cases to 21 cases per 1,000 hospital admissions from 1999 to 2008. Most infections were caught in the community, not in the hospital.
The study involved methicillin-resistant staph infections, called MRSA. These used to occur mostly in hospitals and nursing homes but they are increasingly showing up in other settings in children and adults. Recent evidence suggests hospital-acquired MRSA cases may be declining while community-acquired cases are becoming more common.
The results are "a good example of how something that is not unexpected remains alarming," said Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. He was not involved in the study.
The study involved 25 children's hospitals; the 10-fold increase in hospitalizations likely occurred nationwide, said Dr. Jason Newland, the lead author and an infectious disease physician at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics and the University of Missouri-Kansas City."
Sunday, May 9, 2010
SPECIAL : A bullet in Baghdad, a son's need, a mother's love
I consider this as a special report which is definetly worth mentioning. This report makes us wonder about our lives and who is in it and who has been in it.
"HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY"
Via AP , please do read the whole story :
" There are mothers who will spend today missing sons and daughters fighting overseas. There are women who have lost children in those wars, for whom Mother's Day will never be the same.
And then there is Eva Briseno.
Joseph Briseno Jr., Eva's 27-year-old son, is one of the most severely wounded soldiers ever to survive. A bullet to the back of his head in a Baghdad marketplace in 2003 left him paralyzed, brain-damaged and blind, but awake and aware of his condition.
Eva takes care of "Jay" in her suburban Virginia home where the family room has been transformed into an intensive care unit, with the breathing machine and tubes he needs to stay alive.
Try to imagine this life.
Each day starts with two hours of bowel care, an ordeal as awful as it sounds. She labors over his body, brushing his teeth, suctioning fluid from his lungs, exercising his limp arms and legs, and turning him every other hour to prevent bedsores.
She sleeps a few hours at a time, when the schedule says it is her turn, often slumped in exhaustion by his side.
She has been out to dinner with her husband, Joseph Sr., once in seven years.
She could have a better life if she put Jay in a nursing home. Or if she went back to using the home health care nurses the government provided. But one looked indifferently without wiping Jay's mouth when he drooled. Others fell asleep on the night shift, inattentive while Jay suffered seizures."
"HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY"
Via AP , please do read the whole story :
" There are mothers who will spend today missing sons and daughters fighting overseas. There are women who have lost children in those wars, for whom Mother's Day will never be the same.
And then there is Eva Briseno.
Joseph Briseno Jr., Eva's 27-year-old son, is one of the most severely wounded soldiers ever to survive. A bullet to the back of his head in a Baghdad marketplace in 2003 left him paralyzed, brain-damaged and blind, but awake and aware of his condition.
Eva takes care of "Jay" in her suburban Virginia home where the family room has been transformed into an intensive care unit, with the breathing machine and tubes he needs to stay alive.
Try to imagine this life.
Each day starts with two hours of bowel care, an ordeal as awful as it sounds. She labors over his body, brushing his teeth, suctioning fluid from his lungs, exercising his limp arms and legs, and turning him every other hour to prevent bedsores.
She sleeps a few hours at a time, when the schedule says it is her turn, often slumped in exhaustion by his side.
She has been out to dinner with her husband, Joseph Sr., once in seven years.
She could have a better life if she put Jay in a nursing home. Or if she went back to using the home health care nurses the government provided. But one looked indifferently without wiping Jay's mouth when he drooled. Others fell asleep on the night shift, inattentive while Jay suffered seizures."
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Life s-s-s-saver? WHO launches snake venom website
Via AP, I believe that this is a very good move by the WHO to introduce this website...Kudos :
" The World Health Organization launched a website Tuesday it hopes will help cut the estimated 100,000 deaths caused annually by snake poison.
The site contains a database of approved antivenoms to treat the 2.5 million people who suffer venomous bites each year, the U.N. health agency said.
Antivenoms - antidotes developed from the venom itself - can prevent disability or death, but WHO says many are inappropriate and have led to a loss of confidence among doctors and patients, especially in tropical and subtropical countries.
"The regions that are most in need are Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia," said Ana Padilla, a snake venom expert at WHO.
Apart from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania, most Sub-Saharan African countries lack the necessary labs to identify snake poisons and to produce sufficient amounts of antivenom, she said."
" The World Health Organization launched a website Tuesday it hopes will help cut the estimated 100,000 deaths caused annually by snake poison.
The site contains a database of approved antivenoms to treat the 2.5 million people who suffer venomous bites each year, the U.N. health agency said.
Antivenoms - antidotes developed from the venom itself - can prevent disability or death, but WHO says many are inappropriate and have led to a loss of confidence among doctors and patients, especially in tropical and subtropical countries.
"The regions that are most in need are Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia," said Ana Padilla, a snake venom expert at WHO.
Apart from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania, most Sub-Saharan African countries lack the necessary labs to identify snake poisons and to produce sufficient amounts of antivenom, she said."
US : FDA found bacteria in lots for recalled Tylenol
Via The Associated Press:
" Ingredients used by Johnson & Johnson in some of the 40 varieties of children's cold medicines recalled last week were contaminated with bacteria, according to a report by the Food and Drug Administration.
Agency officials said Tuesday none of the company's finished products tested positive for the contaminants, though such testing is not definitive.
"We think the risk to consumers at this point is remote," said Deborah Autor, director of FDA's drug compliance office, on a call with reporters.
The FDA report, which was posted online, lists more than 20 manufacturing problems found at the McNeil Consumer Healthcare plant in Fort Washington, Pa., where the formulas were made. The recalled products include children and infant formulations of Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl.
FDA inspectors visited the plant in mid-April and wrapped up their inspection Friday. J&J issued its "voluntary" recall later that night."
" Ingredients used by Johnson & Johnson in some of the 40 varieties of children's cold medicines recalled last week were contaminated with bacteria, according to a report by the Food and Drug Administration.
Agency officials said Tuesday none of the company's finished products tested positive for the contaminants, though such testing is not definitive.
"We think the risk to consumers at this point is remote," said Deborah Autor, director of FDA's drug compliance office, on a call with reporters.
The FDA report, which was posted online, lists more than 20 manufacturing problems found at the McNeil Consumer Healthcare plant in Fort Washington, Pa., where the formulas were made. The recalled products include children and infant formulations of Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl.
FDA inspectors visited the plant in mid-April and wrapped up their inspection Friday. J&J issued its "voluntary" recall later that night."
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