30 Sep 2010
The population sex ratio in the developed nations within
Europe and North America is slightly biased toward women (about 50.1%
population share). While the “natural” sex ratio at birth is approximately 105
boys for every 100 girls, the higher mortality rate of young boys eventually
leads to a greater number of women. In a striking juxtaposition, countries such
as China, India and Taiwan experience a strong masculine sex ratio at birth coupled
with a survival disadvantage of young girls, which leads to a relative absence
of women in the overall population (48.4% population share).
27 Sep 2010
A recent study in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
found that the ICD-9-CM codes for urinary tract infections (UTIs) are
unable to successfully identify hospital-acquired catheter-associated
UTIs.
21 Sep 2010
Ever since Amartya Sen's use of the phrase “Missing Women”
in his 1990 article in The New York Review of Books (and in the British Medical Journal, 1992), the
growing gender imbalance in parts of Asia, particularly China and India, has
attracted much attention from researchers – demographers and economists alike.
Numerous studies have sought to explain the existence of a low female-to-male
sex ratio and its increasing masculinization over time in these societies.
Concurrently, awareness campaigns by interest groups have initiated proactive
demographic polic
15 Sep 2010
On September 7th, Health Affairs published an Extending the
Cure-sponsored study on policy options to combat antibiotic resistance. The
study examines how the current health system is failing to limit antibiotic
resistance and offers a radical policy solution to the problem: setting
“effectiveness targets” for new drugs. These targets would encourage both
development and responsible marketing of new antibiotics by tying goals for
limiting resistance to financial incentives such as enhanced reimbursement or
market exclusivity. Ramanan Laxminarayan, Direc
14 Sep 2010
About 19,000 people a year die after battling the superbug MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Others survive but pay a high price.
That’s what happened to Kerri Cardello, a 39-year-old from Annapolis,
Md. Her long fight began on Christmas Day 2003 when she woke up feeling
ill. A high, persistent fever sent her to the hospital emergency room,
but they sent her home--saying she had the flu.
Cardello just kept getting worse, and on December 30, she woke up struggling to breathe.
