I haven't seen Contagion because I haven't heard about any free screenings, and may or may not see it depending on whether or not I do hear about any, because I'm not sure it looks so awesome that I'll have to make the effort of digging out some cash.
Although it will certainly have a huge health connection, which I always like to look for.
However, based on this article in Salon, they actually tried to make it a scientifically plausible depiction of a disease outbreak, and to present public health work realistically, so that's cool. Yay science and public health!
The piece is an interview with Dr. Ian Lipkin, who was a consultant on the film, and it's interesting to get his perspective on the work of moviemaking.
It's not a warning film for students about the dangers of crossing librarians, but I suppose some hard work still went into it.
Showing posts with label diseases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diseases. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Extinct Disease Update
GruntDoc passes along the news that a disease has been eradicated.
It is, or was, a disease of cattle, called rinderpest, and I'd honestly never heard of it, but it was a widespread and contagious viral infection that could wipe out whole herds, which obviously has serious implications for people who rely on cattle or buffalo for milk, meat or labor.
Now it is no more. Impressive.
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It is, or was, a disease of cattle, called rinderpest, and I'd honestly never heard of it, but it was a widespread and contagious viral infection that could wipe out whole herds, which obviously has serious implications for people who rely on cattle or buffalo for milk, meat or labor.
Now it is no more. Impressive.
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Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Germs Check In...
I got to tour the not-yet-operational NEIDL facility (National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories--pronounced 'needle,' naturally) this afternoon.
I was certainly impressed by the extensive security measures in place. They have machines that scan your eyeball to make sure your iris matches the database! Like in the movies! It's high tech, baby.
Also, sensors that count how many people went through a door after one, authorized person opened it. So if I let you in and you're not supposed to be there, someone will be able to tell that it was me who let some unaccounted-for person into the lab.
Not that I will ever be authorized to let anyone into a lab in general, and certainly not in a highly secure facility. I signed up for the tour because I figured I'm pretty much never going to get into that building again. (Which is as it should be, since I have no useful purpose there unless people urgently need PubMed training in the middle of an experiment or something. Which one hopes they will not.)
And the 'space suits' for the level four pathogens--those must be a blast to work in. Several of us were greatly distracted by the thought of how long the suiting up and decontamination/unsuiting takes (the number 45 minutes was suggested), and the horror if you get all dressed and into your lab and then realize you have to go to the bathroom.
These are the issues that plague people at work, you know.
There's been ongoing discussion over whether or not it's a good idea to have a Biosafety Level 4 facility in the middle of a heavily populated area, but I have to say, they appear to be taking safety and security pretty seriously to assure that no one gets in who's not supposed to, and that nothing gets out that's not supposed to.
Would I personally want to move in next door to the NEIDL?
Heck yeah. Imagine how short my commute would be!
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I was certainly impressed by the extensive security measures in place. They have machines that scan your eyeball to make sure your iris matches the database! Like in the movies! It's high tech, baby.
Also, sensors that count how many people went through a door after one, authorized person opened it. So if I let you in and you're not supposed to be there, someone will be able to tell that it was me who let some unaccounted-for person into the lab.
Not that I will ever be authorized to let anyone into a lab in general, and certainly not in a highly secure facility. I signed up for the tour because I figured I'm pretty much never going to get into that building again. (Which is as it should be, since I have no useful purpose there unless people urgently need PubMed training in the middle of an experiment or something. Which one hopes they will not.)
And the 'space suits' for the level four pathogens--those must be a blast to work in. Several of us were greatly distracted by the thought of how long the suiting up and decontamination/unsuiting takes (the number 45 minutes was suggested), and the horror if you get all dressed and into your lab and then realize you have to go to the bathroom.
These are the issues that plague people at work, you know.
There's been ongoing discussion over whether or not it's a good idea to have a Biosafety Level 4 facility in the middle of a heavily populated area, but I have to say, they appear to be taking safety and security pretty seriously to assure that no one gets in who's not supposed to, and that nothing gets out that's not supposed to.
Would I personally want to move in next door to the NEIDL?
Heck yeah. Imagine how short my commute would be!
.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Health News of the Day
Latest exciting health news: our household's brush with tuberculosis!
Months and months of antibiotics await.
It's a little weird. I mean, who gets tuberculosis these days?
Such was my immediate reaction, but I need hardly state that this was a display of my vast and shameful ignorance.
Apparently, people get tuberculosis. For example, my gracious spouse.
I blame that movie we saw about John Keats dying of consumption. But more to the point, I suppose, I blame Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
In the absence of any productive response, I'm going to go play Assassin's Creed. Now there was a time period when people were familiar with consumption.
.
Months and months of antibiotics await.
It's a little weird. I mean, who gets tuberculosis these days?
Such was my immediate reaction, but I need hardly state that this was a display of my vast and shameful ignorance.
Apparently, people get tuberculosis. For example, my gracious spouse.
I blame that movie we saw about John Keats dying of consumption. But more to the point, I suppose, I blame Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
In the absence of any productive response, I'm going to go play Assassin's Creed. Now there was a time period when people were familiar with consumption.
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Thursday, June 10, 2010
Equip Disease Shield!
Wait, there's a vaccine for shingles? Why wasn't I informed?
Probably because it's only recommended for people over 60. I want it right now!--but I guess I can wait. If I gotta.
A former colleague of mine got shingles, and it did not sound nice, and since I (like so many of us) had chicken pox as a child, I know that virus is just hanging out, waiting to make a comeback someday. If I can fend it off via wily application of a +5 Potion of Disease Resistance, I'm going to be all over that.
This reflection is prompted by a New York Times story reporting that a lot of eligible people are not getting the aforementioned shingles vaccine because it's expensive and not necessarily covered by insurance.
Also, doctors are tending not to stock it because it's expensive and therefore difficult to sell, so even if you do want it and are willing to pay for it, it's a hassle since you have to get a prescription from the doctor and then go somewhere else to get the shot.
The NYT story says that "up to a third of all adults who have had chicken pox" will get shingles and/or a complication called postherpetic neuralgia (which sounds like basically just nonstop pain for weeks or months at a time) at some point, while the vaccine can "reduce the risk of developing shingles by more than half and the risk of post-herpetic neuralgia by over two-thirds."
Ideally, of course, I like my vaccines even more awesome than that (maybe by the time I'm 60 they'll have the +10 version!), but it still seems as if a lot of people might benefit if not for the expense and inconvenience.
There are still a few years between me and 60, so I have time to save up and plan ahead, but that doesn't help anyone who's eligible right now.
.
Probably because it's only recommended for people over 60. I want it right now!--but I guess I can wait. If I gotta.
A former colleague of mine got shingles, and it did not sound nice, and since I (like so many of us) had chicken pox as a child, I know that virus is just hanging out, waiting to make a comeback someday. If I can fend it off via wily application of a +5 Potion of Disease Resistance, I'm going to be all over that.
This reflection is prompted by a New York Times story reporting that a lot of eligible people are not getting the aforementioned shingles vaccine because it's expensive and not necessarily covered by insurance.
Also, doctors are tending not to stock it because it's expensive and therefore difficult to sell, so even if you do want it and are willing to pay for it, it's a hassle since you have to get a prescription from the doctor and then go somewhere else to get the shot.
The NYT story says that "up to a third of all adults who have had chicken pox" will get shingles and/or a complication called postherpetic neuralgia (which sounds like basically just nonstop pain for weeks or months at a time) at some point, while the vaccine can "reduce the risk of developing shingles by more than half and the risk of post-herpetic neuralgia by over two-thirds."
Ideally, of course, I like my vaccines even more awesome than that (maybe by the time I'm 60 they'll have the +10 version!), but it still seems as if a lot of people might benefit if not for the expense and inconvenience.
There are still a few years between me and 60, so I have time to save up and plan ahead, but that doesn't help anyone who's eligible right now.
.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Well, That's Disturbing
Dangerous Intersection links to a New York Times story about E. coli and hamburger.
It has some good (though not appetizing) information about the food chain involved in getting beef from various slaughterhouses to various processing plants, usually in bits and pieces from many different animals.
The part about how shreds of fat are treated with ammonia to kill bacteria before being added to the mix struck me as especially appealing. Yum?
I'm not really one to be wildly grossed out about the details of how stuff gets to be food. Yeah, if you eat meat, there's blood involved. And other stuff that naturally follows from the biological processes of animals.
And meat or no, there are bugs (like in your wine). Dirt. Ants get into things. There are mice everywhere.
You do the best you can, but you can't get totally obsessed. If I drop my sandwich on the floor, I'll probably pick it up and eat it anyway. After all, it's most likely peanut butter, and I don't want to miss that.
On the other hand, there's at least a perceived difference between eating a possibly dusty floor sandwich, and enjoying delicious bits of fat washed with ammonia. Even though it may not actually be literally the same ammonia my mom used to get in the big gallon jugs and use to scrub the floor, which is my first association. Or maybe it is.
Industrial food is just hard to oversee. I can tell if my floor is too gross to eat off (well, not really, it could be crawling with E. coli and I couldn't see them, but I feel I can know where my floor has been, and what's been on my floor), but who can tell with factories and processing plants?
I'm sure they're generally cleaner than a lot of kitchens, but when they're not, the potential effects can go far and wide. Way farther and wider than anything that comes off my germ-riddled floor.
So yeah, I'm not advocating shrieking in horror and vowing to subsist only on sterilized flour and beans individually scrubbed with ammonia and lye, but it it seems like it can't hurt to know more about the way stuff gets to be food.
.
It has some good (though not appetizing) information about the food chain involved in getting beef from various slaughterhouses to various processing plants, usually in bits and pieces from many different animals.
The part about how shreds of fat are treated with ammonia to kill bacteria before being added to the mix struck me as especially appealing. Yum?
I'm not really one to be wildly grossed out about the details of how stuff gets to be food. Yeah, if you eat meat, there's blood involved. And other stuff that naturally follows from the biological processes of animals.
And meat or no, there are bugs (like in your wine). Dirt. Ants get into things. There are mice everywhere.
You do the best you can, but you can't get totally obsessed. If I drop my sandwich on the floor, I'll probably pick it up and eat it anyway. After all, it's most likely peanut butter, and I don't want to miss that.
On the other hand, there's at least a perceived difference between eating a possibly dusty floor sandwich, and enjoying delicious bits of fat washed with ammonia. Even though it may not actually be literally the same ammonia my mom used to get in the big gallon jugs and use to scrub the floor, which is my first association. Or maybe it is.
Industrial food is just hard to oversee. I can tell if my floor is too gross to eat off (well, not really, it could be crawling with E. coli and I couldn't see them, but I feel I can know where my floor has been, and what's been on my floor), but who can tell with factories and processing plants?
I'm sure they're generally cleaner than a lot of kitchens, but when they're not, the potential effects can go far and wide. Way farther and wider than anything that comes off my germ-riddled floor.
So yeah, I'm not advocating shrieking in horror and vowing to subsist only on sterilized flour and beans individually scrubbed with ammonia and lye, but it it seems like it can't hurt to know more about the way stuff gets to be food.
.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Well Slept
Via Well, a sad story for anyone who has trouble getting that regular eight hours of sleep that we're told is optimal (does anyone actually sleep eight hours a night?): we're probably going to get sick, too.
We can tell because some people in a study who slept less than seven hours a night were almost three times as likely to catch a cold as some other people who slept at least eight hours.
As in all things, we must caution against reading too much into the one study referenced, which looked at only 153 people and their responses to cold viruses after their sleep patterns had been observed for two weeks.
This should not be taken either as license for extremes of behavior, which I contend is the main reason we like to read health news stories, or as proof that we're doomed, which is the other popular message. (We are all going to die. But not immediately as a result of poor sleep quality, if judging solely from the information presented.)
Interestingly, "percentage of days feeling rested was not associated with colds," according to the study authors, so you may not even be aware than you're at risk. You could feel just fine, but be an unwitting virus magnet!
Perhaps you're a victim of sleep inefficiency; the people with less than 92% sleep efficiency were five and a half times as likely to catch the cold as the people whose sleep efficiency was 98% or greater.
Five and a half is more than three, you'll notice, so in fact you might be better off getting seven hours of efficient sleep (sleep efficiency is defined simply enough as "percentage of time in bed actually asleep") rather than nine hours of inefficient sleep.
So it's not enough to just be in bed for eight hours. Even being in bed with your eyes closed, pretending to be asleep, will not substitute.
If only that were one of those things that you can actually choose. Yes, I'll take the restful, efficient sleep tonight, thanks! Last night's tossing and turning and waking up every few hours was a lot of fun, but I'm in the mood for something a little quieter this evening.
This actually feels like one of those "stands to reason" type findings. Sure you're more likely to get sick if you're tired and run down. Since common sense sometimes turns out to be wrong, though (thanks, lazy deceitful brain), it can be useful to get some confirmation.
.
We can tell because some people in a study who slept less than seven hours a night were almost three times as likely to catch a cold as some other people who slept at least eight hours.
As in all things, we must caution against reading too much into the one study referenced, which looked at only 153 people and their responses to cold viruses after their sleep patterns had been observed for two weeks.
This should not be taken either as license for extremes of behavior, which I contend is the main reason we like to read health news stories, or as proof that we're doomed, which is the other popular message. (We are all going to die. But not immediately as a result of poor sleep quality, if judging solely from the information presented.)
Interestingly, "percentage of days feeling rested was not associated with colds," according to the study authors, so you may not even be aware than you're at risk. You could feel just fine, but be an unwitting virus magnet!
Perhaps you're a victim of sleep inefficiency; the people with less than 92% sleep efficiency were five and a half times as likely to catch the cold as the people whose sleep efficiency was 98% or greater.
Five and a half is more than three, you'll notice, so in fact you might be better off getting seven hours of efficient sleep (sleep efficiency is defined simply enough as "percentage of time in bed actually asleep") rather than nine hours of inefficient sleep.
So it's not enough to just be in bed for eight hours. Even being in bed with your eyes closed, pretending to be asleep, will not substitute.
If only that were one of those things that you can actually choose. Yes, I'll take the restful, efficient sleep tonight, thanks! Last night's tossing and turning and waking up every few hours was a lot of fun, but I'm in the mood for something a little quieter this evening.
This actually feels like one of those "stands to reason" type findings. Sure you're more likely to get sick if you're tired and run down. Since common sense sometimes turns out to be wrong, though (thanks, lazy deceitful brain), it can be useful to get some confirmation.
.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Awareness, We Must Increase It
Among other things, September is Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month, and Naomi Freundlich at Health Beat had a good post about how we've gotten better at helping children survive to young adulthood, but haven't really managed to do much to help make said young adult's lives better.
I don't know a lot about Sickle Cell, so this was very informative.
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I don't know a lot about Sickle Cell, so this was very informative.
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Monday, August 24, 2009
Updates to Posts You Will Have Forgotten
Speaking of mosquitos, I got a bunch of annoying bites while outdoors over the weekend. Sigh.
And speaking of malaria, perhaps you will enjoy these Chinese anti-malaria posters, from an exhibit at the National Library of Medicine.
I particularly like the very emphatic gentleman second from the top in the gallery of images. He may be able to end the transmission of malaria through sheer force of will.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Party Idea
I see on Healthbolt that it is World Mosquito Day: the date when, in 1897, the connection between mosquitoes and malaria was discovered.
The day is seen less as a celebration of all things mosquito--though someone would probably be up for that party--than as an occasion to press for continued work in the battle against malaria.
Come to think of it, I would be up for that party if it involved a theme event where everyone dressed up as mosquitoes for charity and drank red wine through straws or something. We could have contests to see who could most effectively puncture a plastic bag full of wine with their straw! Oh, this could be good. All proceeds go to anti-malaria programs, of course.
I have previously expressed interested in mosquito-killing lasers, but since I haven't seen these on the shelf in my local grocery store yet, I assume they must still be in development.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
H1N1: Still Out There
We haven't heard as much about swine flu lately, but this post on Cogitamus reminds us that it hasn't gone away.
It's tough to keep a reasonable level of attention to things, I think. The initial excitement in the news may have been a little overdone (although we wouldn't be saying that if it had turned out to infect half the world), and now the lack of excitement may be giving a false sense of calm.
It's also true that the average, non-swine, flu kills quite a few people every year without generally being considered a big deal. It certainly doesn't help to panic constantly, but on the other hand it doesn't help to be unaware of health issues either.
Another example of how you have to try to balance awareness, concern, and having some attention to spare for other things in life.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Bad Genes! Back, Back!
Genetics and Health presents this report of a study suggesting that disease-causing genes go way back in the tale of life.
Like, back to the first cell.
So apparently disease isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Sigh...guess I'll have to keep drinking wine.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Riding the Salmonella Wave
And other waves of disease, of course!
I've seen HealthMap before, but was reminded anew of its coolness by Learn to Live. It's a nifty site compiling reported incidences of various and sundry ailments around the world and locating them with a little ballon on a map.
I had to try it on salmonella, and saw a dramatic visual representation of the rash of cases in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean recently.
It's quite a cool site: you can zoom to specific countries or regions, see the information in several languages, read the news stories on which the little location balloons are based, and select any or all of a variety of sources for the news.
For keeping up on what's new in illness, it's a good find. Sadly, it does not appear to have an RSS feed, but I suppose it updates so often that would just be terrifying, and one could probably build a feed for a specific location and/or disease if desired.
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