Sad State of Global Health

Amid all the publicity about the over-hyped Ebola, and the Gates Foundation tackling the monumental task of "eradicating" killer diseases in the Third World, a normal, everyday report card on the state of global health - from superpowers to the poor - is frighteningly out of balance. Have we as a planet truly found the "tipping point," where "well meaning killer-disasters" are the order of the day?

Here are articles from just today's New York Times:

www.nytimes.com... d=49939149&_r=0

'SUPERBUGS' KILL INDIA'S BABIES AND POSE OVERSEAS THREAT
"A deadly epidemic that could have global implications is quietly sweeping India, and among its many victims are tens of thousands of newborns dying because once-miraculous cures no longer work. These infants are born with bacterial infections that are resistant to most known antibiotics, and more than 58,000 died last year as a result, a recent study found."

www.nytimes.com... 9939149

CHRONIC DISEASES ARE KILLING MORE IN POORER COUNTRIES
"Chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease are rising fast in low- and middle-income countries, striking far younger populations than in rich countries and causing much worse outcomes, according to a new report.

"Deaths from chronic diseases have risen by more than 50 percent in low- and middle-income countries over the past two decades, according to the report, by the Council on Foreign Relations. The increase is part of a shift in global mortality patterns in which infectious diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, have declined substantially and are no longer the leading cause of death in the developing world."

www.nytimes.com...

pregnancies.html?emc=edit_th_20141204 &nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=49939149
BRITISH REGULATOR URGES HOME BIRTHS OVER HOSPITALS FOR UNCOMPLICATED PREGNANCIES
"Reversing a generation of guidance on childbirth, Britain’s national health service on Wednesday advised healthy women that it was safer to have their babies at home, or in a birth center, than in a hospital.

"Women with uncomplicated pregnancies — about 45 percent of the total — were better off in the hands of midwives than hospital doctors during birth, according to new guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. For these low-risk mothers-to-be, giving birth in a traditional maternity ward increased the chances of surgical intervention and therefore infection, the regulator said.

"Hospital births were more likely to end in cesarean sections or involve episiotomies, a government financed 2011 study carried out by researchers at Oxford University showed. Women were more likely to be given epidurals, which numb the pain of labor but also increase the risk of a protracted birth that required forceps and damaged the perineum."

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(Is it time for global health organizations to shift away from infectious disease, and focus more on chronic conditions that affect and ultimately kill more poor? Or do we dare decrease the money and time thrown at infectious diseases, should a deadly strain suddenly mutate and burst out of nowhere, like the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918?

(The first U.S. public hospitals in the last century were only where people went when they were dying. With all the billions spent in just the U.S. on healthcare and insurance, with an ever more regulated and shrinking pile of government dollars, are hospitals again becoming places you only go to if you're dying? Where simple procedures can turn deadly due to reasons accidental - and deliberate?)

Your thoughts?

I think it's time for doctors to start thinking of systemic treatments- find the cause of all these symptoms (cancers, etc), allow themselves to use less harsh means of treating wounds (hello, coconut oil packed into wounds?) so that bacteria and viruses aren't going to evolve into monsters ...Find the CAUSES of all these things, and stop striving for repeat custom.


But hey- that's not profitable, is it?

fml.

a reply to: Hushabye

Very good post. Thank you! And your ideas are in good company:

www.thedoctorwithin.com...
HOLES IN THE 'GERM THEORY'
"It was Bechamp’s view that it was not the bug that caused disease, but rather the condition in which bugs lived. Disease happens when an imbalance causes some of the more pathological that is, bad, bacteria to take over. What causes that? Low resistance, weak immune system. Seems like such a simple idea, but that is really the foundation of the whole controversy all along. In the end, everyone, even Pasteur, agreed that bugs – bacteria and viruses – do not alone cause disease.

"Bechamp discovered tiny organisms he called “microzymas” which are present in all things – animal, vegetable, and mineral, whether living or dead. Depending upon the condition of the host, these microzymas could assume various forms. Bad bacteria and viruses were simply the forms assumed by the microzymas when there was a condition of disease. In a diseased body, the microzymas became pathological bacteria and viruses. In a healthy body, microzymas formed healthy cells. When a plant or animal died, the microzymas lived on. To this day, the whole theory of microzymas has never been disproved.

Some strange and scarey stories coming out about annual flu shots:

www.oregonlive.com...
CDC WARNS DOCTORS THAT FLU VACCINE THIS YEAR NOT EFFECTIVE AGAINST DEADLIEST STRAIN
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an advisory to physicians, warning them that a strain of influenza A that appears to be the most prevalent so far, is not part of the three-strain vaccine. The dominant strain -- influenza A virus H3N2 -- has been associated with high mortality and hospitalization rates.

"The strains included in this season's vaccine were picked in February by a panel of experts, based on last year's flu season. But 52 percent of the 85 influenza virus samples collected and analyzed between Oct. 1 and Nov. 22 were different than those that were chosen to protect the public.

www.globalresearch.ca...
STUDIES FIND THAT FLU SHOTS CAN HARM YOUR HEART, INFANT AND FETUS
"Flu vaccines, according to the best scientific evidence available today, will only work against 10% of the circulating viruses that cause the symptoms of seasonal epidemic influenza. Additionally, flu vaccines have been found to elicit inflammatory reactions that may harm the human heart, the developing fetus, and the fragile immune systems of our infants. So, do the theoretical benefits really outweigh the known harms?"

sharylattkisson.com...
GOVERNMENT RESEARCHERS FIND FLU SHOTS NOT EFFECTIVE IN ELDERLY AFTER ALL
"So the NIH launched an effort to do “the” definitive study that would actually prove, for the first time, once and for all, that flu shots were beneficial to the elderly. The government would gather some of the brightest scientific minds for the research, and adjust for all kinds of factors that could be masking that presumed benefit.

"But when they finished, no matter how they crunched the numbers, the data kept telling the same story: flu shots were of no benefit to the elderly. Quite the opposite. The death rate had increased markedly since widespread flu vaccination among older Americans. The scientists finally had to acknowledge that decades of public health thought had been mistaken."

a reply to: MKMoniker

Great OP and posts. F&S&

Are you familiar with the hypothesis linking Bechamp's microzymas hypothesis and prions? ....and it all comes back to epigenetics and the effects of environmental change on living organisms.

Interesting stuff. Thanks.

a reply to: soficrow

Thank you!

I read your article on microenzymes and prions. But I'm not big on any "procedure" that transfers substances from the brain to other body parts and then back again. Like DARPA and all their brain-chips, I'm very leery of who really benefits from "experimenting" with the brain.

But I do find Epigenetics an interesting new subject, and am collecting articles about it.

discovermagazine.com...
GRANDMA'S EXPERIENCES GROWING UP CAN PASS ON ANXIETY OR RESILIANCE TO CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN
My parents were raised in the 1930s - the Great Depression, Dust Bowl, and a very uneasy time between two devastating world wars. They learned a Resiliance and Reliance On Self that may be the greatest thing I inherited.

www.nytimes.com... lid=49939149

MYSTERY VIRUS THAT KILLED KANSAS FARMER, HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED
"Researchers have identified a previously unknown virus, thought to be transmitted by ticks or mosquitoes, that led to the death of a farmer in Kansas last summer.

'The illness was fast-moving and severe, causing lung and kidney failure, and shock. The man, previously healthy, died after about only 10 days in the hospital, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist who treated the patient at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City.

"The newly discovered microbe has been named the Bourbon virus, for the county where the patient lived, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said in a statement released Monday.

(NOTE: Plum Island, on Long Island, New York, is the U.S. Animal Disease Center. According to some, it is also said to be close to where the Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever - also tick-borne - was discovered. And Kansas is where the Animal Disease Center has or will move to:

www.nytimes.com...
(Sept. 2013) U.S. MOVES AHEAD ON PLAN TO SELL PLUM ISLAND, HOME OF ANIMAL CONTAGIOUS DISEASES
"Now, with one of the final federal decisions having been announced this week, Plum Island is that much closer to being sold, though probably at a price to make even Dr. Moreau think twice.

"The General Services Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, which are jointly overseeing the sale of the island, released a “record of decision” on Thursday night to help clear the way for an eventual sale that has been in the works since 2008, when the government floated the idea, since approved, of moving the Animal Disease Center to Manhattan — MANHATTAN, KANSAS, THAT IS."

en.wikipedia.org...
MANHATTAN, KANSAS
Which is about 5 counties away from -

en.wikipedia.org...
BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
Where the farmer died from the mystery virus.

gma.yahoo.com...

WITH 15 CHILDREN DEAD FROM FLU, CDC DECLARES FLU EPIDEMIC
"At least six Tennessee children have died from the flu this year, the state's Department of Health reported. Tennessee is under the widespread outbreak category, as of Monday, according to the CDC. So far, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital has seen 442 children with the flu just this month.

"While this year’s strain of the virus is especially severe, ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser said, flu can always be deadly for children, the elderly and anyone with a compromised immune system."

(NOTE: I love the way they leave out the part that the "deadliest strain" of flu this year was LEFT OUT OF THE FLU VACCINE, as I reported above on Dec. 6th.)

Finally! Some "good news" on a new antibiotic in the pipeline, amid a surge in drug-resistant bacteria. And a new method to find microbes that could not be grown in a laboratory:

seattletimes.com...
PROMISING NEW ANTIBIOTIC KNOCKS OUT DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA

(It still has to go thru human trials, but animal trials were very promising: it cured severe infections in mice with no side effects.)

While we older adults shake our head at all the Energy Drinks and super-powerful marijuana kids consume, binge-drinking adults are dying of alcohol poisoning at the rate of six a day:

www.boston.com... VHVb9Zi5dS1ubHJ/story.html
ALCOHOL POISONING KILLS MORE MIDDLE-AGED WHITE MEN THAN STUDENTS ON BINGE DRINKING

www.cdc.gov...
CDC REPORT: ALCOHOL POISONING DEATHS
Kills 6 people a day in the U.S., and 76% of those deaths are among adults 35 to 64.

(NOTE: Another little noted aspect of this, is that there are "added" toxins to a lot of liquor - either as fillers/stretchers or as outright toxic substances. They do this with a lot of illegal drugs, like coc aine and heroin - and even the government did it, historically, during Prohibition when alcohol was illegal too.)

www.slate.com...
THE "CHEMISTS' WAR" OF PROHIBITION

And even today -

gawker.com...
POISONED LIQUOR KILLS AN INSANE NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN INDIA

(NOTE: Liquor-deaths in Texas are low compared to the rest of the country. But people here "drink smart". I asked a Liquor Store salesman once what their biggest liquor sales were. He said (the expensive and trustworthy) Crown Royal on Fridays.

(Plus, here in rural Texas, drunk-drivers are endemic. We were warned by others when we first moved here, not to go out or drive after dark. There have even been horrific car crashes after dark, when a drunk gets behind a wheel of a vehicle - and gets on a freeway going the wrong direction.)

seattletimes.com...

FDA PANEL ENDORSES FIRST "BIOTECH" GENERIC DRUG FOR CANCER

(One class of drugs called "biologics", containing some of the most expensive drugs in the world, and has always been protected in the U.S. from losing their patents to cheaper generics. Now, in a first, the FDA has approved its first generic of a costly cancer biologic. This generic drug (filgrastim) was approved in Europe in 2009.

(No wonder Medical Tourism to foreign countries is so cost-effective. Other countries have had generic "biologics" for years!)

a reply to: MKMoniker

I'm not big on any "treatment" or "procedure" that ignores cause and focuses on "symptoms." I'd prefer to see the world cleaned up, and the causes removed.

a reply to: soficrow

I agree that we need to focus more on cause-&-effect. But we can't identify a lot of "causes," where everyone reacts differently to the same source (virus or bacteria). And for people smoking marijuana or illegal drugs, like for people on multiple prescription meds, the cause-&-effect becomes even murkier.

Like our current population of drug-resistant bacterial infections. Poorer countries like India and VietNam sell antibiotics over the counter to counter-balance their poor to non-existent health/medical infrastructure. So what "cause" do you tackle first? Upgrade a country's medical-infrastructure? Or ban over-the-counter antibiotics to prevent Superbugs that are drug resistant?

And even an effective preventative, like Truvada for HIV/AIDS, languishes due to suspicion and rumor:

well.blogs.nytimes.com...
ASK WELL: AIDS AND TRUVADA
FDA approved it in 2012, and later studies said it is 99% effective. So why doesn't everyone at risk take it?

healthimpactnews.com...
AS ENTEROVIRUS D68 DEATHS INCREASE, ARE VACCINE CONTAMINANTS TO BLAME?

In 2014, there was one death from the over-hyped Ebola. But at the same time, and basically ignored by the news media, a dozen kids have died from the mysterious EV-D68. And others have paralysis and lesions on their spine.

Folks with terminal cancer are getting louder in their request for their "Right to Try" experimental cancer drugs.

www.nytimes.com...
TERMINAL CANCER PATIENTS WANT "RIGHT TO TRY" EXPERIMENTAL DRUGS

A federal law is a long way off (if ever), but a handful of states have already passed "Right to Try" laws. Big Pharma doesn't like this, since using the drugs outside FDA supervision could introduce too many negatives from sloppy handling. And even some cancer doctors fear that these untested drugs could do more harm than good.

But even the Mayo Clinic and American Cancer Society are making once-unheard-of suggestions of "alternative" cancer treatments, that may not "cure" but offer some relief. Just keep your doctor in the loop and choose carefully (you don't want to exchange one toxic treatment for another), and try to stick with inexpensive and available foods, herbs and vitamins that others have reported success with.

www.mayoclinic.org...
MAYO CLINIC: ALTERNATIVE CANCER TREATMENTS, 10 OPTIONS TO CONSIDER

www.cancer.org...
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: HERBS, VITAMINS AND MINERALS

www.naturalnews.com...
HOW NATURAL CANCER CURES GET BURIED BY THE GOV, MEDIA AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

www.rawkathon.com...
"NATURAL HEALTH" EXPERTS OFFER THEIR IDEAS OF HOW RAW FOODS CAN CURE

www.cancertutor.com...
CANCER TREATMENTS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD ABOUT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!
(NOTE: These are a lot of hyped and expensive "protocols" and "devices" I don't recommend. But there may be some basic ideas and substances in here worth pursuing, if you strip away all the BS.)

seattletimes.com...

THIS SEASON'S FLU VACCINE ONLY 23% EFFECTIVE

And more on the push by TPTB for people (especially young people) to have "circles of friends" - to include at least one "spoiler" to try and manipulate the others:

seattletimes.com...

ADAGE "MISERY LOVES COMPANY" IS TRUE

And now, some good news!

seattletimes.com...
EXPERIMENTAL MS TREATMENT "HALTS DISEASE IN ITS TRACKS"

well.blogs.nytimes.com...
4 OUT OF 5 HERBS SOLD IN POPULAR STORES CONTAIN NONE OF THE LABELED HERB

(NOTE: This is why I stick with herbs packaged in the U.S. that have quality controls. Like Puritan's Pride and Nature's Way, which sell on-line.)

www.naturalnews.com...
(Oct. 2014) THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF WIRELESS BABY MONITORS

www.newser.com...
WHEN CRAIGSLIST PERSONALS ENTER A NEW MARKET - HIV INFECTIONS JUMP 16%

weill.cornell.edu...

FIRST DNA MAP OF NEW YORK SUBWAY SYSTEM MICROBES
But fully half the DNA collected could not be identified!

This matches a study done last year, of trying to analyze microbes in the soil in Central Park:

source.colostate.edu...
SOIL MICROBES OF CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK
Soil microbes from deserts, rain forests, prairies and forests were found. Even stranger, only 8.5% to 16.2% of the soil microbes were known! Researchers were astounded to find that up to 90% of the microbes were totally unknown, with no names or details about the part they play in soil habitat or soil fertility.

(NOTE: New York is a well known "immigrant melting pot", and the Men In Black movies joked about their outer space visitors too. But one theory says that arriving UFOs with extra-terrestrials may be attracted to the brightest city on a continent - and New York City at night outshines all the other North American cities.)

a reply to: MKMoniker

It's not operational yet. My husband has been keeping an eye on it because he has thought about applying for a biosciences job there.

a reply to: ketsuko

Thanks for your reply.

What did you refer to, that isn't "operational" yet? I thought I posted a couple Final Reports.

Are there going to be follow-up studies on either the microbes in Central Park or on the NYC subway?

Thanks.