Health - US

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Tue, 2012-04-17 17:45 — mdmcdonald

This working group is focused on discussions about health.

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

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Corey Watts	John Girard	jonber37	Kathy Gilbeaux	Lisa Stelly Thomas	Maeryn Obley
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Monkeys at risk for bioterror bacteria put outdoors

Fri, 2015-03-06 10:13 — mike kraft

USA TODAY by Alison Young March 6, 2015

More than 175 monkeys that were potentially exposed to a bioterror bacteria inside a major Louisiana research complex were returned to their outdoor cages before officials knew the deadly pathogen was on the loose from a lab accident.

The new admission by the Tulane National Primate Research Center, in response to repeated questions from USA TODAY, raises further questions about contamination of the environment outside of the massive research campus north of New Orleans. The bacteria, which is not found in the United States and can cause severe disease in people and animals, can live and grow in soil and water.

"Some animals were released from the vet clinic early on, but the key thing is that all the animals have been traced," said Tulane spokesman Michael Strecker. Testing of the animals is ongoing to determine if they have been exposed to the bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei.

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/03/05/at-risk-monkeys-released-from-tulane-hospital/24471615/

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ACLU sues Christie administration over withheld Ebola documents

Wed, 2015-03-04 22:21 — mike kraft

NEW JERSEY ADVANCE MEDIA By Kathleen O'Brien March 4, 2015

How did Gov. Chris Christie's administration come up with its policies and protocols for handling Ebola?

Nurse Kaci Hickox was a Maine nurse returning to the United States after volunteering to help with the Ebola crisis when she ran afoul of New Jersey's newly instituted quarantine policy. Here she is in isolation at University Hospital in Newark in the fall of 2014.

To get the answer, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey asked to see emails and other policy communications from top officials in the N.J. Department of Health.

Those requests were denied or otherwise rebuffed, the group said in a lawsuit filed yesterday that claims the state is in violation of the Open Public Records Act. Its lawsuit asks the court to fine the state and order it to provide the documents.

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http://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2015/03/aclu_sues_nj_over_ebola_documents.html

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Case Study: Nebraska's Ebola isolation and decontamination approach

Wed, 2015-03-04 22:03 — mike kraft

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY March 4, 2015

The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit (NBU), located at the Nebraska Medical Center, has shared its protocol for Ebola patient discharge, handling a patient's body after death and environmental disinfection in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

Discharge process for a patient treated for EVD

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Ebola epidemic is 'wake-up call' for investment in universal healthcare

Tue, 2015-03-03 11:17 — mike kraft

Investment in universal healthcare: Improving health systems in three Ebola-hit African countries would have cost a third of relief effort there, says new Save the Children report

THE GUARDIAN by Lisa O'Connell March 3, 015
Up to 30 countries are vulnerable to an Ebola-style epidemic, unless the world sits up and helps get urgent investment into universal healthcare, a report (pdf) has found.

Health workers who have returned from west Africa and colleagues based in the UK walk to Westminster in support of Save the Children’s campaign to strengthen health systems globally. Photograph: Jeff Moore/Save the Children

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Isolation can take emotional toll on volunteers at risk of Ebola

Mon, 2015-03-02 17:08 — mike kraft

LOS ANGELES TIMES by Erwin Brown March 2, 2015
Dr. Matthew Waxman recently returned to Los Angeles after spending nearly two months in the town of Lunsar, Sierra Leone, where he treated Ebola patients at an isolated medical facility.

A presidential panel recommends public health organizations use "the least restrictive means necessary" when monitoring volunteers returning from treating Ebola patients in Africa. (Tanya Bindra / Associated Press)

He and colleagues toiled in harsh and stressful conditions, caring for people "the best we could." In the quiet stretches between intense bursts of drama and terror, they talked about the reception that would await them at home — at times with a degree of dread, since some returning medical workers have had less than enthusiastic welcomes....

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Ebola nurse to sue Dallas hospital parent company over training, privacy concerns

Sun, 2015-03-01 14:43 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON POST by Sarah Larimer March 1, 2015

A 26-year-old nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for a patient says she plans to sue, alleging privacy issues and a failure to properly train the Texas hospital’s staff, the Dallas Morning News reports.

“I wanted to believe that they would have my back and take care of me, but they just haven’t risen to the occasion,” Nina Pham told the newspaper.

The Morning News reports that Pham on Monday will file suit against Texas Health Resources, the parent company of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. She claims that personnel at the hospital didn’t have the gear or resources to deal with Ebola and didn’t get enough instruction for care or treatment.

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FDA approves Corgenix's Ebola test for emergency use

Fri, 2015-02-27 21:16 — mike kraft

REUTERS Feb. 26, 2015

Diagnostics company Corgenix Medical Corp said on Thursday U.S. health regulators had approved its rapid Ebola test for emergency use, in response to the world's worst outbreak of the virus that killed more than 10,000 so far.

The company's ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test, which involves putting a drop of blood on a paper strip and waiting for at least 15 minutes for a reaction, was cleared by the World Health Organization last week.

The test is less accurate than the standard test, which has a turnaround time of 12-24 hours, but is easy to perform and does not require electricity. It is able to correctly identify about 92 percent of Ebola-infected patients and 85 percent of those not infected with the virus, the WHO said.

The WHO is still assessing four or five other rapid test candidates.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/26/us-health-ebola-testing-idUSKBN0LU1OO20150226

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It Kills Germs For Up To 6 Hours. Can It Wipe Out Ebola?

Fri, 2015-02-27 21:01 — mike kraft

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO by Emily Sohn Feb. 27, 2015

Clean hands go a long way toward preventing the spread of many illnesses, including Ebola. But finding the right hand-wash to impede deadly germs is tricky.

A health worker in Liberia washes up after leaving a clinic's Ebola isolation area. Tommy Trenchard for NPR

A squirt of alcohol-based sanitizer like Purell kills or denatures many microbes on contact. In the case of bacteria, essentially poking holes in their cell membranes, causing them to shrivel up like water balloons. For viruses, the mechanism is not well-understood. But alcohol evaporates after 15 seconds, allowing for rapid recontamination...

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U.S. military ends Ebola mission in Liberia

Thu, 2015-02-26 16:51 — mike kraft

REUTERS by James Harding Giahyue Feb. 26, 2015

MONROVIA -- The United States military officially ended a mission to build treatment facilities to combat an Ebola outbreak in Liberia on Thursday, months earlier than expected, in the latest indication that a year-long epidemic in West Africa is waning.

Washington launched the mission five months ago and the force peaked at over 2,800 troops at a time when Liberia was at the epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record....

"While our large scale military mission is ending...the fight to get to zero cases will continue and the (Joint Force Command) has ensured capabilities were brought that will be sustained in the future," U.S. Army Major General Gary Volesky....

Speaking to lawmakers during a visit to Washington on Thursday, Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf thanked the United States for its support during the crisis.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/02/26/us-health-ebola-usa-idUKKBN0LU2HR20150226

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Report Slams U.S. Ebola Response and Readiness

Thu, 2015-02-26 10:52 — mike kraft

NBC NEWS by Maggie Fox Feb. 26, 2015

The United States fumbled its response to the Ebola epidemic before it even began, neglecting experiments to make vaccines and drugs against the virus, and cutting funding to key public health agencies, a presidential commission said Thursday.

Americans focused on their own almost nonexistent risk of catching Ebola from travelers instead of pressing to help the truly affected nations, the scathing report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues says.

They've been acting against their own best interest, the commission said in its report.

"Both justice and prudence demand that we do our part in combating such devastating outbreaks. Once we recognize our humanitarian obligations and the ability of infectious diseases to travel in our interconnected world, we cannot choose between the ethical and the prudential," it reads.

"Ethics and enlightened interest converge in calling for our country to address epidemics at their source."

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