VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@

Swine Flu “Patient Zero” Immortalized in a Statue

May 27th, 2009

964429 Um, what? Sure, he was famous for about a minute, but what’s the motivation behind making little Edgar into a bronze statue? Apparently attracting tourists to his hometown of Perote, Veracruz (Mexico). Reports 20 Minutos:

The statue of patient zero of the new flu in Mexico has a frog in his right hand as a symbol of biblical plagues. It was made by Mexican sculptor Bernardo Luis Artasanchez, who traveled to La Gloria in the town of Perote, Veracruz, to spend time with the youngster and his family.

The effigy, some 4 feet high and weighing 154 pounds, was created at the petition of the Veracruz authorities to symbolize the victory over AH1N1 virus and to attract tourists.

I guess I can understand the “victory over the virus” argument, but to attract tourists? I mean, do you think families will take an alternate route on their way to Veracruz from Mexico City and hit Perote to see the flu boy statue? I’m not seeing it.

Perote is beautiful by the way, I can vouch for it.

Via / 20 Minutos

This Memorial Day, Don’t Pee (or Poo) in the Pool

May 24th, 2009

191206078_6fadcf524a As many of you are out are probably out in the sun, enjoying the weather this Memorial Day weekend, you might be anticipating taking a dip in your neighborhood pool. That’s great, but just try not to pee in it. I know, I know, most of us — if we are honest — would admit that we’ve had the occasion to relieve ourselves of a little chis in a swimming pool once or twice in our lives. I mean, what’s the harm, right? What fellow swimmers don’t know won’t hurt them, correct? That’s not what the CDC says:

When swimmers sweat or urinate in the pool water, the bodily fluids combine with the chlorine. It creates chloramines, which causes the strange odor and the eye and respiratory irritations for swimmers, according to the CDC.

No matter how discreet the act may be, “you’re contaminating the pool. Let’s face it,” said Linda Golodner, the vice chairwoman of the Water Quality and Health Council.

The survey released by Golodner’s group, which advises the American Chemistry Council, found that 11 percent of the surveyed adults said they have swum with a runny nose, 7 percent with an exposed rash or cut and 1 percent when ill with diarrhea. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

But if you think pee in your pool is bad enough, think again. When it comes to people very getting sick from swimming, the real culprit is that last thing they mentioned: diarrhea. Yes, diarrhea in the pool.

The most common recreational water illness is spread through diarrhea. One of the most persistent problems is Cryptosporidium, a parasite that causes diarrhea and can be found in infected stools.

“With Crypto, if you have diarrhea, it’s very watery,” Hlavsa said. “It’s not a formed stool sitting in the pool or floating on top. It could be very watery, and no one [in a pool] would know.”

So this Memorial Day weekend, eat, drink, be merry and swim! But don’t count on me joining you.

Via / CNN

Image via t_a_i_s on Flickr

Obama Reassures Latinos on Swine Flu Epidemic

May 8th, 2009

barack-obama2 As the swine flu hysteria appears to be losing momentum, President Obama reached out to the Latino community today via Latino health professionals in a town hall style meeting with the aim of reassuring Latinos that the epidemic will not lead to discrimination. AP reports:

President Barack Obama sought Friday to reassure Hispanics that swine flu won’t lead to an epidemic of discrimination in the United States just because Mexico has been the epicenter of the outbreak.

At a town hall-style meeting at the White House, Obama told about 130 Latino public health professionals and neighborhood volunteers that the nation’s plan to fight the flu will not exclude their communities. Even if some residents are here illegally, they will still be able to get medical care for the flu, administration officials assured the group.

“We’re one country, we’re one community. When one person gets sick, that has the potential of making us all sick,” Obama said. “We can’t be divided by communities.”

I think it’s interesting that Obama chose to specifically address the Latino community on this issue right now. What do you think is behind this? Just a good excuse to do a bit more courtship?

Via / AP

Dangerous Swine Flu Breaks Out in Mexico

April 26th, 2009

Mainstream media was a-buzz all weekend with news that a flu originating in swine had broken out in Mexico, killing some 60 people and making several people sick stateside. The SF Chronicle reports:

California doctors and other health experts are on the lookout for cases of a new strain of swine flu, a potentially dangerous virus that has reignited fears of a pandemic flu outbreak after killing about 60 people in Mexico and sickening eight people in the United States.

Hospitals and public health departments throughout California, where six of the American cases have been found, were told Friday to increase surveillance of the rare strain of flu that combines genetic material from humans, pigs and birds.

Today it appears that the death toll has risen to 81 in Mexico, and all public events in Mexico City have been cancelled for fear of the disease spreading from person to person, which is apparently how the flu gets around (not from consumption of pork). Kissing has also been banned, as has all other “close contact”.

Pope: Condoms Make AIDS Worse

March 18th, 2009

How many of you — regardless of religious beliefs — can really call this statement valid?

The Pope has really outdone himself this time. Going a step beyond John Paul the II’s assertion that abstinence is preferable to condoms — which in itself is ridiculous — Benedict has clearly gone off the deep end. Condoms worsen the problem? That’s just crazy talk. AIDS experts in South Africa agree:

Rebecca Hodes, head of policy for the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa’s city of Capetown, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday they were “extremely angered and saddened by this ill-considered response from the pope”.

“We know, based on over the 10-year experience of preventing and treating HIV in South Africa, that condoms are one of the only evidence-based means of preventing HIV available to us in Africa,” she said.

“There is very little evidence to support abstinence-only education campaigns as a means of preventing HIV. Condoms work in preventing HIV.”

Via / Al Jazeera

Latinos and Blacks Pay More for Health Care at End of Life

March 10th, 2009

30340-my-hospital-room-0 Latinos and blacks are less likely to seek out medical care throughout their lives, leading to increased costs at the end of life which far outweigh what is spent by white patients, according to a new report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Dying Hispanics and black Americans have much higher treatment costs than whites, because they get more costly, intensive treatments as they near death, say researchers who analyzed data from the last six months of life of almost 160,000 Medicare patients.

The average cost for Hispanic patients in those final months of life was $31,702, compared with $26,704 for blacks and $20,166 for whites. Compared to white patients, costs were about 30 percent higher for blacks and almost 60 percent more for Hispanics, the Associated Press reported.

According to U.S. News & World Report, researchers have concluded that the reason for this is the lack of medical care received by black and Latino patients throughout life who, upon becoming terminally ill, receive “more treatment when there’s little chance of improving or extending their lives.”

Via / U.S. News & World Report

Growing Body Parts=Eeww?

November 19th, 2008

In the kind of gross news for the day, the Belfast Telegraph is reporting that Spanish citizen, Claudia Castillo, has become the first person to get a transplant that was grown specifically for her.

Claudia Castillo, who lives in Barcelona, underwent the operation to replace her windpipe after tuberculosis had left her with a collapsed lung and unable to breathe.

The bioengineered organ was transplanted into her chest last June at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona.

Four months later she was able to climb two flights of stairs, go dancing and look after her children – activities that had been impossible before the surgery. Ms Castillo has also crossed a second medical frontier by becoming the first person to receive a whole organ transplant without the need for powerful immunosuppressant drugs.

I guess this is a good thing. Well, what the hell am I saying, of *course* it’s a good thing–a young woman has regained something she probably thought she lost forever. That’s always good. But I dunno. I think I’ve read too much sci-fi. I find the idea of growing new limbs and body parts kinda scary at best and terrifying at worst. What nefarious purposes can such a ‘skill’ be put to in the future? Because you know science always starts out with the ‘best of intentions’–and then the atomic bomb is dropped on unsuspecting brown people.

Call me cynical and suspicious, yes. But please, while you do that, explain to me how growing new body parts is not semi-Frankensteinish. And then I’ll try to explain to you how it’s not hypocritical to be against something that I would submit myself to completely and eagerly should the occasion arise that I would need it.

Texas and Florida Face Physican Shortages

November 18th, 2008

Pointing to at least one reason why Latin@s are inclined to head in the direction of non-Western medicine, the Kaiser Foundation released a study detailing an extreme shortage of physicians in the Texas and Florida areas:

Access to care is a particularly “dire” issue for Hispanics, who have limited access to physicians because they are mostly employed by small businesses and are uninsured, the Express-News reports. Hispanics make up the largest group of uninsured people in Texas border cities. About 66% of Hispanic workers are employed by companies that provide employer-sponsored health insurance, Roland Angel, professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin, said. In comparison, more than 80% of blacks and whites have employer-sponsored health insurance (Poling, San Antonio Express-News, 11/14).

I wondered two things while reading this report. First, why are there scare quotes around “dire”? Is the situation not really “dire”? Is “dire” really just code word for “rolling eyes at stupid panicky brown people” (ala John McCain’s scare quotes around “health” when referencing women’s health exceptions for abortion)?

The second thing I wondered is why does the solution that many hospitals have found to this shortage problem seem to be a sort of scary “oh nos!” sort of scenario?

As Central Florida faces a physician shortage, some hospitals are recruiting physicians directly from Puerto Rico “because Puerto Rican doctors know Spanish” and “they are a good cultural fit for Metro Orlando,” which has a large Hispanic population, the Orlando Sentinel reports. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, an estimated 455,592 Hispanics live in the area.

Jorge Lopez — president of Florida Emergency Physicians, who recruits physicians for the Florida Hospital System — has traveled many times to Puerto Rico to recruit physicians. He said, “What we try to do is identify those who have already decided to leave. And when we go, we’re lucky if we can recruit one or two because there are so many other hospitals competing for them.” He added, “They are very competent doctors with fantastic hands-on experience. They are American citizens and bilingual. It’s one of our favorite places to recruit”

After I finished reading this, I felt like screaming “oh nos, the ricans are stealing all our jobs!” Not sure why–there’s nothing implicitly anti-Latin@ in this passage. Maybe it’s just the way “dire” in quotes framed how I read the rest of the article.

What do you think? Are we all supposed to be scared to death of Latin@s stealing all the good jobs? Or does this article really care?

Call for stories regarding the new HPV vaccination mandate

November 7th, 2008

Please pass the word around, this is incredibly important!

Do you know a young woman or family member that has been affected?

In July 2008, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) added five new vaccinations to the list of required immunizations for immigrants seeking legal permanent residency in the U.S. or people applying for immigrant visas. The list included a vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a viral infection that is transmitted by direct skin-to-skin contact and is the leading cause of cervical cancer. Following a recommendation by the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices to administer Gardasil, the only HPV vaccine currently approved for the U.S. market to females ages 11 to 26 in the U.S., the recommendation became an automatic requirement for prospective immigrants and applicants seeking to adjust their status when the government updated its list of vaccines in July.

The policy went into effect on August 1, and advocates in the immigrant rights and public health movements are calling for a reversal with respect to the HPV vaccine. The mandate creates additional cost barriers for young immigrant women and immigrant families seeking adjustment of status or entry to the U.S., and unfairly forces immigrant women to subject their bodies to a vaccine that is new to the market and has unknown long-term efficacy rates.

Please consider sharing your story if you know someone who has been directly impacted by the new mandate for the HPV vaccine or any of the other vaccines involved. Contact Priscilla at phuang@napawf.org with your story.

Latin@ Workers Least Likely to Report Work Place Injuries

October 10th, 2008

Continuing the theme of taking care of our Latin@ bodies, I found this very important article from the Chattanooga Times about the level of workplace injuries the Latin@ community deals with. It starts off with a very familiar story:

About a month ago, Ismael Ávila was hit by a car.

At work for a local paving company, he was pushing a large blower along a newly paved driveway when he suddenly found himself flying over the machine.

“The next thing I remember was waking up at the hospital,” Mr. Ávila said in Spanish.