Study tracks 30 years of Newark murders as 'infectious disease'

Reblogged from AVC Triad:

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Homicides in Newark have spread through the city over the past 30 years like an infectious disease and can be tracked and treated like a public health issue with prevention, inoculation and treatment, according to a study by Michigan State University.

The study, among the first to track murder through the lens of medical research, is part of a widening trend among local leaders and the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to treat violent crime like a medical condition.

Read more… 208 more words

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New Jersey city copes with grinding reality of killing (National Catholic Reporter)

Two sentences really stood out...
"they realized that they had to replace a fundamental and often-asked question, “Why did you do that?” with another, “What happened to you?”"
"Putthoff said that behavior that has protected the youth amid the effects of poverty and abuse -- the knowledge of friends and families killed, mothers beaten and the constant threats of homelessness and hunger -- doesn’t work in other surroundings."

New study maps hotspots of human-animal infectious diseases and emerging disease outbreaks

FIGURE 2. Global richness map of the geographic origins of EID events from 1940 to 2004.
The map is derived for EID events caused by all pathogen types. Circles represent one degree grid cells, and the area of the circle is proportional to the number of events in the cell.
This image and others from this article may be found here 

 

Maps reveal animal-borne disease as heavy burden for 1 billion of world’s poor; new evidence on zoonotic emerging disease hotspots in US and Western Europe

From the 4 July 2012 EurkAlert article

NAIROBI, KENYA (5 July 2012)—A new global study mapping human-animal diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and Rift Valley fever finds that an “unlucky” 13 zoonoses are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year. The vast majority occur in low- and middle-income countries.

[An abstract of the article may be found here. Full text requires a paid subscription. Article may be free at a local academic, public, or medical library. Call ahead and ask for a reference librarian!]

The report, which was conducted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Institute of Zoology (UK) and the Hanoi School of Public Health in Vietnam, maps poverty, livestock-keeping and the diseases humans get from animals, and presents a “top 20″ list of geographical hotspots.

“From cyst-causing tapeworms to avian flu, zoonoses present a major threat to human and animal health,” said Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert with ILRI in Kenya and lead author of the study. “Targeting the diseases in the hardest hit countries is crucial to protecting global health as well as to reducing severe levels of poverty and illness among the world’s one billion poor livestock keepers.”

“Exploding global demand for livestock products is likely to fuel the spread of a wide range of human-animal infectious diseases,” Grace added.

According to the study, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania in Africa, as well as India in Asia, have the highest zoonotic disease burdens, with widespread illness and death. Meanwhile, the northeastern United States, Western Europe (especially the United Kingdom), Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia may be hotspots of “emerging zoonoses”—those that are newly infecting humans, are newly virulent, or have newly become drug resistant. The study examined the likely impacts of livestock intensification and climate change on the 13 zoonotic diseases currently causing the greatest harm to the world’s poor.

The report, Mapping of Poverty and Likely Zoonoses Hotspots, was developed with support from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). The goal of the research was to identify areas where better control of zoonotic diseases would most benefit poor people. It also updates a map of emerging disease events published in the science journal Nature in 2008 by Jones et al.ⁱ

Remarkably, some 60 percent of all human diseases and 75 percent of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic. Among the high-priority zoonoses studied here are “endemic zoonoses,” such as brucellosis, which cause the vast majority of illness and death in poor countries; “epidemic zoonoses,” which typically occur as outbreaks, such as anthrax and Rift Valley fever; and the relatively rare “emerging zoonoses,” such as bird flu, a few of which, like HIV/AIDS, spread to cause global cataclysms. While zoonoses can be transmitted to people by either wild or domesticated animals, most human infections are acquired from the world’s 24 billion livestock, including pigs, poultry, cattle, goats, sheep and camels.

Related articles

• New study maps hotspots of human-animal infectious diseases and emerging disease outbreaks (eurekalert.org)
• Diseases from animals hit over two billion people a year (windsorstar.com)
• Diseases from animals hit over two billion people a year (vancouversun.com)
• Diseases from animals hit over 2 billion people a year (dailystar.com.lb)
• Diseases from animals hit over 2 billion people a year (todayonline.com)
• Cost of human-animal disease greatest for world’s poor (junkscience.com)
• Do You Live Near an Infectious Human-Animal Disease Hotspot? [Visualization] (gizmodo.com)
• Do You Live Near an Infectious Human-Animal Disease Hotspot? (gizmodo.co.uk)
• Animal diseases sicken 2 billion, kill 2.2 million a year: Report (crofsblogs.typepad.com)
• Ethiopia tops list of animal-human disease transfer hotspots (wired.co.uk)

The Dirtiest Places In The Office

From the 24 May 2012 Medical News Today article

If you think the restroom is the place you are most likely to pick up germs at the office, perhaps you should think again, because new findings from the US suggest the dirtiest places in the office are in break rooms and kitchens, with sink and microwave door handles topping the list of germ “hot spots”…

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An ATP **count of 300 or more means the surface has a high level of contamination and there is a high risk of illness transmission. When they analyzed the samples, the researchers found ATP counts of 300 and higher on:

• 75% of break room sink faucet (tap) handles,
• 48% of microwave door handles,
• 27% of keyboards,
• 26% of refrigerator door handles,
• 23% of water fountain buttons, and
• 21% of vending machine buttons.

**ATP  (adenosine triphosphate) is the universal energy molecule found in all animal, plant, bacteria, yeast and mold cells. Large amounts are present in food and organic residues, which when left on a surface can harbor and grow bacteria.

Related articles

• The 6 Dirtiest Work Places (webmd.com)
• Door Handles are the dirtiest place in a workplace (prweb.com)
• Germy Office Surfaces: Study Reveals Most Contaminated Items At Work (huffingtonpost.com)
• Where Do The Germs Lurk At Work? Not Where You Think… (wdok.radio.com)
• Germs Lurk in Office Kitchens, Break Rooms (news.health.com)
• Where do germs flourish in your office? – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• Germs Lurk in Office Kitchens, Break Rooms (health.usnews.com)

Animals in Schools and Daycare Settings

From the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Web page

Animals can provide important opportunities for entertainment and learning. However, there is also a risk for getting sick or hurt from contact with animals, including those in school and daycare classrooms.

Animals can be effective and valuable teaching aids for children, but there is a risk of illness and injury from contact with animals. Young children are especially at risk for illness because their immune systems are still developing and because they are more likely than others to put their fingers or other items into their mouths, a behavior that can spread germs. …

The page also summarizes

• Types of diseases animals can spread
• How to reduce risk of illnesses from animals
• How to check that animals are healthy
• Links to further information, for both adults and children

 

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• Is Your Kids’ Sack Lunchbox Safe? (abcnews.go.com)