A study published Friday in the journal Science Advances found that at least 36 percent and up to 57 percent of the Amazon’s tree species should qualify as threatened.
Monthly Archives: November 2015
GOP Gives Up On America–Assuming They Ever Really Believed In It
After all these years of listening to Conservatives and Republicans argue that the nation’s liberal and Democratic population are nothing but a bunch of weaklings aching to sell out their national ideals, it turns out that it is the GOP—who I have officially renamed the “Generation of P- – -ies […]
Doctor Tells Patient: No More Birth Control for You, I’m Catholic
Earlier this month Leslie Gauthier received a letter from her doctor stating that, as a “Catholic physician” the doctor would no longer prescribe birth control. Unfortunately, Ms. Gauthier’s experience is all too common. Medical providers, clinics, and hospitals across the country are substituting their personal or institutional beliefs for sound medical judgment and denying people medical care.
Putting Personal Beliefs Above Patient Care
In some ways, Ms. Gauthier’s situation could have been worse. At least her doctor let her know about the new restrictions before she came in for her appointment. People are often refused care only after they have arrived at a doctor’s office, a hospital, and even the pharmacy. Last year, a pediatrician refused to treat a newborn infant because her parents were lesbians. When Krista and Jami Contreras arrived at the pediatrician’s office with their six day old daughter, they were greeted, not by the doctor they had carefully selected and previously met, but another doctor. This doctor told them that their original pediatrician had “prayed on it” and decided she couldn’t care for their daughter.
In April, two separate pharmacies refused to fill a prescription to treat Brittany Cartrett’s miscarriage. Another woman responded to Ms. Cartrett’s Facebook post about her experience and told a similar story. That woman ultimately chose to undergo a more invasive surgical procedure to complete her miscarriage rather than face additional humiliation at another pharmacy.
People refused care often don’t even know that there were other treatment options available. When Tamesha Means’ water broke after only 18 weeks of pregnancy, doctors at the Catholic-affiliated Mercy Health Partners hospital sent her home twice. The hospital told her there was nothing they could do, even though in these circumstances terminating the pregnancy would have been the safest course of treatment. There was virtually no chance that the pregnancy could continue and waiting merely placed Ms. Means’ health and life in jeopardy. Ms. Means was only offered care after she returned to the hospital a third time in extreme distress and with an infection. Even then, the hospital staff were in the process of discharging her she went into labor.
We Deserve Better
It’s becoming increasingly common for people to try to impose their own beliefs on others by refusing to provide services. Sometimes it’s the service they object to and sometimes it’s the people. It’s always discrimination and it’s always wrong. But medical providers, in particular, have an ethical and moral duty to treat their patients with dignity and respect and to provide appropriate and necessary medical care. Personal beliefs should not trump patients’ access to the care they need.
New Ebola Case Confirmed In Liberia After 17 Weeks
#10,726
On September 3rd, and for the second time this year, Liberia was declared `Ebola-free’ after going 42 days without a positive Ebola lab test. They then entered a 90 day `period of heightened surveillance’ – which, if it passed without incident – would finally allow the country to declare their battle truly won.
Today, less than two weeks before that `probationary period’ was to end, we got the heart wrenching news that a new Ebola case has been confirmed near the capital city of Monrovia, reportedly a 10 year old boy.
Assuming these reports are correct, the process of contact tracing begins again, and the countdown clock gets set back to zero. It also means there are still unidentified chains of infection in the region, and raises question anew about the convalescent shedding of the virus by recovered Ebola patients.
Determining what risk exposures this child may have had, including travel and/or contacts with travelers, now becomes a top priority, along with monitoring his contacts and containing any further spread.
Getting to zero was never thought to be easy, but today’s announcement demonstrates how hard that goal is going to be to achieve. This report from Reuters.
New case of Ebola found in Liberia – U.N. official
ACCRA
A new case of Ebola has been found in Liberia, a country declared free of the disease on Sept. 3, a senior United Nations official said on Friday.
The patient is a 10-year-old boy who lived in the Paynesville, a suburb east of the capital Monrovia, said the official, who declined to be named.
The case represents a setback for Liberia, which has seen more than 10,600 cases and 4,808 Ebola deaths since it was first announced in March, 2014, according to U.N. World Health Organisation figures.
WHO: Audio Press Conference On Re-Emergence Of Ebola In Liberia
Credit CDC PHIL
UPDATED: 10:30 Hrs EST 11/20
My thanks to Crof for posting a link to an announcement by Liberia’s Ministry of Health, indicating there are now 3 confirmed Ebola cases, the original, and two family members. More testing of contacts is underway.
# 10,728
As I blogged earlier this morning, roughly 4 months after Liberia’s last positive Ebola test, a new case has emerged near the capital city of Monrovia, that of a 10 year-old boy who fell ill about a week ago. This effectively `resets the clock’ for the second time this year, putting Liberia back into the active Ebola category.
Since this boy appears to have had no travel history to areas still seeing Ebola transmission, the assumption is his infection is the result of exposure to a convalescent Ebola case who continues to harbor and shed the virus.
This is a topic we’ve looked at repeatedly over the past year, but most recently in ECDC On Ebola Persistence & Rapid Risk Assessment, which looked at the unexpected relapse of Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, nine months after her recovery from the the virus
In WHO: Study Shows Ebola Virus Fragments May Be Detectable In Semen For > 9 Months, we saw additional evidence of the long-term presence of the Ebolavirus in male semen, and last May (see MMWR & WHO On Risks Of Sexual Transmission Of Ebola) we saw evidence of the sexual transmission of the virus.
All of which makes `getting to zero, and staying there’ a daunting task.
The audio recording of the press briefing held today at 12.30 (Geneva time) by Dr R. Bruce Aylward, Executive Director a.i., Outbreaks and Health Emergencies and Special Representative of the Director-General for the Ebola Response may be accessed at the following link:
Family case cluster ends Liberia’s Ebola-free status
Officials confirm 3 Ebola cases, involving a 15-year-old boy and family members.
Devoted Shandong husband has cared for his paralyzed wife for the past 56 years
The story of one 84-year-old man from Linyi city in Shandong province, who has patiently waited on his paralyzed wife for the last 56 years, has melted hearts all over the Chinese web.
My Feminism Is: Justice Everywhere | National Women’s Law Center
You see injustice everywhere. And one day, you’ll have a word for what you’re feeling, a word for what you’ve been all along but hesitate to call yourself – “feminist.”When you finally find feminism, you’ll find the incredible community of it. You’ll connect with so many people over the simple belief of equality. You’ll grow to recognize that there are systems in place that keep not only women down, but people of color, people with disabilities, and people of lower socioeconomic status down, too.You have always been driven by the desire to help others. You’ve always been driven by seeking to right the wrongs you see everywhere. You’ve always known the power of words. You’ve always known that words and ideas and that feeling deep in your gut that something’s not right here can change the world, or at least change a person. Soon you’ll discover a word and a community that will accept you just as much as you accept it.You’ve come from a long line of women who didn’t always have the word for feminism but always had the strength of a thousand men – no, not a thousand men. The strength of a woman. Your grandmothers, your mother, your aunt, and everyone before them. Their jobs may not have been glamorous or historic, but they worked hard without complaint. Whatever life throws at them, they bear with gritted teeth and the determination you have inherited.Your feminism began by seeing unfairness in your own life and in the lives around you. How is it fair that we have to decorate the whole school at 7am on Friday mornings and receive no recognition or thanks? How it fair that few spectators come to the girls’ basketball games, and even fewer at our cheerleading competitions?
Source: My Feminism Is: Justice Everywhere | National Women’s Law Center
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My fav band of all time comes out with their 9th album today Club 8 “Late Nights” on Soundcloud : http://bitly.com/1lzRPtv…
My fav band of all time comes out with their 9th album today
Club 8 “Late Nights” on Soundcloud : http://bitly.com/1lzRPtv
Club 8 “Late Nights” on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqYTWvEeDTA
A Quick Guide by me: http://amzn.to/1Sa89vg
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