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Tag: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • Diabetes Awareness Month Kicks Off

    Diabetes Awareness Month Kicks Off

    Diabetes Awareness Month kicked off today as events across the nation were held to raise awareness of diabetes and the prevention of it.

    For example, one of the largest diabetes awareness walks in the nation was held today in Philidelphia.

    It was a cold and rainy day, but that didn’t stop the thousands of brave supporters who came out to walk a mile and try and help raise diabetes awareness. Those participating and watching were able to get valuable diabetes information and were also treated to a free concert when the diabetes awareness walk was over.

    “I’m so proud of the people that showed up today, despite the bad weather,” said one of the walkers.

    “It feels wonderful to be so supported by such a wonderful community.”

    Ann Meredith, the executive director of the American Diabetes Association, said, “Today, Philadelphia is officially declaring its independence from the diabetes epidemic.”

    Epidemic is definitely a fitting description.

    29.1 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many people are still unaware that diabetes can sometimes be delayed or even prevented.

    According to the CDC website,

    “Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our bodies to use for energy. The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use its own insulin as well as it should. This causes sugar to build up in your blood.”

    Type 2 diabetes can be sometimes be prevented or delayed by losing weight, eating right, and maintaining a good exercise program.

    Hopefully, Diabetes Awareness Month will help to spread the word about how important diet and exercise is to maintaining a healthy life!

  • Ebola: Cruise Ship Passenger in Quarantine Over Scare

    The U.S. State Department today announced that an American on a cruise ship is currently being monitored for possible Ebola exposure. The passenger is an employee of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where Eric Duncan died of Ebola last week. Duncan was the first person on U.S. soil to be diagnosed with Ebola.

    The State Department identified the employee through a trace investigation currently being undertaken by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The employee, who has not been named, did not have direct contact with Duncan but may have had contact with “clinical specimens” collected from Duncan.

    The employee boarded a Carnival cruise ship on October 12 in Galveston, Texas. At the time the CDC was requiring only self-monitoring for people suspected of having contact with Ebola patients. Shortly after the ship left the U.S., guidelines were updated to require active monitoring, including the suggestion that those exposed avoid travel for at least 21 days. According to the CDC’s investigation it has been 19 days since the employee processed Duncan’s fluid samples.

    Since receiving word, the hospital employee and his or her traveling companion have voluntarily confined themselves to their cabin aboard the ship. They have been monitoring themselves, including daily temperature checks. Neither has reported any symptoms of Ebola. The cruise ship’s doctor has confirmed that the pair are currently in good health.

    According to a Carnival Cruise Lines statement released today the cruise ship, named Carnival Magic, was not cleared to dock in Cozumel, Mexico this morning. The ship has now set course for Galveston where it should arrive on Sunday morning. From the statement:

    We greatly regret that this situation, which was completely beyond our control, precluded the ship from making its scheduled visit to Cozumel and the resulting disappointment it has caused to our guests.

    Carnival is providing all Carnival Magic passengers with $200 in credit to spend aboard the ship and a 50 percent discount on a future Carnival cruise booking.

    Since Duncan’s death two Americans have been diagnosed with Ebola. Both were nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian who cared for Duncan.

  • Ebola Infected U.S. Aid Worker to Fly to Atlanta

    Officials at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta revealed Thursday that an unnamed American aid worker infected with the Ebola virus will be flown into the United States for treatment.

    The patient will be quarantined in a special isolation unit constructed at Emory, which was set up in tandem with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said her agency was collaborating with the U.S. State Department to coordinate transporting the patient from West Africa.

    Two U.S. aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol, both have confirmed cases of Ebola, which were contracted in Liberia. Brantly and Writebol are both affiliated with the North Carolina-based Christian relief groups Samaritan’s Purse and SIM. A spokeswoman for the groups described their conditions as being “stable but grave”, as of early Thursday morning, but could not confirm if either of them will be transported to Emory.

    Here is a clip describing possible precautions that would be taken while medevacing an Ebola patient:

    Manifestation of Ebola begins with a sudden onset of an influenza-like stage characterized by general malaise, fever with chills and chest pain. Nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting are also common symptoms. Regarding the central nervous system, victims experience severe headaches, agitation, confusion, fatigue, depression, seizures and sometimes coma.

    Those who contract Ebola typically die of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) due to fluid redistribution, hypotension, weakened intravascular coagulation and focal tissue necrosis. The hemorrhaging that comes with the disease is typically not the cause of death.

    Healthcare workers are especially susceptible to catching the Ebola virus, and CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden commented that transferring gravely ill patients has the potential to do more harm than good.

    There has never been a reported case of Ebola being treated in the United States, though five people have entered the country with either Lassa Fever or Marburg Fever, which are both similar to Ebola.

    The Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria is the largest recorded in history, and the disease has a mortality rate of roughly 68 percent. So far, the outbreak has taken over 700 lives, and a vaccination is years away. Yet, the National Institutes of Health is set to begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine on human subjects in mid-September.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • ADHD Symptoms: What To Look Out For

    ADHD Symptoms: What To Look Out For

    Imagine a fifth-grader in a classroom, bouncing around from seat to seat, unable to sit still, talking constantly, showing little to no attention span, listening to the teacher for brief moments, but unable to hold onto the words which he or she said very long.

    It’s the common stereotype of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or more commonly called ADHD. It’s a slam-dunk case some would say. But is it? And that’s when the problems arise.

    As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says on its website, “Deciding if a child has ADHD is a several-step process. There is no single test to diagnose ADHD, and many other problems, like anxiety, depression, and certain types of learning disabilities, can have similar symptoms.”

    The American Psychiatric Association does provide a guide, however. It’s called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) and it’s used by mental health professionals—psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and the like—for diagnosing various mental disorders, including ADHD.

    Released in 2013, the DSM-5 had some changes from the previous manual. Symptoms can present themselves in the child by age 12 rather than age 6. Multiple symptoms now need to be present in more than one setting, rather than just some impairment in a single setting. New descriptions were added to show what symptoms would look like at older ages. And finally, for those ages 17 and over, only five symptoms need to be present rather than six.

    That said, what are the symptoms of ADHD and how are they organized?

    There are two main categories, quickly summed up by a neat DSM-5 definition of ADHD: “People with ADHD show a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development.”

    The first major category is “inattention.” The symptoms include not giving close attention to details about homework or making repeated careless errors, not listening when spoken to directly, and having trouble organizing tasks and activities.

    Of course, there is the additional bullet point that may sum it all up: “Is easily distracted.”

    The second major category is called “hyperactivity and impulsivity.” The symptoms include fidgeting, tapping with the hands or feet, or squirming while seated. They also include talking excessively and interrupting or intruding on others, such as butting in on a game.

    Read the full list on the CDC’s website here.

    There are also four “conditions” that must be met, such as the symptoms must be present before the age of 12 and must occur in two or more settings, among other conditions. And finally symptoms can be grouped into three “presentations” of ADHD, which is either predominantly inattention, predominantly hyperactive and impulsive, or a combined presentation.

    WebMD adds, “These are traits that most children display at some point or another. But to establish a diagnosis of ADHD, sometimes referred to as ADD, the symptoms should be inappropriate for the child’s age.”

    Note: The image at the top is a map of the United States color-coded based on ADHD diagnoses of children. It goes from gray to light blue with the darkest gray being “14-15.9 percent” and with the lightest blue being “5.6-7.9 percent.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • E-Cigarettes Have High Rate of Usage in Teen Market

    The results of an e-cigarette study at UC San Francisco were recently released. In the study, conducted by postdoctoral fellow Sungkyu Lee, researchers focused on the data obtained in a national Web-based survey of 75,643 adolescents in Korea. The survey data comes from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior research completed in 2011 by the Korea Centers for Disease Control.

    In the study, Lee found that the usage of electronic cigarettes by adolescents in grades 7-12 has rapidly risen since the device was first introduced in 2008 – at that time, less than 1% of adolescents had tried the e-cigarette. By the study in 2011, more than 9% of the students studied had used, or regularly use, electronic cigarettes.

    Electronic cigarettes, dubbed “e-cigarettes,” are nicotine-releasing devices that are powered by batteries. While non-nicotine cartridges are available, most users of the device use cartridges that contain nicotine. They release other chemicals, as well, when the user inhales the nicotine vapor.

    Since first hitting the market, the electronic devices have been hailed as being many times healthier than conventional cigarettes, although many doctors and experts debate that. The e-cigarettes have gained popularity, as well from Hollywood stars’ use of them.

    In 2010, Katherine Heigl discussed her use of the device on Late Night with David Letterman. Heigl was a conventional cigarette smoker for many years, and decided to quit after adopting her daughter. However, all of the methods she tried were fruitless – until she found the e-cigarette. She does admit, though, that she is addicted to the electronic version of cigarettes now.

    Lee’s study was the first to analyze electronic cigarette usage in adolescents, and he now works for the National Evidence-Based Healthcare Collaborating Agency in Korea.

    The Korean study also indicated that 4 out of 5 adolescent users of the battery-powered cigarettes were also smokers of regular cigarettes.

    Other interesting conclusions from the study show that the majority of adolescent e-cigarette users were either trying to quit smoking conventional cigarettes, or habitually smoke both conventional and e-cigarettes. It also showed that the use of electronic cigarettes in adolescents greatly increase the odds that the student will end up being a conventional smoker.

    In the U.S., the federally-run Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted their own study, and reported that most adolescents who had tried the e-cigarette had also smoked regular cigarettes. As of 2012, more than 1.78 million teens and adolecents had tried smoking an electronic cigarette.

    A professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF, Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, said, “We are witnessing the beginning of a new phase of the nicotine epidemic and a new route to nicotine addiction for kids,” according to Science Daily.

    The entire study can be found in the current issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

    Main image courtesy gloriaricardi via Wikimedia Commons.