The covid-19 death toll in the United States has soared again, and the U.S. per capita death rate now exceeds that of other wealthy nations. Why?
In a forecast based on new data analyses, researchers find demand for ventilators and beds in US hospital intensive care units (ICUs) will far exceed capacity for COVID-19 patients as early as the second week of April. Deaths related to the current wave of COVID-19 in the US are likely to persist into July, even assuming people protect themselves and their communities by strongly adhering to social distancing measures and by taking other precautions advised by public health officials.
Gathering information in real time that is critical to gaining a better understanding of the coronavirus is the goal of a project being undertaken by UW Assistant Professor David Pigott, as part of team that includes multiple organizations around the world. The team is tracking publicly reported confirmed cases of the 2019 novel Coronavirus throughout the world.
As the number of people who have contracted coronavirus increases, several groups at universities in the US and Europe have rolled out predictions over the last few days about where and how the disease, which epidemiologists have now dubbed nCoV19, will spread next.
Climate change is already causing widespread harm to the health of all people living in the United States, with extreme heat making workers less productive and toxic air contributing to 64,000 deaths in a single year. In a new brief on climate change and health in the U.S. published Nov. 13, University of Washington and Harvard University researchers say it is still possible to prevent some health effects and mitigate others, and that aggressive action on climate is also action to protect health.
In this video interview Dr. Abraham Flaxman, Associate Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, explains the importance of verbal autopsy and how updated software is improving this method.
Research shows deaths due to violence such as homicide and sexual assault are rising much more steeply in the eastern Mediterranean region than elsewhere.
Violent acts including suicide, homicide and sexual assaults are increasing faster in the eastern Mediterranean region than in any other in the world, adding to the suffering of populations experiencing conflict and war.
By Kathleen Phalen-Tomaselli
For Vancouver filmmakers Ronan Reinart and Kate Twa, all medically necessary health care is covered by their government’s single-payer Medical Services Plan, the provincial program that covers health-care benefits for British Columbia residents.
“We pay a small monthly premium — in our case, around $100 for two — which is determined by income, and low-income folks don’t pay any premium,” Reinart said. “Elective and non-necessary procedures we pay for, but there may be tax deductions for many of these.”
By Andrew Trounson
In rural Myanmar, the local midwife is at your side at the start and end of your life.
Not only is she responsible for delivering babies and registering them, she is also responsible for registering deaths and cause of death. And it’s all done the old-fashioned way, using scribbled notes that are sent back to the bureaucrats on bicycles or by mail.
By Leslie Young
A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 12 per cent of the world’s adult population is obese and that number has been growing steadily over the last 35 years.
Not a single country has ever successfully reduced its obesity rate, according to the researchers, aside from a handful of places like Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo where years of war have led to famine or widespread malnourishment.