Although at first glance, the answer would be ‘yes’, the answer is not so straight-forward. Consider the case of the recent H7N9 influenza outbreak in China. Although the media gave some coverage to this issue, the risk of a pandemic was not emphasized. The reason may be Bayesian updating. Previous influenza threats in recent years [...]
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Do Erectile Disfunction Drugs Cause more STDs?
Erectile Disfunction (ED) drugs, such as Viagra, have become increasingly popular. However, there may be a downside to these drugs. People who use ED drugs generally have higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Are these elevated rates of STDs due to the drugs themselves, the behavior they induce, or are the people who use [...]
Read the rest of this entry »How to Survive a Plague
Last weekend, I watched the movie How to Survive a Plague. The movie discusses the AIDS activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). Although I am not a movie critic (you can see reviews by professional critics here), I do want to discuss one key issue that the move discusses: should the FDA liberalize its [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Malaria returns to Greece
The impact of Greece economic crisis affects not only their population’s wallets, but also their health as well. Contagious diseases such as malaria and HIV are on the rise in Greece. Some 70 cases have been reported there this year, and at least 12 people appear to have been infected in the country. (The others [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Can drug companies cure drug-resistant gonorrhea? Will they even try to do so?
Drug-resistant gonorrhea has been reported in 17 European countries and could soon arrive in the U.S. Will Pharma develop new drugs to fight this more robust version of the disease? The answer may be no. Companies have been reluctant to invest in developing new antibiotics because they are used sparingly, and often held in reserve [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Why are there so few vaccine suppliers?
In many cases, only a handful of suppliers produce vaccines for a given disease. In fact, for several vaccine types the U.S. has fewer suppliers than countries with a smaller market and a higher level of government purchase. One reason for this finding could be strict government regulation. All vaccines must be approved by the [...]
Read the rest of this entry »AIDS turns 30
The Center for Disease Control issued the first official notice of the disease that would become known as AIDS 30 years ago on June 5. My current home, San Francisco, was especially hard hit. NPR interviews physicians at the San Francisco General Hospital and the Center of AIDS Research at University of California, San Francisco. “At [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Modeling the spread of H1N1 in the Internet age
CNN reports that H1N1 is still a problem, particularly in the Southeastern U.S. Traditionally, epidmiologists model the spread of a contagious disease based on two factors: the transmission rate between people and the frequency of contact between individuals. A study by Yoo, Kasajima and Bhattacharya (2010) incorporates a third factor that will affect the spread [...]
Read the rest of this entry »World TB Day 2010
Today, March 24th, is World Tuberculosis Day. According to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, there were 9.4 million new TB cases in 2008 and 1.8 million deaths. The CDC website has more information on what can be done to stop the spread of TB. There is lots of coverage of the TB Day activities from [...]
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The History of Medicine: A Very Short Introduction
I recently finished reading a great book by William Bynum called The History of Medicine: A Very Short Introduction. The book does just what it says: provides a great introduction to the history of medicine. It is concise and interesting throughout. The contents are divided into six chapters: Medicine at the bedside Medicine in the [...]
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