MILITARY: Man Promotes War Medic Memorial

BY JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: October 18, 2011

SEBRING - Any soldier who was assisted by a corpsman in the field or by medical staff back behind the lines may appreciate the efforts of John Vawter, past commander of VFW Post 4300, who wants to honor military medical personnel.

Vawter said Monday he is trying to find a location in Highlands County to erect a small-scale version of a bronze statue like the one for the National Medical War Memorial and Youth Center in Blue Springs, Mo., where groundbreaking is already under way.

A statue that's 1½ times life-size will eventually be sculpted in wax, cast and placed on a 30-foot round pedestal in Blue Springs.

A scale-model statue, sculpted by Lewis Lee Millett Jr., depicts Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Donald L. Ballard, HM2, U.S. Navy, who on May 16, 1968 jumped on a live grenade while aiding three wounded Marines in Vietnam.

Actually, Ballard was treating seven Marines at the time of the incident while receiving small arms fire and grenade attacks, according to the event described by the citation.  Full article

EFSA Evaluates the Public Health Risk of Bacterial Strains Resistant to Certain Antimicrobials in Food and Food-producing Animals

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published an assessment on the potential contribution of food and food-producing animals to the public health risks posed by bacteria that produce enzymes that makes them resistant to treatments with broad spectrum beta-lactams[1]. EFSA’s Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ Panel) concludes that the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals is a risk factor for the spread of these bacterial strains. The experts recommend that decreasing the overall use of antimicrobials in food- producing animals in the European Union (EU) should be a priority in terms of limiting the risk to public health arising from resistance in the food chain and that an effective option would be to restrict or stop the use of cephalosporins in the treatment of food-producing animals.

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USNavy assisting Japanese post
Great Eastern Japan Earthquake

[Thank you www.vnh.org]
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• Anatomy of First Aid: A Case Study Approach, U of Iowa
• First Aid: FM 4-25.11, NTRP 4-02.1, AFMAN(I)44-163, FMFRP 4-52, US DOD (PDF)
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• Standard First Aid Course: NAVEDTRA 13119, US Navy

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ANTHRAX > Experimental Anthrax Vaccine Shows Three-Year Stability

image courtesy of:  scientistlive.com

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A Maryland biotechnology firm on Tuesday said research has shown that an experimental anthrax vaccine can remain stable in the stockpile for three years (see GSN, Feb. 24, 2010).
PharmAthene's SparVax recombinant protective antigen vaccine is intended to provide protection against infection by the potential bioterror agent with fewer doses over a shorter timespan than the current treatment.
"Demonstration of 36 month final product stability is considered an important technical milestone under our current contract with the [Health and Human Services Department's] Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)," PharmAthene Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer Thomas Fuerst said in a press release. "We are extremely pleased to announce this achievement, which suggests that our rPA product candidate is both highly stable and potent. Stability has historically been a stumbling block for other recombinant anthrax vaccine programs, so we're especially excited about these ongoing results, which represent an important breakthrough for PharmAthene's rPA vaccine program" (PharmAthene release, July 12).

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY > Natural antibody brings universal flu vaccine closer

Published 8 July 2011

Annually changing flu vaccines with their hit-and-miss effectiveness may soon give way to a single, near-universal flu vaccine, according to a new report from scientists at the Scripps Research Institute and the Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell; they describe an antibody which, in animal tests, can prevent or cure infections with a broad variety of influenza viruses, including seasonal and potentially pandemic strains

A universal flu vaccine in the offing // Source: yle.fi

Annually changing flu vaccines with their hit-and-miss effectiveness may soon give way to a single, near-universal flu vaccine, according to a new report from scientists at theScripps Research Instituteand the Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell. They describe an antibody which, in animal tests, can prevent or cure infections with a broad variety of influenza viruses, including seasonal and potentially pandemic strains. The finding, published in the journalScience Express on 7 July 2011, shows the influenza subtypes neutralized with the new antibody include H3N2, strains of which killed an estimated one million people in Asia in the late 1960s.

“Together this antibody and the one we reported in 2009 have the potential to protect people against most influenza viruses,” said Ian Wilson, who is the Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and a member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at Scripps Research, as well as senior author of the new paper with Crucell’s chief scientific officer Jaap Goudsmit.  Read more

PTSD > VA National Center for PTSD has the following training programs available

[This is a great resource for veteran's with PTSD.  Please pass on info to a friend in need...]

Training Programs

The National Center for PTSD offers an in-person Clinical Training Program, Postdoctoral Training, and Internships. In addition, the National Center is also training VA clinicians in evidence-based treatments as part of two national rollouts by VA's Office of Mental Health Services. For online training related to PTSD, seePTSD 101.

Clinical Training Program

The National Center's Dissemination and Training Division, located in California, offers an on-site Clinical Training Program in the treatment of posttraumatic stress. The training program is 35 hours long, and is approved for category 1 continuing medical education credit.

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Several divisions of the National Center for PTSD offer APA-approved postdoctoral fellowships in psychology. Please see the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) website for more information. www.appic.org*. Also see a listing of our Postdoctoral Fellowships.

Internship Program

Several divisions of the National Center for PTSD offer approved pre-doctoral internships for psychology: Behavioral Science; Clinical Neurosciences; Dissemination and Training, Women's Health; and Pacific Islands. Please see the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) website for more information www.appic.org*.

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In the absence of rapid and definitive diagnostic tests, vaccines, or cures, isolation and quarantine remains Public Health's best strategy against the spread of mass illness. Public Health - Seattle & King County (Public Health) is an Advanced Practice Center for Emergency Preparedness and established this Planning for Isolation & Quarantine Response Web Toolkit to support local Public Health jurisdictions in their efforts to plan for and manage a large-scale isolation and quarantine response. The Toolkit is designed for all types of users and is separated by topic for the ease of use and navigation.

FREE TRAINING > Anhydrous Ammonia Training

This is the best training I have ever seen on anhydrous ammonia.  Please pass along to all your emergency responder buddies and who ever else might benefit from this great training!  

Photo courtesy of:  http://transcaer.com

Below is the list of contents.  Go to course page

1. Introduction
2. How To Use This Training Package
3. Student Handbook
4. Properties
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6. Railcars
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FREE Medical Training > Immunization Project

[Great NEW training for nurses, immunizations and more. READ MORE]

photo courtesy of University at Albany, Center for Public Health

Nurse Training on Immunization Project

Nurse TIP

Nurse TIP recognizes that nurses play an integral role in the success of immunization programs. Nurses are often the first point of contact at any health care visit and can have considerable influence on the public health practices of a community.

Goals: Increasing the knowledge and competency of nurses in immunization by offering relevant content in a variety of distance-learning approaches.

Engaging nurses in program planning, dialogues with other nurses, and exploring strategies to promote immunization.

Target Audience: Nurses working in medical offices, clinics, community health centers as well as other settings.

FREE Course > Surviving Field Stress for First Responders

[For those of you that do not want to take the course, I have attached the 60 page  > handbook  that is of the same title.  A must have for anyone who is a first responder...]

First responders to a traumatic event are tasked with applying their expertise under incredibly stressful conditions. This webcast deals with the physical, emotional, and mental stressors first responders face when called to a technological disaster. It gives practical coping strategies and resources for dealing with stress.

Goal   To help the responder or those they assist be prepared for the stressors of twenty-first century disasters.

Objectives   Upon successful completion of the program, participants will be able to: Describe psychological stress. Explain common causes of stress. Describe the mental and physical health effects of excessive stress. Describe the social, physical, and emotional causes of first responders stress. Identify methods to cope with field related stress. Identify strategies for assisting members of the public adults and children, with their disaster-related stress in your role as first responder.

Target Audience   Health-care providers, federal, state, and local public health and emergency management officials.

Joplin MO > Three neighboring states offer aid to stricken Joplin, MO

Three neighboring states offer aid to stricken Joplin, MO

Tue, 2011-05-24 09:37 AM

By: Jacob Goodwin

Fans at Kansas Speedway will donate to help relief efforts in Joplin

Because it is located in the far southwest corner of the State of Missouri, the devastated City of Joplin is sitting only short distances from its neighboring states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, all of which have offered immediate assistance.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has activated the Missouri National Guard to respond in the Joplin area. “The State Emergency Management Agency is helping to coordinate the deployment of search and rescue teams, a disaster medical assistance team, communications vehicles, mobile command vehicles, heavy equipment and an incident support team,” announced the Missouri Department of Public Safety on May 23. Full article

Small Pox > Decision Delayed on Eliminating Smallpox Stocks

Decision Delayed on Eliminating Smallpox Stocks

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

photo courtesy  ki4u.com

The World Health Assembly on Tuesday pushed back to 2014 any decision on setting a deadline to eliminate smallpox virus strains held by Russia and the United States, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 23).  

Moscow and Washington have said they need to hold onto the world's last known variola virus stocks to allow for continued research and development of additional vaccines and antivirals. They had pressed for delaying a decision on the matter for five years.

While the European Union and nations such as China and Israel backed that position, a bloc of some 20 countries led by Iran had reportedly pressed for a schedule to be set at this meeting of the decision-making body for the World Health Organization. The gathering ended on Tuesday, following two days of consideration of the matter.

"There has been a lot of discussion around the smallpox issue," WHO official Pierre Formenty said to reporters. "Three years from now, we will resume the discussion" (Barbara Lewis, Reuters I/Yahoo!News, May 24).

Iran on Monday had taken the rare step of calling for a vote on establishing the smallpox destruction deadline, Reuters reported.

The 193-member state World Health Assembly typically makes decisions based on consensus. Tehran's proposal was dismissed by other countries who instead backed forming a working group to attempt to bridge disagreements on the schedule issue.  Full article

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Several free Public Health courses

E-learning encompasses interactive instruction delivered through a computer by way of the Internet, intranet, compact disc, or other digital media designed to support specific learning objectives.

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