“Eastern Africa is free of polio again, with four countries – Ethiopia , Kenya, Sudan and Uganda – having reported no cases of the crippling disease for more than a year, U.N. and other aid agencies said on Friday,” Reuters reports (7/30). The WHO “said the region had responded fast to the outbreak,” according to the Daily Monitor. The article reports that the four countries now “join neighbouring Somalia which has been polio free for the last three years” (Lirri,…

A new analysis from Canada has found that cancer patients from poorer communities have a greater chance of dying prematurely than individuals from more affluent backgrounds even though cancer stage at time of diagnosis is similar across socioeconomic groups. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that efforts are needed to understand and reduce disparities in the survival of cancer patients from different socioeconomic groups. Christopher Booth, MD, FRCPC, of the…

News outlets report on hospital issues, including the differences between for-profit and nonprofit hospitals and efforts to streamline care. “Today’s nonprofit hospitals – which make up slightly more than half of the nation’s 5,000 community hospitals – are trying to juggle the demands of making money with being a charitable organization,” The Orlando Sentinel reports. “For legislators across the country, there’s growing tension that massive nonprofit-hospital organizations don’t pay any taxes.” The reason for the tax exemption is the idea…

Only Fatality So Far is Boy, 14, in Northern Costal Province; 1st Outbreak of Plague in Peru Since 1994 (AP) Peru’s health minister says an outbreak of plague has killed a 14-year-old boy and infected at least 31 people in a northern coastal province. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte says authorities are screening sugar and fish meal exports from Ascope province, located about 325 miles northwest of Lima. Popular Chicama beach isn’t far away. Ugarte says the boy, who had Down…

Operation Lone Star will be offering vaccines, medical examinations, visual exams and even free dental services. LAREDO, Tx.- Operation Lone Star came together with the objective of offering health treatments to Laredo and Webb County residents by offering vaccines, medical examinations, vision exams and even free dental services yesterday. Persons requiring these free services may appear at the Alexander High School, located at 3600 East Del Mar, where people will be attended all week. The program is carried out by…

McALLEN — Dr. Juan Salazar used to scribble onto a notepad or dictate into a recorder what he wanted to report from his patient’s visits. The information the physician gathered eventually ended up in his chart room, where his staff files the paper medical records that are sometimes as thick as books. A shift to an electronic medical records system at Salazar’s clinic on East Nolana won’t result in a paperless environment that empties out his chart room. But Salazar,…

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan dispatched medical teams Monday to the deluged northwest amid fears that cholera could spread after the worst floods in the country’s history that have already killed up to 1,200 people, an official said. The disaster has forced around 2 million to flee their homes. Residents have railed against the government for failing to provide enough emergency assistance nearly a week after extremely heavy monsoon rains triggered raging floodwaters in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province. Around 250 flood victims blocked…

BALI, Indonesia — Putu Valentino Rosiadi should have started third grade this month. But instead of buying a new school uniform and notebooks, his father mournfully cradles a black-and-white photo. The 8-year-old was next door when a stray dog jumped him in May, ripping its teeth into the boy’s right calf. He was stitched up at a local hospital and sent home. His family was told no cases of rabies had been reported in their area. Earlier this month, a…

A new task force will meet before the end of August to come up with solutions to illegal dumping of patients at Haven for Hope. Since opening its doors in the spring, the campus has witnessed a number of homeless patients still in need of substantial medical care being discharged from hospitals and left by voucher-funded taxis on its doorstep. They typically show up at Prospects Courtyard, the outdoor area where residents sleep on the ground under the stars. Haven…

An outbreak of mumps here in recent weeks may not spread much further, health officials believe, but it serves as a reminder that the infection once a rite of passage for generations of swollen-cheeked schoolchildren stubbornly refuses to go away — despite a vaccine. Ten cases of mumps in adult men, ranging from their early 20s to 80, were reported in Bexar County last week. Nine were inmates at the Bexar County Jail, and the 10th and oldest was a…