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Tag: disease control
CDC Grades American Schools On How Well They Teach Sex Education

CDC Grades American Schools On How Well They Teach Sex Education

By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

American high schools got generally good marks for their teaching of topics related to sex education, but there are still many areas in need of improvement, according to a new report card from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Across the country, 94 percent of high schools taught students the benefits of abstaining from sex, 88 percent explained why less is more when it comes to the number of sexual partners, and 92 percent discussed how family members, friends and the culture at large influence their sexual behaviors. In addition, 95 percent of schools explained to ninth- through 12th-graders how sexually transmitted diseases are spread and the health consequences of an STD infection, while 85 percent of schools taught students how to get products and services to help them prevent STDs and pregnancy.

High schools were less eager to give students specific information about condoms. For instance, 70 percent explained why it was important to use condoms correctly and consistently, 60 percent told students how to get condoms, and 54 percent demonstrated how to use them correctly.

“We need to do a better job of giving our young people the skills and knowledge they need to protect their own health,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, who oversees the CDC’s HIV and STD prevention efforts, said in a statement.

Sex is often a taboo subject in schools, but public health officials say it’s essential to teach students how to reduce their risk of getting HIV and other STDs. There’s certainly evidence that many of them are in the dark — of the nearly 20 million new sexually transmitted infections reported each year, almost half are diagnosed in teens and young adults in their early 20s, CDC data show.

Accurate and specific sex education classes can also reduce teen pregnancy, which makes girls much more likely to drop out of school and sets their children on a path toward worse health and lower achievement.

“Lack of effective sex education can have very real, very serious health consequences,” Dr. Stephanie Zaza, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, said in a statement. “Young people who have multiple sex partners, don’t use condoms, and use drugs or alcohol before sex are at higher risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. School-based sex education is a critical opportunity to provide the skills and information they need to protect themselves.”

Some states got higher grades for sex education than others. Three states — Delaware, New Hampshire and New Jersey — scored 100 percent for teaching the benefits of abstinence, and another 15 states scored at least 95 percent. But only 56 percent of Arizona schools explained the value of abstinence, as did a mere 60 percent of schools in Alaska.

Similarly, only two states — New Jersey and Vermont — had more than 90 percent of high schools teach students how to use condoms. In two other states – Arizona and South Dakota – less than one-third of schools did so.

Overall, only 46 percent of American high schools covered all 16 topics related to preventing pregnancy, HIV and other STDs that government health experts say are essential.

Middle schools got lower grades than high schools, according to the CDC report card. Nationwide, 77 percent of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders learned the benefits of abstinence and 75 percent were told how STDs are spread. Only 27 percent of middle school students got information about where to get condoms and 23 percent learned how to use them correctly.

The grades were published Wednesday in the CDC’s latest edition of its School Health Profiles report, which is based on survey data collected once every two years.

©2015 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Ernesto Andrade via Flickr

 

WHO Declares Ebola A Worldwide ‘Public Health Emergency’

WHO Declares Ebola A Worldwide ‘Public Health Emergency’

By Tony Pugh, McClatchy Washington Bureau

The Director-General of the World Health Organization on Friday declared the West African Ebola outbreak a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” and called for both affected and unaffected countries to implement a coordinated international response that features a wide range of new safety measures, including travel restrictions for some and a plan to return infected health workers to their home countries.

One of the highest-level emergency declarations that the WHO can issue was made by Dr. Margaret Chan following a two-day conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where a panel of health experts unanimously recommended the action after hearing reports from the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria where the outbreak is centered.

Growing numbers of health experts had been calling for a firm international response to the worst Ebola crisis in history, which has claimed 932 lives and likely infected more than 1,700 people.
The WHO has asked all countries to take a series of varied actions with the most stringent recommendations reserved for countries where the disease is actively being transmitted and those that either have a potential or confirmed case of Ebola or share a border with either of the four affected West African nations.

In those four countries, WHO recommends exit screening for all people attempting to leave the country at international airports, seaports, and major land crossings. The screenings should include at the minimum, a series of questions, body temperature measurements and a risk assessment of whether any high fever is caused by Ebola. “Any person with an illness consistent with Ebola should not be allowed to travel unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evaluation,” according to WHO press statement.

Similar international travel restrictions are recommended for Ebola patients and persons who were in contact with infected people. Confirmed Ebola cases should be isolated at treatment centers with no national or international travel until two diagnostic tests conducted at least 48 hours apart are negative. People in contact with infected persons, excluding properly protected health workers and laboratory staff who have had no unprotected exposure, should be monitored daily with restricted national travel and no international travel for three weeks after exposure.

The WHO also calls on the leaders of affected West African countries to declare a national emergency and personally address the nation about the crisis. Health ministers in these countries are urged to meet regularly with affected communities and visit Ebola patient treatment centers.

For unaffected countries that share borders with the four West African nations, WHO recommends surveillance to find clusters of unexplained fever or deaths, providing access to labs qualified to test for Ebola and establishing “rapid response teams” to investigate and manage suspected and confirmed Ebola cases. Any such findings should be treated as medical emergencies with action taken in the first 24 hours to stop a potential outbreak.

The WHO recommends that all other countries should not impose a general ban on international travel or trade, but should implement WHO’s suggested travel precautions for Ebola patients and their contacts. All countries should also provide travelers to at-risk areas with information about the inherent health risks, how to minimize those risks and advice on how to manage a potential exposure.

All countries should also be “prepared to detect, investigate, and manage Ebola cases, provide access to labs that screen for Ebola “and, where appropriate, provide the capacity to “manage travelers” from infected areas who arrive with unexplained symptoms of the disease. The WHO also calls on all countries to facilitate the evacuation and repatriation of their citizens, particularly health workers, who have been exposed to the disease.

AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso

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‘Angel Airplane’ Has Top-Level Containment For Ebola

‘Angel Airplane’ Has Top-Level Containment For Ebola

By Ernie Suggs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATLANTA — Two weeks ago, Dent M. Thompson, vice president of Phoenix Air, received an interesting phone call while he was on vacation in the mountains of North Carolina.

One of the leading air ambulance companies in the world, Phoenix Air had developed what it calls an Aeromedical Biological Containment System, or ABCS, and the U.S. State Department wanted to know whether the unit would fly.

“I got a call from a senior doctor with the U.S. Department of State, who asked me if the ABSC was capable of handling Ebola,” Thompson recalled. “I said, ‘Are you serious?'”

Vacation over.

What followed were days of intense discussion between Phoenix Air, charities, and several domestic and foreign agencies trying to figure out one thing: Could the company get to Monrovia, Liberia, and safely transport two Americans to Atlanta for treatment at Emory University Hospital?

The patients, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who were doing charity work for SIM and Samaritan’s Purse, were basically trapped in Liberia, where they were stricken with the very virus they had gone there to fight.

Ebola is ravaging West Africa and has taken the lives of hundreds of people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria.

“Finally, we sat down with the flight crew, the medical crew, and the maintenance crew,” Thompson said. “We came up with a consensus. Let’s go for it. There was no reason not to do it.”

There even was a safety valve. Once on the ground in Monrovia, if Phoenix Air’s medical team decided the patients’ condition had deteriorated to the point that transporting them would be dangerous, the crew could scrap the mission and come home empty. It appears that was never a consideration.

“The goal was to bring two Americans home and hopefully save their lives,” said Randall Davis, pilot on the second flight from Liberia.

On Tuesday, Writebol became the second of the two to make it safely back to America. Both are being treated at Emory.

Thompson’s firm — at least for now — is the most famous air ambulance company in the world. With the pilots and medical staff who made the two trips to pick up Brantly and Writebol, Thompson stood in a hot Cartersville hangar Thursday in front of the gray Gulfstream III — dubbed the “Angel Airplane” — with the much-talked-about ABCS. The containment system is disposable: Each one is incinerated after a single use.

Thompson said his company worked with several federal agencies, including the state department, the CDC, the FAA, the Portuguese government, law enforcement, the Defense Department, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“Every agency got involved,” he said. “We had 110 percent support from the government, because everybody wanted these two American citizens brought back here. Without the full force of the American government, this trip could not have happened.”

The missions, however, were paid for by the two charities, not taxpayers.

“The government supported us and gave us assistance, but these were considered private flights,” Thompson said.

Phoenix Air’s medical crews staffed both flights. They didn’t know for certain which patient they would pick up first — that decision was in the hands of Samaritan’s Purse — but that didn’t really matter to the crew.

The flights made stops in Bangor, Maine, and the Portuguese-controlled Azore Islands for refueling. It took about 14 hours to get back to Atlanta from Liberia.

The ABCS is designed to contain patients with contagious diseases — with airborne and bodily fluid transmission risks. Patients don’t have to wear protective suits while inside the vessels, because the vessel itself is disposable. Pilot Randy Davis said the flight crew wore their regular uniforms during the flight. Doug Olson, one of three doctors on each flight, said at least one of them was dressed in full protective gear when they were inside the ABCS with a patient. Otherwise, they were in scrubs.

Phoenix Air, based in Cartersville, Ga., has been around since the 1970s. In the 1990s, the company started specializing, in what Thompson calls “exotic work for various industries.”

“About five years ago, there were a number of diseases — SARS, bird flu, H1N1 — that were of growing concern with the CDC,” Thompson said, adding that his company contracts with the CDC. “CDC management and some Department of Defense management came to us five years ago and asked us to develop a system to safely transport people from a point of origin back to the United States.”

AFP Photo/Florian Plaucheur

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