Public Health in the News – March 1, 2015

Global

• As corn farming becomes more popular in some African regions, the rat population is exploding, leading to increasing numbers of cases of the plague.
• After the shutdown of a U.S. study trying to look at what factors influence health over an individual’s life, a new U.K. study is picking up where the first left off. 80,000 babies will be recruited and will be studied from birth to death.
• In a study of Malawian children, scientists have discovered that the composition of a child’s gut bacteria can make him or her more susceptible to malnutrition.
• Data from a large study analyzing the global causes of death in kids indicated that nearly half of child deaths were caused by infectious diseases.
• After the Fukushima disaster, Japanese produce was monitored to make sure it didn’t exceed radiation limits. A new study shows that this was effective; since the disaster, very few people have eaten food that exceeded radiation thresholds.

National

• Read of the week: Oliver Sacks, professor and author of several popular science books, writes about his attitude towards facing death upon learning he has terminal cancer. “When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate — the genetic and neural fate — of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.”
• Tests to determine whether an individual has a genetic disease are getting better, thanks to improvements in technology. The FDA has previously been regulating the availability of these tests, but recently approved a test for Bloom syndrome, and will likely be allowing many more of these tests to come to market soon.
• In honor of this past week’s Rare Disease Day, Healthline describes some of the experiences of people who deal with uncommon illnesses.
• For children considered at risk of developing a peanut allergy, eating peanuts may actually decrease the risk of becoming allergic.
• Can the sound of an airplane overhead affect your health? Nature podcast explores.

Chicago 

• Cook County is now up to 15 cases of measles.
• Dr. Michael Wahl, director of the Illinois Poison Center in Chicago, has been named an “Unsung Hero of Public Health.”

Northwestern

• A study by NU researchers shows that people trying to quit smoking can use a nicotine patch for longer periods of time than previously recommended – and that it is safe and more effective.
• Senior citizens known as SuperAgers – who have the mental capacities of people much younger – also have different-looking brains than other people their own age, according to an NU study.

Public Health in the News – February 15, 2015

Global

• The UK has voted in favor of allowing a method that would result in babies with three parents. This would help prevent parents from passing along certain genetic diseases to their children. The BBC has a great explainer for how this process works.
• “Roughly half the adult male population of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, is suffering from an often deadly kidney disease that appears to be linked to their work as sugarcane cutters.” Now one filmmaker is trying to document these workers’ stories.
• Motorcycles, which are becoming increasingly common in Asia, are leading to many deaths, leading some experts to label this a rising global health crisis.

National

• “The FDA knows about dozens of scientific papers floating about whose data are questionable—and has said nothing, leaving physicians and medical researchers completely unaware.” A new study has uncovered evidence that the FDA has covered up scientific misconduct in hundreds of clinical trials.
• One of the next big public health crises may be nonalcoholic fatty liver disease - 25% of Americans may already be living with it, which can lead to a whole host of other health problems.
• A new smartphone accessory can detect HIV in 15 minutes, and costs only $34!
• Wired covers a few of the new technologies that are helping people regain senses that they’ve lost – drugs that can help people taste again, a camera that can communicate with the optic nerve, and more!
• A hospital with an army of robots to help care for patients – a new breakthrough or a little weird?
• Chronic fatigue syndrome has been renamed, to systemic exertion intolerance disease, and new recommendations have been given to clinicians.

Chicago/Illinois

• The Chicago Department of Public Health recently hosted a competition for university students: the Healthy Chicago Innovation Challenge. Two projects, focused on foodborne illness and on financial resources for low-income pregnant women, were the finalists and will each undergo a pilot study.
• Illinois now has 13 confirmed measles cases.

Northwestern

• Many current health policies focus on reducing hospital readmissions following surgery, but a new NU study suggests this may not be a good approach: most readmissions are not due to poor or mismanaged patient care, researchers say.
• A recently renewed program will help fund a collaboration between Northwestern and Universidad Panamericana. This will help provide students with study abroad experiences to study global health issues.

New Issue of the Northwestern Public Health Review!

We are excited to share the newest issue of the NPHR with you. Our latest issue highlights a wide range of public health topics from the impact of landmines in Colombia to the role of energy in promoting public health access. Art illustrations from the UIC biomedical visualization program accompany and enrich each story.

In “Can Public Health be improved with Energy Access?” Dr. Halley Aelion (U.S Department of Energy) and Dr. Amul Tevar (Ohio State) review both personal experiences and scientific data on the role of energy access in promoting health access locally and around the world.

In “Water, Typhoid Rates, and the Columbian Exposition in Chicago” Dr. Browyn Rae carefully reviews early scientific and public health efforts to manage the typhoid outbreak in Chicago at the cusp of the famous Columbian exposition in Chicago.

“A Call for Help from the Landmine Victims in Colombia” explores the history of the Colombian Civil War and its public health impacts. Juan Pablo Calderon Meza dissects the impact of landmines on the morbidity and mortality of Colombians.

Shruti Zaveri explores the causes and impact of cancer in Asian American communities. According to Shruti, “In many ways, the cancer burden is unequally distributed in various populations within the US. While Asian Americans have the lowest cancer incidence when compared to other ethnic groups in the US, cancer is still the leading cause of death among Asian Americans. Much of the Asian American cancer burden is unnecessary and caused by several avoidable factors including lack of cancer education, barriers to both healthcare and cancer screening, and ultimately a culturally ineffective effort to solve the issue”.

Additional articles in the current issue of the NPHR include a book review of “The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry”, Healthcare Access for Lesbian and Bisexual Women in Cape Town, South Africa, as well as an interview with both the first MD/MPH student, Dr. Kathryn Andolsek, and the founder of NU’s MPH program, Dr. Jeremiah Stamler.

We invite you to share your impressions, questions and suggestions with us as you go through this issue. PDF versions of the newest issue can be downloaded at www.nphr.org

Public Health in the News (February 8th, 2015)

Global

• In an interesting twist of events, a recent NPR article discuses the remarkable observation that many poor countries like Tanzania (99%) have far better vaccination rates than rich ones  like the U.S (91%).
• Recently published studies indicate that over 86% of Chinese high school students suffer from myopia. Debate over the reasons for such a high incidence of myopia is ongoing.

National

• Ever wondered how many microorganisms are in your public transportation system? An 18 month old research experiment in New York City (pathomap) attempts to track and inventory the diversity of bacteria in New York subway system.
• A recent MMWR report from CDC indicates that the number of Blacks and Hispanics dying from HIV in the past 5 years has dropped.
• Convinced that its initial $500 million pledge to halt childhood obesity is having an impact, the Robert Woods Johnson foundation is pledging an additional $500 million towards ending childhood obesity.
• February is National Heart Awareness Month. As a concrete step towards improving cardiovascular health outcomes, the  CDC initiated the Million Hearts™ challenge.
• A strange paradox was unveiled this week as it has became clear that rapidly declining Ebola rates might make it difficult to test newly developed Ebola vaccines – great news for countries that struggled with the disease but difficult news for drug discovery efforts.

 Local

• 5 Chicago area children have now been confirmed to have the measles, further intensifying the ongoing vaccination debate.
• A recent report from the Illinois state’s auditor general released Thursday found $3.7 million was paid for medical care for over 1,000 people who were already dead. Furthermore the report showed that nearly 6,000 people were still marked as eligible for medical services despite being listed as deceased.

Northwestern

• Dr. Robert Murphy gave an exclusive interview on the growing  national measles concern with WGN Chicago.
• Dr.Michelle Birkett was recently highlighted in the Huffington discussing LGBT associated bullying and recent research observations that it gets  better with time.
• The Northwestern Public Health review Review recently released its fall issue at www.nphr.org

Public Health in the News – February 1, 2015

Global

• From the website Humanosphere, here are ten global health issues predicted to be prominent in 2015.
• Scientists are finding that the Ebola virus is mutating, and this may be resulting in asymptomatic carriers of the disease that can go on to infect other people.

National

• A measles outbreak was traced to a fully vaccinated patient for the first time, and an editorial in Forbes asks, “What happens if a child dies because some parents decided not to vaccinate their own kid?”
• “A tumor, as strange as it may sound, is a little society.” Carl Zimmer explains how cancer cells are interacting with each other to help each other grow.
• A new food safety project will sequence the DNA of the microorganisms like bacteria and viruses that get into our food supply, in order to determine which are helpful and which are harmful.
• This week, we have several stories about the research animals that scientists use: Wired has a longform article describing how “rats are guides to emerging questions of evolution and cognition,” while the National Institutes of Health defends controversial studies looking at stress in monkeys.
• Mysterious cases of childhood paralysis have been occurring in the U.S. Researchers think it may be caused by a virus, but have yet to find a definitive link.

Chicago

• While flu season may be mostly over, Chicagoans have another virus to worry about: measles. A case of measles has been confirmed in a person living in the Chicago suburbs.
• The Tribune explains how heat lamps on train platforms make you feel warmer.

Northwestern

• NU researchers have discovered one of the ways in which neurons are degraded in patients with ALS.
• People trying to lose weight with online programs have more success when they log in regularly and interact with other members, according to new research.

Public Health in the News – January 24, 2015

Global

• The mystery of tuberculosis revealed? Scientists have uncovered the family secrets of a bacterial killer that accounts for 1.3 million deaths worldwide. A team reconstructed the evolutionary history of the Beijing lineage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a strain associated with the massive spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Eurasia.
• 2014 was the hottest year on record (since weather record have been kept), resulting in the symbolic doomsday clock moving to three minutes before midnight, as close as it’s been since the cold war.
• Despite waning numbers, two pharmaceutical companies prepare to launch Ebola vaccine trails.
• A great piece by a fashion historian about how fashion has (and can again) encourage vaccination.
• Cholera cases in West and Central Africa tripled last year, particularly in Ghana, Nigeria, and DRC.

National

• Only about 23% effective, this year’s flu vaccine flopped. So, how do we get a more effective flu vaccine? Bloomberg weighs in.
• The CDC reports  that nearly one third of reproductive-age women in the US had an opioid painkiller prescription filled every year between 2008-2012, increasing risks for birth defects.
• Between 2012 and 2014, a drug-resistant superbug infected 32 people at a Seattle hospital caused by a bacteria spreading through contaminated medical scopes.

Illinois/Chicago

• The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) awarded $13 million to more than 50 local non-profit organizations to provide HIV prevention and housing services to residents.
• January is National Radon Action Month and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) encourages Chicagoans to test their home for harmful levels of radon.
• Chicago State University ranks as one of the worst colleges in the nation when it comes to providing students with sexual health resources, a national survey found.
• How are older city hospitals competing with newer suburban hospitals? See Crain’s analysis of why so many hospitals in Chicago sit empty.

Northwestern

• A new Northwestern Medicine study has shown that playing recorded family stories can help wake up coma patients’ unconscious brain more quickly, and with improved recovery.
• Northwestern professor, Jonathan Silverberg, weighs in on how people with eczema have a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.

Public Health in the News – January 18, 2015

Global

• Will we ever completely eradicate Ebola, or will we just subdue it? Vox analyzes the obstacles we’re still facing, while a new paper describes a model that predicts that Ebola will be contained in Liberia by mid-2015.
• A new study says that some of the wealthier African countries could be doing more to pay their own way when it comes to fighting AIDS, but this still remains difficult because they have other pressing needs.
• We are seeing fewer child deaths, and a lot of this can be attributed to the prevention of disease through vaccines.

National

• “We all know exactly what we’re talking about, but we’re all accepting it to different degrees.” How do doctors deal with giving their patients bad news?
• Why are the viruses that cause colds so effective? Because they more easily evade the immune system when in the slightly colder air found in our noses, a new study suggests.
• The paleo diet is not as based in science as some people believe, and it is based on incorrect assumptions about evolution.
• A former Iowa State University researcher, who faked data while doing experiments for an AIDS vaccine, is pleading guilty to making false statements.
• “I still felt like the subject of an elaborate sales pitch.” Science writer Stephanie Paige Ogburn talks about trying to find a LASIK surgeon through Yelp, and the struggle to determine whether the information she was given at the doctors’ offices was primarily medical or marketing.
• Psychological research into learned helplessness, which is tied to depression, was used by the CIA to justify torture.
• A new drug might lessen anxiety without causing sleepiness, by targeting a protein involved in circadian rhythms.
• Are your cold symptoms caused by bacteria or a virus? How to tell when you should or shouldn’t be taking antibiotics.

Northwestern

• Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Check out the events that Northwestern University has planned for the week to commemorate MLK.
• Adults with eczema are more likely to have unhealthy habits, says an NU study. Doctors should also address lifestyle issues in addition to treating eczema symptoms.
• When kids choose to listen to Taylor Swift – and other artists – following surgery, their pain may be lessened, according to Northwestern researchers.
• Spine surgery patients are being enrolled in an NU study that aims to predict recovery times by monitoring activity levels with a Fitbit.
• Northwestern Medicine is hoping to add more operating rooms to keep up with surgery demand.

Public Health in the News – January 11, 2015

Global

• Though it is the third highest killer worldwide, COPD has been scarcely understood in Africa save for this new study conducted in Uganda, which found rates at high as 16% in the population.
• In an AIDS.gov blog post, CDC Global HIV/AIDS director Deborah Birx taps the recent “PEPFAR 3.0 — Controlling the Epidemic: Delivering on the Promise of an AIDS-free Generation” report as evidence of progress and a roadmap for the ultimate goal.
• A new study in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that neurobiological differences may play an increasingly important role in individualizing treatment for depression.
• Bangalore-based Achira Labs has figured out a way to hand weave diabetes test strips from silk in India, where weavers who can work a handloom are abundant and the material is readily available and inexpensive.

National

• The pesticide chlorpyrifos—used on corn, soybeans, fruit and nut trees—may pose health risks to workers who mix and apply it, and may contaminate drinking water, according to a new EPA report.
• Two major US cancer science and treatment groups call for more regulation of e-cigarettes and more research into vaping’s health effects.
• Despite what Americans might think, the US actually ranks pretty badly on the Commitment to Development Index, a measure of global poverty eradication efforts, recently published by the Center for Global Development.

Illinois/Chicago

• KCBX Terminals, a firm controlled by industrialists Charles and David Koch, announced Tuesday that it will build a $120 million structure to enclose towering mounds of the dusty harmful refinery byproduct petroleum coke, despite Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s vow and efforts to rid Chicago of it.
• Illinois is now accepting petitions to expand the list of medical conditions that qualify for treatment with marijuana, though officials have yet to name the board that will decide the issue.
• In these frosty temperatures, do you ever wonder those the CTA heat lamps actually help make you warmer? A Chicago Tribune article explores the issue.

Northwestern

• Dr. June K. Robinson, a professor of dermatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, is quoted in a New York Times article of the harmful effects of indoor tanning.

Public Health in the News – January 4, 2015

Global

• As some researchers uncover more information about Ebola’s possible origins in Guinean bats, science writer Susan E. Swanberg analyzes why the CDC’s prediction about the number of Ebola cases was so far off.
• Water is increasingly scarce in our world. Jan Eliasson, deputy secretary-general of the UN, is trying to call attention to the way that water sources can be commandeered in times of war, and is educating people about how collaborating on water issues can bring countries together.

National

• In a wonderfully written blog post, science writer Ed Yong tells the story of how cholera-causing bacteria kill other microbes and “steal the powers of their fallen rivals,” Highlander-style.
• Many studies have linked a variant of a gene called FTO to an increased risk of obesity. However, this link may be influenced by the environment as well – a new study shows that this gene is a risk factor only in people born after World War II.
• Smartphone apps are changing healthcare. NPR’s Science Friday interviews Eric Topol, a cardiologist who recently released a book that details how patients are using their smartphones to take their health into their own hands.
• We know that increased consumption of red meat might be leading to increased cancer risk – and now we might know why. A new study found that a certain sugar found in meat led to increased inflammation, which in turn promoted conditions that sometimes lead to tumor growth.
• Wired lists some of the weirdest things we learned this year about microbes.

Chicago

• The flu is more common and more severe this year than it has been in recent memory, according to health officials.

Northwestern

• Dr. Gelila Goba, who recently completed a residency at Northwestern, will be leading a program in Ethiopia that aims to standardize and formalize medical residency training.
• Northwestern has published a gallery of the best scientific images of 2014.
• Check out the upcoming IPHAM seminars in the new year, including a panel discussion about funding for patient-centered outcomes research.
• Northwestern medical students recently toured various Chicago neighborhoods to learn more about the resources available to different Chicago residents.

Public Health in the News – December 28, 2014

Global

•  Peter Piot, who discovered the Ebola virus, offers a unique analysis of how precious time was wasted in the early stages of this year’s outbreak—and how we must prepare better for the next time.
• An excessive amount of antibiotics is present in China’s major rivers, exposing millions of nearby residents and local ecosystems to grave risks.
• Understanding mental health as a public health problem is becoming more and more important as an estimated 350 million cases of clinical depression are reported by the World Health Organization per year.
• Dengue is on the move, threatening large swaths of Europe, Africa, and South America due to climate change and urbanization, new maps of dengue vulnerability published by the United Nations University reveal.

National

• Another concerning mishap at a CDC laboratory - this time with Ebola virus samples which were erroneously though to have been killed – indicates the need for improvements to be made in laboratory safety policies and procedures.
• Eating fast food may lead to lower student test scores in math, science and reading, a recent study of U.S. school children said.
• The Washington Post reports on a new study that has found, not surprisingly, that iPads, tablets, smartphones disrupt good sleep.

Illinois/Chicago

• As increasing influenza activity is seen in the state, Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck encourages everyone 6 months and older to get a flu vaccine.

Northwestern

• Northwestern experts bring public health expertise to Ethiopia.
• A Northwestern Feinberg study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that smoking pot in teens and young adults is unsafe for developing brains.