Category Archives: healthcare

Obamacare Skeptics Now Have to Explain Why the Uninsured Rate Is 22 Percent Lower – The Wire

Obamacare Skeptics Now Have to Explain Why the Uninsured Rate Is 22 Percent Lower – The Wire.

The uninsured rate is 13.4 percent for the second month in a row, after dropping from 17.1 percent at the end of 2013, according to new Gallup dataIn other words, the uninsured rate is 22 percent lower now than it was before Obamacare. Skeptics have argued that most Obamacare enrollments are people with cancelled plans, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that an estimated 11 million people gained insurance during a nationwide push to enroll people. At the very least, Obamacare helped. 

Single Dose of Antibiotic Found Effective in Quelling MRSA – NYTimes.com

Any questions about thoroughness of the research and lack or any bias?
“The study was led by researchers at Duke University and designed and funded by the Medicines Company, the maker of the antibiotic, oritavancin. The drug, to be sold as Orbactiv, may be approved by the Food and Drug Administration as early as August under a special fast-track process, the company said.” Hope it works well but if it adds to the problem of drug resistant bacteria – this model of research must change.

via Single Dose of Antibiotic Found Effective in Quelling MRSA – NYTimes.com.

Ohio healthcare provider throws 400 seniors under the bus – no profits? TriHealth ending senior program; 100 jobs affected | www.journal-news.com

The program serves about 400 adults ages 55 and older in Butler, Warren, Hamilton and Clermont counties through home care and inpatient services, including physical therapy, nutritional counseling, transportation and meals.

via TriHealth ending senior program; 100 jobs affected | www.journal-news.com.

Lebanon, a land of fat boys: study | News , Lebanon News | THE DAILY STAR

After ranking highly on a string of top 10 lists, Lebanon can now add being one of the fattest countries for young boys to its list of achievements.

The percentage of boys under twenty who are obese in Lebanon range between 13 to 19.1 percent, placing the Mediterranean nation at fifth in the world, tied with the Caribbean nation The Bahamas. The findings are according to a recently released global analysis on country-by-country obesity funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“This is largely due to low physical activity,” said Stephanie Nehme, a dietitian at the So7i W Sari3 clinic in Ashrafieh.

Nehme said that the changing of lifestyle and exchanging homemade food for fastfood was among several factors that led to an increase to obesity in youngsters.

via Lebanon, a land of fat boys: study | News , Lebanon News | THE DAILY STAR.

Food Politics » Historic! First Lady and President actively support school nutrition standards

Today, the House Appropriations Committee will discuss the annual spending bill for the Agriculture Department, meaning that it will consider proposals to weaken nutrition standards for school meals.

In what has to be a groundbreaking move, First Lady Michelle Obama has an Op-Ed in today’s New York Times.

Yet some members of the House of Representatives are now threatening to roll back these new standards and lower the quality of food our kids get in school. They want to make it optional, not mandatory, for schools to serve fruits and vegetables to our kids. They also want to allow more sodium and fewer whole grains than recommended into school lunches.

…Remember a few years ago when Congress declared that the sauce on a slice of pizza should count as a vegetable in school lunches? You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that this doesn’t make much sense. Yet we’re seeing the same thing happening again with these new efforts to lower nutrition standards in our schools.

Our children deserve so much better than this.

Yes, they do, and how terrific that she is saying this.

via Food Politics » Historic! First Lady and President actively support school nutrition standards.

Tests show high H7N9 antibodies in Chinese poultry workers | CIDRAP

The researchers found a hemagglutination-inhibition antibody titer of at least 1:160 in 7.2% of poultry workers in May and in 14.9% in December, a rise that was consistent with the second wave of H7N9 activity in China, with Guangdong as one of the hot spots. None of the participants had confirmed H7N9 infections, and investigators didn’t find evidence of infection in any of the general public group for either testing period.

The team pointed out that other studies of H7N9 seroprevalence in Chinese poultry workers showed much lower levels. For example, a study based on sampling in Zhejiang province in April and May of 2013 found 1.3% had antibody titers suggesting earlier infection.

Looking for risk factors, the researchers found that being female and having occupational exposure for 10 or more years was associated with infection. The team said the increased risk in women may reflect their having the major share of poultry duties for that region, which include selling poultry, defeathering, and cleaning. They said the longer work history could be related to reduced preventive measures or may reflect greater susceptibility to infection in older people.

They found that working in a retail market, rather than a wholesale setting, was associated with antibody titers indicative of infection in the analysis of samples from May. The researchers wrote that the shorter stays in warehouse markets and twice-a-week disinfection protocols might limit workers’ exposure to the H7N9 virus.

via Tests show high H7N9 antibodies in Chinese poultry workers | CIDRAP.

Bill Gates declares war on world’s (surprisingly) deadliest creature | Green Prophet

Mosquitoes and I are not on friendly terms but I do like birds and many other living things which were once nearly all killed off by DDT – Today is Rachel Carson’s birthday, so this is all appropriate. One of the biggest facilitators of skeeters breeding out of control is the number two in your infographic – humans! As we cut down forests, stop rivers from flowing, etc., we more often than not create the best breeding grounds for the types of mosquitoes that are vectors for diseases that effect us – see the connection. Mosquitoes are nature’s control mechanism for out of control humans. Do we need a new DDT or do we need to learn how to not create breeding grounds for mosquitoes and in turn not destroy nature or ourselves.

via Bill Gates declares war on world’s (surprisingly) deadliest creature | Green Prophet.

To Age Well, Walk – NYTimes.com

You don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing – and a scientific study of benefits from walking is not needed to know it is good for you – duh. When humans left East Africa and populated the globe – what was their principal means of transportation – two feet!

The results, published on Tuesday in the journal JAMA, reinforce the necessity of frequent physical activity for our aging parents, grandparents and, of course, ourselves.

While everyone knows that exercise is a good idea, whatever your age, the hard, scientific evidence about its benefits in the old and infirm has been surprisingly limited.

“For the first time, we have directly shown that exercise can effectively lessen or prevent the development of physical disability in a population of extremely vulnerable elderly people,” said Dr. Marco Pahor, the director of the Institute on Aging at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and the lead author of the study.

via To Age Well, Walk – NYTimes.com.

Health Ministry Addresses Social Media Report on Ebola death in Kailahun | Sierra Express Media

As of May 25, 2014, report received from the District Medical Officer Kailahun district, and the Directorate of Disease Prevention and Control indicate that eleven (11) cases of acute diarrhoea and vomiting reported, of which four (4) died and the five (5) admitted at the Koindu Community Health Centre are responding to treatment. Two out of the eleven (11) cases have already been discharged.

via Health Ministry Addresses Social Media Report on Ebola death in Kailahun | Sierra Express Media.

The White Death, Revived – In The Fray

Paul Nunn, the WHO’s TB coordinator, says that these deadly strains have cropped up in certain European countries, too, though the reports have yet to be published. “If the health system of the world fails, the highly resistant strains will replace the old,” he adds. “We’ll see a worsening of the situation if nothing is done.” On the other hand, it may be only when the resistant strains become a major problem in rich countries that the profit-seeking pharmaceutical industry will take notice and pour real money into the development of potent new treatments.

Without effective drugs to combat the most resistant strains, doctors may have to revert to remedies from an earlier era. Udwadia recalls his first patient with untreatable TB. Twenty-six years old, she had spent the last five years trying a variety of anti-TB drugs, all of which had failed. As a last resort, she underwent a pneumonectomy, a high-risk medical procedure to remove a lung. The woman later died of complications from the surgery. The procedure had not been used on tuberculosis patients since the introduction of antibiotic treatments six decades ago.

via The White Death, Revived – In The Fray.