Archivo categoría «Salud Pública»
By Paul Farmer, chairman of the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School and a cofounder of Partners in Health, which has received support from the Global Fund in Haiti, Lesotho and Russia (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 02/02/12):
Ten years ago, the heads of the G-8 countries met in Genoa, Italy, to back the establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — a new funding mechanism that dramatically increased resources available to fight preventable, treatable diseases stalking the poor and depleting developing economies around the globe.
In 2001, very few people … Seguir leyendo
By Paul Steinberg, a psychiatrist (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/02/12):
Asperger syndrome and Aspies — the affectionate name that people diagnosed with Asperger syndrome call themselves — seem to be everywhere.
Considered to be at the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, Asperger syndrome has become more loosely defined in the past 20 years, by both the mental health profession and by lay people, and in many instances is now synonymous with social and interpersonal disabilities. But people with social disabilities are not necessarily autistic, and giving them diagnoses on the autism spectrum often does a real disservice. An … Seguir leyendo
By Benjamin Nugent, the director of creative writing at Southern New Hampshire University and the author of American Nerd: The Story of My People (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/02/12):
For a brief, heady period in the history of autism spectrum diagnosis, in the late ’90s, I had Asperger syndrome.
There’s an educational video from that time, called “Understanding Asperger’s,” in which I appear. I am the affected 20-year-old in the wannabe-hipster vintage polo shirt talking about how keen his understanding of literature is and how misunderstood he was in fifth grade. The film was a research project directed by … Seguir leyendo
Por Martin Tobias, médico especializado en salud pública, de Wellington, Nueva Zelanda. Traducido al español por Leopoldo Gurman (Project Syndicate, 24/01/12):
Se atribuye a Albert Einstein la frase «todo debe hacerse tan simple como sea posible, pero no más que eso». Sin embargo, el debate actual sobre la epidemia de enfermedades no contagiosas (ENC: enfermedades crónicas como los problemas cardíacos, accidentes cerebrovasculares, diabetes y cáncer) ha ignorado este consejo. Los responsables de diseñar las políticas han simplificado excesivamente el desafío centrándose en la creciente prevalencia de las ENC –la mera cantidad de personas enfermas– lo cual, para mí, no … Seguir leyendo
By Wendy Orent, the author of Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World’s Most Dangerous Disease (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 15/01/12):
If you were paying attention to the flap over two recent flu experiments involving ferrets, you may have come away with the impression that scientists all but waved a red flag in front of terrorists and said, “Here’s a perfect biological weapon — help yourselves.”
But there’s really not much cause for alarm.
Here’s the background. In December, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity asked the premier science journals Science and Nature to redact key … Seguir leyendo
By Alexander Edmonds, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and the author of Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex and Plastic Surgery in Brazil (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 04/01/12):
The faulty breast implants made by the French company Poly Implants Protheses, or PIP, have grabbed headlines around the world in recent weeks, and it’s no wonder. The prostheses are more prone to rupture than other models, and they contain an industrial grade of silicone never intended for use in a medical device. The scandal is also global in scope. Sold in 65 countries, the implants were re-branded by … Seguir leyendo
By Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Gary Nabel, who works in the virology laboratory at the NIAID and Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (THE WASHINGTON POST, 31/12/11):
Adeadly influenza virus has circulated widely in birds in recent years, decimating flocks but rarely spreading to humans. Nonetheless, because of its persistence in bird flocks, this highly pathogenic virus has loomed as a major public health threat. Seasonal influenza kills less than 1 percent of the people it infects. In contrast, human infections with the H5N1 virus, … Seguir leyendo
David C. Swinney is at the Institute for Rare and Neglected Diseases Drug Discovery and previously was Director of Virology Biochemical Pharmacology at Roche, Palo Alto (Project Syndicate, 02/12/11):
Despite high expectations, productivity is frustratingly low in biopharmaceutical research and development. Although expenditures have increased, the number of new medicines resulting from human-genome sequencing has not. This means that a broad variety of diseases are not being treated effectively, in the developed or the developing worlds.
Advances in molecular sciences, corresponding to the sequencing of the human genome in the 1980’s, led to the identification of all the human proteins … Seguir leyendo
By Bono, the lead singer of the band U2 and a founder of the advocacy group ONE and the (Product)RED campaign (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/12/11):
I’ll tell you the worst part about it, for me.
It was the look in their eyes when the nurses gave them the diagnosis — H.I.V.-positive — then said there was no treatment. I saw no anger in their expression. No protest. If anything, just a sort of acquiescence.
The anger came from the nurses, who knew there really was a treatment — just not for poor people in poor countries. They saw … Seguir leyendo
Por Henry Miller, físico y biólogo molecular, es profesor de filosofía científica y políticas públicas en la Hoover Institution de la Universidad de Stanford, y fue el director fundador de la Oficina de Biotecnología en la Administración de Medicamentos y Alimentos de Estados Unidos (Project Syndicate, 24/11/11):
Durante las últimas décadas, el tratamiento de una variedad de enfermedades comenzó a pasar de un enfoque de “la misma talla para todos” a una estrategia más personalizada. En consecuencia, hoy son muchas más las veces en que los pacientes reciben la mejor droga para su constitución genética o la subcategoría exacta … Seguir leyendo
By Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist and a co-founder of Partners in Health and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (THE WASHINGTON POST, 18/11/11):
Ten million people — many of them young and most of them poor — will die around the world this year from diseases for which safe, effective and affordable treatments exist. In Haiti, these are known as “stupid deaths.” What’s more, inadequate health services predominate precisely where the burden of disease is heaviest, keeping a billion souls from leading full lives in good health.
In recent … Seguir leyendo
Por Donna Dickenson, profesora emérita de Ética Médica y Humanidades en la Universidad de Londres. Obtuvo el Premio Internacional Spinoza Lens de 2006 por sus contribuciones al debate público sobre la ética. Su último libro es Body Shopping: The Economy Fuelled by Flesh and Blood. Traducido del inglés por Carlos Manzano (Project Syndicate, 02/11/11):
Estamos en 1946. A un lado del Atlántico, abogados americanos están acusando a doctores nazis en Nuremberg de crímenes contra la Humanidad: supuestas “investigaciones” hechas en prisioneros de campos de concentración. Al otro lado del Atlántico, en Guatemala, el Servicio de Salud Pública de los … Seguir leyendo
Por Henry I. Miller, medico y biólogo molecular, y miembro de la Hoover Institution de la Universidad Stanford en el departamento de filosofía científica y políticas públicas, y del Competitive Enterprise Institute. Fue el director fundador de la Oficina de Biotecnología de la FDA (Project Syndicate, 25/10/11):
Constantemente nos bombardean con información sobre los supuestos riesgos o efectos protectores de algún alimento, suplemento dietario, sustancia química, droga o actividad. En julio, por ejemplo, un artículo de The Annals of Internal Medicineinformaba que la gente que trabaja por lo menos 11 horas por día tiene un 67% más de … Seguir leyendo
Por Bjørn Lomborg, autor de The Skeptical Environmentalist y Cool It, jefe del Centro de Consenso de Copenhague y profesor adjunto de la Escuela de Administración de Empresas de Copenhague. Traducido del inglés por Carlos Manzano (Project Syndicate, 14/10/11):
Es peligroso creer que el fin del sida está a la vista. Unos 30 millones de personas en todo el mundo viven con el VIH y, si persisten las tendencias actuales, es probable que otros 30 millones se infecten en el próximo decenio. La financiación por parte de los gobiernos de países desarrollados está diminuyendo, tendencia que se debe invertir, … Seguir leyendo
By Jay A. Levy, a professor of medicine and director of the UC San Francisco’s Laboratory for Tumor and AIDS Virus Research and Daniel L. Peterson, a physician in private practice in Nevada who treats patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 30/09/11):
For more than 100 years, medical literature has contained reports of a debilitating illness that causes prolonged fatigue, memory loss, headaches, cognitive problems and issues with digestion and sleep. Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir and Thomas Eakins all suffered from what was then known as neurasthenia.
At that time, the recommended treatment for women was … Seguir leyendo