The opioid epidemic: What we can learn from history
It’s no secret that the United States is in the midst of an opiate epidemic. Almost 60,000 people died last year from overdoses, and overdose deaths are now the most common killer of Americans under the age of 50. Physicians and our patients have finally started the difficult conversation about what it will take to stop the suffering. But what’s been missing from this conversation is that this is not the first opiate epidemic to strike the United States. And what happened during that first epidemic almost 100 years ago offers valuable lessons for doctors and patients trying to navigate the second.
Opium is an ancient d...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 29, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/adam-rodman" rel="tag" > Adam Rodman, MD < /a > Tags: Conditions Primary Care Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
Grace Darling
On the 7th of September 1838, having set out from Hull on a journey to Dundee, the paddle steamer the SS Forfarshire with 61 aboard ran aground, with engine and other problems, in stormy weather on one of the Outer Farne Islands, Big Harcar (known locally as “Great Hawker”), off the Northumbrian coast.
A handful of those aboard escaped in a lifeboat but the lives another 9 were saved by the persistence of Grace Darling who persuaded her father, the Longstone Lighthouse keeper that they could row their 21-foot Northumberland Coble the 3/4 of a mile or so to Big Harcar and pick up survivors as the paddlesteame...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 20, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Bottom Line: We Can Stop Hearing Loss in Many TB Patients
Health Equity Blog By Hyejeong Hong The cure for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is the same in the United States as it is in South Africa. Yet the drug regimen’s most severe and permanent potential side effect, hearing loss, occurs up to four times as often in South Africa. The reason is simple and stark: a
The post Bottom Line: We Can Stop Hearing Loss in Many TB Patients appeared first on Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine. (Source: Nursing Blogs at Johns Hopkins University)
Source: Nursing Blogs at Johns Hopkins University - October 19, 2017 Category: Nursing Authors: Editor Tags: New On the Pulse Bedaquline Deaf hearing MDR-TB multidrug-resistant tuberculosis South Africa Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 204
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 204.
Question 1
Richard Doll published an epidemiology paper in 1950. What had he discovered?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
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The link between smoking and lung can...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - September 7, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five addison's disease bubo bubonic plague cancer endocarditis JF Kennedy Libman Sacks moritz roth richard doll roth spots SLE smoking Source Type: blogs
Is the “full course of antibiotics” full of baloney?
Follow me on Twitter @JohnRossMD
Antibiotic resistance is an emerging threat to public health. If the arsenal of effective antibiotics dwindles, treating infection becomes more difficult. Conventional wisdom has long held that stopping a course of antibiotics early may be a major cause of antibiotic resistance. But is this really supported by the evidence?
According to a new study in the BMJ, the answer is no.
The notion that a longer course of antibiotics prevents resistance started early in the antibiotic era, when doctors found that patients with staphylococcal blood infections and tuberculosis relapsed after short anti...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 17, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Infectious diseases Source Type: blogs
Can BCG be Used to Control Lupus?
Patients suffering from Systemic Lupus Erythromatus (SLE) are at increased risk of opportunistic infections, especially Tuberculosis. Both these diseases are known to be intricately linked. Interestingly, it has recently been observed that infecting SLE patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis resulted in decreased expression of biomarkers for SLE, indicating that TB is able to control lupus. However, the inflammatory biomarkers are known to get elevated in SLE patients suffering from opportunistic TB infection. In order to verify whether TB can be used to treat lupus, mouse models of lupus were treated with BCG vaccine, w...
Source: Sciences Blog - August 2, 2017 Category: Science Authors: srinivas_s at omicsgroup.co.in (OMICS Publishing Group) Tags: OMICS Source Type: blogs
The Failed MMR Vaccine Policies on College Campuses
Conclusions
The current policy on most college campuses requires verification that incoming students have received two doses of the MMR vaccination. The goal of this policy is to prevent the diseases measles and mumps. A longstanding federal trial against Merck, the pharmaceutical company responsible for making the MMR vaccine, accuses Merck of manipulating data to show the MMR to be more effective against mumps than it is.
Recent outbreaks of mumps on college campuses by students vaccinated with the MMR vaccine provides additional evidence that the MMR vaccine is ineffective. Data from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting...
Source: vactruth.com - July 25, 2017 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Michelle Goldstein Tags: Michelle Goldstein Top Stories college vaccination Mandatory Vaccination MMR vaccine truth about vaccines Source Type: blogs
Health Affairs ’ June Issue: Pursuing Health Equity
The June issue of Health Affairs, a theme issue, explores the pursuit of health equity and the obligations of the health care sector to achieve it. The issue examines the subject from two perspectives: equity in care, and the relationship between social factors and health equity.
The issue was supported by The Kresge Foundation, The California Endowment, Aetna Foundation, The Colorado Health Foundation, Episcopal Health Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
US virtually tops list of countries with highest health and health care disparities across income levels
Comparing health and health care disparities in t...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 5, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Health Affairs Tags: Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Health Affairs journal Source Type: blogs
The Merchants of Death
It ' s been a while since I ' ve written about tobacco, but the UN has provided a good occasion with the release ofa new report on the eve of No Tobacco Day, which is tomorrow.Smoking has been in long-term decline in the U.S., although tobacco addiction continues to afflict 15% of the adult population. So the psychopaths who get rich by murdering people have concentrated their efforts abroad -- specifically, they target poor and low-income people in low income countries.The UN reports that tobacco now kills 7 million people every year. (It killed my father and my grandfather, by the way. In my father ' s case, starting wit...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 30, 2017 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Identification of Multiple Druggable Secondary Sites by Fragment Screening against DC ‐SIGN
AngewchemIdentification of Multiple Druggable Secondary Sites by Fragment Screening against DC ‐SIGN: DC ‐SIGN is a cell‐surface receptor for several pathogenic threats, such as HIV, Ebola virus, or Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Multiple attempts to develop inhibitors of the underlying carbohydrate–protein... (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - May 19, 2017 Category: Chemistry Tags: Drug discovery Source Type: blogs
Bob Wachter ’ s 2017 Penn Med Commencement Address “ Go to Radiology ”
By ROBERT WACHTER, MD
Dean Jameson, Trustees, Faculty, Family and Friends, and most of all, Graduates of the Class of 2017:
Standing before you on this wonderful day, seeing all the proud parents and significant others, I can’t help but think about my father. My dad didn’t go to college; he joined the Air Force right after high school, then entered the family business, which manufactured women’s clothing. He did reasonably well, and my folks ended up moving to a New York City suburb, where I grew up.
There were a lot of professionals in the neighborhood, but my dad admired the doctors the most. He was even a little e...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 17, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Penn Radiology Robert Wachter Speeches UCSF Source Type: blogs
AI Can Now Diagnose Tuberculosis
A tuberculosis blood or skin test is limited in detecting the progress of the infection, and there is a lack of radiologists with the expertise to identify and diagnose TB on chest images. However, all of that is set to change since a recent studypublishedinRadiologyfound a way to apply deep learning with x-ray interpretation to sharpen the accuracy of TB detection. According to the World Health Organization, TB is considered to be one of the top 10 causes of death. In 2015, 10.4 million people contracted the disease and 1.8 million were unable to survive it. TB is prevalent in developing countries such as India, China, ...
Source: radRounds - May 8, 2017 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 187
LITFL: Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog
LITFL: Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 187.
Question 1
You’ve been asked to make a memorable talk. As you prepare you study SMACC and TED talks then your colleague advises you to research Giles Brindley. What did Giles Brindley do in 1983 to make his lecture memorable?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
expa...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - April 28, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five condom erectile dysfunction giles brindley hair inhaled foreign body olfactory sleep smallpox smell Source Type: blogs
Why President Trump Should Use Foreign Aid For Health To Make America Great
The Trump administration recently proposed to make major cuts to US foreign assistance, including the $10.3 billion a year that the federal government spends to advance global health through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Nations.
As practitioners with more than 60 years of combined experience, we believe that the Trump administration is making a terrible mistake. Investing in global health is essential to the safety, security, and future prosperity of the United States, in addition to being a highl...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - April 17, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Robert Hecht and Sten Vermund Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Global Health Policy Population Health Public Health epidemics foreign aid humanitarian aid infectious diseases PEPFAR US foreign assistance Source Type: blogs
Did Medical Darwinism Doom the GOP Health Plan?
By MICHAEL L. MILLENSON
“We are now contemplating, Heaven save the mark, a bill that would tax the well for the benefit of the ill.”
Although the quote reads like it could be part of the Republican repeal-and-replace assault against the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it’s actually from a 1949 editorial in The New York State Journal of Medicine denouncing health insurance itself.
Indeed, the attacks on the ACA seem to have revived a survival-of-the-fittest attitude most of us thought had vanished in America long ago. Yet, again and again, there it was in plain sight, as when House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) declared: “T...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 29, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized AHCA Darwin Millenson Ryan Source Type: blogs
