Medical Ethics/Issues

PulseNet and Cyclospora

I’m a surgeon. I follow infectious disease and public health. This cyclosporiasis made me look up the parasite. I wasn’t familiar with it. I also wanted to dive into how we detect outbreaks. FoodNet and PulseNet are how we detect and track outbreaks. While FoodNet acts as the “report card” tracking long-term baseline numbers, PulseNet is the active “detective”. It is a national laboratory network, coordinated by the CDC and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), designed to detect and stop fast-moving foodborne outbreaks in real time. If FoodNet tells us how many people are getting sick, PulseNet tells us

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Monday Evening News Roundup

Monday Evening News Roundup My good friend, Blake Butler, announced that he is leaving 880 The Revolution at the end of this year. Blake has been behind the mic for four years. He has been a great progressive voice for Asheville. He will be missed. Over the last several days, there have been many blog posts and news articles (here, here, here and here) regarding the death of a woman in Ireland. Savita Halappanavar was a 31-year-old dentist who presented to the hospital with abdominal pain. The patient was pregnant. Reportedly, the doctor said that her baby would not live. Now, exactly what

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Galveston—An Ongoing Disaster

Just over two weeks ago I took my first trip down to Galveston since Hurricane Ike. Ike hit in mid-September. Above and below are pictures I took in Galveston. One is of a boat still out of the water. The other is of a very damaged pier. You can explore the online edition of the Galveston County Daily News to get some sense of life on the island today. The upshot of what I saw in Galveston is that the outward damage to buildings could have been much worse, but that many homes and business places were flooded with sea water and need much work before they can be used again.

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ABOUT AUTHOR
Errington C. Thompson, MD

Dr. Thompson is a surgeon, scholar, full-time sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats.

Books

A Letter to America

The Thirteeneth Juror

Where is The Outrage Topics
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