Policy
tsmith | January 18, 2006I generally don't discuss a lot of politics on here. It's not that it's a topic I'm uninterested in; it's just that, for the most part, other people do it so much better than I do, so I leave a lot of it to them. There are, of course, exceptions. Intelligent design is much more of a cultural and political issue than a scientific one, despite the protestations of its advocates. There are others that occupy a similar niche. The idea that abortion causes breast cancer, for example, is one that has made its way into information packets that must be given to women contemplating termination of…
tsmith | January 10, 2006This comes as no surprise to many health care providers and public health officials: most states are unprepared for health crises.Few states are equipped to handle emergency medical crises such as a terrorist attack, a natural disaster or an influenza outbreak, according to an analysis being released today by the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Emergency care specialists such as [Angela] Gardner said they expected to find some deficiencies in a field that has seen budget cuts and rising demand. But the panel was startled at how poorly prepared the nation is as a whole to manage…
tsmith | October 31, 2005 As mentioned in the comments to this post, there is a brewing controversy over upcoming guidelines outlining who should receive the "cervical cancer vaccine," a vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV). Briefly, the HPV vaccine is a highly effective (100% in a 2-year clinical trial) vaccine which is targeted against two specific serotypes of the human papilloma virus: HPV 16 and HPV 18. Together, these types cause about 70% of cervical cancers in the United States. Previously, Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, a leading Christian lobby group, has said this about the HPV…
tsmith | October 24, 2005Doctors recommend hepatitis shot for kids
Hepatitis A is a virus that causes (obviously) hepatitis, as well as jaundice, fatigue, nausea, fever, loss of appetite, and diarrhea. It's often spread fecal-orally; that is, you put something in your mouth that has fecal contamination. (Just makes you want to run to the bathroom and brush your teeth, doesn't it?) It also can be spread via sexual contact and shared needles (or other contact with blood or body fluids). It's estimated that there are ~40,000 acute cases of Hep A per year, with many of them going undiagnosed. It's one of those diseases…
tsmith | October 19, 2005It's situations like this that really irk me.
I mentioned the tularemia detection in DC here almost 2 weeks ago, already annoyed that there hadn't been more information about it. There has been some discussion on the ProMed list, but it's hardly been a blip in the mainstream media. Yesterday, there was an article in Salon further discussing it.
The background:
On Sept. 24, 2005, tens of thousands of protesters marched past the White House and flooded the National Mall near 17th Street and Constitution Avenue. They had arrived from all over the country for a day of speeches and concerts to…
tsmith | October 7, 2005Thus far this week, I've discussed the history of pandemic influenza in general, and avian flu in particular. I've discussed some issues that must be addressed to prepare us for a pandemic, and the groundbreaking resurrection of the Spanish influenza virus. Today I want to end the series with a look at how prepared we currently are as a nation, and highlight some personal preparedness steps you can take.
If you recall from Tuesday, the first outbreak of H5N1 was back in 1997. The anthrax attacks were in 2001. Surely by now we're prepared for some kind of serious, large-scale, biological…
tsmith | October 4, 2005Anyone working in the area of influenza virus epidemiology is familiar with the name Robert Webster. A virologist at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, the native New Zealander has been leading the charge against influenza for well over 40 years. Barely out of graduate school, Webster hypothesized that something like genetic reassortment (which had not yet been discovered) occurred to cause the big changes that appeared among human influenza viruses, driving pandemics. He performed a simple experiment that cemented the course of his career: he found that serum from patients who had…
tsmith | September 16, 2005The Washington Post today reminds us that there has been little progress in uncovering the source of the 2001 anthrax attacks. [1]
First, a disclaimer. I'm not an "evolutionary biologist," per se. I have what is I swear the longest job title ever--molecular infectious disease epidemiologist. As such, I often get asked, "what's the relevance of evolution to your work?" Or, I'll read editorials such as Dr. Skell's recently in The Scientist [2] questioning the use of evolutionary theory in experimental biology, and be disheartened. Yet the method of investigating the anthrax attacks shows…