Who should be responsible for your retirement?

The Economist reports that Argentina has recently passed “a law to nationalise the country’s private pension system.”  Is this a good thing? With the stock market in the tank, many individuals yearn for the security of a government-funded retirement plans compared to private, individual investments in stocks and bonds.  However, public pensions may not be so…

Word of the day: cyberchondriacs

From the BBC: “…researchers found Web searches for common symptoms such as headache and chest pain were just as likely or more likely to lead people to pages describing serious conditions as benign ones, even though the serious illnesses are much more rare. Searching for ‘chest pain’ or ‘muscle twitches’ returned terrifying results with the…

World AIDS Day

There are now 33 million people living with HIV, including 2 million children. About 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus each year.   Combating this epidemic is one of the top priorities facing public health workers around the world. With limited resources, what strategy should be pursued?  As of now, a vaccine…