Articles Tagged with ''public health''

Up to 650,000 deaths annually are associated with respiratory diseases from seasonal influenza, according to new estimates by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), WHO and global health partners.

A group of 15 non-partisan patient and consumer organizations say the Senate Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed this week “takes yet another step towards undermining the stability of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance markets." The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network; American Heart Association and others said; "The repeal of the individual insurance mandate destabilizes an essential pillar of the ACA by removing incentives for young and healthy people to purchase insurance."

WHO is recommending that farmers and the food industry stop using antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals. The new WHO recommendations aim to help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics that are important for human medicine by reducing their unnecessary use in animals. In some countries, approximately 80% of total consumption of medically important antibiotics is in the animal sector, largely for growth promotion in healthy animals.

More people would survive cardiac arrest if emergency medical dispatchers give chest compression-only CPR instructions over the phone and if infants and children receive chest compressions with rescue breaths, according to updated CPR guidelines published today by the American Heart Association (Association). The changes in the 2017 American Heart Association Focused Updates on Adult and Pediatric Basic Life Support and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Quality also re-emphasize the importance of bystanders starting immediate chest compressions if they see an adult collapse in a suspected cardiac arrest.

With wildfires posing a current and – no doubt – future threat to California’s residents and its environment, the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is urging California Governor Jerry Brown to turn to the experts – industrial hygienists – when it comes to protecting the health and safety of residents and recovery workers. “AIHA and its members are ready now, and we will remain ready to assist you in recovery efforts throughout the days to come,” wrote AIHA President Deborah Imel Nelson PhD, CIH and California Industrial Hygiene Council President Pamela Murcell, CIH in a letter to Brown.

Climate change is already harming human health in ways that are “far worse than previously understood,” according to a new report in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal. "Climate change is happening, and it's a health issue today for millions worldwide,” said Anthony Costello, co-chair of The Lancet Countdown, the commission that produced the report.

President Trump’s declaring the opioid epidemic a national health emergency is a critical first step, but it does not address the urgent need for more federal funds to fight this crisis, according to Arthur C. Evans, Jr., PhD, CEO of the American Psychological Association (APA). Evans said the declaration does not automatically direct federal funds to address the problem – funds which should go to the states, because they “are battling this epidemic on the front lines.”