One Health

Suggestions on how to deal with Vaccine Hesitancy: Can We Talk?

Wed, 2020-12-30 01:08 — mike kraft

.... Public health officials stress that the COVID-19 vaccines will provide the best hope for returning to “normal.” Yet, a recent study from Kaiser Family Foundation revealed one-quarter of the population “probably or definitely would not take the coronavirus vaccine.”

Much is at stake. For life to return to anything approaching normal, 75% of the population must be immunized. If enough people avoid the vaccine, COVID-19 transmission will continue. Honest, fact-based conversations about the vaccine among family and close friends have an urgency that strikes close to the heart. Since some conversations are likely to be emotionally charged, it’s important to be able to communicate and listen actively. You’ll need to understand your own feelings about the issues, and also deal with someone else’s strong feelings — all while being able to think clearly and stay focused — basic psychoanalytic technique!

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What we know about the UK coronavirus variant

Sat, 2020-12-26 14:35 — mike kraft

What we know about the UK coronavirus variant Dozens of countries have banned travel from the UK in an effort to contain a new Covid-19 variant first reported in England. By <a href="/profiles/nectar-gan">Nectar Gan</a>, <a href="/profiles/brett-mckeehan">Brett McKeehan</a>, Zamira Rahim, Ed Upright and Melissa Macaya, CNN CNN

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Pulse Oximeter Devices Have Higher Error Rate in Black Patients--New study

Wed, 2020-12-23 15:20 — mike kraft

Pulse oximeters are one of the most commonly used tools in medicine. The small devices, which resemble a clothespin, measure blood oxygen when clipped onto a fingertip, and they can quickly indicate whether a patient needs urgent medical care.

Health providers use them when they take vital signs and when they evaluate patients for treatment. Ever since the pandemic started, doctors have encouraged patients with Covid to use them at home.

But in Black patients, the devices can provide misleading results in more than one in 10 people, according to a new study.

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British Airways and Delta agree to test all passengers before entering New York

Mon, 2020-12-21 23:41 — mike kraft

British Airways and Delta agree to test all passengers before entering New York British Airways and Delta Airlines have agreed to test all passengers before they enter New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday afternoon. By <a href="/profiles/julia-hollingsworth">Julia Hollingsworth</a>, <a href="/profiles/steve-george">Steve George</a>, <a href="/profiles/meg-wagner">Meg Wagner</a> and <a href="/profiles/melissa-mahtani">Melissa Mahtani</a>, CNN CNN

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In Japan, more people died from suicide last month than from Covid in all of 2020. And women have been impacted most

Sun, 2020-11-29 15:58 — mike kraft

In Japan, more people died from suicide last month than from Covid in all of 2020 More people died from suicide in Japan in October than succumbed to Covid-19 all year. And more women are taking their own lives, as they lose part-time work and take on the bulk of family responsibilities at home. Selina Wang, Rebecca Wright and Yoko Wakatsuki, CNN CNN

... Experts have warned that the pandemic could lead to a mental health crisis. Mass unemployment, social isolation, and anxiety are taking their toll on people globally.

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Will the COVID-19 crisis trigger a One Health coming-of-age?

Tue, 2020-09-15 13:46 — mike kraft

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(20)30179-0/fulltext

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the globe, leaving governments and public health services in shock and disarray, calls have been made for the need to adopt One Health approaches to address the failure to predict and halt the emergence of COVID-19.

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is widely suggested to have originated in Asia from a bat reservoir, possibly also involving other animal bridge species. As such, the focus of One Health on the human–animal–environment interface appears particularly compelling.

We concur, however, we warn that conceptual and institutional ambiguities that preclude the practical implementation and evaluation of One Health remain to be resolved.

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A Cure for Ebola? Two New Treatments Prove Highly Effective in Congo

Tue, 2019-08-13 16:04 — Maeryn Obley

A health worker wearing Ebola protection gear at a Biosecure Emergency Care Unit treatment center in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo.CreditCreditBaz Ratner/Reuters

Donald G. McNeil Jr. - NYTimes - August 12th 2019

In a development that transforms the fight against Ebola, two experimental treatments are working so well that they will now be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, scientists announced on Monday.

The antibody-based treatments are quite powerful — “Now we can say that 90 percent can come out of treatment cured,” one scientist said — that they raise hopes that the disastrous epidemic in eastern Congo can soon be stopped and future outbreaks more easily contained.

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Where Does the Ebola Virus Hide Between Outbreaks?

Fri, 2017-11-03 13:24 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Photo by Steve Babuljak

ucsf.edu - by Samantha Ancona Esselmann, Samantha Hindle and Ben Mansky - October 24, 2017

Joe DeRisi, PhD, is a master detective of infectious diseases. No matter how obscure or complex, he says he’ll take on the challenge because “it could lead to new biology that we wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.”

That's precisely what happened when he stumbled on a clue to cracking the decades-long search for the place – or creature – where the Ebola virus hides between deadly outbreaks. . . .

. . . In 2009, DeRisi began studying an incurable disease that was killing reptiles raised in captivity, a disease that caused strange neurological symptoms ranging from vomiting to uncontrollable contortions. They found the culprit – a previously undescribed arenavirus – and uncovered something surprising: the Arenavirus’s glycoprotein, a viral “access badge” to the secure insides of a cell, actually belonged to the Ebola virus.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Post-Ebola, West Africans Flock Back to Bushmeat, With Risk

Thu, 2016-09-22 21:24 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Jeff Williams

FILE-In this file photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, Yaa Kyarewaa, await clients as she stands next to her makeshift bush meat shop at one of the largest local markets in Accra, Ghana. As the deadly outbreak of Ebola has subsided, people in several West African countries are flocking to eat bush meat again after restrictions were lifted on the consumption of wild animals like hedgehogs and cane rats. But some health experts call it a risky move. (AP Photo/Christian Thompson, File)

Associated Press - by HILAIRE ZON and CARLEY PETESCH - September 21, 2016

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — As the deadly outbreak of Ebola has subsided, people in several West African countries are flocking to eat bushmeat again after restrictions were lifted on the consumption of wild animals like hedgehogs and cane rats. But some health experts call it a risky move.

Ivory Coast, which neighbors two of the three countries where Ebola killed more than 11,300 people since December 2013, lifted its ban on wild animal meat this month.

The meat of squirrel, deer, fruit bats and rats has long been a key source of protein for many in the region, but it is also a potential source of the Ebola virus.

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Researchers Develop Model that Predicts Outbreaks of Zoonotic Diseases

Thu, 2016-06-16 19:34 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Spatial distribution of simulated LAS spill-over events across its endemic region in western Africa for (a) present day, and (b) projected for 2070 under a medium climate and full land cover change scenario. Values represent the expected number of spill-over events per grid cell per year, and are represented on a linear color scale where green is all simulations and grey zero. Axis labels indicate degrees, in a World Geodetic System 84 projection. Filled black circles represent locations of historic LAS outbreaks. Credit: Redding et al. UCL

CLICK HERE - Predicting disease outbreaks using environmental changes

sciencedaily.com - June 13, 2016

A model that predicts outbreaks of zoonotic diseases -- those originating in livestock or wildlife such as Ebola and Zika -- based on changes in climate, population growth and land use has been developed by a team of researchers.

CLICK HERE -UCL - Predicting disease outbreaks using environmental changes

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