WHO Suspects a Fourth Person Died of Ebola in Congo (
Huffington Post) A fourth person is believed to have died of Ebola in an outbreak of the disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization said on Sunday. The WHO first confirmed the discovery of the new outbreak on May 12, after a 39-year-old man who had died on his way to the hospital in a remote region of Bas-Uele province in late April was confirmed to have suffered from the deadly disease.
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Lyme Disease on Rise Amid Diagnosis, Treatment Controversy (
US News & World Report) Lyme disease is caused by
Borrelia burgdorferi, bacteria that are carried and transmitted to humans by black-legged ticks, commonly known as deer ticks. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme each year, and the numbers have been on the rise locally and across the country.
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Global Health Security
Leaked US Budget Document Suggests Deep Humanitarian, Global Health Cuts (
devex) Yet another document that appears to outline the Trump administration's budget intentions leaked on Friday. While the numbers are preliminary--the document is dated May 8, and the official White House budget is expected May 23--the spreadsheet, if authentic, paints another grim picture of how the president views US foreign assistance.
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No Free Lunch, G20 Health Ministers Find at First Meeting (
Intellectual Property Watch) Group of 20 health ministers today finished their first joint table top exercise to simulate the outbreak of a new deadly viral pandemic in "Anycountry" and passed a seven-page final resolution on pandemic preparedness and antimicrobial resistance. Non-governmental experts and health organizations welcomed the first ever meeting of health ministers in the G20 format, but see a risk of framing the debate from a global North security perspective.
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Keynote Speech at the G20 Health Ministers' Meeting (
WHO) Global health security is one of the best examples of a universal threat that demands global solidarity. A more secure health situation serves the self-interests of every country, though added responsibility for collective action falls on the governments of major economies.
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Measles Vaccination Campaign Launched in Mogadishu (
Relief Web) The World Health Organization with the Federal Government of Somalia and UNICEF launched a preventative measles vaccination campaign yesterday targeting 125,000 children aged 6 to 59 months from communities of internally displaced persons in Banadir and Afgoye.
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Medicine & Public Health
Medical Systems Hacks Are Scary, but Medical Device Hacks Could Be Even Worse (
Harvard Business Review) On Friday, a major cyber attack hit health systems around the world. In Britain, where the attack affected hospital IT systems, doctors were unable to access patient records. Ambulances were diverted and emergency care delayed. Unfortunately, attacking hospital IT systems is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cyber vulnerabilities in the health care sector. Hacks of implanted or wearable medical devices are an even more sobering threat.
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Medicine Is Going Digital. The FDA Is Racing to Catch Up (
Wired) When Bakul Patel started as a policy advisor in the US FDA in 2008, he could pretty much pinpoint when a product was going to land in front of the reviewers in his division. Back when medical devices were heavy on the hardware--your pacemakers and your IUDs--it would take manufacturers years to get them ready for regulatory approval. FDA reviewers could keep up pretty well. But as computer code took on more complex tasks, like spotting specious moles and quantifying blood flow, their duties began to accelerate.
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Public Health Labs to Get Help Sharing Zika Test Data Electronically (
Health Data Management) Although nearly all laboratory testing for the Zika virus is conducted at public health laboratories, most of these labs currently do not have the ability to electronically exchange information such as orders and test results. However, a joint project between the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the CDC is attempting to create a national system for order entry and test reporting so that public health labs can interface with providers' electronic health records, replacing the current manual process between providers and labs.
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Science & Technology
Use of a Digital Health Application for Influenza Surveillance in China (
American Journal Public Health) Digital health applications could supplement traditional influenza surveillance systems in China by providing access to consumers' symptom reporting. Growing popularity and use of commercial digital health applications in China potentially affords opportunities to support disease detection and monitoring and rapid treatment mobilization.
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How to Sequence DNA in Space (
The Atlantic) The International Space Station is one big research laboratory. Its earliest research objectives, back in 2000, were pretty straightforward: keep humans alive. Since then, the number of experiments conducted aboard the station has ballooned, and astronauts and cosmonauts spend their days studying how terrestrial science and technology works in microgravity.
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European Union Commissions Bioterrorism Assay (
Digital Journal) There are many terrorist threats facing the world. Perhaps the most terrifying is a biological weapon given the extent of its potential spread, such as though air or waterways. Researchers are developing a new assay to detect such threats.
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