Disease
Mary Beth Heffernan: From the Studio to the Hospital Ward
Mary Beth Heffernan, a Los Angeles based artist, brings together corporeality and imagery through various media. Her work examines deep questions about how bodies and their experiences are represented in digital and physical forms.
One of Heffernan’s most notable projects, the PPE Portrait Project, began in 2014 to humanize the protective gear of Ebola workers in Liberia. By placing portraits on protective equipment, the project helped mitigate fear and foster connections between healthcare workers and patients. The initiative gained international attention and was adapted for COVID-19 response, impacting healthcare settings worldwide, including major institutions like Stanford Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Samuel Katz: The Man Who Helped Conquer Measles
Dr. Samuel Katz made monumental contributions to pediatric health and vaccinations before his passing on October 31, 2022, at the age of 95. His career was proof that one dedicated individual can have a profound impact on global public health.
Born on May 29, 1927, in Manchester, NH, Samuel Katz initially studied journalism at Dartmouth College, but quickly switched to medicine after a stint in the Navy during World War II. Moving on to his medical studies at Harvard Medical School, he was drawn into the world of virology under the tutelage of John Enders, a Nobel Laureate. This collaboration marked the beginning of Katz’s lifelong battle against infectious diseases, which included the development of the measles vaccine.
Understanding Measles
Check out this video by CBC on one of the world’s most contagious but preventable diseases. Learn how measles attacks the body and what makes it so contagious.
Europe and the U.S. Battle Measles – Again
Initially, doctors in the Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina thought the rash on young Imran’s* stomach could be scarlet fever. Or maybe it was Kawasaki disease. As reported by Eurosurveillance, that was in early December 2023. By Christmas, four of Imran’s preschool classmates had been admitted to the hospital with measles. By mid-January 2024, another epidemiologically linked case – again originally misdiagnosed as the much less contagious scarlet fever – presented in a neighboring canton. Two more quickly followed. Between the last week of December and the middle of February, the Balkan nation had reported 141 new measles cases.
Barts Health Trust’s Dr. David Harrington said the misdiagnoses should not be unexpected.
“Many front-line clinicians won’t have seen measles for several years,” he told Medscape UK. “So good education and training and collaboration between public health and infection specialists with those in primary and emergency care is key.”
Protect Your Child Against Measles
This infographic from the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital shares with you what you need to know, and do, to protect your child from measles.
Japanese “Forest Medicine” – Using Nature to Heal Yourself
The fountain of youth is a forest. Trees cast off years and grant health and cheer, or so transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed in his 1836 essay “Nature.” ”In the woods,” he wrote, “I feel that nothing can befall me [. . .] which nature cannot repair.”
Indeed, research shows that trees really do have healing powers. For one thing, they release antimicrobial essential oils, called phytoncides, that protect trees from germs and have a host of health benefits for people.
What is Forest Bathing?
Check out this video by Cascadia Forest Therapy to discover the magical healing powers of nature.
Peter DeChant: Vector Control Visionary
The story of Peter DeChant, a veteran in the mosquito and vector control profession whose journey spans over four decades, is one of dedication, innovation, and relentless commitment to combating mosquito-borne diseases.
Peter’s journey began in 1978 when he became a field technician with Multnomah County Vector Control in Portland, Oregon. Little did he know then that this would mark the start of a lifelong crusade against one of the deadliest creatures on the planet.
By 1983, Peter’s skills and passion for his work led him to the role of Chief Sanitarian, where he led the program for 14 years. It was during this time that he honed his expertise and laid the foundation for his future endeavors.
Mosquitoes that carry West Nile are becoming resistant to insecticides
John VanDenBerg suspects he was gardening when a mosquito got him.
It was September 2018, and VanDenBerg, then 67, had been feeling a little “off” for a few days, he said, like maybe he had the flu.
But one morning, as he was walking out of his Colorado home, he collapsed.
The Economics of Resistance
It would be extremely difficult to calculate, with any high degree of accuracy, the global economic impact of insecticide resistance. For starters, we must consider that insect management plays a pivotal role in a variety of sectors – agriculture, home and garden, forestry, structural applications, and vector control. Analysis of the totality of economic impacts arising from resistance in any one of these sectors quickly becomes a complicated interplay of variables that interact within that given system.
To account for the full economic impact, one must layer in the amount being spent on insect management and how much of that investment is lost to resistance, but also the economic impact of losses to the overarching objectives of a given program.
To calculate the impact, you must first calculate what is at risk.