Health

Conakry - A second spike in Ebola virus cases has panicked residents and health officials in Guinea, who fear a west African outbreak of the killer disease may now be out of control.

"Ebola cases are worrying. We do not know what to expect," Mamady Traore, a trader in the suburbs of the capital Conakry, told AFP on Thursday. "Sometimes you are told it has been [contained] and sometimes you hear it has reappeared in other towns and villages."

According to figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, a total of 398 cases...

But countries can take steps to reduce self-harm cases during economic downturns, researchers say

consumer.healthday.com

THURSDAY, June 12, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The Great Recession that began in 2007 appears to have taken more than a financial toll: New research suggests that the economic downturn could be linked with more than 10,000 suicides across North America and Europe.

The study found that between 2008 and 2010, rates of suicide surged in the European Union, Canada and the United States. The increase was four times higher among men than women, according to the report published in the current issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

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University of Oxford - Recession 'link' with over 10,000 suicides in the West
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-06-12-recession-link-over-10000-suicides-west

highcountryhealth.com - by C. Louis “pj” Perrinjaquet, MD - June 12, 2014

As may become clear if you continue reading… I’m a doctor not a writer.  But, just as I was compelled to volunteer the past 6 weeks in the Nuba Mts. of Sudan, I am compelled to write and tell the story of what is happening there. 

Since May 2011 when the government on Sudan in Khartoum launched a campaign “to exterminate the Nuba people like bugs”, the civilian population has been subjected to daily aerial bombardment and has been denied access to humanitarian aid.  Unable to plant crops people are starving to death or surviving on bugs and grass, risking death to venture outside their caves in search of food and water.

The one hospital in the entire Nuba Mts, Mother of Mercy in Gidel, staffed by one fulltime physician, Dr. Tom Catena,  have been spared bombardment… until last month.

The following is taken directly from my journal written when the events were fresh.

The new pacemaker, the micra transcatheter pacing system. Photograph: University Hospital Southampton/PA

Wireless device, used for the first time at Southampton general hospital, set to reduce risks linked to traditional pacemakers

theguardian.com - June 9, 2014

A pacemaker the size of a tablet has been fitted inside the heart of a British patient, in a new operation that promises to reduce infection risk and reduce recovery time.

The wireless device used – for the first time in the country – at Southampton general hospital, known as the micra transcatheter pacing system, is the smallest in the world, at a tenth of the size of traditional models, and is implanted directly in the heart.

Currently pacemakers are inserted under the skin via an incision in the chest and connected to the heart via a lead that carries electrical signals to correct slow or irregular heartbeats, but they can require replacement due to broken or dislodged wires.

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