Health Headlines

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lth dlines

The world is changing, will our health change with it ?

from the editor H

ealth is the most basic human right, the right to live. It is the convergence of politics, science, and sociology into one universal idea, one that will scream at you from the headlines.

While there are many facets and caveats to public health to explore, I began drawing from where I was already the most comfortable: the news. 2014 was a big year for health; in my own backyard of Dallas I saw panic over the US Ebola case as well as heated debate over immigration reform and how to care for the people who sought refuge by illegally crossing the border. To see these issues play out before my eyes allowed me to carefully record keep and get a sneak peak into what I hope will be my future. As I turn to Tulane for the next stage of my journey, I first wanted to reflect on what I have learned and seen in Texas. So I looked over my notes, my favorite quotes, and role models to determine what stood out to me as true health headlines.

I can’t wait to one day be making headlines myself.

Sincerely,

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ebola 4 6

immigration

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buzz words

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the interview

inside the change

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contagious In the us.

The US is not usually in a position of concern when it comes to tropical diseases, so when the deadly Ebola virus came to Dallas (five miles from me), there was much adjustment

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4/5,723

Ebola-equipped hospitals out of total American Hospital Association hospitals

ebola deaths(CDC) by country

3290 1518

Liberia

sierra leone

guinea First recognition of EBOV disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thought to have originated from macaque monkeys

2014

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CDC issues initial announcement on Guinea outbreak

March 25

1976

ebola: the history via CNN

2033

1 Us

Experimental drug “ZMapp� used to treat Ebola patients at Emory University

August 4

August 8

WHO declares global health emergency

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the Ebola virus, named after a river in Zaire, (now the Democratic Republic of Congo)

named as TIME magazine’s person of the year, the Ebola fighter encompasses the countless professionals and amateurs who used what they had to fight the deadly disease.

One of the most infamous (and terrifying) aspects of Ebola treatment is the isolation that its patients must submit themselves to. This combined with the sometimes hallucinogenic nature of the illness and low survival rate means that it is very hard for anyone to know what having Ebola feels like in real time. However, US patient Craig Spencer was able to give a more complete picture once he recovered.

cdc

came under fire for not having clear protective guidlines for US health workers, a major shift in containment strategy from western Africa

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Scan the QR code to hear Spencer’s account

Thomas Duncan dies of Ebola in Dallas

September 30 First diagnosed case in US announced: Thomas Duncan

october 8

october 15

33-year old doctor Craig Spencer tests positive for Ebola in New York

The fight against Ebola continues abroaad

october 23

Nurse who attended Duncan diagnosed with Ebola

november 11 2007 Spencer released,

last US citizen Ebola patient

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buzz words

“

This isn’t one of those rare diseases that we don’t have the solution for. We know how to fix hunger.

— Josette Sheeran

The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with.”

– Anne Quindlen

Cancer is a passport to intimacy. It is an invitation, maybe even a mandate, to enter the most vital arenas of human life, the most sensitive and the most frightening, the ones that we never want to go to — but when we do go there, we feel incredibly transformed.

— Bruce Feiler

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hope

For he who has health has ; and he who has hope, has everything.

– Owen Arthur

The obligation of the government to protect the public health, safety, morals and general welfare.

– Allan Wolf

Sub-Saharan Africa has 24 percent of the global disease burden, yet only three percent of the world’s health care workers.

— Mitchell Besser There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children -Nelson Mandela.

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ne of my own personal quirks/hobbies is that I write down quotes. A lot of them. Whether from a book or article or heard off of the street, I transcribe what goes on around me. Here, I selected a few which pertained to current public health issues, and inspire me to look at global health issues in a new light.

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health without borders one texas newspaper explains imigration’s health dilemma

story and image from the Texas Tribune: “Health officials: Immigrant Surge is a Medical Crisis” by Alexa Ura

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s the state’s top elected officials debate how to halt a recent surge of immigrants — many of them unaccompanied minors — across the TexasMexico border, health officials and volunteer doctors are voicing concerns over what they say is the more serious challenge: a looming medical crisis.

During a recent visit to two detention centers that house undocumented migrant children, officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reported that conditions there posed a high risk for infectious disease outbreaks.

Meanwhile, doctors providing medical care for immigrants being released by

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U.S. Border Patrol ahead of their court dates say those recent detainees were not appropriately screened or treated for illness while in federal custody.

Since October, authorities in the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector have detained an unprecedented 160,000 undocumented immigrants, including more than 33,500 unaccompanied minors. These immigrants were transferred to federal detention centers, where they have been held temporarily.

During a tour of detention centers in Brownsville and McAllen last week, state public health officials identified several health-related issues, including a lack of medicine for child immigrants, no

comprehensive medical screenings and no testing for vaccinations or tuberculosis.

“Our staff believe the children’s living conditions pose a high potential for infectious disease outbreak among the children and staff,” department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said. “The conditions are not healthy and not acceptable for children by Texas and national public health standards.”

Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Customs and Border Protection agents conduct medical screenings for several symptoms — rash, fever, cough, vomiting and diarrhea — shortly after detainees come into federal custody at border patrol stations. Once the immigrants are transported to detention facilities, they are screened “for signs of

illness consistent with communicable diseases of public health concern,” agency officials say.

But state officials said the medical screenings are not sufficient because they’re only being conducted on a verbal and visual basis. DSHS also raised hygiene concerns, reporting that children eat, sleep and use the bathroom in the same crowded cells, and have no running water or soap.

While DSHS does not have figures about diseases diagnosed among child detainees, the department has recommended that “mass shelter standards” be followed to avoid spreading conditions like scabies, head lice and conjunctivitis.

The Department of Homeland Security says unaccompanied minors in Texas receive more ”advanced medical assessments” and care once they are moved from detention centers into one of the state’s 29 federal emergency shelters. At the shelters — which are managed by private companies or nonprofit organizations and financed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement — they go through a “well-child exam” and are given childhood vaccinations “to protect against communicable diseases.” They are also screened for tuberculosis and quarantined if they are diagnosed with a contagious disease or found to have been exposed to it.

Outside of detention centers, doctors along the border are also sounding the alarm, saying immigrants being released from detention — and primarily mothers and children — are coming out in rough shape.

In McAllen, Dr. Martin Garza has been volunteering at the Sacred

Heart Church, where Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley has set up a makeshift assistance center to offer immigrants medical assistance, meals, showers and clothes. The church is about a block from a bus station where Border Patrol agents drop detainees off with travel vouchers once they have been assigned court dates.

the children’s living conditions pose a high potential for infectious disease outbreak

In the last week, Garza and at least three other doctors say they have treated hundreds of recent detainees for abdominal pain, skin abrasions and dehydration.

“They are just the things you’d expect from a 15-day trip through Central America,” Garza said. “We’re doing as much as we can with overthe-counter medicine.”

Eddie Olivarez, director of the Hidalgo County Health Department, said officials there have counted five cases of chicken pox and one “concern” about potential tuberculosis among the recent detainees.

Garza said some immigrants awaiting their court dates get on buses and go as far as New York, Ohio or Florida.

“Today it’s an Hidalgo County problem,” he said. “Tomorrow there’s going to be a Houston problem.”

On Monday, the Texas Medical Association called on the Obama administration and Gov. Rick Perry to help provide medical aid for the immigrants by assigning more

physicians to the border to provide vaccinations and comprehensively screen all individuals coming into the country.

“This is something they could do today,” said Dr. Austin King, TMA’s president, who spent several days in McAllen last week. “We are able to catch some of the sicker people, but everyone needs to be screened.”

Texas’ Republican leadership has largely blamed the federal government for the crisis, and has directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to increase its efforts along the border with Mexico — an initiative estimated to cost $1.3 million per week.

But state lawmakers are also worried about the public health concerns associated with the influx of immigrants.

Republican state Sen. Jane Nelson, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, said the federal government should prioritize addressing a “growing public health problem” along with its efforts to reinforce security along the state’s border.

“When individuals are held in unhealthy conditions and then released into the community without proper medical attention, the health of Texans is placed at risk,” Nelson said.

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the interview: a talk with seema yasmin

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s boththe medical correspondent of the Dallas Morning News and former CDC disease detective, Dr. Seema Yasmin is the authority for all things contagious disease. As this determines so much of public health policy, I decided to reach out to her to hear about her experiences. What I got was an invitation to her UT Dallas class where she was professor, as well as a private conversation with her and a CDC Tuberculosis expert who was a guest speaker. The following pages are scanned from the notebook I took with me that day.

1/3of the world’s population is infected with TB in 2013,

9 million people were infected with TB disease

tb is the

leading killer of people who are hiv infected 11

“Pioneering spirit should continue, not to conquer the planet or space … but rather to improve the quality of life.”

— Bertrand Piccard