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Health - US

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This working group is focused on discussions about health.

The mission of this working group is to focus on discussions about health.

Members

Corey Watts John Girard jonber37 Kathy Gilbeaux Lisa Stelly Thomas Maeryn Obley
mdmcdonald MDMcDonald_me_com mike kraft

Email address for group

health-us@m.resiliencesystem.org

Study: More gas wells in area leads to more hospitalizations

citizensvoice.com - October 2nd, 2014 - Elizabeth Skrapits

The more natural gas wells in an area, the more of its residents end up in the hospital.

So indicate the results of an unreleased study that was revealed at a state Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing at King’s College on Wednesday on the subject of tracking, reporting and acting on public health concerns related to natural gas drilling.

State lawmakers believe there needs to be better collection and sharing of health data in Marcellus Shale drilling areas, and state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, has sponsored a bill that would dedicate $3 million in drilling impact fees to the state Department of Health to conduct the needed research.

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The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons

Andrew T. Goldman in North Topsail Beach, N.C. In August 2008, Mr. Goldman was part of a team near Taji, Iraq, that was trying to destroy munitions that could be used in makeshift bombs. While holding a cracked shell, he noticed a strange smell. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Image: Andrew T. Goldman in North Topsail Beach, N.C. In August 2008, Mr. Goldman was part of a team near Taji, Iraq, that was trying to destroy munitions that could be used in makeshift bombs. While holding a cracked shell, he noticed a strange smell. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

nytimes.com - October 14th, 2014 - C.J. Chivers

The soldiers at the blast crater sensed something was wrong. It was August 2008 near Taji, Iraq. They had just exploded a stack of old Iraqi artillery shells buried beside a murky lake.

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Long Quest for Ebola Vaccine Slowed by Science, Ethics, Politics

An experimental Ebola vaccine has been developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Photograph by Steve Parsons, AP

Image: An experimental Ebola vaccine has been developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Photograph by Steve Parsons, AP

news.nationalgeographic.com - October 14th, 2014 - Karen Weintraub

Ebola vaccines are so effective in monkeys that macaques can be protected or rescued even if they're injected with a hundred times the lethal dose of the Ebola virus after vaccination. But no one knows for certain whether the vaccines will work in humans; the vaccines haven't yet been rigorously tested in people.

Just developing the vaccines to test in monkeys was a grueling, decades-long process that has killed scores of macaques since the 1990s.

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US STOCKS - Futures drop as selling pressure continues; data on tap

in.reuters.com - October 16th, 2014 - Chuck Mikolajczak

U.S. stock index futures tumbled on Thursday, after the S&P 500 closed at its lowest in six months, amid concerns about weak global demand and its potential impact on the U.S. economy and businesses.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq briefly fell into negative territory for the year on Wednesday as the S&P tumbled more than 3 percent to a session low, before rallying late in the session. The decline was also spurred by worries over the spread of the deadly Ebola virus and its possible impact on the travel industry.

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NEJM - Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa — The First 9 Months of the Epidemic and Forward Projections

nejm.org - WHO Ebola Response Team

N Engl J Med 2014; 371:1481-1495 - October 16, 2014 - DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1411100

Conclusions

These data indicate that without drastic improvements in control measures, the numbers of cases of and deaths from EVD are expected to continue increasing from hundreds to thousands per week in the coming months.

(SEE COMPLETE NEJM ARTICLE HERE)

NEJM - Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa — The First 9 Months of the Epidemic and Forward Projections (15 page .PDF file)

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Pentagon building rapid-response Ebola team

USA TODAY                                                     Oct. 19, 2014

BY Gregg Zoroya and John Bacon

The Pentagon will build a 30-person, rapid-response Ebola medical support team to aid civilian health care workers should additional cases of the virus be diagnosed in the U.S., officials said Sunday.

The effort was requested by the Department of Health and Human Services "as an added prudent measure to ensure our nation is ready to respond quickly, effectively and safely in the event of additional Ebola cases," a Pentagon statement said.

http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=16986

The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered his Northern Command Commander, Gen. Chuck Jacoby, to prepare and train the team. It will include 20 critical-care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease and five trainers in infectious-disease protocols...

Team members will remain in a "prepare to deploy" status for 30 days after training. They will not be sent to West Africa or elsewhere overseas and "will be called upon domestically only if deemed prudent by our public health professionals," the statement said.

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Ebola: What Should We Do Now?

Four suggestions on what we need to successfully counter Ebola

A healthcare worker mixes chlorine with water at an Ebola treatment center in Hastings, Freetown, Sierra Leone, Oct. 15. Associated Press

Suggestions include:

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Dallas hospital tried to repair reputation after a series of mishaps.

Dallas Health Presbyterian Hospital: Two stories on the aftermath of the treatment of Thomas Eric Duncan the first person to die in the U.S. of Ebola and the infection of two nurses.

Dallas hospital tried to repair reputation after a series of mishaps.

WASHINGTON POST               Oct. 18, 2014
By Lena H. Sun

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/dallas-hospital-tries-to-repair-its-reputation/2014/10/17/dfb62dc4-55fa-11e4-809b-8cc0a295c773_story.html

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Ebola lapses persisted for days at Dallas hospital

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                  Oct. 18, 2014

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ebola-lapses-persisted-for-days-at-dallas-hospital/2014/10/18/8f9bf97a-56dd-11e4-b86d-184ac281388d_story.html

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Ebola outbreak could be 'definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation', warns Oxfam

THE INDEPENDENT                                                  OCT. 18, 2014

LONDON ---Ebola is poised to become the “definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation", Oxfam has warned, with more troops, funding and medical aid urgently needed to tackle the outbreak.

In an "extremely rare" move, the charity is calling for military intervention to provide logistical support across West Africa.

It says the world has less than two months to counter the spread of the deadly virus, which means addressing a "crippling shortfall" in military personnel.

Oxfam’s call for more troops comes after UN chief Ban Ki-Moon criticised countries he said were able to provide financial support to the crisis for not doing so.
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Amid Assurances on Ebola, Obama Is Said to Seethe

NEW YORK TIMES                                                 Oct. 18, 2014

By and

WASHINGTON — Beneath the calming reassurance that President Obama has repeatedly offered during the Ebola crisis, there is a deepening frustration, even anger, with how the government has handled key elements of the response.

Those frustrations spilled over when Mr. Obama convened his top aides in the Cabinet room after canceling his schedule on Wednesday. Medical officials were providing information that later turned out to be wrong. Guidance to local health teams was not adequate. It was unclear which Ebola patients belonged in which threat categories.

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