http://www.good.is/?p=14621

The WHO is an encouraging, and too rare, example of countries getting over their differences to solve a common problem. The WHO is underfunded and needs reform, but it stands between us and some lethal future pandemic. President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and Obama’s pick for healthcare czar—Senator Tom Daschle—should be sure to support it, talk it up and push to make it as effective an organization as it can be.

Nina L. Hachigian is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/135682.php

House Approves SCHIP Bill That Includes Coverage For Immigrant Children, Pregnant Women

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health; Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 16 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PST

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Thai soldiers are detaining illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Burma and forcing them back out to sea in boats without engines, survivors say.

Survivors say their hands were tied and they were towed out to sea with little or no food or water.
About 500 migrants are now recovering from acute dehydration in India's Andaman islands and the Indonesian province of Aceh.
Thai officials were not immediately available for comment.

CIMA - the Center for International Media Assistance - has posted an interesting report on The Role of Cell Phones in Carrying News and Information.
It is ever more apparent that mobile real-time communication is becoming indispensable and edging out other forms of virtual electronic communication.

http://cima.ned.org/648/cell-phone-report-2.html

Who survives disasters, catastrophes and emergencies?

This lively and engaging book reads well and presents a surprising series of responses about fight or flight, paralysis, and resilience.

See author's site at http://www.amandaripley.com/

Mass privatisation and the post-communist mortality crisis:
a cross-national analysis

David Stuckler, Lawrence King, Martin McKee

A new study shows how the collapse of the Soviet Union led to higher death rates in many former communist countries. The study concludes that the rapid privatization of state-run companies was a major factor behind the surging death rates.

Read more about the study in the medical journal 'The Lancet' at
http://press.thelancet.com/privatisationfinal.pdf

Video: HHS Secretary-designate Daschle travels to community health care discussion

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 10:35am EST
Over the past few weeks, thousands of people in all fifty states have volunteered to participate in health care discussions in their communities. They invited their friends, neighbors and co-workers and met in cafes, living rooms and schools.

Daschle commends the resiliency of communities facing health care breakdowns.

An expensive economic recovery plan will add to the short-term federal shortfall. But experts warn the bigger problem by far is the long-term picture.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: January 7, 2009: 8:04 AM ET

Obama: 'Economy badly damaged'

http://www.ij-healthgeographics.com/content/7/1/67/abstract

Heather G Basara and May Yuan

International Journal of Health Geographics 2008, 7:67doi:10.1186/1476-072X-7-67

Published: 30 December 2008
Abstract (provisional)

Background

Thank you, Senator Schumer, for your generous introduction, and even more for your support and our partnership over so many years. You are a valued and trusted colleague, a friend, and a tribute to the people of New York whom you have served with such distinction throughout your career.

Global Public Health 3.0 needs to be understood and adopted.

Until we all look beyond vertical disease-specific programming, funding will be inadequate and responses will be patchy. Public health groups are all submitting recommendations and requests to the incoming Administration. There is the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the growing TB problem, the Malaria situation to name just a few that are the focus of the article below.

David. S. Battisti1 and Rosamond L. Naylor2
1 Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, USA.
2 Program on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University, USA

Science 9 January 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5911, pp. 240 – 244 DOI: 10.1126/science.1164363

Available online at: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/323/5911/240

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/green-technology-plans-...

A Freakonomics Quorum: How Will the Recession Affect Clean Technology?
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER

Way back when in 2006, here’s what venture-capital legend John Doerr
had to say about clean technology: “This field of greentech could be
the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”

As recently as early 2008, plenty of investors and technology
companies were still predicting a clean-tech boom.

But now? With a recession that has scrambled nearly everyone’s

MIT Computer Program Analyzes Environmental Changes, Could
Aid Malaria Prevention Efforts, Researchers Say

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=56260

A computer program developed at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology could help in malaria prevention efforts by
identifying which environmental changes would be most effective
in controlling the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, VOA News
reports. The program -- based on four years of research in a
mosquito-endemic area of Niger -- compares conventional