JAMA. 2010;304(10):1056. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.1288
Author: Rebecca Voelker
“A recent alarm warning against complacency in polio vaccination has come from an unlikely place: Canada. Infectious poliomyelitis, eradicated in much of the world during the past 2 decades, remains endemic only in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. But a new outbreak last spring in Tajikistan has resulted in 452 laboratory-confirmed cases of wild poliovirus type 1 and 20 deaths. At least 7 related cases have been reported in the Russian Federation. The outbreak is the first to strike a World Health Organization (WHO)–certified polio-free region. Tajikistan is in the WHO European Region, which was certified polio-free in 2002. Tajikistan’s outbreak, imported from northern India, prompted a bluntly worded editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).”
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Archive for category Preventative care
The Age- 08 September, 2010
Author: Danny Rose
“A major report on preventable illness in Australia has called for junk food, alcohol and cigarette price hikes, an increase in the legal drinking age and mandatory salt limits for common foods.”
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JAMA. 2010;304(7):799. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.1176
Book reviewer: William B. Ventres
“…Partner to the Poor [edited by Haun Saussy] is a compilation of 25 of [Paul] Farmer’s ethnographic essays written from 1988 to 2008. The book includes 4 main thematic sections—”Ethnography, History, Political Economy”; “Anthropology Amid Epidemics”; “Structural Violence”; and “Human Rights and a Critique of Medical Ethics”—and presents in detail Farmer’s personal views on the practice of medicine globally. It also demonstrates how he has broadened his thinking over the years, moving from conventional anthropology to thoughtful perspectives on international policy and the implementation of preventive as well as curative health care services.”
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Guardian- 01 August, 2010
Author: Denis Campbell
“Family doctors are being given new advice on how to spot meningitis after research revealed that settling a lawsuit involving misdiagnosis of the condition can cost as much as £6.8m.”
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Times of India- 24 July, 2010
Author: Arun Ram
“CHENNAI: The Union health ministry came close to putting the lives of lakhs of children in danger by considering procurement of 274 lakh doses of BCG vaccine which were well past their expiry date.”
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BMJ 2010;341:c3904
Author: Janice Hopkins Tanne
“When provisions of the US health reform legislation take effect on 23 September, new insurance plans will have to offer consumers 45 free screenings and other preventive services recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force, among many other preventive services…”
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Australian Medical Association, 21 July 2010
“Elections are about choices. The type of health system we want is one of those crucial decisions. In an ideal world, something as important as health care would be above party politics. But it isn’t. In this election, all political parties cannot afford to give scant regard to the health care of the Australian population. …In this document, the AMA has detailed wide-ranging policies that build on what works and attempts to fix what doesn’t.”
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Guardian- 18 July, 2010
Author: Diederik Lohman
“Thousands of people will be in Vienna this week for the 18th International Aids Conference. The theme is human rights, and the focus will be on eastern Europe. That’s fitting, because poor health policies and on-going human rights abuses continue to fuel an HIV/Aids epidemic across thousands of miles, from Vladivostok to Lviv in Ukraine.”
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Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, media release, 21 July 2010
“The Australian Greens have called for a levy on junk food and alcohol advertising similar to the levy which has applied in France since 2004. Launching the policy with Victorian Greens Senate candidate, Dr Richard di Natale in Melbourne today, Greens leader Bob Brown said the advertisers could choose the option of including health information in their advertising or pay the levy.”
Find media release here.
Los Angeles Times, By Thomas H. Maugh II, 14 July 2010
“The United Nations’ agency in charge of AIDS policy is lowering the threshold for treating HIV-positive individuals in developing countries in the hope that earlier treatment will prevent hospitalizations and reduce related medical care costs, the organization said Tuesday. The announcement is part of a new report issued in advance of next week’s international AIDS conference in Vienna, the biennial meeting at which researchers present the most recent AIDS research and policy decisions.”
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