public health
mikethemadbiologist | November 6, 2006Our Benevolent Seed Overlords ask: What's the most important local political race to you this year (as a citizen, as a scientist)? For me, it's the Massachusetts gubernatorial race.
Deval Patrick is poised to become the first African-American governor ever. Also, since Massachusetts has a Democratic legislature, there's the potential of doing some very progressive, far-reaching things. Unlike in the Romney administration, where the primary purpose was to pave the way for Romney's presidential campaign.
A close second isn't a race, but a ballot initiative. In South Dakota, voters will…
mikethemadbiologist | November 6, 2006This week's Carnival of Liberals, hosted by Philosophy, et cetera, asks contributors to submit posts that "assess the state of political discourse, or the question of how politics should be conducted." So, let's talk about that state of political discourse.
One problem that's always bothered (and intrigued) me is how citizens and voters are supposed to decide highly technical issues. Every day, the government, whether it be local, state, or federal, makes decisions about verycomplex issues that require a great deal of knowledge and training. As an example, ask yourself if you can assess…
mikethemadbiologist | November 5, 2006There is absolutely nothing the Republicans won't politicize. Now, they have launched the War on Vaccination. For a decade, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a foundation dedicated to improving public health, particularly among the poor and the elderly, has funded a "Vote and Vax" program at early voting facilities that serve poor neighborhoods in 24 cities. Basically, if you're over 50, you can get a vaccination at the polling location.
Thursday, in Houston, the Republicans filed a lawsuit to stop this program.
Nevermind that the program has been running for ten years. When the program…
mikethemadbiologist | November 4, 2006Occasionally, Congress does something right. In this case, they are making research to develop new antibiotics a priority:
A key Senate committee is supporting more antibiotic research and development and more research into the mechanisms of resistance at the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
As a result of the efforts of IDSA and others to raise awareness about the need for effective drugs to treat resistant infections, the Senate Appropriations Committee has included language in its report for the bill funding NIAID urging the agency to "move aggressively to…
tsmith | November 2, 2006Apparently, it's just not enough for this administration to push ineffective and inaccurate abstinence-only education programs for our schoolchildren. Nope--they're also being emphasized for adults up to the age of 29, as well:
If you're single and in your 20s, the federal government wants you to steer clear of sex.
That's the new guidance for states under the Department of Health and Human Services' $50 million Abstinence Education Program. HHS officials say it's not a requirement -- just another option for states to combat what they call an alarming rise in out-of-wedlock births.
(More…
mikethemadbiologist | November 1, 2006There's a very interesting article by Sheldon Campbell and Roger Klein in the October edition of The Journal of Clinical Microbiology about the pros and cons of home-testing for HIV. At first glance, this would only seem to be a good thing: after all, we use home pregnancy testing kits, so why not an HIV kit?
Well, like everything, there is good and bad. First, the potential bad outcomes:
(italics mine)
In the worst case, a rapid HIV test would be approved, but the real-world accuracy in the hands of intended users would be less than intended. The test would be expensive and heavily and…
scientificactivist | October 26, 2006When you live in the wealthiest nation in the world but can still claim over 40 million people without health insurance--despite spending more than twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation--you might have a problem. Nowhere is this more apparent than in my home state, Texas, which leads the nation with 24.5% of its population uninsured.
Since the state government has done little to address the situation (often making things worse, by significantly defunding the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIPS), for example), others are taking up the slack. Yesterday's New York…
mikethemadbiologist | October 26, 2006I have discussed the "search and destroy" strategy for controlling and reducing methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) before. Search-and-destroy involves the screening of every patient and hospital worker for MRSA.
Patients with MRSA are isolated to prevent spread to other patients. In the Netherlands, hospital workers with MRSA are sent home with pay, and are treated with muriopicin nasal drops (MRSA usually lives up your nose). In addition, the workers' family is screened along with any pets, and those that have MRSA are also treated. Because of this program, the…
tsmith | October 25, 2006I previously blogged an editorial by NBC medical correspondent Robert Bazell, where he told scientists to "quit whining" about intelligent design and instead work on teaching "values." While I agreed with him there on the science (he made it clear he gave no respect to "intelligent design" and other types of creationism), his suggestion that teachers and scientists spend more time worrying (and teaching) about more "practical" things such as biotechnology and medical ethics was just, in my opinion, wrong. Luckily, his new editorial on alternative medicine contains no such red herrings.…
tsmith | October 24, 2006Orac has an excellent post discussing the rise in pertussis ("whooping cough") in many areas, and its correlation with easier exemption from mandatory vaccination (using a "personal belief" exemption in addition to a religious exemption, for example). I've written about pertussis previously, and a problem is that the vaccine effectiveness quickly wanes, so that adults frequently lack significant immunity. While we rarely get sick, we can be carriers of the bacterium and infect children around us. As such, new recommendations suggest that adults also should get a pertussis booster. I worry…
tsmith | October 23, 2006Apologies for the radio silence, so to speak. October has been a killer month for me and November won't be that much better, but I'll work on getting back to posting on a regular basis, including a new post for tomorrow. In the meantime, a few things to check out:
Mike on treating strep throat (which he's correct is near and dear to my heart--though not literally, thankfully, since they can cause heart disease!).
A belated Friday the 13th Tangled Bank
Last week's Grand Rounds.
mikethemadbiologist | October 23, 2006The NY Times recently had a very good article about strep throat, which is caused by group A streptococci (which, if I'm not mistaken are near and dear to fellow ScienceBlogling Tara). Sore throats are one of the leading causes of the overprescribing of antibiotics (it's been estimated that 20% of all antibiotic prescriptions are incorrectly prescribed to treat viral infections, including sore throats), which leads to the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria:
Symptoms of a strep throat and a sore throat caused by a virus can overlap (children may experience stuffy noses, coughs and…
mikethemadbiologist | October 20, 2006A friend asked today, "Why is there no one seriously critiquing the Gates Foundation's priorities?" Given the influence that "Gates" has on the setting of public health priorities, as well as the massive sums spent, these priorities need to be critically examined. For example, I've heard on the grapevine that one reason the Ellison Fund left the area of global health is because Gates moved in--they simply couldn't compete. Unfortunately, Ellison had a lot of experience and a very different approach than does Gates, so certain approaches to public health have been closed off.
I know there…
mikethemadbiologist | October 19, 2006At least when it comes to killing young children in the developing world. A recent Lancet article describes the devastation pneumonia causes among children:
Pneumonia kills more children than any other illness, more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined... More than 2 million children under 5 years of age die from pneumonia each year, accounting for almost one in five under-5 deaths worldwide. Yet few headlines report the effect of pneumonia on children's lives.
The world's attention has under standably turned to other major public-health scourges, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and…
mikethemadbiologist | October 18, 2006By day, I work for an organization that combats the spread of antibiotic resistant microorganisms. One source of antibiotic resistance is the misuse of antibiotics by patients. Often patients will stop using antibiotics early because they feel better. Not only does this make it more likely that the treatment will fail, but the bacterium has been exposed to a lower dose of antibiotics, selecting for 'intermediately' resistant organisms, which is often the first evolutionary step towards therapeutic resistance (i.e., the antibiotic won't work against these organisms).
But reading the…
mikethemadbiologist | October 17, 2006Howard Friedman has a nice roundup of the Boston Globe series of articles, "Exporting Faith", which is all about how the intrusion of sectarian dogma is screwing up our foreign spending. It's a good read.
mikethemadbiologist | October 14, 2006Apparently, I'm not the only one who sees South Dakota's ban on virtually all abortions as an assault on the First Amendment. By way of feministing comes this flier that Native American women are circulating:
Now if only Democrats weren't so afraid to talk like this.
tsmith | October 13, 2006Flu shots are rolling out, and there should be no shortage this year. A few new articles remind the public of the importance of these vaccinations, especially in high-risk groups (something that I touched on here regarding data showing that vaccination during pregnancy can help protect the newborn).
You can find the guidelines for target vaccination groups here. Essentially, it includes anyone immunocompromised or with conditions that make them increasingly susceptible to serious complications of influenza; those 50 years of age and older; and children from 6 months to five years old.…
mikethemadbiologist | October 12, 2006
(from here)
Revere recently had an excellent post about why you should get a flu shot. Let me just add one more reason: the best way to avoid contracting influenza is to be around people who don't have it. While this sounds like something Yogi Berra might say, containing influenza is a group effort. This is a very serious public health problem: the 'ordinary' flu 'only' kills 37,000 people per year. That's right: for every person in the U.S. who dies from AIDS, there are two who die from influenza.
And getting enough people vaccinated, particularly those aged 5-18, could cut the number…
mikethemadbiologist | October 11, 2006Or at least 655,000 (± 140,000) of them. Before I get to the news reports, I think it's important to make something clear. These statistical techniques are routinely used in public health epidemiology and nobody complains about them. Critics of this estimate can't play the same game the creationists do. They can't just debunk the numbers. They have to propose an alternative, reliable method, otherwise this estimate has to be viewed as the best available estimate. (I can't wait to hear Bill O'Reilly talk about statistics...)
From the NY Times:
A team of American and Iraqi public health…