Health News: Smartphones Quickly and accurately diagnoses disease ♦ Unsafe food ’growing global threat ♦ Predicting chronic pain in whiplash injuries

 Smartphones Quickly and accurately diagnoses disease and monitors treatment remotely Researchers from Florida Atlantic University and collaborators have identified a new biosensing platform that could be used to remotely detect and determine treatment options for HIV, E-coli, Staphylococcus aureus and other bacteria  

Unsafe food ’growing global threat Eating food contaminated with bugs leads to more than half a billion cases of illness a year, the World Health Organization warns. It says this "global threat" contributed to 351,000 deaths in 2010. Unsafe foods, for example undercooked meat, can cause 200 problems - from diarrhoea to cancer

Innovative strategies needed to address US transplant organ shortage As the United States faces transplant waiting lists that continue to grow longer over time, there is increasing debate about the proper way to incentivize living donations. Due to organ shortages, thousands of Americans are on transplant waiting lists for 5 or more years as their health deteriorate

Generous welfare benefits make people more likely to want to work, not less Generous welfare benefit levels make people who are not in employment more likely to want to work rather than less. "Many scholars and commentators fear that generous social benefits threaten the sustainability of the welfare state due to work norm erosion, disincentives to work and dependency cultures,". "This article concludes that there are few signs that groups with traditionally weaker bonds to the labor market are less motivated to work if they live in generous welfare states."

Predicting chronic pain in whiplash injuries While most people recover from whiplash injuries within a few months, about 25 percent have long-term pain and disability for many months or years. Using special MRI imaging, scientists identified, within the first one and two weeks of the injury, which patients will develop chronic pain and disability. This is the earliest these patients have been identified and will enable faster treatment. The imaging revealed large amounts of fat infiltrating the patients' neck muscles, indicating rapid atrophy.

World Wide Shortage Of Yellow Fever Vaccine May Affect World Cup Fans

The unavailability of the vaccine can mean that travelers to countries that require YF vaccination may be denied entry. Travelers to YF endemic countries that do not require vaccination not only put themselves at risk, but if they visit other countries while viremic and are exposed to vector mosquitoes, they run the risk of starting a YF outbreak. There is concern about football (soccer) fans attending the FIFA World Cup games [12 Jun-13 Jul 2014] in those parts of Brazil where YF virus is endemic, such as the Manaus area. One hopes that the shortage will indeed end in March 2014, providing enough time for football fans and players to receive the vaccine if they act promptly when the vaccine becomes available.

Those planning to attend one or more of the World Cup venues or other YF endemic areas in South America, Darien, Panama, or Africa should determine whether they are in the YF risk areas.

As noted in WHO's yellow fever vaccination requirements and recommendations (http://www.who.int/ith/chapters/ith2012en_countrylist.pdf?ua=1), yellow fever vaccination is "recommended for all travelers 9 months of age or older going to the following areas: the entire states of Acre, Amapa, Amazonas, Distrito Federal (including the capital city of Brasilia), Goias, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para, Rondonia, Roraima, Tocantins; and designated areas of the following states: Bahia, Parana, Piaui, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Sao Paulo (state). Vaccination is also recommended for travelers visiting Iguazu Falls. [It is] not recommended for travelers whose itineraries are limited to areas not listed above, including the cities of Fortaleza, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Sao Paulo."

[Although the WHO guidelines say that vaccination is not required for Rio de Janeiro and other coastal cities, most Brazilian cities including Rio are suffering from dengue epidemics, which mean they are infested with _Aedes aegypti_ mosquitoes, the same mosquitoes that transmit yellow fever. So if a football fan or other tourist (either Brazilian or international) goes into the Amazon jungle and gets yellow fever, he or she could bring it back to Rio

Brazil also considers that there is no risk of YF transmission in the coastal areas of the states of Piaui, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul.

Doctors in Sheffield [South Yorkshire, England] are urging people travelling to Africa and South America to get protected against yellow fever -- after taking delivery of a rare batch of the jab during a worldwide shortage.

Sheffield Travel Clinic, based at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, has received a consignment of the drug, which is expected to remain scarce until the end of next month [March 2014].

Yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes in Africa, South America, and some parts of the Caribbean. Symptoms include fever, severe headaches, back pain, body aches, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. Some patients also enter a second, more toxic phase, when jaundice and kidney failure can occur.

Source proMED-mail

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1/2/14 Health News: Is Antibacterial Dangerous, Will Obamacare Cause Doctor Shortage

'Antibacterial' Products are Finally Getting Scrutiny

FDA says claims that popular products fight infection are unproven. A high-profile move this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should have come as a shock to consumers who have long used “antibacterial” soaps, lotions and other products to ward off illness. Despite widespread use since the late 1970s, a top FDA official said bluntly on Monday that their added value in fighting infection is unproven as questions mount about potential risks. Continue reading

ObamaCare, Doctor Shortage to Spur $2 Billion Telehealth Market

The business of treating patients via telehealth in the U.S. will dramatically increase to nearly $2 billion in revenue within five years due to a confluence of events in the health care industry from doctor shortages to provider payment changes under the Affordable Care Act. The trend toward telehealth will be driven by employers, private insurers and the Affordable Care Act, which makes doctors and hospitals more accountable by moving medical care providers away from fee-for-service medicine where they are paid based on volume of services to reimbursement based on the value of care they provide. Continue Reading