Priorities
revere | January 14, 2008The American Journal Constitution has a story today wondering if the notorious TB lawyer (see our posts here) that caused an international ruckus because he flew against medical advice (the evidence is a bit obscure on this point) may have been part of a CDC ploy to get increased funding for its TB program. I don't know the answer to that, but the fact it should even be raised and taken seriously in some serious quarters speaks volumes about CDC, its management and an air of desperation there:
Months before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made Atlanta lawyer Andrew Speaker the…
revere | January 4, 2008With the turn of the calendar there is always both hope and anxiety about the year ahead. This is nice because it gives pundits and bloggers something to write about. Just before Christmas The Times of London published\ a "leading article" (unsigned), Black Swans and Bird Flu, which was about the anxiety part, assessing the threats, and planning for them in advance:
Living at risk, it has been said, is akin to jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down. Not everyone would be content with such a strategy. Some would not venture close to the edge, even if that meant missing a…
revere | December 19, 2007Bush and the Democratic Congress are still battling over the budget, although it is said they are getting closer. Getting closer to Bush unfortunately means giving him all the bombs and bullets he wants but not much else. A case in point is the latest proposal for the NIH and CDC budgets:
Over the weekend, Congress prepared a new version of appropriations following President George Bush's veto of previous bill in November. This new bill includes $760 million less for NIH and $240 million less for CDC than the vetoed bill, according to news reports today.
The result is an increase of less…
revere | December 12, 2007The dramatic infectious agents like MRSA, Ebola and bird flu get the headlines but there are a lot of others out there, some of them capable of being just as nasty. Consider the new variant of adenovirus serotype 14, for example:
Infectious-disease expert David N. Gilbert was making rounds at the Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon in April when he realized that an unusual number of patients, including young, vigorous adults, were being hit by a frightening pneumonia.
"What was so striking was to see patients who were otherwise healthy be just devastated," Gilbert said. Within a day…
revere | November 23, 2007Rabia Balkhi Hospital (RBH) is an obstetrical hospital in Afghanistan that is one of the jewels in the crown of the US aid effort after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2002. Here's the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) website boast:
HHS activities have had an enormous impact on the quality of care at RBH, have saved the lives of hundreds of women and newborns, and have improved significantly the skills and knowledge of the doctors, nurses and midwives at the hospital. We are continually adding new improvements that dramatically expand the hospital's life-saving capacity, such as…
revere | November 22, 2007The Democrats are talking about universal health care. Good for them. Inevitably, though, their Party is accused of being big spenders. The contrast is always with the "fiscally conservative" Republicans. We all know (although some conveniently forget) that the Democrat, Clinton, left the country with a budget surplus (some of it accrued on the backs of the poor, unfortunately) and the Republican, Bush, has driven us into a catastrophic debt that will be paid by our grandchildren. An anomaly? Hardly:
Source: Intelligent Guess
Not only are Republicans profligate spenders, cutting taxes for…
revere | November 12, 2007Here's a thought for "Veterans" Day: one out of nine people in the US is a veteran but one out of four homeless persons is a veteran. That's something for Americans to be proud of for sure. Support Our Troops is either just a slogan or they stop being worthy of support when they stop being cannon fodder:
And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans…
revere | September 30, 2007Bioterrorism defense dollars seem to be devoted mainly to procurement. This follows President Bush's prescription for how all Americans could defeat the terrorists after September 11: go shopping. Practicing what they preach, the federal government has gone on another buying spree for something we don't need: anthrax vaccine:
The federal government has awarded a $400 million contract to Emergent BioSolutions for another 18.75 million doses of anthrax vaccine, with a bonus to be paid if the company wins approval for extending the vaccine's shelf life.
The 3-year contract for BioThrax vaccine,…
revere | March 12, 2007If anything should signal the dire shape of the US food safety problem it's FDA's announcement last week that it is extending the warning over Salmonella contaminated Peter Pan peanut butter to products bought as far back as October 2004. FDA warnings about Peter Pan peanut butter have been steadily pushed back from May 2006 to December 2005 and now to October 2004.
ConAgra makes Peter Pan peanut butter products at a single plant in Sylveter, Georgia. It is also marketed by Wal-Mart as Great Value Peanut Butter with lot number 2111. The product recall for the Peter Pan and Wal-Mart Great…
revere | September 4, 2006Look, obesity is a problem. No denying it. But.
When the chairperson of an international conference (diabetologist Paul Zimmet from Monash University in Australia) tells a meeting of 2500 experts and health officials there is an "insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity [that] is now engulfing the entire world," and it is "as big a threat as global warming and bird flu," it kind of takes your breath away. (via Globe and Mail)
We talk a lot about bird flu here, so I won't bother to argue the inaptness (ineptness?) of the comparison. But obesity is as big a threat as global warming?
I - don't…
revere | July 31, 2006I noticed that Governor Mitt Romney, Republican presidential hopeful and much despised Governor of Massachusetts, just vetoed $8.15 million in funding for addiction treatment and prevention in his state. I'm not an expert on substance abuse issues, but I know it is an area of public health where we are in real trouble because of budget cuts. I have written quite a lot about bird flu here and the need to address it by strenghtening the public health infrastructure. Substance abuse is part of that infrastructure. But what, if anything, does cutting these programs have to do with bird flu? I…
revere | July 27, 2006The human bird flu vaccine news from pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline sounds good and it probably is. Probably. There is a lot we don't know yet as the results have not been published in the open medical literature. Here's what GSK is claiming.
First, they claim to have produced a vaccine that raises antibodies in 80% of the test subjects (400 Belgians) with a very small amount of viral material (antigen), 3.8 micrograms given twice (7.6 micrograms, total). Previous attempts to make vaccines against H5N1 have required much more antigen. Because our ability to produce viral antigen in eggs is very…
revere | July 20, 2006CDC has disgorged $225 million to state and local health departments for bird fluhttp://www.dhhs.gov/news/press/2006pres/20060711.html. That's some good news, made better by the fact that these phase II allocations seem usable for a wider range of public health needs than bioterrorism or bird flu, narrowly conceived.
The money goes to help states pay for activities above and beyond what they normally provide, said Joe Posid of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which distributes the money.
"They'll use the CDC funds for more macro or public health purposes such as…