response « Berman Institute Bioethics Bulletin

Features

News roundups

Announcements

Behind the Front Lines of the Ebola Wars

September 11, 2019

How the World Health Organization is battling bullets, politics and a deadly virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Quick Read

Behind the Front Lines of the Ebola Wars

Wednesday, September 11th, 2019

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus concentrates on a map of a long-forsaken war zone in the northeastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Ebola is gaining ground here, and Tedros, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), needs to stop it. He huddles in a dim corner of a mess hall with his officers on the front lines. Their fingers dance across the map as they point to areas occupied by militia, and explain how their teams struggle to circulate through these parts with vaccines and thermometers, key tools for limiting Ebola’s transmission.

As darkness falls, more WHO staff file into the hall at the United Nations compound in Butembo, a volatile city in North Kivu province. The din of their conversations rises as a buffet of stewed meat, fried fish and plantains gets cold and some boxed wine grows warm. Eventually, Tedros, as he prefers to be called, ends the meeting with his top aides and announces that it’s time to eat.

…continue reading ‘Behind the Front Lines of the Ebola Wars’

Thumb image via article – John Wessels for Nature

Be the first to like.

Unlike

Nature

Why You Don’t Need to Isolate Yourself to Survive the Next Pandemic

September 9, 2019

And other do’s and don’ts from a public health expert

Quick Read

Why You Don’t Need to Isolate Yourself to Survive the Next Pandemic

Monday, September 9th, 2019

We know what pandemics look like in the movies: sudden-onset symptoms, rapid transmission, chaos at hospitals and ports of entry … and, pretty soon, roving bands of armed survivors looting burned-out gas stations and picking off the weak. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Chances are the next pandemic will start out slow-moving. And there’s a lot we can do to prevent it from turning apocalyptic.

For starters, we can listen to public health experts. On a recent episode of How To, Charles Duhigg spoke to someone who studies pandemics for a living: Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Inglesby challenged Hollywood-inspired misconceptions about pandemics and laid out what people should and shouldn’t do in the face of an infectious disease outbreak. Some highlights of their conversation, condensed and edited for clarity, are transcribed below.

…continue reading ‘Why You Don’t Need to Isolate Yourself to Survive the Next Pandemic’

Thumb image via article – Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Getty Images Plus.

Be the first to like.

Unlike

Slate

Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts

August 14, 2019

But new insights are at last accumulating

Quick Read

Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts

Wednesday, August 14th, 2019

In the fall of 1997, after I graduated from college, I began experiencing what I called “electric shocks”—tiny stabbing sensations that flickered over my legs and arms every morning. They were so extreme that as I walked to work from my East Village basement apartment, I often had to stop on Ninth Street and rub my legs against a parking meter, or else my muscles would begin twitching and spasming. My doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong—dry skin, he proposed—and eventually the shocks went away. A year later, they returned for a few months, only to go away again just when I couldn’t bear it anymore.

Over the years, the shocks and other strange symptoms—vertigo, fatigue, joint pain, memory problems, tremors—came and went. In 2002, I began waking up every night drenched in sweat, with hives covering my legs. A doctor I consulted thought, based on a test result, that I might have lupus, but I had few other markers of the autoimmune disease. In 2008, when I was 32, doctors identified arthritis in my hips and neck, for which I had surgery and physical therapy. I was also bizarrely exhausted. Nothing was really wrong, the doctors I visited told me; my tests looked fine.

…continue reading ‘Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts’

Thumb image via Flickr Some rights reserved by National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Be the first to like.

Unlike

The Atlantic

Congo Draws Up a New Battle Plan Against Ebola Amid Power Struggle

July 26, 2019

Following the resignation of the country’s health minister, the president will take over the response and deploy a new vaccine

Quick Read

Congo Draws Up a New Battle Plan Against Ebola Amid Power Struggle

Friday, July 26th, 2019

…continue reading ‘Congo Draws Up a New Battle Plan Against Ebola Amid Power Struggle’

Thumb image via NYTimes – Jerome Delay/Associated Press

Be the first to like.

Unlike

New York Times

Honduran Hospital Overrun By Dengue Fever Epidemic

July 26, 2019

At least 28,000 people affected of which 54, mostly children, have died in the worst dengue outbreak in decades

Quick Read

Honduran Hospital Overrun By Dengue Fever Epidemic

Friday, July 26th, 2019

Of Honduras‘s 32 public hospitals, 26 are overflowing with patients due to what health authorities are calling the worst dengue fever epidemic in the past half-century.

The disease has struck 28,000 people this year, of which 54, mostly children, have died.

The enormous case flow is evident in the western city of La Paz. Inside the local hospital’s chapel, two tables are piled high with patient folders, which sit in front of a wooden depiction of Christ.

…continue reading ‘Honduran Hospital Overrun By Dengue Fever Epidemic’

Thumb image via Al Jazeera – Jorge Cabrera/Reuters

Be the first to like.

Unlike

Al Jazeera

Are Motorcycle Taxis Making the Ebola Crisis Worse?

July 24, 2019

The Congolese trading city of Butembo relies on its ‘taxi-motos’ to keep business running, but the taxi unions are resistant to helping government Ebola efforts – and their bikes could be spreading the disease

Quick Read

Are Motorcycle Taxis Making the Ebola Crisis Worse?

Wednesday, July 24th, 2019

Swarms of motorcycle taxis overloaded with passengers and goods weave their way through traffic in the eastern Congolese city of Butembo. Motorbikes far outnumber four-wheeled vehicles on the dusty roads of the regional trading hub, especially downtown, where drivers laden with cargo carve their way through crowded street markets.

These “taxi-motos,” as they are known, are the lifeblood coursing through Butembo’s arteries. With local unions representing around 10,000 taxi-motos, they are also a political force that has at times hampered efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic rampaging through North Kivu and Ituri provinces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

…continue reading ‘Are Motorcycle Taxis Making the Ebola Crisis Worse?’

Thumb image via The Guardian

Be the first to like.

Unlike

The Guardian

The WHO Finally Declared a Public Health Emergency Over Ebola

July 18, 2019

The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been ongoing since last August. An emergency declaration “is an unambiguous global statement that the situation is dire,” Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Quick Read

The WHO Finally Declared a Public Health Emergency Over Ebola

Thursday, July 18th, 2019

…

Many global health experts have for months been saying this outbreak constitutes a PHEIC.

“It was time to declare [an emergency] about 1,000 cases ago, so I certainly believe it is time to declare now,” said Rebecca Katz, director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, in June.

An emergency declaration “is an unambiguous global statement that the situation is dire,” Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, previously told Vox. It communicates “to high-income countries and donors that WHO needs much more help and that there are real dangers of the outbreak spreading further.”

…continue reading ‘The WHO Finally Declared a Public Health Emergency Over Ebola’

Thumb image via Vox – Photo credit JOHN WESSELS/AFP/Getty Images

Be the first to like.

Unlike

Vox

We Must Prepare for the Next Pandemic

June 18, 2019

Bruce Schneier argues that we’ll have to battle both the disease and the fake news

Quick Read

We Must Prepare for the Next Pandemic

Tuesday, June 18th, 2019

When the next pandemic strikes, we’ll be fighting it on two fronts. The first is the one you immediately think about: understanding the disease, researching a cure and inoculating the population. The second is new, and one you might not have thought much about: fighting the deluge of rumors, misinformation and flat-out lies that will appear on the internet.

The second battle will be like the Russian disinformation campaigns during the 2016 presidential election, only with the addition of a deadly health crisis and possibly without a malicious government actor. But while the two problems — misinformation affecting democracy and misinformation affecting public health — will have similar solutions, the latter is much less political. If we work to solve the pandemic disinformation problem, any solutions are likely to also be applicable to the democracy one.

Pandemics are part of our future. They might be like the 1968 Hong Kong flu, which killed a million people, or the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed over 40 million. Yes, modern medicine makes pandemics less likely and less deadly. But global travel and trade, increased population density, decreased wildlife habitats, and increased animal farming to satisfy a growing and more affluent population have made them more likely. Experts agree that it’s not a matter of if — it’s only a matter of when.

…continue reading ‘We Must Prepare for the Next Pandemic’

Thumb image via NYT – Brian Stauffer

Be the first to like.

Unlike

New York Times

Page 1 of 1912 3 4 5...10...»Last »

Behind the Front Lines of the Ebola Wars

Behind the Front Lines of the Ebola Wars

Why You Don’t Need to Isolate Yourself to Survive the Next Pandemic

Why You Don’t Need to Isolate Yourself to Survive the Next Pandemic

Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts

Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts

Congo Draws Up a New Battle Plan Against Ebola Amid Power Struggle

Congo Draws Up a New Battle Plan Against Ebola Amid Power Struggle

Honduran Hospital Overrun By Dengue Fever Epidemic

Honduran Hospital Overrun By Dengue Fever Epidemic

Are Motorcycle Taxis Making the Ebola Crisis Worse?

Are Motorcycle Taxis Making the Ebola Crisis Worse?

The WHO Finally Declared a Public Health Emergency Over Ebola

The WHO Finally Declared a Public Health Emergency Over Ebola

We Must Prepare for the Next Pandemic

We Must Prepare for the Next Pandemic

Follow Us

Twitter Feed

Twitter Feed