Healthcare Prof:

4 (two votes)

Article Opinions:two posts
The developers of an innovative outdoor decoy device that utilizes the odour of smelly socks or perhaps a related synthetic smell to lure and kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes, have just won a grant to test their design after which take it from the lab by means of production to marketplace.

Grand Challenges Canada along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have jointly awarded Tanzanian entomologist Dr. Fredros Okumu and his team at the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania, East Africa, the grant in order eventually for their mosquito traps to be available at low cost towards the communities that most need to have them.

Every year, malaria infects 250 million and kills practically 800,000 people around the globe, most of them young kids.

Dr. Peter A. Singer, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada, told the press that the innovative device could "contribute significantly to accelerating the elimination of malaria and save lives".

The decoy device, which resembles a portable weather station in the shape of a large box with louvred sides, is placed outside the home and complements indoor mosquito-foiling strategies such as bed nets and sprays.

In their investigation, Okumu and his team in the Ifakara Health Institute found that the most effective way to lure mosquitoes towards the decoy device was to bait them together with the odour of smelly socks, or utilizing synthetic chemicals having a related smell. They discovered that four times as numerous mosquitoes are lured by both the genuine odour along with the synthetic version as they are by humans.

Once they are inside the decoy, the mosquitoes remain trapped or they are poisoned and die.

One could ask, why so considerably emphasis on smelly socks, why not just go for the synthetic bait?

According towards the Washington Post, Okumu said smelly socks were readily available, you don't must mix any chemicals and you can set up production in cottage factories. They are presently testing lots of ways to obtain hold with the smelly socks smell, which includes asking schoolchildren to put pads inside their shoes, wear them all day, then hand them in towards the researchers.

Okumu stated while there has been considerable progress in the global fight against malaria, there was nonetheless a great deal of work to be completed.

"Malaria has claimed so several lives, such as those of men and women close to me, and my hope is that this innovative device will be part of the resolution," he said.

But new tips do not always make it from the inventor's bench towards the marketplace, you'll find several hurdles to be overcome.

Something Joseph L. Rotman, a philanthropist and businessman who chairs the board of directors of Grand Challenges Canada, spoke about:

"Through a lifetime of hard lessons, I know that discovery is not adequate."

"Discoveries also must be implemented inside the actual world via business and social innovation," he added.

This is 1 reason that Grand Challenges Canada has stepped in with all the grant, under its Integrated Innovation approach. They expect, that with this economic support, Okumu and his team will have the ability to test and improve the device and be able to scale up production and get it developed by the community in two years.

Sources: Grand Challenges Canada, Washington Post.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced with out permission of Medical News Today

Healthcare Prof:

5 (1 votes)

There is an on-going huge drought in Ethiopia and once again there is certainly the threat of a resurgence of two nicely known epidemics, cholera and measles. Five million men and women are at risk of cholera in water starved Ethiopia, where acute watery diarrhea has broken out in crowded, unsanitary conditions, the World Wellness Organization (WHO) stated on Friday.

Ethiopian wellness officials have confirmed circumstances of acute watery diarrhea in the Somali, Afar and Oromiya regions of Ethiopia. Drought across the Horn of Africa, now affecting more than 11 million folks in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia, has elevated the risk with the spread of infectious illnesses, particularly polio, cholera and measles.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic stated:

"Overall, 8.8 million people are at risk of malaria and five million of cholera (in Ethiopia). So far WHO has not received any report of polio situations, it really crucial to assist countries to keep their polio-free status. It is not confined towards the refugees."

WHO is delivering emergency health kits to Ethiopia and helping train wellness workers in treating malnutrition and in detecting illness outbreaks. Somalis fleeing severe drought and intensified fighting have been arriving in the rate of a lot more than 1,700 per day in Ethiopia, where 4.five million folks now need help, practically a 50% rise considering that April.

It does not cease with one pandemic. Two million children in Ethiopia are at risk of catching measles, a disease that may be deadly in children. UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado stated Friday a minimum of 17,584 measles cases, such as 114 deaths, have been reported by Ethiopian health officials inside the first half with the year.

Measles has also broken out inside the sprawling Kenyan Dadaab camps, with 462 circumstances confirmed including 11 deaths. Dadaab, an overcrowded complicated of three camps, now holds some 440,000 refugees.

Help is on the way, but is it adequate? A Boeing 747 flight carrying 100 tons of tents is expected to land in Nairobi on Sunday, he stated. Six further flights were planned over the next two weeks.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres welcomed an announcement by Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Thursday that Kenya is to open an extension towards the camps to ease congestion at Dadaab, exactly where 1,300 Somali refugees arrive everyday.

Edwards stated:

"It will avoid congestion increasing further within the short term. Naturally larger requirements relate to the must undertake humanitarian efforts inside Somalia itself."

WHO has warned that the movement of people and poor sanitation in overcrowded camps and towns as a result of drought and violence in East Africa increases the risk of cholera, typhoid and measles epidemics.

The major trigger of numerous of Ethiopia's well being problems may be the relative isolation of large segments with the population from the contemporary sector. Furthermore, widespread illiteracy prevents the dissemination of information on modern day wellness practices. A shortage of trained personnel and insufficient funding also hampers the equitable distribution of well being services. Moreover, most well being institutions had been concentrated in urban centers prior to 1974 and were concerned with curative rather than preventive medicine.

Western medicine came to Ethiopia during the last quarter of the nineteenth century with all the arrival of missionary doctors, nurses, and midwives. But there was small progress on measures to cope with all the acute and endemic illnesses that debilitated large segments with the population until the government established it is Ministry of Public Wellness in 1948. The World Wellness Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), along with the United States Agency for International Development (AID) provided technical and financial help to eliminate the sources of well being difficulties.

Sources: The World Well being Organization and UNICEFl

Written by Sy Kraft
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Healthcare Prof:

5 (1 votes)

People who see the "glass as half empty" might be far more willing to contribute to a typical aim if they already identify with it, based on researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, University of Chicago and Sungkyunkwan University.

According towards the studies, people who already care a lot (highly identify) with a trigger are much more likely to financially support the trigger if a solicitation is framed by how much is still needed (as an example, "we nonetheless require $50,000 to reach our goal"). However, if people care quite small prior to a solicitation (low identify), they are more most likely to contribute if they knew how much with the objective had already been met (for instance, "we've raised $50,000 toward our goal").

Psychologist Marlone Henderson, University of Texas at Austin, and co-authors professors Ayelet Fishbach, University of Chicago Booth School of Company, and Minjung Koo, Sungkyunkwan University SKK Graduate School of Enterprise, will publish their findings in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Common.

"We think our findings provide organizations numerous strategies to boost volunteering and donations," says Henderson. "Our findings also imply that in the course of times when prior contributions or donations by others are particularly salient inside the public eye, organizations may possibly take the opportunity to promote philanthropy by approaching those who identify less using the beneficiaries or together with the helping group, thereby expanding their circle of possible donors."

Five studies measured contributions to goals centered on notion generation and helping victims of numerous disasters like the earthquake in Haiti, wildfires in Southern California and riots in Kenya. Feasible contributions to these causes include engaging in social movements, pledging to charity, volunteering for community outreach programs and producing concepts in team meetings.

For among the studies, a field experiment was accomplished in cooperation together with the South Korean office of Compassion International, a Christian child-sponsored organization, shortly soon after the 2007-08 Kenyan riots. The study randomly selected 973 men and women who received a letter that either read, "...we have effectively raised five,200,000 won (the Korean monetary unit)" or "...we need one more four,800,000 won."

When the letter highlighted what had already been collected to low identifiers, the contribution quantity a lot more than doubled from 1,619.43 won compared to five,042.92 won. When the amount nonetheless necessary was highlighted to high identifiers, donations increased from 1,847.39 won compared to 3,265.31 won.

"People ask themselves one of two questions when deciding no matter whether to invest in one private goal versus one more," says Henderson. "'Is the goal worth pursuing?' This might signal to individuals who did not already care that it's some thing worth paying attention to and to obtain onboard. Or for people who already care: 'Is this progressing at a pace I uncover adequate?' If not, it could be a signal to jump in and get involved, so this effort they care about doesn't sink."

Source:
Marlone Henderson
University of Texas at Austin

Healthcare Prof:

5 (1 votes)

Researchers in the University of Illinois have become the first to record an airglow signature inside the upper atmosphere produced by a tsunami employing a camera method based in Maui, Hawaii.

The signature, brought on by the March 11 earthquake that devastated Japan, was observed in an airglow layer 250 kilometers above the earth's surface. It preceded the tsunami by one hour, suggesting that the technology might be used as an early-warning program within the future. The findings were lately published within the peer-reviewed Geophysical Analysis Letters.

The observation confirms a theory created within the 1970s that the signature of tsunamis could possibly be observed in the upper atmosphere, particularly the ionosphere. But until now, it had only been demonstrated using radio signals broadcast by satellites.

"Imaging the response utilizing the airglow is a lot much more difficult due to the fact the window of chance for generating the observations is so narrow, and had never been achieved prior to," said Jonathan Makela, an associate professor of electrical and pc engineering and researcher within the Coordinated Science Laboratory. "Our camera occurred to be in the appropriate place in the appropriate time."

Tsunamis can produce appreciable wave amplitudes in the upper atmosphere - in this case, the airglow layer. As a tsunami moves across the ocean, it produces atmospheric gravity waves forced by centimeter-level surface undulations. The amplitude of the waves can reach a number of kilometers exactly where the neutral atmosphere coexists using the plasma in the ionosphere, causing perturbations that will be imaged.

On the night of the tsunami, conditions above Hawaii for viewing the airglow signature had been optimal. It was approaching dawn (nearly 2:00 a.m. nearby time) with no sun, moon or clouds obstructing the view of the night sky.

Along with graduate student Thomas Gehrels, Makela analyzed the images and was able to isolate specific wave periods and orientations. In collaboration with researchers in the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CEA-DAM-DIF in France, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisais Espaciais (INPE) in Brazil, Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and NOVELTIS in France, the researchers identified that the wave properties matched those within the ocean-level tsunami measurements, confirming that the pattern originated from the tsunami. The team also cross-checked their information against theoretical models and measurements produced utilizing GPS receivers.

Makela believes that camera systems could possibly be a important aid in making an early warning method for tsunamis. Currently, scientists rely on ocean-based buoys and models to track and predict the path of a tsunami. Prior upper atmospheric measurements with the tsunami signature relied on GPS measurements, which are restricted by the number of information points that will be obtained, creating it hard to create an image. It would take a lot more than 1,000 GPS receivers to capture comparable information to that of 1 camera program. In addition, some locations, including Hawaii, don't have adequate landmass to accumulate the number of GPS units it would take to image horizon to horizon.

In contrast, one camera can image the whole sky. Nonetheless, the sun, moon and clouds can limit the utility of camera measurements from the ground. By flying a camera system on a geo-stationary satellite in space, scientists could be able to prevent these limitations whilst simultaneously imaging a a lot bigger region of the earth.

To generate a reliable program, Makela says that scientists would need to create algorithms that could analyze and filter information in real-time. And also the greatest remedy would also contain a network of ground-based cameras and GPS receivers operating using the satellite-based method to combine the individual strengths of each and every measurement technique.

"This is really a reminder of how interconnected our environment it," Makela stated. "This approach provides a potent new tool to study the coupling with the ocean and atmosphere and how tsunamis propagate across the open ocean."

Source:
Jonathan J. Makela
University of Illinois College of Engineering

Healthcare Prof:

The numbers of individuals becoming infected with measles and water-borne illnesses is growing at an alarming rate within the Horn of Africa and some neighboring countries, says WHO (World Health Organization). Circumstances of severe diarrhea in Kenya and Ethiopia are a significant concern, the organization adds.

Severe drought within the Horn of Africa and Kenya is making millions of people move to other areas, an crucial factor within the spread of communicable illnesses. WHO predicts the problem will get worse.

The Horn of Africa, also called Northeast Africa or the Somali Peninsula is in northern east Africa, it can be a peninsula that sticks out hundreds of miles into the Arabian sea. The Horn of Africa has roughly 100 million people, and includes Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

The affected countries have low immunization rates, a shortage of clean water, poor sanitation and really poor well being care systems.

WHO Spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, stated:

"Taking into account the size of the population within the worst hit locations in Ethiopia, WHO estimates that two million children under five are at risk of measles, and already given that the beginning of the year, there were 5,000 circumstances reported of measles. More than 3 million of youngsters below five should be screened for malnutrition and given vitamin A supplements."

Nine million individuals within the worst affected locations are at very critical risk of creating water borne illnesses, most of which trigger acute watery diarrhea. So far, no situations of cholera have been reported. Even so, authorities say that with no less than 5 million vulnerable people present, it can be possibly only a question of time before an outbreak starts.

According to Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, about half of all of the kids below the age of 5 who arrive at their camps in Somalia are suffering from malnutrition. Malnourished children are specially susceptible to the complications of watery diarrhea and measles.

Edwards stated:

"The information we have from Dollo Ado is still incomplete in the moment. But, at the worst incidents we're seeing-the mortality rates are at the Kobe camp at the moment, exactly where we are registering 7.4 deaths per 10,000 individuals per day. To give you a sense of what that implies, the typical baseline is below 1."

Reports of serious shortages of medical supplies among aid agencies in Kenya are growing, WHO informs. Well being care facilities are presently overwhelmed with men and women coming in.

In the Mwingi (eastern Kenya) and Dadaab (northeastern Kenya) refugee camps you can find 462 confirmed situations of measles, and 11 deaths from the diseaseimplies that fewer resources are dedicated to well being care just as well being desires boost as a result of poor diet. Lack of water and population displacements, which lead to precarious sanitation, further increase the risk of communicable diseases like cholera, typhoid fever, diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and measles.

Outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea and measles have already been reported in Djibouti and Ethiopia. The effects of the drought are also aggravated by weak health care systems, with limited human resources and medical supplies and low immunization coverage.

Tragically, the worst affected locations also have a few of the worst illness burdens in the world. In Somalia infant mortality is estimated to be 88 per 1,000 live births, while mortality for the under-5s is at 142 per 1,000. From January via towards the end of June this year, WHO estimated that a lot more than 3 Somali kids died each day consequently of malnutrition.

According to WHO, it has received only 22% of the funds necessary for Somalia, 5% of monies necessary for Djibouti, and much less than 2% of funding required for Kenya.

Source: WHO

Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced with no permission of Medical News Today

Healthcare Prof:

5 (1 votes)

Article Opinions:1 posts

Flush toilets are unavailable to the vast majority in the developing globe, and billions of people lack a safe, reliable toilet or latrine. More than a billion folks defecate in the open. This week The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation nowadays announced the launch of a strategy to help bring safe, clean, sanitation services to millions of poor folks in the developing globe.

One such effort totaling a $3 million grant supports eight universities across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America in the challenge to reinvent the toilet as a stand-alone unit without piped-in water, a sewer connection, or outside electricity, all for less than five cents a day.

The foundation also announced $42 million in new sanitation grants that aim to spur innovations in the capture and storage of waste, at the same time as its processing into reusable energy, fertilizer, and fresh water. In addition, the foundation will support function with local communities to end open defecation and increase access to affordable, long-term sanitation solutions that men and women will want to use.

Addressing the needs with the 2.6 billion men and women who don't have access to safe sanitation requires hygienic, affordable, and sustainable ways to capture, treat, and recycle human waste. Most importantly, it requires close collaboration with neighborhood communities to create lasting sanitation solutions that meet their needs.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the foundation's Global Development Program stated:

"No innovation in the past 200 years has done a lot more to save lives and boost wellness than the sanitation revolution triggered by invention with the toilet. But it did not go far enough. It only reached one-third of the world. What we need are new approaches. New ideas. In short, we should reinvent the toilet."

Unsafe methods to capture and store waste lead to serious wellness troubles and death. About 1.five million young children die each year from diarrheal disease, and most of these deaths could be prevented together with the introduction of proper sanitation, along with safe drinking water and improved hygiene.

Sanitation services must cost no much more than five cents per person per day and be easy to install, use, and maintain. The foundation's strategy involves gathering evidence to determine what folks want and measuring what really works. It includes stimulating demand for improved sanitation in each rural and urban communities by way of education and raising awareness. It also involves advocacy efforts to engage governments and other public and private partners to prioritize sanitation policies that address this urgent issue.

Mamadou Dia, President of the African Water Association adds:

"Across Africa, improved sanitation is an essential human want that we must take action to address. We welcome efforts to focus new attention, ideas, and resources on this critical issue."

According to the Globe Health Organization, improved sanitation can produce up to $9 for every $1 invested by increasing productivity, reducing wellness care costs, and preventing illness, disability, and early death. Men and women with access to clean and convenient sanitation services also experience greater dignity, privacy, and security. This is especially true of girls and girls, who usually miss perform or school when they are menstruating and risk sexual assault when they are forced to defecate in the open or use public restrooms.

Prince Willem-Alexander with the Netherlands, chair of the United Nations Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation concludes:

"Disease caused by unsafe sanitation accounts for roughly half of all hospitalizations in the developing world. This statistic is unacceptable, as will be the fact that many decision makers remain reluctant to talk about sanitation, further stigmatizing the topic, and perpetuating a crisis whose solutions are within our reach."

Source: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Written by Sy Kraft
Copyright: Medical News Today
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A new set of evidence-based guidelines that comprehensively address how basic first responders should be trained to manage emergency circumstances in an African context has been released, published in this week's PLoS Medicine. The guidelines, which were developed by a panel of African-based experts and in conjunction with African Red Cross Societies, focus on first aid interventions requiring minimal or no equipment. They can be used by individuals and organisations involved in first aid training programmes in Africa, and an implementation guide is also available to help tailor the training materials towards the neighborhood context and target group.

As the authors note, in sub-Saharan Africa, where 41% of all deaths and 39% with the morbidity burden can potentially be addressed by emergency care, prompt and adequate care can increase the likelihood of survival and recovery. "Pre-hospital care is a vital initial step," say the authors, but is usually unavailable until now.

The full guidelines and implementation guide, portion of the African First Aid Materials project (AFAM) are available here.

Funding: This guideline was funded by the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders, the Flanders International Cooperation Agency (FICA), and by the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation (DGD). SVDV, EDB, and PV are in employment at the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders and were involved in the design with the guideline development plan, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, and preparation of the manuscript. FICA and DGD were not involved in the content or development with the guideline.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. For reasons of transparency we declare that Stijn Van de Velde received funding from the Laerdal Foundation of Acute Medicine for a trial on bystander helping behaviour for myocardial infarction following first aid training.

Citation: Van de Velde S, De Buck E, Vandekerckhove P, Volmink J (2011) Evidence-Based African First Aid Guidelines and Training Materials. PLoS Med 7(7): e1001059. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001059

Click here to access the freely available paper.

Source:
Clare Weaver
Public Library of Science

Healthcare Prof:

3.2 (five votes)

Article Opinions:1 posts
Using blood tests to diagnose active tuberculosis (TB) usually leads to misdiagnosis, say the Globe Wellness Organization (WHO), who urge all countries to stop using the tests and rely instead on accurate WHO-recommended microbiological or molecular tests.

This may be the first time the global well being agency has issued a "negative" policy recommendation relating to TB, something they say "underscores the Organization's determination" to advise governments when there is strong evidence that widespread practice is doing more harm than good.

The WHO's new policy recommendation, released from its headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday, states that the currently available commercial blood (serological) tests are unreliable and inaccurate. This is because they look for antibodies or antigens in the blood, that is a notoriously difficult thing to do.

Sometimes these blood tests don't find antibodies in patients who have active TB and return a negative result, and sometimes they find antibodies to other diseases that are mistaken for TB antibodies and return a positive result.

Using blood tests to test for active TB is "bad practice" that leads to misdiagnosis, mistreatment and potential harm to public health, say the WHO.

Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the Stop TB Department at the WHO, stated:

"In the best interests of patients and caregivers in the private and public health sectors, Who is calling for an end to the use of these serological tests to diagnose tuberculosis."

"A blood test for diagnosing active TB disease is bad practice. Test results are inconsistent, imprecise and put patients' lives in danger," he added.

The agency pointed out that the new policy recommendation only applies to blood tests for active TB. They are in the process of reviewing the blood tests for inactive TB, which is also referred to as dormant or latent TB.

The new policy recommendation follows 12 months of analysis of evidence by the WHO and global experts on TB, who evaluated 94 studies, such as 67 for pulmonary TB. The "overwhelming" evidence from these studies showed that the blood tests return an unacceptable level of either false positives or false negatives, compared to tests recommended by the WHO.

For example, several with the studies found that the commercial blood tests had "low sensitivity" and returned negative results when they should have been positive. This means patients who think they are in the clear don't get treated and there is a greater risk they will pass on the disease, or even die from untreated TB.

The evidence also showed that the commercial blood tests have "low specificity", which means too many patients receive a positive result, indicating they have active TB, when they do not. This results in them being treated for an illness they don't have, and perhaps more alarmingly, not being diagnosed or treated for an illness they do have, which could be serious and even fatal.

And it's not as though these tests are cheap: a lot of patients pay as much as 30 US dollars per test, of which there are 18 different brands, mostly produced in Europe as well as the US, not approved by any regulatory body, and sold in a global market where much more than a million are carried out every year to test for active TB.

As Dr Karin Weyer, WHO Quit TB Department's Coordinator of TB Diagnostics and Laboratory Strengthening, explained:

"Blood tests for TB are typically targeted at countries with weak regulatory mechanisms for diagnostics, where questionable marketing incentives can override the welfare of patients."

"It's a multi-million dollar business centred on selling substandard tests with unreliable results," she added.

Every year, 1.7 million men and women die of TB. It could be the number one killer of men and women with HIV. Enhancing the diagnosis of TB is a priority for the WHO as well as the community that is fighting TB worldwide.

Researchers are currently working on ways to make much better, faster, much more accurate tests that are easier to administer, stated the WHO.

Source: WHO.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without having permission of Medical News Today

Healthcare Prof:

In the wake of the devastating Japanese tsunami, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, and also the current threat of pandemic flu, a brand new issue of the journal Interfaces: The INFORMS Journal on the Practice of Operations Research is dedicated to enhancing responses to disasters, wellness crises, and acute public issues, according to the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS?).

The Interfaces special issue on Humanitarian Logistics: Doing Good with Good O.R. is edited by Ozlem Ergun, Pinar Keskinocak, and Julie Swann, the directors with the Georgia Tech Center for Wellness and Humanitarian Logistics.

The studies in the issue are: Pre-Positioning of Emergency Items for CARE International by Serhan Duran, Marco A. Gutierrez, Pinar Keskinocak Optimizing Schedules for Maritime Humanitarian Cooperative Engagements from a United States Navy Sea Base by Javier Salmer????n, Jeffrey Kline, Greta Spitz Densham Helping a Small Development Organization Manage Volunteers More Efficiently by Mauro Falasca, Christopher Zobel, Cliff Ragsdale Quantitative Methods for a brand new Configuration of Territorial Units in a Chilean Government Agency Tender Process by Guillermo Dur??????n, Rafael Epstein, Cristian Martinez, Gonzalo Andres Zamorano A Mathematical Programming Approach to Applicant Selection for a Degree Program Based on Affirmative Action by Guillermo Dur??????n, Rodrigo Wolf-Yadlin Doing Good with Good OR: Supporting Cost-Effective Hepatitis B Interventions by David W. Hutton, Margaret L. Brandeau, Samuel K. So A Nonhomogeneous Agent-Based Simulation Approach to Modeling the Spread of Illness in a Pandemic Outbreak by Dionne M. Aleman, Theodorus G. Wibisono, Brian SchwartzSource:
Barry List
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

Healthcare Prof:

Article Opinions:two posts
In a report released to the public this week, a panel reviewed scientific and medical findings on ground zero and decided there is insufficient evidence to add cancer towards the list of trade center-related conditions. This means that those stricken with the life threatening illness cannot get health benefits below the Zadroga Act.

In January 2011, President Obama signed the James Zadroga 9/11 Well being and Compensation Act of 2010 (H.R. 847), called the Zadroga Act, into law. If a person has 9/11 related wellness conditions, they may be eligible for wellness care under this new law but you must act quickly since enrollment in the wellness program is limited, and now cancer has been denied feasibility.

A large number of individuals exposed to the 9/11 toxins have already developed serious and fatal health conditions. If someone assisted in the Ground Zero rescue or cleanup efforts, they too may be suffering from or develop 9/11 related well being conditions.

The determination by Dr. John Howard at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health comes in its first review of cancer as a potential trade center-related well being effect. Another review is planned for early next year.

9/11 well being advocate John Feal commented:

"As we have seen countless of our brethren fall to a form of this horrible illness time and again following 9/11, we know in our hearts, having breathed in those noxious fumes and having spent hour after hour in that undeniably toxic air, that a lot of forms of cancer are due to our exposure at the site."

The report notes that an absence of published findings documenting a direct causal link among the trade center and cancer does not mean there is no link.

Authors with the bill added:

"This is disappointing news for 9/11 responders and rescuers who tragically have been diagnosed with cancer because the attacks and are suffering day to day and awaiting assist. The collapse of the trade center towers released a cloud of poisons, including carcinogens, throughout Lower Manhattan and we fully expect that cancers will be covered below our legislation."

Congress has appropriated a capped amount of $2.775 billion payable over a period of years for this program. Only $875 million may be spent in the first five years of the program using the remainder being paid out in the sixth year.

The Act specifically states:

"It is important therefore to assure that funds are targeted to the payment of eligible claims and to avoid procedures or guidelines that will dilute those payments. Funds used to process ineligible claims or for unnecessary administrative costs result in fewer funds available to pay intended and deserving claimants. In implementing the program, the intent is to initiate procedures that will permit efficiency with out sacrificing fairness, and to seek ways to minimize administrative expenses, thereby maximizing the amount available for distribution to eligible claimants."

The complete James Zadroga 9/11 Wellness and Compensation Act of 2010 can be found HERE.

For the full 106 page document that outlines the decision to not place cancer under 9/11 well being protection, click HERE.

Written by Sy Kraft
Copyright: Medical News Today
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