text stringlengths 59 1.12k |
|---|
antibiotics are still prescribed each year for viral conditions that do not benefit from antibiotic therapy. Providers cite diagnostic uncertainty, time pressure on providers, and patient demand and expectations as the primary reasons why antibiotics are over-prescribed. "We ask healthcare providers to prescribe antibiotics only when the patient really needs |
them, and for people to take antibiotics only when needed and exactly as prescribed," says Lauri Hicks, DO, medical officer and director of CDC's Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work campaign. Common infections that should not be treated with antibiotics are: - Most coughs and bronchitis - Sore throats (except |
for those resulting from strep throat) - Some ear infections When antibiotics fail to work, the consequences are longer-lasting illnesses, more doctor visits or extended hospital stays, and the need for more expensive and toxic medications. Some resistant infections can even cause death. Decrease unnecessary prescribing The Get Smart Team: |
Darcia Johnson, program officer; Becky Roberts, MS, public health specialist; and Lauri Hicks, DO, medical director. CDC's Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work campaign seeks to increase awareness of the importance of appropriate antibiotic use by working with state-based appropriate antibiotic use campaigns, non-profit partners, and for-profit partners. Objectives of |
GSW are to: - Increase the knowledge of the general public and modify their attitudes and behaviors regarding appropriate antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance, including decreasing demand for antibiotics for upper respiratory infections among healthy adults and parents, and increasing adherence to prescribed antibiotics for upper respiratory infections, - Decrease |
unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics for upper respiratory infections, - Decrease sharing and saving of previously prescribed antibiotics, and - Increase adherence to healthy behaviors to prevent acquiring an upper respiratory infection. The take-home message of the campaign is that antibiotics will not cure viral infections and that pharmacists can play |
an important role in educating patients about appropriate antibiotic use. "During the flu pandemic it is more important than ever to recognize that antibiotic overuse is a serious problem and a threat to everyone's health," says Hicks. "It is important that patients and parents know that antibiotics do not treat |
flu, and at the same time, we ask healthcare providers, as well as pharmacists, to take the time to educate patients about antibiotic overuse. To help prevent getting sick, we ask everyone to wash their hands frequently, avoid close contact with people who are sick, and keep up to date |
with recommended immunizations." Get Smart Retail Pharmacy Summit Pharmacists and retail pharmacies are a wonderful community resource to patients and can provide much-needed information about when antibiotics work and when they don't. In order to reach pharmacists and retail pharmacy chains, Get Smart hosted a retail pharmacy summit on October |
1, 2009 that brought together representatives from national retail pharmacy chains, including Rite-Aid, Kroger, Giant Eagle, and Giant/Stop and Shop, as well as non-profit and advocacy organizations focusing on appropriate use and infectious disease control, and many CDC staff and other external partners. This one-day meeting featured presentations and discussions |
on the latest science on antibiotic use and resistance, the important role pharmacists and retail pharmacies can play in educating patients, and specific and successful strategies to enhance social responsibility as well as profitability through partnerships with the Get Smart campaign. Attendees were excited to come together to discuss this |
issue and the role that pharmacists and retail pharmacy chains can have in educating patients on appropriate antibiotic use. At the end of the day, attendees pledged to "Get Smart" and share information from the summit with their companies and brainstorm ways to explore future opportunities with the program. Get |
Smart Campaign The Get Smart campaign was launched in 1995 as the National Campaign for Appropriate Antibiotic Use in the Community. In 2003, this program was refocused and renamed Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work, in conjunction with the launch of a national media campaign. This program aims to reduce |
the rate of rise of antibiotic resistance by: - Promoting adherence to appropriate prescribing guidelines among providers, - Decreasing demand for antibiotics for viral upper respiratory infections among healthy adults and parents of young children, and - Increasing adherence to prescribed antibiotics for upper respiratory infections. The Get Smart program |
targets five respiratory conditions that in 1992 accounted for more than 75 percent of all office-based prescribing of antibiotics for all ages combined: otitis media, sinusitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, and the common cold. The primary target audience for the Get Smart campaign is healthcare providers, as they are the gatekeepers – |
the ones prescribing antibiotics to patients. Parents of young children and otherwise healthy adults continue to be important audiences to reach with these messages. Pharmacists can also play an important role in educating patients about appropriate use, once an antibiotic has been prescribed, and can recommend over-the-counter alternatives to antibiotics |
for symptomatic relief. Retail pharmacists, non-profit pharmacy organizations, advocacy groups and CDC staff attended the Get Smart Retail Pharmacy Summit on October 1. The Get Smart program is comprehensive and includes a media campaign (including a virtual press kit and materials designed for Spanish-speakers and American Indian audiences), funding and |
technical assistance for several state and local partners to develop, implement, and evaluate local campaigns, as well as television and radio public service announcements (PSAs) for use in local markets. Get Smart has produced a series of health education and behavioral change materials for patients, providers and pharmacists to promote |
appropriate antibiotic use. These materials include brochures, posters, and question and answer fact sheets for parents. Instructional sheets and a viral/symptomatic prescription pad are also available resources for healthcare providers. CDC, in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, members of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Infectious Disease |
Society of America, and the American College of Emergency Physicians developed and distributed principles for appropriate antibiotic use for pediatric upper respiratory tract infections, and principles of appropriate antibiotic use for adult respiratory tract infections. These guidelines define appropriate prescribing and have been distributed to numerous state and local health |
CfA Press Release Release No.: 03-25| For Release: 1:00 p.m. EST, Thursday, December 18, 2003 Note to Editors: High-resolution IRAC images are available online at: First Spectacular Images From SAO's IRAC Camera on Spitzer Space Telescope Washington, DC- NASA today released the first spectacular images from the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) instrument on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. The pictures, |
taken at infrared wavelengths of light, revealed remarkable details in objects ranging from nearby star formation regions to distant spiral galaxies. The images are but a taste of what will come from IRAC, which was developed for NASA by a team led by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), with Giovanni Fazio as the Principal Investigator. "We are absolutely thrilled by |
the performance of IRAC, which has met or exceeded all expectations," says Fazio. "Every time we take a picture, we see something spectacular!" The three IRAC objects featured in today's press conference at NASA Headquarters are emission nebula IC 1396, spiral galaxy Messier 81 (M81), and Herbig-Haro 46 (HH 46). "Together, these three images show how IRAC will serve as |
a 'time machine,' giving us new information about the past, present, and future of our cosmos. Combined with its ability to peer into the distant past of the universe by studying highly redshifted galaxies, IRAC truly is lifting the cosmic veil and revealing hidden wonders," says Fazio. The first, and arguably the most dramatic, IRAC image shows a section of |
the bright emission nebula IC 1396, which is located about 2500 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Cepheus. An emission nebula is a cloud of hydrogen gas ionized by the strong radiation from hot, young stars and glowing like a neon sign. IC 1396 in visible light is known as the "Elephant Trunk" nebula. On viewing the IRAC photo, |
scientists suggested that the "Flying Dragon" or "Flaming Ghost" nebula might be more appropriate. The region of IC 1396 imaged by IRAC is a globule of gas and dust about 12 light-years in size. In visible light, it appears as a dark silhouette against the background of glowing nebular gas. Yet IRAC revealed it to be shining brightly at infrared |
wavelengths. This globule is a remnant of a much larger molecular cloud complex in Cepheus that already has formed populous star clusters. This leftover blob of gas and dust is being sculpted by the intense radiation from nearby massive, hot, young stars. "Radiation and hot winds are carving away the nebula like rust sandblasted from an old car. Eventually, it |
will vanish completely. We're lucky to have caught it in the act, to get a chance to see these stunning ethereal wisps before they disappear," says Fazio. The second IRAC photo shows the spiral galaxy M81, located about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. In many ways, M81 is a near-twin to our own Milky Way galaxy. |
"By studying M81, we can get an outsider's view of our home. This is what aliens would see if they looked back at the Milky Way," says Fazio. In visible light, M81 displays an unremarkable disk and central bulge of stars. Dust lanes wind throughout the disk, hiding details of the galaxy's structure and composition. IRAC sweeps away that obscuration |
to clearly separate M81's stars (dominant in the near-infrared) from its hot dust (most visible at mid-infrared wavelengths). In doing so, IRAC uncovered areas where star formation is taking place, visible in the image as infrared-bright clumpy knots within the well-defined spiral arms. The huge amounts of dust revealed by IRAC, and the associated hydrogen gas, will provide raw materials |
for future star formation. The photo of M81 is a four-color composite of infrared light at wavelengths of 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (yellow), and 8.0 microns (red). The third IRAC image shows HH 46, a glowing curved line of gas marking a shock wave that is blasting through the interstellar medium. HH 46 and its partner, |
HH 47, show where twin jets of material spew out in opposite directions from a previously hidden source, plowing through anything in their way. The sharp infrared eyes of IRAC exposed the source of these jets - a young protostar embedded in an obscuring cloud of matter. "This youngster is still forming, and like any youngster, it's acting up a |
bit," says Fazio. Most young stars produce powerful jets during their birth, in a process yet to be fully understood by scientists. Those jets may help the star to collect infalling material by removing excess angular momentum. Without them, like an ice skater who pulls in his arms while spinning in place, the star soon would whirl so fast that |
centrifugal forces would stop its growth. While powerful jets are believed to assist forming stars, the jet of HH 46 is particularly strong, speeding outward across more than 9 light-years of space. (For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is only 4 light-years away.) The Infrared Array Camera is one of three science instruments on board the Spitzer Space |
Telescope. IRAC was developed by SAO and built at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The Spitzer Space Telescope mission is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology. The Spitzer Space Telescope, launched August 25 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., uses state-of-the-art infrared detectors to pierce the dusty darkness enshrouding such |
celestial objects as galaxies, stars, and planet-forming discs around stars. It is the fourth of NASA's Great Observatories, which include the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six |
research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe. For more information, contact: David Aguilar, Director of Public Affairs Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Phone: 617-495-7462 Fax: 617-495-7468 Public Affairs Specialist Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Phone: 617-495-7463, Fax: 617-495-7016 |
“We have made tremendous strides over the past decade-and-a-half in reversing the psychology of industry and government on the matter of pollution prevention,” says Paul Anastas, “and yet we have barely scratched the surface of what the promise of green chemistry holds.” Indeed, beneath that surface may lie the future |
for whole swathes of the chemical industry, as the drive to “go green” grows more persuasive and pervasive. As director of the Green Chemistry Institute of the American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., and former assistant director for the environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Anastas |
has been one of the champions of green technology and was one of the prime movers behind the 1997 establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. Moving on this month to head up the new Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University, |
New Haven, Conn., he has defined green chemistry as “the design of new products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances … we’re really talking about the chemistry of sustainability.” But if pollution prevention was the original goal of green chemistry, the efforts of |
Anastas and researchers like him have seen the philosophy develop into one that promises as much economic as environmental benefit. The 2006 Presidential Award winners, for example, include Galen Suppes, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Missouri - Columbia, whose catalytic process for converting glycerol (glycerin) into propylene |
glycol could change the economics of the burgeoning biodiesel industry. Biodiesel economics strongly depend on the market for glycerol, biodiesel’s byproduct from the transesterification of vegetable oils. The U.S. biodiesel industry is expected to introduce 1 billion pounds of additional glycerol into a market that currently only has an annual |
demand for 600 million pounds. So, the industry clearly needs to find a high-value use for its glycerol. Propylene glycol (PG), a less toxic alternative to ethylene glycol for antifreeze and many other uses, could be the answer. Producing it from glycerol, says Suppes, can reduce the cost of biodiesel |
manufacture by as much as $0.40/gal. Suppes’ award-winning process couples a new copper-chromite catalyst with reactive distillation and offers a number of advantages, such as lower operating temperature and pressure, more efficient conversion and less byproduct, compared to previous conversion routes. The same technology also can be used to convert |
glycerol to acetol or hydroxyacetone, an intermediate and monomer used in the production of polyols. When made from petroleum, acetol costs around $5/lb, which limits its widespread use. However, using biomass-sourced glycerol could cut production cost to as little as $0.50/lb, opening up more markets for glycerol and so benefiting |
biodiesel production. Other researchers also are investigating ways of catalytically upgrading glycerol to PG. Under the auspices of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Washington, D.C., researchers at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), |
Richland, Wash., are collaborating with Archer Daniels Midland, Decatur, Ill., and UOP, Des Plaines, Ill., on the development of catalysts for an integrated process. A team led by John Holladay at PNNL has used high-throughput combinatorial techniques to screen more than 4,000 possible catalysts. (For more on developments in high-throughput |
methods, see R&D takes the fast track.) The next stages in the program, which runs through 2008, involve reaction evaluation and pilot scale testing and finally a conceptual design for a commercial unit. Meanwhile, food and agricultural giant Cargill, Minneapolis, Minn., is forming a new company to make PG from |
renewable feedstocks using a proprietary process that is said to increase production efficiency by providing better yields and fewer byproducts than other renewable and non-renewable routes. “Cargill already sells glycerin from its biodiesel plants and has ready access through its supply chain and other sources to produce enough glycerin for |
world-scale production of PG,” says Jim Stoppert, Cargill’s senior director of industrial bioproducts. “We are confident that our approach to manufacturing price-competitive, renewable PG on a large commercial scale will be highly desired by the chemical industry.” Initial indications are that the product won’t require reformulation prior to downstream use. |
Cargill expects “market rollout to occur quickly.” Despite the boost that such developments might give to the biodiesel industry, the biggest impact of green fuel technology will almost certainly come from bioethanol as a gasoline replacement. Current U.S. production totals around 4 billion gal/yr, mostly from corn, but there is |
rapidly growing interest in developing biorefineries able to process a range of feedstocks including non-foodstuff renewable biomass materials. With biotechnology processes currently available that use enzymes to convert biomass to fermentable sugars, the U.S. could produce more than 70 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol (as opposed to the conventional grain-derived |
bioethanols) per year from crop residues such as corn stover and stalks, sugar cane bagasse, wheat straw and rice straw, according to the Biotechnology Industry Organization, Washington, D.C. Jim Greenwood, the organization’s president and CEO, says 25% of the nation’s transportation fuel could be supplied from biorefineries by 2015 if |
development were dramatically ramped up. It’s still very much a fledging industry but the first seeds have already taken root around the world. A demonstration plant in Ottawa, Ont., started up in 2004 by Iogen of Ottawa, provided the first pre-commercial-scale output of cellulosic ethanol. Designed to produce up to |
3 million liters/yr, the plant can handle up to 40 metric tons/d of raw material feedstock such as wheat, oat and barley straw, enzymatically converting the cellulose fiber into glucose for fermentation to ethanol. |
Disinfectants commonly used in homes and medical facilities can boost the resistance of some bacteria to life-saving antibiotics, according to a new study. The findings shed light on how at least one pathogen - Pseudomonas aeruginosa - spreads, and could apply to other hospital superbugs as well, the authors say. P. aeruginosa, responsible for one-in-10 hospital-acquired infections, is a so-called |
"opportunistic" bacteria that attacks people with weakened immune systems. It typically infects the pulmonary and urinary tracts, as well as burns and puncture wounds. "This is very, very worrying," says Gerard Fleming, a professor at the National University of Ireland in Galway, and main architect of the study. In laboratory experiments, researchers showed that the bug can rapidly mutate, building |
resistance to progressively higher doses of a disinfectant known as BSK, or benzalkonium chloride. Safe for humans, BSK is widely used in cleaning and disinfecting products to kill bacteria, fungi and algae. The DNA-altered bacteria were able to withstand concentrations of BSK up to 400 times greater than the non-mutated strain. More critically, they also developed a resistance to an |
antibiotic, ciprofloxacin, even though they had never been exposed to the drug. Ciprofloxacin is a front-line medication in the fight against several bacterial infections, and is also the drug of last-resort against the deadly disease anthrax. "We found that in both cases - for the disinfectant and the antibiotic - the (mutated) bacteria was taking them in, but expelling them |
just as quickly," Fleming says. "It would be like trying to pump air into a bicycle tire with a huge hole in it." The disinfectant-resistant strain of P. aeruginosa built up immunity against ciprofloxacin up to 10 times more effectively than did the baseline bacteria, the study reports. In further experiments, Fleming and colleagues put the two strains together in |
an environment containing a diluted dose of disinfectant, such as might be found in a hospital or home. The mutated bugs were "highly competitive" with the non-mutated ones, says Fleming: "They outgrew the so-called 'sensitive' strains so rapidly it was hard to believe." "That means we have a problem - disinfectant may proliferate antibiotic resistance," he adds. Fleming hastens to |
add that this did not mean that disinfectants should not be used at all. "They are quite important as a first-line defense. The message is to use them properly - don't water them down to concentrations where they are no longer effective," he says. |
An aortic aneurysm (say "a-OR-tik AN-yuh-rih-zum") is a bulge in part of the aorta, your main artery. If the bulge gets large enough, it can rupture. If it does, your life is in danger. Aortic aneurysms are usually caused by |
hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). But other causes include genetic conditions, infections, and injury. Aneurysms need to be repaired if they are large or fast-growing or if they cause symptoms. Smaller ones are usually just checked regularly to see if |
Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power will Lead The Green Revolution and End America’s Energy Odyssey The following is a book review of Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power will Lead The |
Green Revolution and End America’s Energy Odyssey, written by Jay Lehr, science director of The Heartland Institute. William Tucker is a veteran journalist who has written about energy in many |
major newspapers and magazines. His most recent book, Terrestrial Energy, provides a riveting insight into the past 30 years of our search for inexpensive, prolific energy, while explaining how and |
why nuclear power will provide the answer to this search. Disappointingly, Tucker buys into global warming alarmism, and he treats solar energy advocate Amory Lovins with undeserved deference. But perhaps |
such treatment is just what we need to get society to pay attention to Tucker’s discussion of nuclear energy, which will one day fuel the planet if the wastefulness of |
nonnuclear renewable energy does not first send us into planetwide bankruptcy. Although Tucker’s book has been promoted as focusing on nuclear power, only Section Four—the last 147 pages of this |
388 page text (followed by 40 pages of references)—discusses the history of nuclear power and its potential renaissance. The first three sections of the book cover global warming, fossil fuels, |
and solar and other renewable energies. The book, however, is worth twice its price just for Section Four. A Conventional Energy Source: It is odd it that nuclear energy has |
to be reintroduced to our nation as if it were a new technology. It continues to supply almost 20 percent of the nation’s electric power even though it has been |
decades since a new nuclear power plant has been designed, approved, and built in the United States. Tucker makes it clear nuclear power is a form of terrestrial energy—it is |
the same process that heats the center of the earth to 7000 degrees Fahrenheit. The concentration of power in the nucleus of an atom is incredible, and as a result |
nuclear technology can provide an inexpensive, nearly limitless supply of power. Tucker notes a 1000 megawatt coal-fired power plant burns 110 railcars of coal each day, whereas an equally powerful |
nuclear plant requires a single tractor trailer to deliver new fuel rods just once every 18 months. Although he does not oppose either solar or wind power, Tucker points out |
they require 100 times more land than either coal or nuclear powered plants. Actually, he’s only half right—the number is more than 200 times more land. History, Lessons Learned: Tucker |
recounts the history of nuclear technology, from the Manhattan Project to Dwight Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace to the Three Mile Island debacle to nuclear technology as it exists today. Importantly, |
Tucker provides a brilliant analysis of the knowledge learned and the safety mechanisms developed in the wake of the Three Mile Island incident. For 10 years after Three Mile Island, |
the nuclear power industry focused on improving its efficiency from top to bottom. At the time of the incident, nuclear plant efficiency averaged barely 50 percent, meaning the plants were |
putting out their rated capacity of energy only half the time. That efficiency has climbed to 94 percent today. As a result, today we produce 25 percent more power with |
the same 104 operating plants than we did 20 years ago, even though it has been decades since a new plant went online in the United States. Tucker’s chapter on |
radiation explains in layman’s terms the complex subject of alpha, beta, and gamma waves. He compellingly explains the reverse effect of low levels of radiation, called hormesis, which benefits human |
health. It is scientifically unsupportable to claim that if a lot of something—such as radiation—harms you then a little of that same something must necessarily be bad for you too. |
Reprocessing a Global Success: His final chapter, “France and the Future,” is like a glass of fine red wine from a French vineyard—smooth, delicious, and to be savored. Tucker takes |
us on a tour of France’s nuclear industry, which provides 80 percent of that nation’s electric power with so little waste that it has all been stored in the basement |
of a single building. This minuscule amount of waste has been turned into glass and will remain in this state until it becomes harmless. In the United States, by contrast, |
we have battled for decades over where to store our large quantities of waste. Foolishly, we never reprocess it as the French do. Nor have we utilized the rigorously designed |
and incredibly secure Yucca Mountain facility, which can quite safely store all the waste that we have decided, for political reasons, not to reprocess. The Obama administration has chosen to |
forbid it, thus stifling any contemplated growth of the nuclear power industry. Tucker concludes his book with a chapter on Waste and Proliferation that convincingly argues we should reprocess our |
nuclear waste as every other country in the world chooses to do. It is not an easy read for those who do not have a background in reprocessing history and |
William Pitt's Defense of the American Colonies Among British-America's friends in England during the events that led to the Revolution was William Pitt the Elder, a powerful figure in the House of Commons. A former prime minister, Pitt believed Parliament |
had authority to legislate for the colonies, but he shared with the radicals in Williamsburg's House of Burgesses the opinion that Parliament could not levy internal taxes on them. As American opposition to the Stamp Act grew, Pitt's brother-in-law, Prime |
Minister George Grenville, vigorously defended the tax. Pitt rose in the Commons on January 14, 1766 to "deliver my mind and heart upon the state of America." His address, excerpted here, helped secure the Act's repeal. Word of the Stamp |
Act's revocation reached Virginia's capital on May 2, 1766. Royal Governor Francis Fauquier made the news official in a proclamation issued on June 6, 1766. "I rejoice that America has resisted." William Pitt's speech against the Stamp Act I have |
been charged with giving birth to sedition in America. They have spoken their sentiments with freedom against this unhappy act, and that freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to hear the liberty of speech in this House, imputed |
as a crime. No gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it. It is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it might have profited, by which he ought to have profited. He ought to have desisted from this |
project. The gentleman tells us, America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three million of people so dead to all feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.