#public health crisis

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

(source) August 16, 2024

The patient is a 10-month old baby.

This is the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years.

Information on polio from the World Health Organization:

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.

...

Up to 90% of those infected experience no or mild symptoms and the disease usually goes unrecognized. In others, initial symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. These symptoms usually last for 2–10 days and most recovery is complete in almost all cases. However, in the remaining proportion of cases the virus causes paralysis, usually of the legs, which is most often permanent. Paralysis can occur as rapidly as within a few hours of infection. Of those paralysed, 5-10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.

...

There is no cure for polio; it can only be prevented by immunization.

[baldwinheights]

[dicapiito]

This is fucking alarming. Also know why this is happening because of who Covid affects the most…

[ausetkmt]

Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

From the author of Salt Sugar Fat comes a “gripping” (The Wall Street Journal) exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public health.

“The processed food industry has managed to avoid being lumped in with Big Tobacco - which is why Michael Moss’s new book is so important.” (Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit)

I came to the question of food and addiction inadvertently with the 2013 publication of my book Salt Sugar Fat. In it, I argued that grocery manufacturers were competing with fast-food chains in a race to the bottom that rewarded profits over health.

Over the past four decades, salt, sugar, and fat had enabled the industries to engineer products that were immensely alluring. Brilliant marketing campaigns pushed the emotional buttons that convinced us to eat when we weren’t even hungry.

Yet the book tried to end on a hopeful note. Knowing all that the companies did to prop up their unwholesome products, I argued, was oddly empowering. We could use that insight to make better choices because, ultimately, we were the ones deciding what to buy and how much to eat.

Thus, the initial imperative for this book: to sort out and size up the true peril in food. To see if addiction is the best way to think about our trouble with food and eating, given what we’ve learned from other substances and habits. And to peer inside the processed food industry to see how it is dealing with what, in its view, would be a monumental threat to the power it holds over us.

Everyone knows how hard it can be to maintain a healthy diet. But what if some of the decisions we make about what to eat are beyond our control? Is it possible that food is addictive, like drugs or alcohol? And to what extent does the food industry know, or care, about these vulnerabilities? In Hooked, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss sets out to answer these questions - and to find the true peril in our food.

Moss uses the latest research on addiction to uncover what the scientific and medical communities - as well as food manufacturers - already know: that food, in some cases, is even more addictive than alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs.

Our bodies are hardwired for sweets, so food giants have developed fifty-six types of sugar to add to their products, creating in us the expectation that everything should be cloying; we’ve evolved to prefer fast, convenient meals, hence our modern-day preference for ready-to-eat foods. Moss goes on to show how the processed food industry - including major companies like Nestlé, Mars, and Kellogg’s - has tried not only to evade this troubling discovery about the addictiveness of food but to actually exploit it.

For instance, in response to recent dieting trends, food manufacturers have simply turned junk food into junk diets, filling grocery stores with “diet” foods that are hardly distinguishable from the products that got us into trouble in the first place. As obesity rates continue to climb, manufacturers are now claiming to add ingredients that can effortlessly cure our compulsive eating habits.

A gripping account of the legal battles, insidious marketing campaigns, and cutting-edge food science that have brought us to our current public health crisis, Hooked lays out all that the food industry is doing to exploit and deepen our addictions, and shows us why what we eat has never mattered more.

[qcsupermom]

Friday Four: Calling All Black Dads To Be: Here's How You Can Save Mom And Your Newborn's Life!

Dear Daddy To Be: It’s time to declare a public health crisis! I know you’re excited about your baby’s arrival. And you believe all you have to do is hold your birthing mama’s hand, but the hard truth is that it’s gonna require a little more in this day and age. Black Parents are at the most Risk When Giving Birth- I think it’s fair to say. Considering statistics about the dangers that Black…

[lookingjoligood]

From Pages to Purpose: How Matthew Desmond's Evicted Transformed My View of Public Health and Housing

“Every year in this country, people are evicted from their homes not by the tens of thousands or even the hundreds of thousands but by the millions.”― Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City** When I first picked up Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, I had no idea what an impact it was going to have on me. This book was assigned to me…

[weneverlearn]

Have a Bloody Christmas!

Below are two articles I wrote for my day job at GVPedia, concerning America's fucked-up focus on guns and the presumably peace-loving holiday of Christmas.

This first one originally posted last Xmastime; I updated it for a recent re-post:

"Try This One, Partner": The Evolution of Toy Gun TV Advertisements -- A video history of the selling of make-believe firearms

The second -- a collection of articles about our stupid American fruitcake of weapons of war and holiday cheer -- went up last week:

"Firing of the Christmas Guns" -- America's bizarre conflation of Christmas and firearms

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I think they're fun and frightening. Check 'em out!

[veluigi]

she put this so well...as a disabled qtbipoc i feel this so much ;_;

"To be a disabled oracle is someone who tells their truths in a hostile ableist world that does not believe you. The pandemic reveals an attitude that disabled, sick, poor and immunocompromised people are disposable."

[shrinksinsneakers]

🔥 Antidepressants and School Shootings: Debunking Ungrounded Claims in a Complex Crisis 📣 In times of societal turmoil, it's natural for people to search for reasons behind tragedies. However, as scientists and clinicians, it’s our duty to address myths with evidence and guide public discourse toward meaningful solutions. Linking antidepressants to school shootings oversimplifies a multifaceted problem, diverts attention from real issues, and perpetuates harmful misconceptions.

[familythings]

The Alarming Rise of Antibiotic Resistance: A Global Health Crisis

I was raised in a culture where antibiotics were bought very easily in the drugstore. Fortunately, my parents were against the use of antibiotics in particular and medications in general. So, my siblings and I have used them very rarely. Sadly, that’s not the reality for a lot of folks out there. A recent study is sounding the alarm about antibiotic resistance, and it’s predicting that more than…

[redgearguru]

In 2021 Data Reveals Nearly 49,000 People in The U.S. Died From Gun-Related Injuries

In 2021, the U.S. saw a huge jump in deaths from gun violence. This year, nearly 49,000 people lost their lives to gun injuries. This is a shocking number, with gun murders and suicides on the rise. The CDC statistics show a 23% increase in gun deaths over two years. This highlights the urgent need to address the gun violence epidemic in America. Handguns are the most used in homicides, and…

[thewitfire]

Xylazine: From Animal Sedative to Public Health Crisis

Xylazine: From Animal Sedative to Public Health Crisis. #Xylazine #PublicHealthCrisis #OpioidCrisis #DrugMisuse #HealthRisks #SubstanceAbuse #NationalResponsePlan #ONDCP #OverdosePrevention #HarmReduction #sciencenews #science #FDAnews

July 12, 2023 – In the realm of veterinary medicine, xylazine hydrochloride, approved by the FDA in 1972, has been long revered as an invaluable sedative for large animals like horses, cattle, and deer. The drug’s tranquilizing effects help calm injured or aggressive animals, allowing for their safe examination and treatment. However, the recent discovery of xylazine in illicit drug supplies has…

[reasonsforhope]

Hopeful news: a camp for kids with HIV/AIDS in northern Minnesota is closing...because there are so few kids infected with HIV/AIDS these days that there aren't enough campers! As someone born in the 80s and raised with the AIDS crisis raging, this is really incredible.

source (remove space after www.): www. startribune.com/closure-of-northern-minnesota-camp-is-the-greatest-story-heres-why/601199362

That's amazing!!!