| All women face high risk of heart disease
A woman dies of heart disease about every minute in the United States. Only 13 percent of women view it as a threat. Stephanie Hammar-Samuels sure didn't. On a hike up Mount Herman in fall 2005, she was the one nagging her buddies to go faster. The next morning, she woke up nauseated. She assumed she'd come down with the flu, but the urge to vomit persisted for more than a week and was sometimes so strong she had to pull her car to the side of the road. She thought she might be pregnant, but the home test came back negative. Then she noticed she was short of breath walking up a flight of stairs. Hammar-Samuels was 39 and healthy; a nonsmoker with no history of heart problems in her family. But coronary heart disease, the No. 1 killer of women older than 25, doesn't discriminate.
Clinics far more than last resort
Griselda Ruiz is like thousands of seasonal cannery workers in Stanislaus County. She has employer-provided health insurance when she is sorting vegetables from late August to October, then hopes she doesn't get sick the rest of the year. The Modesto woman was stricken with diabetes when pregnant with one of her two children, and as often happens with gestational diabetes, the disease came back. As her diabetes escalated this past year, Ruiz bought medicine during two trips to Mexico. She sought help at the Golden Valley Health Center on Sixth Street in Modesto last summer after the pills ran out. At the clinic, a test showed her blood sugar was five times above normal and put her at risk of a stroke or going into a diabetic coma. Ruiz, 52, told Marlene Perez, the clinic's health educator, that she hadn't come in sooner because she was unaware of the nonprofit clinic's sliding fee scale.
'Tis the Season for Allergic Reactions
MILWAUKEE-With the holiday season just around the corner, millions of Americans are preparing to decorate their homes, gather for feasts and travel to visit relatives. However, for allergy and asthma sufferers, the holiday season presents several potential triggers, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI). "Whether it's feasting on holiday meals, setting up your Christmas tree, or visiting your pet-owning relatives, allergy triggers may be lurking inside of our warm, cozy homes this time of year," said Alisa M. Smith, PhD, FAAAAI, vice-chair of the AAAAI's Indoor Allergen Committee. "Unfortunately, with busy schedules, travel time and the stress of the holidays, it is easy to forget to take the proper care when dealing with allergies and asthma.
THE PANDEMIC VACCINE PUZZLE A seven-part series on the chances for immunizing the world against pandemic flu
Editor's note: This article was originally published in CIDRAP News as a seven-part series running from October 25 through November 2, 2007. It investigates the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame. Part 1: Flu research: a legacy of neglect
Part 2: Vaccine production capacity falls far short
Part 3: H5N1 poses major immunologic challenges
Part 4: The promise and problems of adjuvants
Part 5: What role for prepandemic vaccination?
Part 6: Looking to novel vaccine technologies
Part 7: Time for a vaccine 'Manhattan Project'?
Bibliography Part 1: Flu research: a legacy of neglect It has been 10 years since the H5N1 strain of avian influenza first grabbed international attention by causing the death of a Hong Kong 3-year-old, the novel virus's first known human casualty (see Bibliography: CDC 1997).
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