The Plague in LA

Posted on 4 Feb 2019
Welcome to Monday. For many of us, we've finally emerged from the ice age.
Starting the recap of last week's health news with reports from our reporter in Pulaski, who is monitoring the situation in Africa (from a distance, of course) while also avoiding chicken nuggets.

• the Ebola outbreak in the Congo (almost 500 deaths) is gathering steam and heading to the border        
• Typhus, a 'medieval' disease historically spread by rats in garbage, has hit home in Los Angeles 

 

• the measles outbreak in the Pacific northwest is officially a public health crisis thanks to vaccine "deniers".  Take a sec and read about the mom who asked for advice on Facebook on how to protect her unvaccinated 3-year old.  Warning:  she gets the sarcastic responses she deserves.
• Israeli scientists report they are within a year of curing cancer.  Not to cast aspersions, but this comes from Fox News, so try not to get too excited.  The scientists call their treatment, “MuTaTo”, which is oddly disconcerting if you’ve ever heard the "Hakuna matata" song from The Lion King.
• What's In My Food This Week?: 
• Perdue and Tysons are giving you more for your money with your chicken nuggets…more rubber and more wood.

• most people on this planet suffer from obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. The Lancet calls this “syndemic” (effectàcauseàeffectàcauseàeffectàcause). Climate change causes severe droughts, which in turn causes scarcity of fruits and vegetables through higher prices, making people buy lower priced processed foods, leading to a lack of nutrition.
• for those of you who work with doctors, you’ll want to read the story about how the medical profession needs to recalculate work/life balance if they want to keep talent instead of burning them out
• are you an early riser or a night owl?  A newstudy concludes that your genes may be controlling which one you are.  Good news is that sleep quality doesn’t change for either, nor does the risk of obesity and diabetes.  Night owls do, however, have higher rates of depression and anxiety. 

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Joe

 Army Public Health Weekly Update:  https://phc.amedd.army.mil/Periodical%20Library/APHWeeklyUpdate01Febuary2019.pdf