For much of 2014, the Ebola outbreak in Sub-Saharan Africa dominated headlines as the virus spread and eventually made its way to the United States and Europe. Unfortunately, while the world focused on graphic images of people dying from Ebola on the street, little attention was paid to other infectious diseases that continue to plague much of the developing world.
As media coverage of the Ebola outbreak slowly started to decline, however, news of a new strain of drug-resistant malaria started to catch the public’s attention. Drug-resistance is a silent but serious threat to public health. And, if drug-resistant malaria were to spread from its current location in Myanmar to the nearby nations of India and China, it could easily become the world’s next big global health emergency.
More generally, every year millions of people die from malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDs – aptly named neglected diseases. This fact invites the following questions: What efforts to combat these neglected diseases are working? Where is help still needed? And, what initiatives are actually making a difference?
A new Global Health Impact index, supported by a collaboration of university-based researchers and civil society organizations around the world, helps provide answers to these questions. The index evaluates the global health impact of particular drugs. This information can be used to increase awareness about particular diseases, and create national and international demand for drugs to treat these diseases.
A drug’s global health impact is determined by compiling information about: (1) the need for the drug; (2) access to the drug; and (3) effectiveness of the drug. In this way, the Global Health Impact index makes it possible to estimate the impact of each drug in each country, as well as the global impact of particular drugs on specific diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
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[Reblog] The Global Health Impact Index
From the 30 January 2015 post by Nicole Hassoun and Priya Bhimani at Impact Ethics
[Press release] How long can Ebola live? No one really knows — ScienceDaily
How long can Ebola live? No one really knows
December 10, 2014How Long Can Ebola Live?
Pitt researcher publishes article showing that the literature is lacking, receives NSF grant to conduct further studyContact:PITTSBURGH—The Ebola virus travels from person to person through direct contact with infected body fluids. But how long can the virus survive on glass surfaces or countertops? How long can it live in wastewater when liquid wastes from a patient end up in the sewage system? In an article published Dec. 9 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, Kyle Bibby of the University of Pittsburgh reviews the latest research to find answers to these questions.
He
Kyle Bibby and his co-investigators didn’t find many answers.
“The World Health Organization has been saying you can put (human waste) in pit latrines or ordinary sanitary sewers and that the virus then dies,” says Bibby, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “But the literature lacks evidence that it does. They may be right, but the evidence isn’t there.”
Bibby and colleagues from Pitt and Drexel University explain that knowing how long the deadly pathogen survives on surfaces, in water, or in liquid droplets is critical to developing effective disinfection practices to prevent the spread of the disease. Currently, the World Health Organization guidelines recommend to hospitals and health clinics that liquid wastes from patients be flushed down the toilet or disposed of in a latrine. However, Ebola research labs that use patients’ liquid waste are supposed to disinfect the waste before it enters the sewage system. Bibby’s team set out to determine what research can and can’t tell us about these practices.
The researchers scoured scientific papers for data on how long the virus can live in the environment. They found a dearth of published studies on the matter. That means no one knows for sure whether the virus can survive on a surface and cause infection or how long it remains active in water, wastewater, or sludge. The team concluded that Ebola’s persistence outside the body needs more careful investigation.
To that end, Bibby recently won a $110,000 National Science Foundation grant to explore the issue. His team will identify surrogate viruses that are physiologically similar to Ebola and study their survival rates in water and wastewater. The findings of this study will inform water treatment and waste-handling procedures in a timely manner while research on the Ebola virus is still being conducted.
Related articles
[News item] Each dollar spent on kids’ nutrition can yield more than $100 later
From the 8 December 2014 ScienceDaily article
Date: December 8, 2014Source: University of WaterlooSummary: There are strong economic incentives for governments to invest in early childhood nutrition, reports a new paper that reveals that every dollar spent on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life can provide a country up to $166 in future earnings.There are strong economic incentives for governments to invest in early childhood nutrition, reports a new paper from the University of Waterloo and Cornell University. Published for the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, the paper reveals that every dollar spent on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life can provide a country up to $166 in future earnings.
“The returns on investments in nutrition have high benefit-cost ratios, especially in countries with higher income levels and a growing economy,” said Professor Susan Horton, of the School of Public Health and Health Systems and the Department of Economics at Waterloo.
Children who are undernourished during the first 1,000 days of their lives typically show stunted growth patterns by the age of three and have poorer cognitive skills than their well-fed peers. As adults they are less educated, earn lower wages and have more health problems throughout their lives.
“Height-for-age is a much better measure of health than weight-for-age. It is also predictive of economic outcomes,”
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Currently, the World Health Organization is aiming to reduce stunting among children under age five by 40 per cent as part of its 2025 nutrition goals, and it is widely expected that the rate of stunting will also be included in its Sustainable Development Goals, which will be announced in 2015.
More information can be found at: http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/nutrition
[Reblog] Clearing the air on a WHO study
From the 17 July 2014 Association of Health Care Journalists post
Last week, I encountered yet another example of why it’s so important to always read the whole study — not just the press release. In this case, it was actually a report, not a study. A press release from Alzheimer’s International with the somewhat misleading headline, “Smoking Increases Risk Of Dementia” arrived in my inbox, citing a new World Health Organization report that put smokers at a 45% higher risk for developing the disease than non-smokers.
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It’s a good reminder that regardless of the reputation of the organization or institution issuing a report, study or press release, read the source information yourself. You never know what you may find.
WHO (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
[Web site review] WHO: Public Health and Environment
The World Health Organization (WHO) has crafted this site that is dedicated to “public health, social and environmental determinants of health (PHE).” On the site, visitors can look over the WHO’s publications and news releases, along with multimedia features and event listings. Guests should start by browsing the Publications which contain timely reports on pharmaceuticals in drinking-water and children’s environmental health. The Health Topics area contains information about how WHO is working to reduce indoor air pollution, outdoor pollution, and chemical safety. The site also contains links to its overall global strategy via working papers and policy statements. [KMG]
Related articles
[Reblog] How to find good vaccine information online
Although a number of my posts voice my concerns about “Big Pharm”, I still get an annual flu shot and keep up with vaccines.
Why? Overall I believe they are good public health measures. Still believe in herd immunity and my responsibility to others.
From the 14 November 2013 post by at KevinMD.com
(Please read the comments also for good additional information.)
Dr. Google, you’ve let a whole lot of people down.
If you Google a vaccine question, and many parents have, you’re very likely to find a good, science-based answer — but it will be buried among dozens of sites with anti-science, pro-disease propaganda. The mountain of misinformation is staggering, with multiple anti-vaccine sites repeating each other in a seemingly endless loop of worry and dread. Let neither facts nor truth nor glimmer of honesty stay them from the swift completion of their self-appointed fear mongering rounds.
Fortunately, there are ways to make sure you’re getting reliable answers to your questions.
Start with the CDC’s vaccine home page, which leads to comprehensive information about just about any vaccine health topic.
Prefer an academic center over a government site? The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (perhaps the best children’s medical center in the world) has their own very comprehensive vaccine site, and even their own vaccine information app.
Looking for a more global view? Try the World Health Organization’s vaccine page.
Willing to put up with a little snark? Several good science bloggers frequently discuss vaccine topics, no holds barred, and end up with some robust back-and-forth in the comments. Try Respectful Insolence, The Skeptical Raptor, or Neurologica.
Finally, if what you’d like is a meta-search that looks at only the best vaccine information sources, and weeds out the crap, try this science based vaccine search engine.
Parents don’t have the time to wade through the idiocy — they want real, genuine information to help make decisions. Google won’t do that for you, but these links will.
Roy Benaroch is a pediatrician who blogs at The Pediatric Insider. He is also the author of Solving Health and Behavioral Problems from Birth through Preschool: A Parent’s Guide and A Guide to Getting the Best Health Care for Your Child.
Matthew Toohey MD This author is spot on in addressing a real problem: these mercola-type internet sites are very harmful. They have the right to free speech but we must combat what is clearly destructive and unsubstantiated ‘health’ information. These sites have found a niche and strike a nerve for a lot of people who have come to the realization that western medicine doesn’t always have a cure for what ails them.
These sites play off this reality and work to trump up a sense of conspiracy which we as humans seem to have a weakness for.
Some people are distrustful of major ‘government’ websites like CDC.
On my site, I am honest about each vaccine’s effectiveness and potential side effects. I also explain why I support their use, one at a time:
http://pediatriciannextdoor.co…
I hope it helps
Maybe such a page or site already exists, if so I’d love a link to it.
The first is a CDC site that lists vaccine ingredients:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pu…The second is the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program:
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecom…
Related articles
- Vaccinations, “For the Greater Good” (vaccinesforchildren.wordpress.com)
- Vaccines: how they work & why they’re important (wgno.com)
- Homecoming week offers flu vaccine for first time (digitalbullpen.com)
[Repost] Self-Rated Health Puts Aging, Health Needs On the Agenda
World Health Organization Regions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From the 23 October ScienceDaily article
mplementation of national surveys where the population can estimate and assess their own health may give policy makers important insights into the different health interventions that should be implemented. According Siddhivinayak Hirve, PhD student at Umeå University, this may include a simple tool that harmonizes the assessment of health in developing countries with the rest of the world.
When the World Health Organization, WHO, conducted a study of aging in a global context and health among adults, in 2007, they asked the simple question “In general, how would you rate your health today?” The results showed that every other elderly person, over 50, who lived in rural areas in India said that they felt very bad, bad, or moderate.
In his thesis, Siddhivinayak Hirve has examined the factors that influence the assessment of own estimated health in older individuals in the population in rural India. The thesis shows that women report worse health than men. Self-reported health also deteriorated with age. The effect of age in terms of self-rated health was affected by participants’ ability to move, ability to see, hearing, relationships, pain, sleeping problems, and more.
“Smoking and use of tobacco were factors that could be linked to at least one chronic disease, which in turn affected the self-reported health effects,” says Siddhivinayak Hirve. “Our studies also demonstrate that a large social network results in better self-rated health and also a higher quality of life.”
A four-year follow-up study that Siddhivinayak Hirve has conducted showed that the risk of dying was larger in those who reported poorer health compared with those who reported that they had good or very good health at the start of the study
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Siddhivinayak Hirve concludes, based on his findings, that it is possible to use information on self-rated health from major national surveys, such as the planning of health care, even in small, isolated areas.
“My goal of this thesis has been to put aging on the agenda, both among scholars and policy makers,” says Siddhivinayak Hirve. “This is particularly important in countries where it has a rapidly aging population. The value of asking the simple question, “In general, how do you feel today?” Is very high and can be very helpful to identify health needs, and plan for targeted interventions in health. This is particularly true in developing countries.”
He also points out that measurements of self-rated health provides a driving force to strengthen research on health for the adult and aging populations in low-and middle-income countries that harmonize with international research.
Thesis is available for viewing at: http://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:653335
Related articles
- Self-rated health puts aging and health needs on the agenda (medicalxpress.com)
[Reblog] Here are the world’s worst cities for air pollution, and they’re not the ones you’d expect
Serious air pollution (Photo credit: Andrew.T@NN)
From the 18 October 2013 article By Ritchie King and Lily Kuo at Quartz
In 2010, some 223,000 people around the world died from lung cancer caused by exposure to air pollution, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday. And more than half of those deaths are believed to have been in China and elsewhere in East Asia. Here are the world’s worst cities for air pollution, according to the WHO.
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Exposure to air pollution is getting worse in parts of the world, especially industrializing countries, according to the WHO. The WHO’s key announcement yesterday was that it has included outdoor air pollution on its definitive list of the world’s known carcinogens—an addition that, it hopes, will get governments to do something about it. Air pollution is the world’s worst environmental carcinogen and more dangerous than second-hand smoke, for instance, the health body said.
+As the chart above shows, the cities with the worst air are often not big capitals, but provincial places with heavy industry in them or nearby. Ahwaz, for instance, in southwestern Iran, far outstrips infamously polluted cities like New Delhi or Beijing, with 372 parts per million of particles smaller than 10 micrometers (PM10), compared to the world average of 71. Life expectancy for the city of 1.2 million residents is the lowest in Iran.
+Why so bad? In Ahwaz, Iranian meteorology officials have blamed the US for the spike, claiming the presence of US forces in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s destroyed agriculture and caused desertification. But researchers cite heavy industry in and around the city, like oil, metal and petrochemical processing, and blame the desertification on the draining of marshes and a national project that has diverted local water away from the city.
Related articles
- How air pollution in China has hit previously unimaginable levels (qz.com)
- The World’s Worst Cities for Air Pollution Might Not Be the Ones You’d Expect (theatlanticcities.com)
- Air Pollution Does Cause Cancer, World Health Organization Says (ktla.com)
- The World Health Organization Declares Air Pollution an Official Carcinogen (inhabitat.com)
- The world’s worst cities for air pollution, and they’re not the ones you’d expect (crofsblogs.typepad.com)
- Polluted air a leading cause of cancer deaths (scotsman.com)
- Air pollution causes cancer, WHO concludes. (telegraph.co.uk)
- The air we breathe definitively and scientifically linked to cancer (sott.net)
- WHO agency: Air pollution causes cancer (kansascity.com)
WHO Issues New Guidance on Dietary Salt and Potassium
An image of a grain of table salt taken using a scanning electron microscope. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From the 31 January 2013 press release
Adults should consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium, or 5 grams of salt, and at least 3,510 mg of potassium per day, according to new guidelines issued by the WHO.
Related articles
- Bring On The Beans! Health Officials Want You To Eat More Potassium (npr.org)
- Why Health Officials Want You To Eat More Potassium (wnyc.org)
- Eat Less Salt; They Changed the Scales Again (scienceworldreport.com)
UN Publishes Atlas Of Health And Climate
From the 28 October 2012 WHO news release
As the world’s climate continues to change, hazards to human health are increasing. The Atlas of health and climate, published today jointly by WHO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), illustrates some of the most pressing current and emerging challenges.
Droughts, floods and cyclones affect the health of millions of people each year. Climate variability and extreme conditions such as floods can also trigger epidemics of diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria, dengue and meningitis, which cause death and suffering for many millions more. The Atlas gives practical examples of how the use of weather and climate information can protect public health.
Climate risk management
“Prevention and preparedness are the heart of public health. Risk management is our daily bread and butter. Information on climate variability and climate change is a powerful scientific tool that assists us in these tasks,” said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. “Climate has a profound impact on the lives, and survival, of people. Climate services can have a profound impact on improving these lives, also through better health outcomes.”
Until now, climate services have been an underutilized resource for public health.
“Stronger cooperation between the meteorological and health communities is essential to ensure that up-to-date, accurate and relevant information on weather and climate is integrated into public health management at international, national and local levels. This Atlas is an innovative and practical example of how we can work together to serve society,” said WMO Secretary-General Mr Michel Jarraud.
Links between health and climate
Numerous maps, tables and graphs assembled in the Atlas make the links between health and climate more explicit:
- In some locations the incidence of infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, meningitis and cholera can vary by factors of more than 100 between seasons, and significantly between years, depending on weather and climate conditions. Stronger climate services in endemic countries can help predict the onset, intensity and duration of epidemics.
- Case studies illustrate how collaboration between meteorological, emergency and health services is already saving lives. For example, the death toll from cyclones of similar intensity in Bangladesh reduced from around 500 000 in 1970, to 140 000 in 1991, to 3 000 in 2007 – largely thanks to improved early warning systems and preparedness.
- Heat extremes that would currently be expected to occur only once in 20 years, may occur on average every 2-5 years by the middle of this century. At the same time, the number of older people living in cities (one of the most vulnerable groups to heat stress), will almost quadruple globally, from 380 million in 2010, to 1.4 billion in 2050. Cooperation between health and climate services can trigger measures to better protect people during periods of extreme weather.
- Shifting to clean household energy sources would both reduce climate change, and save the lives of approximately 680 000 children a year from reduced air pollution. The Atlas also shows how meteorological and health services can collaborate to monitor air pollution and its health impacts.
- In addition, the unique tool shows how the relationship between health and climate is shaped by other vulnerabilities, such as those created by poverty, environmental degradation, and poor infrastructure, especially for water and sanitation.
Related articles
- U.N. health “Atlas” may help predict outbreaks (cbsnews.com)
- WMO, WHO call for better use of climate services for public health (nzweek.com)
- UN pinpoints climate-linked health risks (capitalfm.co.ke)
Urban Outdoor Air Pollution Causes An Estimated 1.3 Million Deaths Per Year Worldwide
English: A schematic of the global air pollution. The map was made by User:KVDP using the GIMP. It was based on the global air pollution map by the ESA (see http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM340NKPZD_index_0.html , http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/EarthObservation/pollution_global_hires.jpg ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From the 3 August 2012 article at Medical News Today
Most of the world’s population will be subject to degraded air quality in 2050 if man-made emissions continue as usual. In this ‘business-as-usual’ scenario, the average world citizen 40 years from now will experience similar air pollution to that of today’s average East Asian citizen. These conclusions are those of a study published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, an Open Access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).
Air pollution is a major health risk that may worsen with increasing industrial activity. At present, urban outdoor air pollution causes 1.3 million estimated deaths per year worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation [1].
“Strong actions and further effective legislation are essential to avoid the drastic deterioration of air quality, which can have severe effects on human health,” concludes the team of scientists, led by Andrea Pozzer of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy (now at the Max Planck Institute of Chemistry in Germany), in the new paper.
The researchers studied the impact of man-made emissions on air quality, assuming past emission trends continue and no additional climate change and air pollution reduction measures (beyond what is in place since 2005) are implemented. They point out that, while pessimistic, the global emissions trends indicate such continuation…
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The analysis now published is the first to include all five major air pollutants know to negatively impact human health: PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, and carbon monoxide. The scientists considered pollutants released through human activity, as well as those occurring naturally such as desert dust, sea spray, or volcanic emissions.
Taking all pollutants into account, eastern China, northern India, the Middle East, and North Africa are projected to have the world’s poorest air quality in the future. In the latter locations this is due to a combination of natural desert dust and man-induced ozone. The effect of anthropogenic pollution emissions are predicted to be most harmful in East and South Asia, where air pollution is projected to triple compared to current levels.
Related Resources
- Air Pollution (MedlinePlus) with links to overviews, specific conditions, related issues, organizations, and more
- EPA Office of Air and Radiation
- WHO- Air Quality and Health
Related articles
- Urban Outdoor Air Pollution Causes An Estimated 1.3 Million Deaths Per Year Worldwide (medicalnewstoday.com)
- Air pollution: should it stop you exercising? (guardian.co.uk)
- Cut emissions further or face risks of high air pollution, study shows (terradaily.com)
- Cut emissions further or face risks of high air pollution, study shows (esciencenews.com)
- Air Pollution Found to Cause Anxiety And Depression In Children (greenerideal.com)
- Report: World’s air pollution could be as bad as China’s by 2050 without urgent action from governments (rtcc.org)
- Cut emissions further or face risks of high air pollution, study shows (phys.org)
- Calling for Environmental Health Solutions in Cities (newswatch.nationalgeographic.com)
- California looks to a greener future: Transportation plans look promising (electrocorpairpurification.wordpress.com)
Two billion men and women in developing countries cannot get essential medicines
Image via Wikipedia Developing Countries
Two billion men and women in developing countries cannot get essential medicines
November 21, 2011 – Two billion men and women in developing countries cannot get essential medicines
Once Every Seven Years World Experts Meet to Discuss Misuse of Medicines in Low- and Middle Income Countries. Eight Indonesian Researchers Attended this Prestigious Meeting.
Once Every Seven Years World Experts Meet to Discuss Misuse of Medicines in Low- and Middle Income Countries
- High medicine costs push 150 million people below the poverty line each year
- In many low- and middle income countries, one month of life-saving insulin treatment for diabetes may cost half a month’s salary
- In one Asian country, 42% of medicine costs is spent on bribing the doctors
- In Oman, misuse of antibiotic use has been reduced by half since 1995
- Cell phone messages remind East-African AIDS patients to take their medicines
When Catherine Adwoa suddenly fainted and fell ill, her mother first thought she had AIDS. But when she was rushed to the district hospital, she was relieved to hear that that was not the case. The doctor told the 17-year old schoolgirl she had diabetes.
But her father knew immediately that his life would never be the same again. From now on, the daily injections of insulin for his daughter would cost him half his salary. Like in most other African countries medicines for AIDS are free, but treatment for diabetes is not. Hospitals rarely have the injections in stock, so he would have to go around private pharmacies to get the life-saving medicine for the rest of his life, which meant there would be no money left to pay for school fees.
Over 600 world experts on essential medicines met in Antalya, Turkey for the Third International Conference on Improving the Use of Medicines (ICIUM). They heard several similar stories from developing countries from all over the world – how life-saving treatments for malaria are not available in private pharmacies of East Africa; how unscrupulous local manufacturers continue to produce and promote malaria drugs that the World Health Organization has recommended be taken off the market because they lead to resistance; and how 42% of the price of medicines in one Asian country is spent on bribing the doctors.
Delegates from over 80 countries who attended ICIUM also learned that more people in developing countries die from chronic diseases such as hypertension, asthma and diabetes, than from infectious diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis. Unfortunately very few governments do anything about it.
But there was also good news. The medicines for a year of treatment of such chronic diseases cost less than $6 dollars – provided they are bought as generic (off-patent) medicines and provided the local distributor, the pharmacist and the doctor do not add another 10 or 20 dollars to the price. …
…Special attention was given to the needs of the people in countries of the “Arab Spring” with examples of constitutional text from other countries reflecting access to essential medicines as part of human rights….
…The World Health Organization estimates that about one third of the world’s population – around 2 billion people – does not have regular access to essential medicines. …
Ten Great Public Health Achievements — Worldwide, 2001–2010
From the 24 June 2011 MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) of the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Worldwide, a child born in 1955 had an average life expectancy at birth of only 48 years (1). By 2000, the average life expectancy at birth had increased to 66 years and, if past trends continue, is projected to rise to 73 years by 2025 (1). These improvements in longevity have resulted from improved living conditions overall, advances in medical science, and a number of population-level interventions. However, major disparities persist. During the past decade, in low-income countries, average life expectancy at birth increased from 55 to 57 years (3.6%), while increasing from 78 to 80 years (2.6%) in high-income countries (2). Analogous to the recent MMWR report highlighting 10 public health achievements that occurred in the United States over the first 10 years of the new century, this report describes global public health achievements during the same period (3). Experts in global public health were asked to nominate noteworthy public health achievements that occurred outside of the United States during 2001–2010. From them, 10 have been summarized in this report. As with the previous report, the 10 global public health achievements are not ranked in any order. Additional information regarding these achievements is available athttp://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6019a5_addinfo.htm….
And a short listing…with links…to these Top 10
Learn more about the CDC science and programmatic work that went into the “Ten Great Public Health Achievements — Worldwide, 2001–2010” at these links:
- CDC’s Role in Global Health
- Reductions in Child Mortality
- Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
- Access to Safe Water and Sanitation
- Malaria Prevention and Control
- Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS
- Tuberculosis Control
- Control of Neglected Tropical Disease
- Tobacco Control
- Increased Awareness and Response for Improving Global Road Safety
- Improved Preparedness and Response to Global Health Threats
About
This blog presents a sampling of health and medical news and resources for all. Selected articles and resources will hopefully be of general interest but will also encourage further reading through posted references and other links. Currently I am focusing on public health, basic and applied research and very broadly on disease and healthy lifestyle topics.
Several times a month I will post items on international and global health issues. My Peace Corps Liberia experience (1980-81) has formed me as a global citizen in many ways and has challenged me to think of health and other topics in a more holistic manner.
Do you have an informational question in the health/medical area?
Email me at jmflahiff@yahoo.com
I will reply within 48 hours.
This blog is a companion site to my Health and Medical News and Resources Web site with…
- Great places to start (locating health information)
- Links to help from others (as health care providers and support groups)
- Interactive tools (as health calculators and apps)
- Select related news sites and blogs
My professional work experience and education includes over 15 years experience as a medical librarian and a Master’s in Library Science. In my most recent position I enjoyed contributing to our library’s blog, performing in depth literature searches, and collaborating with faculty, staff, students, and the general public.
While I will never be be able to keep up with the universe of current health/medical news, I subscribe to the following to glean entries for this blog.
- Science Daily – Your source for the latest research news
- MedlinePlus email updates from the US National Institutes of Health
- Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce – a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries
- US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) news now with updates on the agency’s efforts to “improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans”
- Research Buzz, “news about search engines, digital archives, online museums, databases, and other Internet information collections since 1998”
- Scout Report, a “weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators”
- KevinMD.com -“Social Media’s leading physician voice”
- EurekAlert-Medicine and Health
Health and Medical News and Resources 
