E. coli in the countryside: whose problem is it anyway?

From the 25 August 2011 Science Daily article

Reducing the risks of catching E. coli O157 in the countryside is everyone’s problem. That means we should all take responsibility — individual residents and visitors, as well as farmers and government — according to experts…

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Majority Of Homeless People Have Chronic Health Conditions

From the 26 August 2011 Medical News Today article

More than eight out of 10 homeless people surveyed by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital and elsewhere have at least one chronic health condition and more than half have a mental health problem. People who are “vulnerably housed” – meaning they live in unsafe, unstable or unaffordable housing – had equally poor, and in some cases worse, health, the survey found. The underlying cause for these health issues is poverty, said Dr. Stephen Hwang, the principal investigator of the study and a physician-researcher at the hospital’s Centre for Research on Inner City Health

“Poor housing conditions and poor health are closely linked,” said Dr. Hwang. “We need to treat both problems.” …

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Related articles

• Chronic pain in homeless people not managed well (scienceblog.com)
• Thirsty Homeless People (thehomelessguy.blogspot.com)

How environmental exposures can contribute to autism and ADHD

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From an August 2011 posting by PHILIP J. LANDRIGAN, MD at KevinMD.com

Each year, biologically based disorders of brain development – autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mental retardation, dyslexia, and subclinical neurodevelopmental disabilities – affect between 400,000 and 600,000 of the four million babies born in the United States. This means that between 10% and 15% of American children have some kind of learning disability.

Reported rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are sharply increasing.  The CDC reports that the rates of ASD increased by 57% between 2002 and 2006, now affecting 1 of every 110 babies born in the U.S.

With this rise in reported diagnosis, researchers are asking new questions about the causes of autism.  Until recently, most of this research into the causes of ASD has focused on genetic factors.  These investigations have made rapid progress and have identified a series of genetic abnormalities that are linked to autism. Taken together, these identified genetic causes account for about 30 to 40% of cases of autism.

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Related articles

• Researchers find new ADHD genes (ctv.ca)
• Autism, ADHD Share Genetic Similarities (foxnews.com)

The Student Source: Medical Resources and Software

 

From the 19 August 2011 Scout Report item 

For students new to medical school, parsing out the most relevant and helpful information from a seemingly limitless supply of materials can be daunting.  The links are divided into two dozen topical areas, such as “Gross Anatomy”, “Nephrology”, and “Surgery”. Each section contains links from reliable sources, including the University of Toronto, Oxford University, and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. The “Gross Anatomy” area is very thorough, as it contains over twenty resources that provide an overview of anatomy, anatomical slide shows, and so on

Click here for The Student Source: Medical Resources and Software

Related Resource

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