New links!

Lots going on this week, let's start right in:

First, H1N1 influenza. This situation has stretched local and state health departments even thinner than they already were. This is a major problem, as resources across the country are tight but expectations are high to handle the epidemic smoothly and without causing fear or panic. Speaking of panic, this article reveals some psychology about the fear and panic we humans tend towards. And this article examines the risk of new infectious diseases and people's reactions to that risk. Is there any way to reign this epidemic in? Find out here. And, finally, now that public concern is dying down (in conjunction with media attention waning, not coincidentally) will our focus on hand-washing die away too? Let's hope not.

On to other topics. As you may be aware, calorie counts on menus are popping up at fast food joints across the country, notably in New York City and in Chicago. This article examines the phenomenon and its impact, especially as federal legislation is pending.

The FDA is developing a new system to track and report adverse events of its products. We'll see how this story develops, but here is a summary article.

Finally, an article about parental refusal of the pertussis vaccine is in the latest issue of Pediatrics. The study found that children whose parents refuse the vaccine are at an increased risk of developing pertussis. The authors conclude that "these findings stress the need to further understand why parents refuse immunizations and to develop strategies for conveying the risks and benefits of immunizations to parents more effectively."

Links for the last week or so

Obesity may raise risk for flu severity - A California survey has determined that obesity is a risk factor in increasing the severity of H1N1, alongside diabetes, heart disease, and pregnancy. The same is true across the country.

Sick time - This blog post mentions giving employees sick time. Amen! It's crucial to give employees sick time so they don't come to work with an infectious disease, and all the more so given the spread of H1N1. Plus it decreases the likelihood that kids who are out of school (due to a school closure for health purposes or just their own sick day) will be left unattended. Believe me, it does happen.

This funny L.A. Times article examines certain products to see what works and what doesn't. The bottom line of the article is that most gimmicky products aren't worth it. They review benzalkonium chloride-based hand sanitizers, disposable sleeves, and more. It's worth taking a look at to see the bizarre products out there!

Michigan has begun collecting height and weight information in order to track body mass indexes in their immunization registries. "Adding the data to the registry can help physicians and public health professionals identify children who are obese or at risk of being overweight and to evaluate programs to prevent or reduce it," the article states. This innovation will help public health surveillance. Go Michigan!

Frieden named new CDC director

Dr. Thomas Frieden has been named the next CDC director. Click here for an article announcing it with more information. He will replace Dr. Richard Besser who has been the acting CDC director since January.

Thoughts?

Food safety; Twitter for epis?

Is it safe to eat? This article outlines foodborne disease outbreaks and their prevalence in modern times. The author notes that food today is much safer with milk pasteurization, refrigeration, and other technologies. "Part of the explanation, public health experts say, is that the technology for identifying multistate outbreaks has improved greatly. Decades ago, the burden of illness was probably higher, but foods were not recalled as often, simply because investigators could not implicate them in a given outbreak. Now, modern genetic techniques can often link cases of food-borne illness, even in different parts of the country, allowing investigators to pinpoint the tainted food." Take a look at the rest of the article, it's interesting.

Twitter helping to identify epidemics? This visualization uses Twitter to track people's comings & goings around the globe. If not completely accurate or helpful to epidemiology, it's interesting. Take a look here.

A few links

Pistachio proposal could reduce food safety risks

Public health emergency funding takes hit

UN: Treaty expanded by 9 more dangerous chemicals

And last but certainly not least, "Do Everybody a Favor: Take a Sick Day." Seriously! If you're sick, don't come to work!

Statistical Beauty

The picture above depicts aluminum cans used in the US every 30 seconds -- 106,000 cans

Chris Jordan is a photographer/artist in Seattle who uses art to display public health statistics in a really neat way.

From his website, http://www.chrisjordan.com/, he says, "Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming. ~chris jordan, Seattle, 2008"

These pictures are powerful reminders of our consumption as a nation, people and world. I'm most impressed by the fact that he counts the items he uses in each photograph to accurately display the stats. Jordan has amazing patience, imagination and a powerful effect with his images.

"When public health is successful, nothing happens."

This is a great article about the "invisible hand" of public health.

"When public health is successful, nothing happens, and therefore there is no news to report. You will never see a headline citing how many people dined in a clean restaurant, avoided an injury or did not contract a sexually transmitted disease. However, when an outbreak such as listeriosis or the H1N1 flu virus occurs, there is panic."

So true! Public health officials deal all the time with the question of how to communicate this message. And it matters for funding, too. How does one communicate that ample funds are needed to prevent something from happening... to make sure that there is no news? In the example of H1N1, this article underscores that the country is prepared. Now, they're talking about Canada, but the same goes for the U.S. Pandemic plans are in place.

The author notes, "in fact, they will continue to promote the best science on how to enhance the health of Canadians, whether with respect to infectious diseases, chronic diseases, injury prevention or environmental health (topics that are not as sexy as pandemics)." Excellent point, Vivek Goel! There are many aspects of public health that are not nearly as exciting as infectious disease and pandemics, but they are hugely important public health issues.