Blog #10: Salt shakers removed from Mexico's tables in effort to reduce intake

Mexico City has encouraged restaurants to remove salt shakers from their tables.  This change is an effort to decrease the consumption of sodium of their customers.  It is estimated that citizens in Mexico consume three times the amount of salt than the daily recommendation.  Their consumption is even higher than the Americans.  City Officials and Mexico City’s restaurant association had recently signed an agreement called “Less Salt, More Health.”  Armando Ahued, Mexico City’s health minister said, “We want to raise awareness of the damage that we do to ourselves when we put salt on our dishes without even tasting the food first.”  Salt would be provided only if the customer requested for it. 

In today’s society, health is declining more rapidly because of preservatives like salt.  Sodium is one of the major causes in cardio-vascular complications in people today.  There should be more social movements like Mexico City to lower the consumption of salt and bring awareness to people and educate the risk that higher sodium intake can cause.  More awareness and social movements in other countries could really may large amounts in health improvements around the world..

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/130412/salt-shakers-removed-mexicos-tables-effort-reduce-intak

Jacqueline Wooten
SOC 202-01 4/15/2013 6:28 PM

Blog #9: Pathfinder Announces New Maternal Health Awards from Merck for Mothers in India, Nigeria, and Peru.

Pathfinder International announced that they are awarding three new grants to support maternal health projects in India, Nigeria, and Peru.  These grants will be issued for three years by Merck through their Merck for Mothers Program.  This help to address maternal health, including the recent successful implementation of the Clinical and Community Action to Address Postpartum Hemorrhage model in Bangladesh, Burundi, India, Nigeria, Peru, and Tanzania.  Over the several years with education and better medical opportunities, countries like India have reduced its maternal mortality ratio significantly.  With support from Merk, Pathfinder will collaborate with World Health Partners, an international non-profit to address health needs in rural and neglected communities using communication and diagnostic and medical technology, to create a health service delivery network of private sector provider trained in maternal health services (Pathfinder International).

With related topics to health concerns, maternal complications are high in many poverty stricken countries.  Women have difficulty reaching proper medical facilities and sterile practices.  Also, with grants such as the one that Merk is providing will go to help with medical supplies and to educate student with medical training to help lower these maternal mortality risks.  

http://www.pathfinder.org/news/pathfinder-announces-new-maternal-health-awards-from-merck-for-mothers.html

Jacqueline Wooten
SOC 202-01 4/10/2013 8:03 PM

Blog #8: China's Air Pollution Linked to Millions Of Early Deaths

The air in china is thick with smog.  Barbara Finamore, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s China program based in Beijing states, “When you get off the airplane, you immediately feel your eyes stinging and your throat rasping.  You can’t even see the building across the street.  It’s a pea soup of pollution.”  Robert O’Keefe says, “1.2 million people are dying to exposure to air pollution. Air pollution is the fourth leading cause of death in China.  People with asthma are more susceptible.  The main cause for the air pollution in China is because of its explosive growth.  Vehicles and power plants are being built and the energy consumption is also rising in China.  The Chinese government are beginning to take the issue more serious.  They have begun monitoring the level of pollution and recognize that the people are demanding cleaner air.

Population in many countries ranges in small to large numbers of people living within their borders.  China has the largest population in the world leading with 1.3 billion people.  With such high populations such as China, many things can contribute to poor health factors.  In their case, over pollution is now becoming a social problem.  The smog is so dense that it is starting to affect the health of the people living in the city of Beijing.  People who have asthma and or other illnesses with respiratory are suffering from the smog.  Other viruses and illnesses are easily contracted from person to person as well through highly populated areas.  High populations can have a negative impact on peoples well-being and overall health.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/04/02/176017887/chinas-air-pollution-linked-to-millions-of-early-deaths 

Jacqueline Wooten
SOC 202-01 4/4/2013 2:55PM

Blog #7: A Daily Habit of Green Tea or Coffee Cuts Stroke Risk

     A study, published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke, did statistics on both men and women in Japan.  Researchers have found that the more a person drinks green tea, the more it reduced their risk of suffering a stroke.  Dr. Ralph Sacco of the University of Miami stated, “It’s almost a 20 percent lower risk of stroke in the green tea drinkers.”  The study was done on people who drank four cups of green tea a day.  Dr. Yoshihiro Kokubo, the study lead, was surprised by the findings.  Kokubo says that green tea contains compounds known as catechins, which help regulate blood pressure and help improve blood flow.  They also seem to promote an anti-inflammatory effect.  It’s not just the Japanese who are benefitting from drinking green tea, researchers show that the US have documented similar reductions in heart disease among Americans.  Coffee drinkers are also showing lower risks of heart problems.  In the 1980s, surveys found that many people avoided tea and coffee, because caffeine was thought to be harmful, even at moderate doses.  As studies are showing, most people who drank coffee were also heavy smokers. As newer studies begin to separate out the effects of tea and coffee, a new picture emerges suggesting benefits, not risks.

     In a country where heart disease is the number one killer to Americans, heart health is a main issue to other nations and countries as well.   Those who drink coffee and tea are given a negative feedback because of the caffeine in the product they are drinking.  Newer studies are showing that green tea and coffee are actually beneficial to drinkers in moderation.  The caffeine in the product is helping to lower heart health issues.  Maybe if people around the world would start drinking more green tea, they too could help lower their risk of heart disease.  Globally, this could possibly help fight against heart problems if combined with proper exercise and diet.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/03/15/174334493/a-daily-habit-of-green-tea-or-coffee-cuts-stroke-risk

Jacqueline Wooten

SOC 202-01 3/18/2013 3:42PM

Blog #6: Scientists Report First Cure Of HIV In A Child, Say It’s A Game-Changer

Scientists believe a little girl that was born, with HIV, in Mississippi  has been cured.  She is the first child and only the second person around the world that has been cured since the virus became a pandemic nearly 32 years ago.  An estimated 330,000 cases of children around the world get infected with HIV at or around birth every year.  Even though many countries strive to prevent mother-to-child infections, several thousands of children are affected by the virus.  Specialists thought antiviral drugs would need to be administered throughout the child’s life to prevent HIV from destroying their immune system or worse turning into AIDS.  Hannah Gay, University of Mississippi pediatric infectious disease specialist says, “the child came to our attention as a high-risk exposure to maternal HIV.”  The child was tested positive for HIV within 30 hours of birth.  Gay decided to start treating the child immediately.  She gave higher-than-usual, “therapeutic” doses of 3 powerful HIV drugs rather than the “prophylactic” doses.  But the mother decided to stop bringing the child in for checkups and quit giving the antiviral drugs.  Hannah Gay had authorities to track down the child and did a checkup and a couple of tests have intermittently found pieces of HIV DNA and RNA, but no evidence that the virus is actively replicating in the child’s cells.  Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga at the University of Massachusetts says, this amounts to what’s called a “functional cure.”

HIV and AIDS is a disease that is affecting very society and nation.  Thousands are contracting the virus and sadly so are children that are born from mothers that are infected as well.  Scientists are in a race to finding a cure and this gives great hope that maybe, one day, this may become reality.  If HIV and AIDS was cured, it would grant thousands of people with a better healthier life.  

Jacqueline Wooten
SOC 202-01 3/8/2013  3:54 PM

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/03/04/173258954/scientists-report-first-cure-of-hiv-in-a-child-say-its-a-game-changer

Blog #5: Late-stage breast cancer survival 'lover in UK'

In the UK, 28% of women who have had the most advanced breast cancers survived for three years. It is suggested that by a study in the British Journal of Cancer, that women with late-stage breast cancer have a lower survival rate in the UK than five other high-income countries, including Sweden and Canada.   It is questioned if women in the UK were receiving the best treatment.  This study is only dealing with women with advanced breast cancers.  It is also suggested that older women with breast cancer and women with more advanced diseases may be treated less aggressively in the UK than the other surrounding high-income countries.  “In the UK, we should now investigate whether the treatment of women with later-stage breast cancer meets international standards.  There is particular concern that this is not the case, especially for older women,” states Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of early diagnosis.  She also said, “We know that UK women diagnosed with breast cancer are not routinely given CT scans to check if the disease has spread, which could mean we aren’t always accurately staging more advanced diseases.”

Internationally women are affected by diseases and cancers.  The down fall with women living in specific locations is that they’re not necessarily having access to proper medical treatment due to:  either living in a more poverty area, political government having advantage over what medical treatment you can get, the lack of medical treatment from the health care facility.  It blew my mind that the UK is not following up with women who have cancers to see if the disease is spreading.  A lot of the time, it is based on the individual and the inadequate treatment if the patient does not have the financial ability to cover these expenses with insurance.  Medical providers are trying to help individuals with some costs, but mostly poorer nations do not have medical technology or the facilities to diagnosis or treat people.

Jacqueline Wooten

SOC 202-01  3/1/2013  12:57PM 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21615058

Blog #4: "Mexico Aims To Save Babies and Moms with Modern Midwifery"

Mexico Aims to save babies and moms with modern midwifery.  Today in Mexico, majority of babies are born in hospitals.  Hospitals in Mexico are still struggling with large numbers of maternal deaths.  Mexico is making plans in bringing back centuries-old tradition of midwifery.  “Hospitals are oversaturated, and so it’s a big problem,” said Guadalupe Mainero, director of Guerro’s new midwifery school.  She also states that doctors are overwhelmed with normal births and then in return not able to apply more time to mothers with high-risk births.  This is dangerous to mothers in labor.  The nearest hospital is usually about 30 minutes away.  If there is need of an emergency, Mexico’s rugged dirt roads make it extremely difficult to get there.  With less focus on these mothers who are of high-risk pregnancies, there is a need for change.  This change is where the midwifery school could help.  The new schools are training the students to learn the old arts, like massaging bellies with long shawls, while also studying gynecology, obstetrics and basic nursing.  When they graduate in four years, they will be license and able to work in urban hospitals and rural clinics.

With a poverty stricken area as large as a country such as Mexico, it is difficult to have the availability of modern medicine and health care clinics to be provided.  This is a scarce resource to these mothers who are soon to deliver their babies.  It is even more difficult for mothers who are in need to be medically treated if they are “high-risk pregnancies”.  Their transportation routes are also difficult with the lack of decent roads to get to the hospitals.  I think that Mexico educating more students and then allowing them to turning around and help pregnant civilians, this will decrease the numbers of maternal deaths.

Jacqueline Wooten

SOC 202-01  2/22/2013 1:23 PM

hhttp://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/01/06/168629259/mexico-aims-to-save-babies-and-moms-with-modern-midwifery

Blog #3: Nigeria Moves To Clean Up Lead Poisoning From Gold Mines

In Northern Nigeria, a catastrophe is unfolding as thousands of children are sickened with lead poisoning by illegal gold mining.  More than four hundred children have been reported that have died and thousands more are affected.  Doctors are struggling in setting up clinics to treat children around borders and are calling it one of the worst cases of environmental lead poisoning.  This was first realized in 2010 when children started dying in villages and medical providers could not explain the cause.  “Initially, they and we thought there was some sort of communicable disease.  It felt like a hemorrhagic fever or something,” says Ivan Gayton.  Sources say that the raw ore, laced with lead, is processed by the men who smash the rocks and then send smaller pieces to flour mills to further crush into a more dust like substance.  This dust contains large amounts of lead and is easily put into the air.  Even cleanup of the lead is going to be difficult; “Unless the promised funds are released immediately, cleanup of the contaminated areas won’t be able to start until after next year’s rainy season,” Babatunde Olugboji, director at Human Rights Watch.

With today being Valentine’s Day, many women are expecting candy, flowers, or even some kind of jewelry.  Gold prices have reached a wealthy price per ounce.  Today gold is worth $1,700 per ounce.  This “gold” rush is the cause for the International market to push in finding more gold.  Africa holds this large source of ore.  Due to the free-trade market and the opportunity cost of finding this gold is the driving factor for the illegal mining.  The children in the neighboring villages in Africa are highly paying the price for this high demanded ore.  If the men had proper equipment for processing the ore, there would be fewer cases and not a large spread for the lead poisoning.  This is a prime example in how a market can drive greed and unethical situations in search of products for income. 

Jacqueline Wooten

SOC 202-01 2/14/213 3:56 PM

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/05/171157084/nigeria-moves-to-clean-up-lead-pollution-from-gold-mines

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/12/06/166651255/nigeria-pressured-to-clean-up-lead-contaminated-villages

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/10/03/161908669/in-the-wake-of-high-gold-prices-lead-poisons-thousands-of-children

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577210990561118380.html

Blog #2: "HIV levels in gay men 'not falling'"

BBC News has reported that HIV levels in gay men are ‘not falling’.  They state that researches suggest that a resurgence of risky sexual practice could be behind a failure to curb HIV in gay and bisexual men in England and Wales.  There is a large increase of new cases showing up at about 2,300 a year between 2001 and 2010.  Researchers at the Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, in Cambridge have estimated when people were infected is based on how well their immune system was.  Today, there has been a greater number of men being tested for HIV in clinics.  Men tested went from 16,000 to 59,000 a year.  It is suggested that campaigning has helped increase the awareness in men about HIV and how important it is to be tested if sexually active and having unsafe sex.

HIV is largely impacting people around the world.  Not only is it affecting people who practice same sex intercourse, but people who have heterosexual intercourse as well.  Poorer regions around the world did not have access to proper medical treatment several years ago.  Today, there are foundations that are funding these poorer regions and making medical treatment available to those who are suffering with HIV and full blown AIDS.  Without a cure, the disease continues to spread.  With people having the ability to travel cheaper and infected with the HIV virus, may spread the disease to someone in another neighboring country or a country far away.  With globalization, meaning “the removal of barriers to free trade and the closer integration of national economies,” means that it is easier for people to connect and build sexual relationships.  The only true way to slow the spreading of the HIV virus is for everyone to be tested annually.  This seems simple, but testing can be expensive and or is not available to poverty stricken nations who cannot afford to be tested.

Jacqueline Wooten
2/4/2013; 9:57 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21277450

http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/13

Blog #1: "Polio Virus Spreads From Pakistan to Egypt"

In September 2012, the Polio virus was last seen in Pakistan.  It was discovered in Cairo, Egypt this past December 2013, in sewage samples.  Water samples are routinely collected in the Al Salam and Al Haggana areas in Cairo.  Genetic analysis have linked that the polio virus is the same strain as the one found in Pakistan.  Pakistan is one of the last three countries that had the indigenous virus.    It remains unclear how it arrived in Egypt from Pakistan.  With evidence they are thinking that maybe a family carried it back from Pakistan and excreted it in their stool and spreading the virus in the water source.   Health officials are aggressively trying to prevent outbreak of the virus and trying to prevent it from spreading.  By doing so, health officials have stated that children, five years or less, leaving the country must be vaccinated with a polio vaccine at airports.  A vaccine drive will also be held for everyone in Egypt on February 25, 2013.  As of now, there are no reports of the people having the poliovirus, but officials are looking for children and adults who've recently become paralyzed to confirm if they indeed have contracted the virus.  It is reported that this is the second time that Pakistan infected another neighboring country, besides Afghanistan.  With knowing that Pakistan is the cause for spreading the poliovirus, it puts even more pressure on Pakistan to eradicate and wipe out the virus within its borders. 

In knowing how the poliovirus can easily spread from one country to another is a major social/global problem.  Many individuals could be affected by this virus and are fearful that it can easily cause another outbreak and spread to other neighboring countries.  In Egypt and Pakistan, high population and poverty are a main concern that families who live in poor living conditions are susceptible in contracting the poliovirus.  Getting everyone vaccinated would be a great help in prevention for those living in the affected area.  This may help future breakouts.  In taking an aggressive action in preventing the poliovirus from spreading is a major concern, but I think that researching in how the virus arrived in Egypt might be a key answer in how to help eradicate it completely in Pakistan as well.  Finding and preventing the main source of spreading would help protect other neighboring countries to Pakistan.

Jacqueline Wooten  

1/26/2013  10:30 AM

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2013/01/polio-virus-spreads-from-pakista.html?ref=hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/health/egypt-polio-virus-is-found-in-cairos-sewers.html

http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2013/January/24/GH-012413-Polio-In-Egypt.aspx

Health/Disease

I am choosing my topic on health and disease.  Although I am an accounting major, I wish to find employment in the health care field.  I've also worked in a pediatric doctors office and I worked as a Medical Assistant.  Health and disease is always an interesting topic to learn about.  Now I want to focus on the health of people globally and not just in United States.  I am looking forward to learning how people are affected around the world in many different ways.

8:33 AM; 1/17/13
Jacqueline Wooten