November 2011
4 posts
overdoses of prescription painkillers
A new report released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control shows the death toll from overdoses of prescription painkillers has more than tripled in the past decade. This new finding shows that more than 40 people die every day from overdoses involving narcotic pain relievers like hydrocodone (Vicodin), methadone, oxycodone (OxyContin), and oxymorphone (Opana).
Prescription...
Vaccine-Preventable Outbreaks
This interactive map visually plots global outbreaks of measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, rubella, and other diseases that are easily preventable by inexpensive and effective vaccines. The Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations has been tracking news reports on these outbreaks since the fall of 2008. This project aims to promote awareness of a global health problem that is...
“Indian superbug” NDM-1
“not actually a bacterium, but a gene that directs production of an enzyme — hit the news. The enzyme, whose acronym is short for New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1, disables almost all antibiotics directed against it, leaving the bacteria in which the gene appears vulnerable to only two imperfect and sometimes toxic drugs.”
The enzyme and its gene, blaNDM-1, were first...
