It’s Friday…which means it’s time for the Center for Health Innovation’s Weekly Health Roundup.
This week brings some encouraging news from the world of epidemiology, where NPR’s health blog reports that scientists recently discovered three new human viruses. What’s so good about that? In these three cases, the viruses were found before impacting more than two or three people. The most recent wide-spread viruses, such SARS—which in 2003 spread to over 8,000 people and caused over 750 deaths—followed a trend of a virus emerging in one location then quickly spreading across the globe. What has changed? In addition to new World Health Organization guidelines on information sharing and advances in genetic sequencing, Dr. John Brownstein of Children’s Hospital in Boston believes that with the social media and communications tools available, that “it’s very difficult to imagine…an important public health event where that information isn’t getting out in some form …I think there’s very few places on Earth where we’re not able to get citizen reporting and information.” He and his colleagues are using tools like HealthMap to keep up-to-the-minute information flowing about outbreaks.
The United States is dealing with outbreak concerns this week, as a form of rare meningitis continues to spread. The New York Times reports that patients are thought to have become ill from a contaminated steroid. This particular form of meningitis does not spread from person to person, although, infection disease professionals do expect additional cases due to where the contaminated drugs have been shipped.
In more domestic news, the Centers for Disease Control reported that in 2011, close to 1 million teens drove drunk. Their report also showed that drunk driving has gone down by 54% since 1991, which seems like an encouraging trend. However, a Los Angeles Times article is quick to point out that this may simply be a function of increased gas prices coupled with fewer opportunities for teens to drive due to drops in employment opportunities for them. The CDC’s report also offers tips on how parents and teens can work together to further decrease rates of drunk driving and the curb behaviors that influence it.
But what really does help when you are trying to modify your behavior? Rewards? Punishments? How can we truly impact behavioral change? Dr. Kent Bottles, a Senior Fellow at The Thomas Jefferson University School of Population Health in Philadelphia, explores a rise in new web tools designed to help us meet our goals. Sites like Stikk have an “anti charity” option that takes money away from you if you don’t stick to your goals, while Aherk exploits user-supplied embarrassing photos as motivation and GymPlant tracks your workouts via smartphone. Could these tools become commonplace, and potentially helpful, for the next generation of teen drivers?
