Health & WellnessS


Health

H5N1 hits poultry in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam

Officials in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam have reported new outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry this week.

In Bangladesh, an official from the government's livestock department said the H5N1 virus was detected at three farms in the northern part of the country, Reuters reported today. Workers culled about 6,000 chickens, which were buried over the last 2 days, the report said.

The country's last reported H5N1 outbreak occurred in May, according to a World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) report.

Meanwhile, a livestock official in Pakistan said yesterday that 45,000 chicks at a breeding operation in the Northwest Frontier province were destroyed and buried after a laboratory in Islamabad identified the H5N1 virus in samples from the flock, The Post, a Pakistani newspaper, reported today.

According to OIE reports, Pakistan's last poultry outbreak occurred in July.

Elsewhere, veterinary officials in Vietnam reported two more H5N1 outbreaks in ducks, according to a report from Xinhua, China's state news agency. An outbreak that began on Oct 29 in southern Vietnam's Tra Vinh province struck a flock of 2-month-old ducks, killing 400 and sickening 500, the report said.

On Oct 28 an H5N1 outbreak killed 210 of 400 ducks at a household in northern Vietnam's Nam Dinh province, the Xinhua report said.

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Medifraud: Available at a Pharmacy Near You

Unbridled profits, lax safety regulations and corporate fraud are all part of a normal day in the life of our corrupt drug industry.

We're hearing those phrases again," declared Law and Order district attorney, former Republican senator, and presidential candidate Fred Thompson in a July 26 ABC podcast. "National health care, universal health care, socialized medicine. We're being told that government bureaucrats can take over our entire medical industry -- which, by the way, is the best and most complex in the world -- and make it better."

Health

'Mystery' skin disease in farmers

Farmers are being affected by a mysterious new skin disease, dermatologists report.

The condition affects the ears, which become hot, itchy and sore before blistering and crusting.

©Blackwell Publishing
Affected farmers have blisters on their ears

Ark

SOTT Focus: Fear and Knowledge

Fear grows in darkness;
if you think there's a bogeyman around,
turn on the light.

- Dorothy Thompson
Image
© Zadius Sky
Fear is very much known to everyone and it is highly contagious. We see it everywhere, especially in today's world. When one becomes fearful, one's mind resorts to a state of being clouded or paralyzed. In order to overcome this kind of fear, one would require knowledge and the ability to think for oneself. Knowledge can surely protect us from that which we would be fearful of.

Ambulance

'Dual epidemic' threatens Africa



©Associated Press
Poor areas of sub-Saharan Africa are vulnerable

A rising number of dual infections with HIV and tuberculosis has created a co-epidemic spreading throughout sub-Saharan Africa, researchers say.

Wine

Flavor enhancers, coloring agents & preservatives - Food additives demystified

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) - flavor enhancer

Derived from cornstarch, usually a combination of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent sucrose. Treated with an enzyme that converts glucose to fructose, which results in a sweeter product. Used in many mass-produced foods including soft drinks, baked goods, jelly, syrups, condiments (like ketchup), fruits and desserts.

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Commuters Inhale Heavy Dose of Pollution

Driving is more hazardous than anyone knew: A heavy commuter inhales more pollution while driving than in the entire rest of the day, a new study finds.

The research was done in Los Angeles, where the average driver spends 1.5 hours behind the wheel. That time in traffic accounts for 33 to 45 percent of total exposure to diesel and ultrafine particles (UFP), the study showed.

Comment: While the war against smokers continues, it is what we breathe in the air that causes us more harm. But we don't see anyone from the government running around to fix it, do we? It is clear that when they tell us to quit smoking because of the harm it causes us, they are lying again.

Read this SOTT focus piece for more information: Let's all light up!


Health

Lawmakers: Look closely at foreign drugs

The Food and Drug Administration isn't paying enough attention to inspecting the growing amount of drugs produced by foreign manufacturers, say lawmakers who want the agency to update its approach.

The head of the FDA is being called before a congressional committee Thursday to explain his agency's lopsided approach to inspecting drugs, both domestically and overseas.

Black Cat

Cat's eye view of DNA sheds light on human disease

The first full genetic map of a cat -- a domestic pedigreed Abyssinian -- is already shedding light on a common cause of blindness in humans and may offer insights into AIDS and other diseases, researchers reported on Wednesday.

And the cat genome shows some surprising qualities that cats and humans appear to have uniquely in common, the researchers report in the journal Genome Research.

Arrow Down

47 million Americans lack health insurance: report

The number of Americans lacking health insurance rose by nearly 8.6 million to 47 million from 2000 to 2006, with children and workers from every income level losing coverage, a new report said on Thursday.

The increase was "driven primarily by the continued erosion in employer-provided health insurance," said the report by the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute.

In 2006, 2.3 million fewer Americans received health benefits from their employers than in 2000, the report said, noting the decline does not take the population increase into account.

Comment: War is supported by both parties and unlimited funds are available for this. Go here and see what the money spent on the cost of war could have done the basic infrastructure in America