Health & Wellness

Battling Ebola in West Africa

Samaritan's Purse
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 18:00 UTC

Samaritan's Purse is sling loading ebola isolation ward kits from Gueckedou, Guinea, to Foya, Liberia, for set-up of the isolation ward.

Samaritan's Purse works with the Liberian government to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus

Two nurses in Liberia are among the 135 people who have died from the virulent Ebola virus that is sweeping across West Africa. The nurses worked at Foya Boma Hospital, near the border of Guinea, where the outbreak originated before spreading to Liberia.

Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses in the world, killing up to 90 percent of those infected. There is no cure or vaccine. The only way to stop it is to keep it from spreading.

Samaritan's Purse is partnering with Liberia's Ministry of Health to contain the outbreak. We are conducting public education and awareness campaigns in Lofa, River Gee, Gbarpulu, and Nimba counties and in Monrovia, the capital city and location of our field office.

So far, we have reached more than 140,000 people in 445 communities with Ebola awareness and prevention messaging. Hygiene items, including buckets, cups, and soap, have also been distributed.

West African Ebola outbreak caused by new strain of disease

Saliou Samb
Reuters
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 16:25 UTC

An Ebola outbreak blamed for 135 deaths in West Africa in the past month was not imported from Central Africa but caused by a new strain of the disease, a study in a U.S. medical journal said, raising the specter of further regional epidemics.

The spread of Ebola from a remote corner of Guinea to the capital and into neighboring Liberia, the first deadly outbreak reported in West Africa, has caused panic across a region struggling with weak healthcare systems and porous borders.

Ebola is endemic to Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, South Sudan and Gabon, and scientists initially believed that Central Africa's Zaire strain of the virus was responsible for the outbreak.

Using analysis of blood samples from infected patients, however, researchers determined that while the Guinean form of the Ebola virus (EBOV) showed a 97 percent similarity to the Zaire strain, the disease was not introduced from Central Africa.

"This study demonstrates the emergence of a new EBOV strain in Guinea," wrote the group of more than 30 doctors and scientists, who published their preliminary findings on the website of the New England Journal of Medicine.

There is no vaccine or cure for Ebola - a hemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent that causes symptoms ranging from flu-like pains to internal and external bleeding caused by kidney and liver failure. Its suspected origin is forest bats and it can be transmitted between humans by touching victims or through bodily fluids.

"It is possible that EBOV has circulated undetected in this region for some time. The emergence of the virus in Guinea highlights the risk of EBOV outbreaks in the whole West African subregion," the report continued.

Comment: Don't forget to check:

Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection

Why banning psych patients' cigarettes deepens their trauma

Rosie DiManno
The Spec
Sat, 19 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC

First they said no smoking - and that was the law of the land.

Then they said tobacco products could not be kept in one's room or on one's person - and that was the law of CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Finally they said these items would no longer be stored in patient storage lockers, under lock and key - lock and key, like morphine or psychotropic drugs - and that is a proscription entirely too far.

Some people, some institutions, are simply addicted to power. That is the irony of CAMH, which can wrap itself in a shroud of virtue. It exists to break individuals of their will, which is the pathology of addiction. They would never admit to their own pathology because they invented the language, they make all the rules, they can act as coercively as they please against some of the most vulnerable people among us and call it a matter of health.

As of April 30, keeping cigarettes - a legal product - in a patient storage locker will be forbidden. Any resident patient with off-site privileges who might wish to step outdoors for a puff - beyond the property, on the sidewalk, or across the street because smoking is not permitted on the grounds - would therefore have to buy a pack from a nearby convenience story each time the nicotine itch hits, then throw it away before re-entering.

Comment: 5 Health Benefits of Smoking

Nicotine Lessens Symptoms Of Depression In Nonsmokers

Nicotine helps Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Patients

Brain Researchers: Smoking increases intelligence

Let's All Light Up!

Has the Ebola outbreak hit Europe? "Broken through all containment efforts", cases suspected in Pisa, Italy

Mac Siavo
SHTF
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC

Though officials at the World Health Organization are feverishly working to stop the spread of the Ebola virus in what is now seven African nations, their efforts may be for naught. In Guinea, a hot spot for the deadly contagion, government health officials have said that the outbreak is nearly under control. Yet, Reuters reports that the government "planned to stop publicly releasing the death toll to avoid causing unnecessary panic."

But panic may be in order.

Despite the best efforts of emergency health workers it appears that virus may have crossed out of Africa into Europe.

The outbreak of Ebola Virus in seven west African countries has broken through all containment efforts and is spreading like wildfire. According to Christian Relief groups working in Guinea and Liberia, the number of confirmed infections jumped 15% in just the last 24 hours. In addition, 40 illegal alien migrant workers from the outbreak area, who came ashore in Pisa, Italy, are showing signs of Ebola infection and are being isolated in Pisa Italy because of fever and "conjunctivitis" (bloody around the eyes). According to the World Health Organization, this strain of Ebola is entirely new and although it is close to the Zaire strain, it is different, thus accounting for false-negative test results . . . . . for weeks!

Those false-negative results meant people who were actually infected with Ebola, were returned to their families and neighborhoods to recover from what they believed was the Flu or a case of food poisoning, only to spread the Ebola further.

The result has been a complete loss of containment of this Ebola outbreak.

With the likely arrival of Ebola in Pisa, Italy, the European continent is now at severe risk.

Comment: Time will tell...

Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection

Virus outbreaks in four Colorado prisons

Kirk Mitchell
Denver Post
Fri, 18 Apr 2014 12:03 UTC

Four Colorado prisons have canceled or restricted inmate visitation of family and friends in Denver, Cañon City and Pueblo because of virus outbreaks that have sickened 244 inmates, authorities said Friday.

None of the men or women, who are experiencing flulike symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea and nausea, have gotten sick enough to be hospitalized, said Adrienne Jacobson, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections.

State health workers have been collecting stool samples at the four prisons, but only one inmate at Territorial Correctional Facility has tested positive for norovirus, Jacobson said. Territorial, where 75 inmates have been ill the past week, will have restricted visitation hours through the holiday weekend.

Composing only 5% of the world population, Americans take 50% of all pharmaceutical drugs

Christina Sarich
Natural Society
Sat, 19 Apr 2014 21:38 UTC

While Americans comprise only 5 percent of the world population, we consume an incredible 50 percent of Big Pharma's drugs, as explained in Jeff Hays' documentary film, Doctored. Make no mistake. These drugs are meant to keep us imprisoned in poor health, not heal us. It's time to kick the drug habit America.

Tell the drug pushers - Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, GlaxoSmith Kline, Abbott, Astra-Zeneca, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sanofi (along with the FDA and CDC) that you are going cold turkey, and learn what true health really means.

Sadly, Americans are more familiar with names like Abilify, Nexium, Humira, Plavix, Crestor, Advair Diskus, Enbrel, and Cymbalta, the top selling drugs of Big Pharma, than names like Aloe barbadensis, Curcuma longa, Allium sativum, Moringa oleifera, Vitis vinifera L, all indigenous plants that have healed millions around the world.

You've likely heard the phrase before - just a dozen huge corporations are keeping Americans popping pills while they rake in billions, but have you really thought of what these numbers translate into, in terms of real health?

Annual sales for just one drug, Humira, was $9.3 billion. That puts Abott squarely at the top of the list as one of the most successful drug companies of all time.

Deadly MERS virus spikes in Saudi Arabia; 20 new cases reported

RT
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 21:05 UTC

© Reuters/Faisal Al Nasser
Saudi Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabia speaks during a news conference in Riyadh, April 20, 2014.

Saudi Arabia confirmed 20 new cases of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus on Saturday and Sunday, meaning that 49 new cases have been registered in the span of only six days. Further cases were announced in the United Arab Emirates.

MERS is a SARS-like disease which kills approximately one-third of people that become infected. There is currently no cure for it. It was first discovered in Saudi Arabia two years ago and has so far infected 244 people. Seventy-six of those have died, according to the country's Health Ministry.

However, Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabia told reporters on Sunday that there has not yet been any scientific justification for further cautionary measures such as the implementation of travel restrictions.

Got cold hands and feet? Think brain

Anne Angelone
Primal Docs
Sat, 19 Apr 2014 14:13 UTC

Although they're located at the farthest distance from your brain, the health of your feet can give you clues about the health of your brain, mainly whether your brain is receiving enough oxygen. When circulation to the feet is poor, creating a variety of symptoms discussed below, this is a red flag, circulation to the brain is compromised as well. Just because you can breathe doesn't mean your brain is getting enough oxygen.

If your brain is not getting enough oxygen it won't function well. You may notice brain fog, declining memory, that you tire more easily, and that it is harder to learn new things. Depression is another common symptom. Poor brain oxygen is a serious matter because it accelerates degeneration of your brain - vascular dementia from lack of blood flow to the brain is the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer's.

Leave parents free to choose vaccines

Barbara Loe Fisher
USA Today
Sun, 13 Apr 2014 13:50 UTC

The public conversation about vaccine safety and choice began after Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, shielding drug companies from product liability and doctors from vaccine-injury lawsuits. Under that law, $3 billion has been paid to the vaccine injured while liability-free drug companies enjoy profits from a multibillion dollar market.

U.S. health officials now recommend 69 doses of 16 vaccines for every child. States mandate up to 15 of them - twice as many as 30 years ago.

With 95% of U.S. kindergarteners fully vaccinated and one child in six learning disabled, one in 10 asthmatic and one in 50 living with autism, educated parents and health care professionals are asking legitimate questions about why so many highly vaccinated children are so sick. They're examining vaccine science shortfalls and wondering why Americans are coerced and punished for declining to use every government-recommended vaccine while citizens in Canada, Japan and the European Union are free to make choices.

Comment: Examples of 'vaccine science shortfalls'

Psychoneuroimmunology: How inflammation affects your mental health

Dr. Kelly Brogan
Mercola.com
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:57 UTC

Psychoneuroimmunology. This is what I aim to practice. Medical terms of this length command our respect for the interconnectedness of different subspecialties, for the futile segmentation and compartmentalization of the body into different organ systems.

As discussed in this previous article I wrote for Dr. Mercola, deconstructing the serotonin model of depression, psychiatry is in a crisis. It can no longer stand on its own, throwing more and more medications at its perceived target.

It seems, therefore, fitting that psychiatry would follow the investigative path of other lifestyle-triggered chronic diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity, and heart disease. There already exists a bidirectional relationship between all of the major chronic diseases and psychiatric diagnoses (patients who struggle with chronic diseases are more likely to be depressed and vice versa).

The role of inflammation, across these disease states, is better elucidated each day. Let's deconstruct what is known as it applies to mental health.

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Health & Wellness

Battling Ebola in West Africa

West African Ebola outbreak caused by new strain of disease

Why banning psych patients' cigarettes deepens their trauma

Has the Ebola outbreak hit Europe? "Broken through all containment efforts", cases suspected in Pisa, Italy

Virus outbreaks in four Colorado prisons

Composing only 5% of the world population, Americans take 50% of all pharmaceutical drugs

Deadly MERS virus spikes in Saudi Arabia; 20 new cases reported

Got cold hands and feet? Think brain

Leave parents free to choose vaccines

Psychoneuroimmunology: How inflammation affects your mental health

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