Map Aims to Help Health Officials Take a Bite out of Lyme Disease

by Bridget DeSimone on Fri, 02/10/2012 - 5:31pm

 

After sizing up more than 5000 ticks, researchers have created a detailed map of the Eastern United States pinpointing where humans are at highest risk of contracting the disease. To develop the map, tick hunters dragged sheets of fabric through wooded, bushy areas over a four year period to snag infected blacklegged ticks – also known as deer ticks – that transmit the disease through their bite. About one in five collected were laden with Lyme.
 
The map shows people in the coastal Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest regions are at the highest risk of contracting the disease. Those in the majority of the South are at low risk. “Transitional areas” where the disease is likely to spread, include the northern parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, New England and the coastal areas of Virginia and North Carolina. The results were published in the February issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (a Burness client).

Food and Farming at the Heart of Climate Discussion

by Michelle Geis on Fri, 01/27/2012 - 4:57pm

Last week, a group of 14 international agriculture experts from around the world wrote an opinion piece in Science magazine urging the scientific community to address the importance of agriculture in the climate change debate. The authors, many of them serving as part of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change (a Burness client), and led by UK's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir John Beddington, say there was incremental progress on the issue at this year's climate discussions in Durban. But they say the agreement does not go far enough.

Patients Want Easier Access to Their Doctors’ Notes

by Burness Team on Thu, 01/19/2012 - 6:13pm

Would easier access to doctors’ notes improve patient health?

1 in 5 respondents to a survey in this month’s Annals of Internal Medicine said easier access would likely provoke them to take better care of themselves.
 

Venomous Snakebites: A Neglected Tropical Disease

by Burness Team on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 5:01pm

Two recent studies reveal that getting bitten by a snake is a far greater problem than people have been led to believe.

Official World Health Organization statistics are that snakebites result in 100,000 deaths each year around the world and 300,000 cases of permanent disability.

But a recent study found that 46,000 people die every year from snakebites in India alone -- a far cry from the mere 2,000 such deaths officially reported. Another study in Bangladesh found 6,000 deaths due to snakebites every year and a whopping 700,000 snakebites overall -- totals that also far exceed that country’s official estimates.