Global Public Health Blog

Flu Vaccine Underperforms

In a set back from earlier estimates, the nation's first vaccine against bird flu is even less effective than previously thought, according to Food and Drug Administration documents just released.  In the most recent clinical trials, the two-shot series appears to provide protection to just 45 percent of adults who received the highest dose of the Sanofi Aventis SA vaccine.  Since it's attack on Asian poultry in 2003, the H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 167 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

New Energy

Nature has collected a set of great articles addressing the use and impact of new energy technologies that have been developed to combat global warming while still helping developing nations expand their economies.  They range from "mainstream possibilities like the expansion of nuclear power to more offbeat subjects such as microbial fuel cells and schemes for combining biofuel with fertiliser manufacture."  If you know of any great resources, or have an opinion on new energy technologies, please let us know!

Virulent TB in South Africa May Imperil Millions

A form of TB, known as XDR (for extensively drug-resistant), that cannot be effectively treated with most first- and second-line tuberculosis drugs, may have spread beyond South African borders and puts millions at risk.  Although one third of the world’s people, by W.H.O. estimates, are infected with dormant tuberculosis germs, the disease thrives when immune systems are weakened by H.I.V. At least two in three South African TB sufferers are H.I.V. positive. Should XDR TB gain a foothold in the H.I.V.-positive population, it could wreak havoc not only among the five million South Africans who carry the virus, but the tens of millions more throughout sub-Saharan Africa.  There is deep concern that not enough is being done by South African officials.  Read more in the New York Times. 

Learn more about the global TB epidemic at the WHO's Tuberculosis site. 

Bush Health Inusance Plan

President Bush detailed a new health care proposal designed to make health insurance more accessible to lower-income families. In Bush's plan, employer-provided health insurance would become taxable income if the benefits were more than $15,000 per year for a family or more than $7,500 per year for an individual. The tax revenues would then be used to subsidize health care for poor people.

Under the plan, employer-provided health insurance, currently exempt from taxation, would no longer be tax-free. Workers could be taxed if their coverage exceeded limits set by the government. But the government would also offer a new tax deduction for people buying health insurance on their own.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-New York, has stated, "This is a dangerous policy that ultimately shifts cost and risk from employers to employees and could result in a higher number of uninsured."

Drop in US Cancer Deaths

The American Cancer Society reported that the number of cancer deaths in the United States has dropped for the second year in a row.  This finding is important, as it suggests that last year's reported drop in cancer deaths, the first in the last 70 years, was real.  Researchers note that this is possibly the start of a continuing decrease and not merely a statistical fluke. 

An Epidemic of Overdiganosis

This article in the New York Times has an interesting perspective of Americans' "medicalization of everyday life."

How much does cancer cost the patient?

A study published in today's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute estimates the cost of patients' time associated with cancer care in the US.  It suggests that costs may exceed $2 billion for the first year following a diagnosis.  This is a unique study methodology that attempts to understand how the net hours of treatment for a given type of cancer costs patients. 

Over 1/3 of American Preschoolers are Obese

A study published in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers at the University of Wisconsin states that far too many kids are fat by preschool, and Hispanic youngsters are most at risk.  “These children are already disadvantaged because their families are poor, and by age 3 they are on track for a lifetime of health problems related to obesity,” said lead researcher Rachel Kimbro of the University of Wisconsin at Madison

The study was focused on the poor, culling data on more than 2,000 3-year-olds from a study that tracks from birth children born to low-income families in 20 large U.S. cities.  Thirty-two percent of the white and black children were either overweight or obese, vs. 44 percent of the Hispanics.

Why were the Hispanics at higher risk? Kimbro checked a long list of factors, from children’s TV habits to whether mothers had easy access to grocery stores. Nothing could fully explain the difference. “We were surprised,” she said.  Children were particularly at risk if their mothers were obese. So were those who still took a bottle to bed at age 3, as did 14 percent of the Hispanic youngsters, 6 percent of the whites and 4 percent of the blacks.

Obesity is the cause of many medical conditions that continue to strain our healthcare systems, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. America, and the rest of the western world, must confront it's obesity crisis with educational and public health initiatives that start early on in childhood. 

The new Global Public Health Blog

Welcome to the Global Public Health Blog. This Blog features numerous prominent scientists involved in the issues and research important to improving global public health. Some of the first contributors to this section, including Paul Offit from the University of Pennsylvania, have years of experience in basic science vaccine research and now will share their thoughts directly to the scientific and public communities through BioWizard.