JOHNSON COUNTY, Iowa (KCRG) — Seven people in Johnson County have tested positive for the coronavirus according to the Iowa Department of Public Health, all of which had recently been on a cruise in Egypt. Sam Jarvis, the community health division manager for Johnson County Public Health, in the department’s office on March 9, 2020. (Josh Scheinblum/KCRG) The Iowa Department of Public Health said one of the individuals who has tested positive for coronavirus is middle-aged and that the other six are between 61 and 80 years old. Sam Jarvis, the…
Read MoreTag: Health
U.S. health officials probe coronavirus test problems at CDC
HHS has launched an investigation into CDC’s first round of coronavirus diagnostic tests that many public health laboratories across the country were unable to use because one component was flawed. The delay in testing capacity has slowed the U.S. response to the coronavirus, which public health experts say impeded the detection of what are now outbreaks in multiple states. Only this week is the pace of testing beginning to step up. The situation with the CDC lab in Atlanta — apparently a manufacturing defect — has already spurred finger pointing between various…
Read MoreHealth insurance: Pre-existing diseases rules changed, to benefit policyholders
In a bid to make health insurance more simple and customer-friendly, the insurance regulator recently amended the definition of pre-existing diseases. The Insurance Regulator and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) said in circular that it deleted ‘the additional/modified clause’ in its current definition of pre-existing diseases. This move could actually help in reducing claim rejection rates in health insurance policies. To include certain illness under health insurance policy, the regulator had modified the definition of pre-existing disease through a circular in September, 2019. If certain illnesses were diagnosed within 3 months of buying the…
Read MoreRevealed: how drugs giants can access your health records
Sources allege that ‘anonymous’ data can be traced back to specific surgeries and individual patients. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian The Department of Health and Social Care has been selling the medical data of millions of NHS patients to American and other international drugs companies having misled the public into believing the information would be “anonymous”, according to leading experts in the field. Senior NHS figures have told the Observer that patient data compiled from GP surgeries and hospitals – and then sold for huge sums for research – can routinely be linked back to individual patients’…
Read MoreNew mothers in England to receive health check six weeks after giving birth
The health check on mothers will be separate to the six-week check that all babies already have. Photograph: Image Source/Getty Images/Image Source New mothers will be given a physical and mental health check six weeks after giving birth, in a victory for campaigners. From April, the 600,000 women a year who have babies in England will undergo an assessment of their health and wellbeing with either a GP or practice nurse at their surgery. The appointments will be dedicated to exploring the mother’s health and be separate to the six-week check that…
Read MoreWorld Health Organization holds press conference on coronavirus outbreak
[The stream is slated to start at 10:00 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] World Health Organization officials are holding a press conference at 10 a.m. ET to update the public on the new coronavirus outbreak. As of Thursday, more than 28,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported, resulting in at least 565 deaths. The WHO declared the virus a global health emergency last week, a rare designation that helps the international agency mobilize financial and political support to contain the…
Read MoreMental health: Crowds gather at Stormont to call for better services
About 200 people have gathered at a protest at Stormont to call for better mental health provisions in Northern Ireland. One of the organisers, Helena Palmer from west Belfast, demanded action from politicians. “We need to better the mental health system in Northern Ireland,” she said. “People are fed up suffering day in day out. Everyone is pulling together here today and we want our voices heard.” Mental health: Young people call for more education ‘It’s scary what can happen if not implemented’ Ms Palmer urged the public to demand…
Read MoreIs India equipped to handle health epidemics like coronavirus?
With crumbling health infrastructure due to an overburden of diseases in the country, India’s preparedness for handling epidemics such as novel coronavirus (nCoV) becomes a major challenge. The virus that has created havoc in China with over 100 people killed and over 4000 affected. The World Health Organisation has said that due to human to human transmission, the virus can fast spread in other countries also. Public health experts believe that India is ill equipped to handle such emergencies. “India is not prepared to tackle health epidemics, particularly given its urban congestion. In fact…
Read MoreStatement on the meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
The meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the WHO Director-General under the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus 2019 in the People’s Republic of China, with exportations currently reported in the Republic of Korea, Japan, Thailand and Singapore, took place on Wednesday, 22 January 2020, from 12:00 to 16:30 Geneva time (CEST) and on Thursday, 23 January 2020, from 12:00 to 15:10. The Committee’s role is to give advice to the Director-General, who makes the final decision on the determination of a Public Health…
Read MoreLloyds boss: Mental health issues can break lives
Firms that ignore mental health issues risk “breaking employees’ lives and families”, the boss of Lloyds Banking Group has warned. Companies not paying attention to mental health also incur huge costs to the economy, research suggests. Employees’ mental health issues cost businesses £40bn a year, a Deloitte study found. Firms lose an average nine days work a year – two absences, and the rest where workers are present but not focused. Financial crisis Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osario is someone with personal experience of how workplace stress can affect anyone –…
Read More