Health Care

Pesticides Make Living In Farm Towns As Risky As Smoking

August 31, 2024 Shannon Kelleher, In These Times. Educate! Cancer, Farming, Food and Agriculture, Health Care, Pesticides, rural communities

People who don’t farm, but live in U.S. agricultural communities where pesticides are used on farms, face an increased cancer risk as significant as if they were smokers, according to a new study. The study, published July 24 in the journal Frontiers in Cancer Control and Society, analyzed cancer incidence data from nearly every U.S. county and looked at how that data corresponded to federal data on agricultural pesticide use. Researchers reported that they found the higher the pesticide use, the higher the risk for every type of cancer the researchers looked at. “Agricultural pesticide use has a significant impact on all the cancer types evaluated in this study (all cancers, bladder cancer, colon cancer, leukemia, lung cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and pancreatic cancer."

Medical Staff Refusing To Evacuate Central Gaza’s Last Functioning Hospital

August 29, 2024 Tareq S. Hajjaj, Mondoweiss. Educate! Doctors, Gaza, Genocide, Health Care, Hospitals, Israel, Palestine

On August 21, the Israeli army ordered different areas in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, to evacuate their homes and newly-erected tents. This was the first step in the army’s invasion and campaign of destruction in Deir al-Balah, the last town that has not been completely leveled throughout the war. One of the blocks ordered to evacuate included the last fully operational hospital in central and southern Gaza, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, the governmental hospital has been working at four times its capacity, hosting over 700 patients.

Over 3000 Physicians And 16 Medical And Humanitarian Organizations Demand An Arms Embargo On Israel

August 27, 2024 UOSSM Canada, Cision. Resist! Gaza, Genocide, Health Care, Israel, Palestine, Weapons Embargo

On August 26, 2024 medical and humanitarian organizations demand the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the NDP to enforce a full and complete arms embargo on Israel in recognition of the ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as plausible genocide of the people of Gaza. We are alarmed that Canada is engaging in violation of Canadian and International Law by supplying Israel with munitions: The M933A1 120mm High Explosive mortar cartridges with M783 fuzes that are going to be shipped to Israel via the U.S. is illegal under Canadian and International law. This is in violation of Articles 6(3), 7, and 11 of the Arms Trade Treaty, as well as Article 1 of the Geneva Convention." as we cannot disseminate any defamatory content.

Nurses End Seven-Day Strike In Chicago

August 27, 2024 Richard Berg, Fight Back! News. Resist! Chicago, Health Care, Illinois, Nurses, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

Chicago, Illinois – Working as a nurse in a large university hospital is a hard job. Large numbers of patients roll through. Vulnerable people look for hope, remedy and help. Despite this persistent pressure, hospital administrators ask for quick patient turnover. Supervisors ask overstressed nurses to do the work of housekeepers, food service, technical staff and others, who are often in short supply. Some doctors are nice, while others boss nurses around. This is the case at the University of Illinois Health (UIH) as well as healthcare facilities across the country. One difference is that the nurses at UIH have a labor union and decided to take a stand.

America’s Nuclear ‘Downwinders’ Deserve Justice

August 26, 2024 Aspen Coriz-Romero and Anila Lopez Marks, Scheer Post. Educate! Colorado, Health Care, History, New Mexico, Nuclear, Nuclear Weapons, Radiation

It’s been nearly 80 years since the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico. Communities have been reeling ever since. For generations, Americans who live “downwind” of nuclear testing and development sites have suffered deadly health complications. And this summer, funding for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) expired, putting their hard-earned compensation at risk. Coming alongside sky-high spending on nuclear weapons development, this lapse is an outrage. Funding for these communities, which span much of the country, should be not only restored but expanded. Alongside New Mexicans, people in Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Utah, and beyond have suffered health complications from nuclear testing in Nevada. And fallout from decades of tests ravaged the Marshall Islands, which were occupied by the U.S. after World War II.

Scale Up Mpox Response, Health Groups Urge

August 24, 2024 Ana Vračar, People's Dispatch. Educate! Africa, DR Congo, health, Health Care, Monkeypox, United Kingdom (UK), Vaccines

Thousands of people across Africa have been infected with the Mpox virus, resulting in hundreds of deaths and the ongoing spread of the disease. In response, over 55 health groups have urged the British government to support health systems in the affected countries. In an letter circulated on August 23, the groups demand rapid distribution of vaccines to countries in Africa currently struggling with mounting a response to the outbreak, as well as ensuring sharing of technologies between existing vaccine producers and manufacturers in Africa to increase global supply.

Nurses Strike At University Of Illinois Health Close To The DNC

August 19, 2024 Kristen Schorsch, WBEZ Chicago. Resist! Chicago, Health Care, Nurses, Strikes, Unions

UI Health nurses allege they’ve been assaulted by patients for years: shoved — one while she was pregnant — and lunged at by a patient’s relative, and otherwise at risk of getting hurt. “One of the reasons we’re striking is the security here is awful,” Emma Stone, a nurse in the intensive care unit at the Near West Side hospital, said Monday in a field with dozens of other unionized nurses, as their colleagues picketed around the hospital across the street. “It’s very scary as a nurse to think like I could get shot or stabbed.” Stone is among more than 1,000 nurses at UI Health who went on strike Monday over safety, staffing and better pay, as the Democratic National Convention kicked off blocks away at the United Center.

The United States Government Has Abandoned Us To Endless COVID

August 11, 2024 October Krausch, Truthout. Educate! COVID-19, Donald Trump, Health Care, Joe Biden, Pandemic, Public Health

This week, Nassau County, New York, passed a mask ban. Those wearing face masks will now face the possibility of up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine. Angry at the power of anti-genocide protests, lawmakers banned one of the most basic forms of disease protection just as the world is experiencing a record surge in COVID cases. While officials insist that the law will not be used against those masking for medical reasons, disabled activists protesting the move say they were intentionally coughed on during the city council meeting where the bill was passed. In a world of airborne contagious diseases, everyone has a medical reason for masking. So why doesn’t our public health policy recognize that?

Suicide Squad

August 1, 2024 Nick Turse, Consortium News. Educate! 9/11, Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Bin Laden, Health Care, History, Iraq, Iraq War, Saudi Arabia, Suicides, Wars and Militarism

At the end of the last century, hoping to drive the United States from Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s holiest sites, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sought to draw in the American military. He reportedly wanted to “bring the Americans into a fight on Muslim soil,” provoking savage asymmetric conflicts that would send home a stream of “wooden boxes and coffins” and weaken American resolve. As lethal as those Islamist fighters have been, however, another “enemy” has proven far more deadly for American forces: themselves. A recent Pentagon study found suicide to be the leading cause of death among active-duty U.S. Army personnel.

A Judge Ruled A Louisiana Prison’s Health Care System Failed Inmates

July 28, 2024 Richard A. Webster, ProPublica. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Health Care, History, Legal System, Louisiana, Prison Industrial Complex

Several months ago, in a lawsuit that was in its ninth year, a federal judge blasted the medical care at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Many inmates hoped it would be a watershed moment. In her opinion, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick excoriated the state for its “callous and wanton disregard” for the health of those in its custody. “Rather than receiving medical ‘care,’ the inmates are instead subjected to cruel and unusual punishment,” Dick said in her November opinion. The “human cost,” she said, is “unspeakable.” She then ordered the appointment of three independent monitors to devise and implement a plan to reform the system.

Open Letter From US Physicians And Nurses After Visit To Gaza

July 25, 2024 Open Letter, Popular Resistance. Resist! Ceasefire, Doctors, Gaza, Health Care, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nurses

We are forty-five American physicians, surgeons, and nurses who have volunteered in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. We worked with various nongovernmental organizations and the World Health Organization in hospitals throughout the Strip. In addition to our medical and surgical expertise, many of us have a public health background, as well as experience working in humanitarian and conflict zones, including Ukraine during the brutal Russian invasion. Some of us are veterans of the United States Armed Forces. We are a multifaith and multiethnic group. None of us support the horrors committed on October 7 by Palestinian armed groups and individuals in Israel.

New York City Teacher Retirees Save Their Medicare

July 23, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! Health Care, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, New York City (NYC), Retirees, Unions, Victory

The dissident Retiree Advocate caucus in the giant New York City teachers union won a decisive victory over the incumbents in the retiree chapter election June 14, winning 63 percent of the 27,000 votes cast. Turnout jumped compared to previous elections. In addition to running the 70,000-member Retired Teachers Chapter, they will send 300 delegates to the union’s delegate assembly. The leadership of the union got the message and abruptly dropped its support for Medicare Advantage, after three years of vigorously campaigning to impose a for-profit plan on 250,000 city retirees to save money for city officials.

A Coastal Revolution In Hospital Food

July 14, 2024 Tim Lydon, The Tyee. Create! Food and Agriculture, Health Care, Hospitals, Indigenous foods

As executive chef and director of traditional foods at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Amy Foote brightens patient menus with healthy Indigenous foods, including moose, salmon, fiddleheads and more. “Traditional foods connect patients to their land and culture, which can help with healing,” says Foote amid the clattering pans and hissing pipes of the hospital’s large kitchen. Incorporating traditional foods is no small task for a hospital serving over 5,000 meals daily to patients and their visiting families. But the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, which runs the hospital, is investing in the cause. As part of that, says Foote, its food service recently went “self-op,” meaning it no longer contracts out.

Medicare Dis-Advantage: Overpayments And Inequity

July 2, 2024 Adam Gaffney, David U. Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler, Portside. Educate! Health Care, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Privatization

Medicare Advantage—the privatized Medicare plans run by insurance firms but funded by the federal government—rips off taxpayers. On this there is little controversy. In March, MedPAC, Congress’s nonpartisan advisory board on Medicare policy, estimated that this year alone taxpayers will overpay Medicare Advantage plans by $83 billion—the savings to Medicare if all of those plans’ enrollees were instead covered by the traditional, fully public Medicare program. A 2022 New York Times exposé, “’The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions,” lays out the gory mechanisms—like fraudulent schemes (known as “upcoding”) to make patients look sicker on paper, which ups payouts from the government.

Popular Health Mobile Clinic Brings Health To Communities In Zambia

July 1, 2024 Peoples Health Dispatch, People's Dispatch. Create! Cholera, Health Care, Mobile Health Clinic, Zambia

The World Health Organization defines cholera as a “disease of poverty”. It thrives in conditions of poor hygiene and sanitation services, overcrowding, malnourishment, and weak public health services. A third of the Zambian population has access to basic sanitation services, while a quarter have access to basic hygiene services. With at least 60% of the Zambian population living in poverty in 2022 (up 5.6% since 2015), cholera is endemic, and from October 2023 to March this year, it killed over 700 people. Cholera, more accurately, is therefore a disease of inequality. Born from this deadly cholera crisis and its roots in social inequality, the Popular Health Mobile Clinic has assisted more than 3,000 patients since its inception in January this year.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources