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Increasing Health Infrastructure and Advancing Medicine

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Approaching Zero: How West Africa is Crushing the Ebola Epidemic. Heroic Pharmaceutical Company Savagely Undercuts Martin Shkreli's Pill Scam. A Great Modern Success – [OC] Two maps showing the global decline in infant mortality over the last 6 decades – link to interactive version in comments : dataisbeautiful. Crowdfunding rare disease research – one family at a time. If one of your loved ones was sick, what would you be willing to do to help? For millions of Americans in the US, even though they would give up anything and everything, there is no way for them to help. For many rare diseases, because they are so rare, there are no therapies or even diagnostics. What is needed is research. However, very few people have the funding and the access to the technology needed to perform such a study. Non-profits and foundations have been a major force in pushing forward research, but for many rare diseases, no such groups exist.

Rare Genomics Institute (RGI) is hoping to change that, especially for children such as Maya. Struggling with global developmental delays, Maya has not been able to speak, has had problems hearing, and has undergone many surgeries. Using RGI’s crowdfunding platform, Maya’s family sought to raise the amount needed. In less than a year, there was a promising result. At RGI, we strongly believe that all diseases should be studied. Rare Genomics Institute | Rare Genomics Institute. Doctors Without Borders. The LifeStraw makes dirty water clean. More than one billion people – one sixth of the world’s population - are without access to safe water supply.

At any given moment, about half of the world's poor are suffering from waterborne diseases, of which over 6,000 – mainly children – die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water. The world’s most prolific killer though is diarrhoeal disease from bacteria like typhoid, cholera, e. coli, salmonella and many others. Safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions, especially in crucial areas such as poverty eradication, environmental upgradation, quality of life, child development and gender equality.

LifeStraw was developed as a practical response to the billions of people who are still without access to these basic human rights. View all The aptly-named LifeStraw is an invention that could become one of the greatest life-savers in history. Millions of people perish every year because they simply don’t have clean water to drink. Q1. Q2. Q3. Q4. The Sky Isn't Falling: Healthcare Triage #9. MSF USA | Medical aid where it is needed most. Independent. Neutral. Impartial. Field Trials. How Americans Die. By Matthew C. Klein / Bloomberg View / April 17, 2014How Americans Die The mortality rate fell by about 17 percent from 1968 through 2010, years for which we have detailed data.Almost all of this improvement can be attributed to improved survival prospects for men.

It looks like progress stopped in the mid-1990s… Mortality rate per 100,000 people …but that’s only because the population has aged a lot since then. Share of population This has a big effect on the overall mortality rate, because old people die sooner than the young. Mortality rate per 100,000 people by age If you divide the population into separate age cohorts, you can see that improvements in life expectancy have been broad-based and ongoing.Looking at mortality for each age cohort since 1968, we see that Americans under 25 have made the most progress.

Share of total U.S. health-care spending. Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Global Health. Measles. /u/Ranaeil asks for kidney and Reddit comes through, surgery set in 15 days. : bestof. Why an iron fish can make you stronger - BBC News. When Canadian science graduate Christopher Charles visited Cambodia six years ago he discovered that anaemia was a huge public health problem. In the villages of Kandal province, instead of bright, bouncing children, Dr Charles found many were small and weak with slow mental development. Women were suffering from tiredness and headaches, and were unable to work. Pregnant women faced serious health complications before and after childbirth, such as haemorrhaging. Ever since, Dr Charles has been obsessed with iron. Anaemia is the most common nutritional problem in the world, mainly affecting women of child-bearing age, teenagers and young children. In developing countries, such as Cambodia, the condition is particularly widespread with almost 50% of women and children suffering from the condition, which is mainly caused by iron deficiency.

The standard solution - iron supplements or tablets to increase iron intake - isn't working. Lump of iron Dr Charles had a novel idea. 'Better than tablets' Report Finds WHO Unfit To Confront Public Health Emergencies Like Ebola.