I'm baaaaaack . . .
It was just too painful to type for a few days so I decided not to bite the bullet. People ask me what I do for a living and I say I'm a medical sociologist, but now I realize that a better job description is typist. Anyway . . .Millions of people are locked up for shoplifting and smoking pot and shooting dope, but if you steal $20 billion you're cool. I don't know how much of this you can read, but the new BMJ has a theme issue on the latest fraud of the century. The story is that in 2006, one Tom Jefferson led a Cochrane review* of neuraminidase inhibitors -- these are drugs to treat influenza, most notably oseltamavir (...
Source: Stayin' Alive - April 14, 2014 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Call for Papers
The University of Toronto’s Health History Group presents:
The Public’s Health: a symposium on public health histories.
March 6 – 7, 2015
We are pleased to announce a request for submissions on the topic “The Public’s Health.” This interdisciplinary conference will be of interest to anyone thinking about the history of public health from diverse, unique perspectives. The conference will take place on Friday March 6 and Saturday, March 7, 2015 at the University of Toronto. Friday will be an academic day with a series of peer-reviewed sessions on the Public’s Health. Saturday will be a public day, with a se...
Source: The Autism Acceptance Project - April 7, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: TAAP Admin Tags: News Source Type: blogs
Google's Big Data Flu Flop
This article in Science finds that the real-world predictive power has been pretty unimpressive. And the reasons behind this failure are not hard to understand, nor were they hard to predict. Anyone who's ever worked with clinical trial data will see this one coming:
The initial version of GFT was a particularly problematic marriage of big and small data. Essentially, the methodology was to find the best matches among 50 million search terms to fit 1152 data points. The odds of finding search terms that match the propensity of the flu but are structurally unrelated, and so do not predict the future, were quite high. GFT d...
Source: In the Pipeline - March 24, 2014 Category: Chemists Tags: Clinical Trials Source Type: blogs
Transcript of podcast interview with Juliette Kayyem, candidate for Governor of Massachusetts
This is the transcript of my recent podcast interview with Juliette Kayyem, Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. Visit the original post to listen to the podcast and read a summary. This is part of a series of interviews with all nine candidates for Governor. The full schedule is available here.
David E. Williams: This is David Williams from the Health Business Blog. I’m speaking today with Juliettte Kayyem, candidate for Governor of Massachusetts.
Juliette, thanks for your time today.
Juliette Kayyem: Thanks for having me, David.
Williams: Juliette, does Chapter 224 represent the right approach to ...
Source: Health Business Blog - March 13, 2014 Category: Health Managers Authors: David Williams Tags: Podcast Policy and politics community hospitals election Governor health care health care reform health information technology healthcare Juliette Kayyem Massachusetts Source Type: blogs
Attenuated influenza vaccine enhances bacterial colonization of mice
Infection with influenza virus is known to increase susceptibility to bacterial infections of the respiratory tract. In a mouse model of influenza, increased bacterial colonization was also observed after administration of an infectious, attenuated influenza virus vaccine.
Primary influenza virus infection increases colonization of the human upper and lower respiratory tract with bacteria, including Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus. Such infections may lead to complications of influenza, including pneumonia, bacteria in the blood, sinusitis, and ear infections.
One of the vaccines available to prevent inf...
Source: virology blog - March 12, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information attenuated vaccine bacterial colonization flumist influenza LAIV mouse model Staphylococcus aureus streptococcus pneumoniae viral virus Source Type: blogs
Viral fiber art
Viruses inspire many different types of art, but I was unaware of the number of people who make viruses out of fiber!
On This Week in Virology #266 we heard from Emily who had knitted a dengue virus pillow (photograph at left).
The next week on TWiV #267 we heard from Carolyn who had knitted a picornavirus (photo below).
The following week we heard from Jessica who has also knitted two different icosahedral structures.
This made me wonder how many people knit viruses, so I searched Ravelry for ‘virus’. Here are some of the interesting creations I found.
Cold virus by Krista:
Dawn’s cold virus (rhinovi...
Source: virology blog - January 18, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information bacteriophage crochet fiber arts icosahedron knitting microbe viral virus Source Type: blogs
Tips to Avoid the The Flu - Flu is Spreading Across the United States
Most of the country is now experiencing high levels of influenza like illness (Flu) according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Courtesy of the CDC http://www.cdc.govMayo Clinic specialists are offering advice and dispelling some misconceptions about the influenza to help people stay healthy.Here are some tips for avoiding the FluWash your hands thoroughly and frequently with water and soap or alcohol-based hanWoman sneezing and coughing with a cold of flud sanitizer. This is particularly important before leaving the bathroom, eating or touching your face.A good rule of thumb is to wash your hands for 20 seconds, ...
Source: I am an Alzheimer's Caregiver - January 16, 2014 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Update Satellite — 12-30-2013
More updates on my other blog at DrWhiteCoat.com
North Las Vegas VA Hospital emergency department repeatedly “disrespected and mistreated” a 78 year old diabetic volunteer with more than 5,000 hours of service at local VA facilities. A few weeks after two visits for a colon problem, the patient died in a hospice. When the patient’s friend went to get video of the events from the emergency department, the footage had been erased.
What types of things do Australian emergency departments see on Christmas? Stonefish stings, jet ski accidents, inhaled foreign bodies … not that different from the US, although I had no id...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - December 30, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs
With vaccines…Is there no middle ground, no room for questions?
“We should be as demanding of ourselves as we are of those who challenge us.”
Dr. Jerome Groopman, writing in the New Rupublic
Writing about the medical decision-making surrounding vaccines proved to be sketchy. Yesterday’s post brought stinging criticism from both sides of the debate. A pediatrician felt the structure of the post was patronizing. Just an hour later, a skeptic sent me the same message–patronizing. This was educational.
Criticism is taken seriously here, especially when it comes from both sides of an argument. The reflex: Perhaps its useful to write more on the matter? (It’s f...
Source: Dr John M - December 6, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
Changing influenza virus neuraminidase into a receptor binding protein
The hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) glycoproteins of the influenza virus particle serve distinct functions during infection. The HA binds sialic acid-containing cellular receptors and mediates fusion of the viral and cell membranes, while the NA removes sialic acids from glycoproteins. Apparently this division of labor is not absolute: influenza viruses have been identified with NA molecules that serve as receptor binding proteins.
An influenza virus was created that could not bind sialic acid by introducing multiple mutations into the HA gene. This mutant virus was not expected to be infectious, but nevertheless...
Source: virology blog - November 21, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information evolution HA hemagglutinin influenza mutation NA neuraminidase receptor binding sialidase tamiflu viral virus Source Type: blogs
Seven Year-Old Vaccine-Injured Boy Refused Compensation For Not Being Disabled Enough
Conclusion
When it comes to compensation, many of the world’s governments shirk their responsibilities and turn a blind eye to suffering families. Families are repeatedly encouraged to apply for compensation even though the governments are fully aware that they will be refused compensation when they do.
It is families like the Hadfields who need the money the most. Josh is a child who has clearly been injured after receiving a vaccination recommended by the government and yet his family has been refused compensation because the VDPU has deemed him as not disabled enough. How disabled does a child have to be, for goodness...
Source: vactruth.com - October 11, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Christina England Tags: Christina England Top Stories Josh Hadfield Lord Ashley narcolepsy Pandemrix swine flu vaccine injury vaccine injury compensation Source Type: blogs
NIH and Other Public Private Partnerships to Research Treatments for Multiple Diseases
Over the past few weeks, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has made a number of important announcements regarding collaborations with industry as well as the funding of several new research initiatives. Below is a summary of these stories.
NIH Partners With Eli Lilly and Others on Rare Diseases
FierceBiotechResearch reported that NIH selected four (4) new preclinical drug development studies to uncover new therapies for rare diseases. The projects will be funded through the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program under NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NCATS, whic...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 4, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Blood Donations are Potential Biohazard from Those Vaccinated with Gardasil
Conclusion
It is the responsibility of health authorities to present evidence that blood donation from Gardasil vaccinated is safe for the recipients. If the authorities do not do this they may well have blood on their hands, possibly a tragic pun.
References
1. http://sanevax.org/sane-vax-inc-announces-the-discovery-of-viral-hpv-dna-contaminant-in-gardasil/
2. http://sanevax.org/sane-vax-inc-discovers-potential-bio-hazard…
3. http://sanevax.org/breaking-news-gardasil-hpv-dna-discovered-in-post-mortem-samples/
4. http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Blood-donation/Pages/What-is-it-used-for.aspx
5. http://www.gs...
Source: vactruth.com - September 10, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Sandy Lunoe Tags: Sandy Lunoe Top Stories Blood Donation gardasil HPV DNA Vaccine Contamination Source Type: blogs
Post #40 Flu Shot Update 2013-2014
How is the flu vaccine formulated?Flu viruses are always changing. Each year, experts study thousands of flu virus samples from around the world to figure out which viruses are making people sick and how these viruses are changing. With this information, they forecast which viruses are most likely to make the most people sick during the next flu season. These strains are then used to make the flu vaccine for the next flu season. The 2013-14 U.S. trivalent influenza vaccines will contain: *an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus *an A/Victoria/361/2011 (H3N2)-like virus *a B/Massachusetts/2/2012-like virusThe newer qu...
Source: A Pediatrician's Blog - August 17, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Source Type: blogs
Post #40 Flu Vaccine Update 2013-2014 (Quadrivalent vs Trivalent)
How is the flu vaccine formulated?Flu viruses are always changing. Each year, experts study thousands of flu virus samples from around the world to figure out which viruses are making people sick and how these viruses are changing. With this information, they forecast which viruses are most likely to make the most people sick during the next flu season. These strains are then used to make the flu vaccine for the next flu season. The 2013-14 U.S. trivalent influenza vaccines will contain: *an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus *an A/Victoria/361/2011 (H3N2)-like virus *a B/Massachusetts/2/2012-like virusThe newer qu...
Source: A Pediatrician's Blog - August 17, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Source Type: blogs
