Category Archives: healthcare

‘True Scale’ of India’s Tuberculosis Problem: 2.8 Million New Cases – The New York Times

Finally coming to terms with the enormity of its tuberculosis problem, India is preparing a radical overhaul and expansion of its national treatment program to fight an affliction that kills more adults worldwide than any other infectious disease.The severity of the matter was underscored on Thursday when the World Health Organization substantially increased its estimate of the number of new patients with TB in India, to 2.8 million in 2015, compared with 2.2 million in 2014 — more than in any other country in the world and more than a quarter of the world total.

Source: ‘True Scale’ of India’s Tuberculosis Problem: 2.8 Million New Cases – The New York Times

‘True Scale’ of India’s Tuberculosis Problem: 2.8 Million New Cases – The New York Times

Finally coming to terms with the enormity of its tuberculosis problem, India is preparing a radical overhaul and expansion of its national treatment program to fight an affliction that kills more adults worldwide than any other infectious disease.The severity of the matter was underscored on Thursday when the World Health Organization substantially increased its estimate of the number of new patients with TB in India, to 2.8 million in 2015, compared with 2.2 million in 2014 — more than in any other country in the world and more than a quarter of the world total.

Source: ‘True Scale’ of India’s Tuberculosis Problem: 2.8 Million New Cases – The New York Times

New Zika cases confirmed in Miami Beach | CIDRAP

Active transmission in Miami BeachAfter a weekend of extreme weather due to Hurricane Matthew, the Florida Department of Health (Florida Health) is reporting more cases of locally transmitted Zika virus in the Miami Beach area.Yesterday and today, Florida Health said there were six non-travel related cases—three of which are tied to Miami Beach—and one case in a non-Florida resident who contracted the virus when traveling in the Wynwood neighborhood earlier this summer. There are now 147 locally acquired Zika cases in Florida, plus 19 cases in non-Florida residents.

Source: New Zika cases confirmed in Miami Beach | CIDRAP

Nestlé Recalls Drumsticks After Listeria Found In Bakersfield Factory: LAist

You’re may want to hold off on eating Nestlé Drumsticks for a bit, as the company has issued a voluntary nationwide recall of the ice cream desserts following positive test results for listeria in their Bakersfield factory.The recall is more of a better-safe-than-sorry one. According to the FDA, no one has been sickened and none of the actual Drumsticks have tested positive for listeria. However, pieces of production equipment at the factory have tested positive. Certain ice cream products were mistakenly sent out to stores because of an error in logging test results, according to the company.

Source: Nestlé Recalls Drumsticks After Listeria Found In Bakersfield Factory: LAist

More Zika mosquitoes found in Miami Beach | CIDRAP – When will governments care more about health than tourist dollars?

Traps show mosquitoes still in Miami BeachDespite more than a month of ground and aerial spraying, officials in Florida reported that a trap in Miami Beach showed Aedes mosquitos harboring the Zika virus over the weekend. This was the sixth Zika-positive mosquito pool found in Miami Beach since Aug 19, and the first to show Zika-carrying bugs in the Mid-Beach neighborhood (the previous five mosquito pools were found in South Beach), according to the Miami Herald.The trap was located at 575 W. 49th street, near the La Gorce Golf Course. More than 64,000 Florida mosquitos have been tested for Zika virus since May; only the six pools in Miami Beach have tested positive for mosquitos carrying Zika virus.This was the first time health officials released the location of the traps as soon as samples tested positive, a move promoted by the Herald’s Sep 28 lawsuit that demanded the state release the location of traps that tested positive for Zika.The news comes after Florida Health, the state’s Department of Health, reported five more cases of locally acquired Zika virus on Sep 30 and nine more cases today. All nine cases were in Miami-Dade County; seven people had exposure in Miami Beach, and exposure in the other seven cases is currently under investigation.Also, Florida Health reported one more infection in an out-of-state resident who was exposed to Zika in Miami-Dade County and three new cases in those who traveled to both Miami-Dade County and countries where the virus is circulating, so exposure location can’t be definitively pinned down.The state now has recorded 133 local cases, 16 in out-of-state people, and 4 of undetermined exposure source.

Source: More Zika mosquitoes found in Miami Beach | CIDRAP

Delhi economy hit hard by mosquito-borne diseases | Asia | DW.COM | 30.09.2016

The latter is what knocked out Golu Kumar Paswan a week ago. The 18-year-old, who works as a laborer in a manufacturing facility, developed a high fever and pain. The virus has sapped him of all energy, making it impossible for him to go to work.”My company doesn’t pay me when I don’t show up, so I’m losing out on my wages, which I need desperately to pay for my rent in Delhi and to send back to my family in the Uttar Pradesh state,” Paswan said. “Things are really difficult. How am I going to survive?”Worker crunch hits industrial outputIt’s a question that many of Paswan’s fellow migrant workers laid low by the viral illnesses have answered by packing up their bags and leaving for their villages.That has left the over 1,500 small-scale factories in Mayapuri, an industrial hub that relies on the steady supply of cheap labor from the neighboring slums. Everything from car parts, textiles to machinery is produced here. The area has witnessed a 20 percent dip in production and profits because workers have been calling in sick or leaving to go back home.

Source: Delhi economy hit hard by mosquito-borne diseases | Asia | DW.COM | 30.09.2016

‘Healthy Ohio’ plan not healthy for Ohio: Wendy Patton, Policy Matters Ohio (Opinion) | cleveland.com

People could be kicked out for non-payment and locked out until they pay the debt. The Ohio Hospital Association fears higher costs due to administrative complexity. The plan is so problematic that 99 percent of the 956 comments submitted to the state about “Healthy Ohio” opposed key provisions of the proposal.The largest number of comments came from Ohioans worried about their own care: people with rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes, parents with mentally ill or developmentally disabled children. The next largest group of commenters was health-care providers: doctors, dentists, psychologists, hospitals, physician groups and free clinics. Advocates for vulnerable groups – youth in foster care, domestic violence victims, people with breast cancer — submitted comments. The concern of the faith community was enormous.

Source: ‘Healthy Ohio’ plan not healthy for Ohio: Wendy Patton, Policy Matters Ohio (Opinion) | cleveland.com

So blue. The heartbroken case for Hillary Clinton – Medium – I am for her but for those who doubt – read this, please.

Hillary Clinton will provide some small, inadequate measure of assistance to the growing masses of victims even while she continues to pander to the very forces of their destruction. She’s oblivious to techno-capitalism’s looming dead end, because it contradicts the story of human infallibility, and she’s too cynical to believe that a post-capitalist future is possible. But she won’t (overtly) suppress dissent or work to attack, disrupt and destroy progressive people’s movements or to terrorize and ruin the lives of immigrants (at least, not as aggressively as Trump surely would with a helping hand from ALEC, the NRA, the KKK and legions of confused, scared, heavily-armed white men). That doesn’t give us much breathing room, but it’s something.I won’t belabor the Trump-Hitler comparison here, but read this if you harbor any doubts about the nature of Trump’s personality disorder and intentions. This is a nihilistic man punch drunk on ego and power, hungry for violence, all in for cutthroat competition, incapable of self-reflection, one hand on the nuclear button and the other on Mein Kampf, capable of the unthinkable. What he cannot create he will destroy — such is the nihilist’s endgame.That, in the end, is why I’ll vote for Hillary Clinton — because she isn’t Donald Trump. I will vote for Clinton* and, if she wins, I will not be excited or happy, not even a tiny bit.

Source: So blue. The heartbroken case for Hillary Clinton – Medium

Dr. Bob Sears, critic of vaccine laws, could lose license after exempting toddler – LA Times Cashing in on pimping for profit on parents’ fears catches up to to him.

Sears, 47, whose “The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child” has sold more than 250,000 copies and made him a celebrity among parents who see peril in the mandatory vaccination regime, could not be reached for comment late Thursday. The Dana Point resident opened his practice in 1998 and offered patients a delayed vaccination schedule. In “The Vaccine Book,” Sears offered his alternatives, such as delaying the start of the varicella vaccination for chickenpox from age 1 until 2 and pushing back the polio vaccination from 2 months to 9 months.His stance has been criticized by fellow pediatricians for misinforming parents about the in-depth testing of vaccines and downplaying the dangers of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Source: Dr. Bob Sears, critic of vaccine laws, could lose license after exempting toddler – LA Times