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AAPHP
E-News, June 9, 2006 |
This is an electronic update for
members and friends of the American Association of Public Health Physicians
(AAPHP). We issue this from time to time, whenever several items of interest
come to our attention.
Please
send items of interest for the E-News -- and any other feedback -- to E-News
editor Dave Cundiff, MD, MPH. Thanks!
CONTENTS:
1) AAPHP Bulletin Includes
Meeting Announcements
2) Annual Meeting in
Chicago 2006-06-11
3) Measles and
Mumps, Europe and
4) HPAI H5N1 Raises
Alarms, But No Evidence of Mutation
5) Parent Guides for Sex
Education
6) Tobacco-Related Policy
Controversies
7) In Memoriam - Drs.
Atwood and McBeath
8) Dr. Harmon will
9) Acknowledgements
1) AAPHP Bulletin Includes
Meeting Announcements:
AAPHP's June 2006 Bulletin
was recently posted at http://www.aaphp.org/Bulletins/bulletin06jun.pdf
and was delivered to the mailing house several days ago.
This includes information
about this Sunday's Membership Meeting in
The paper Bulletin has
been mailed to AAPHP members. The PDF
file is available free to all, at the Web address above. Please tell your colleagues!
2) Annual Meeting in
Chicago 2006-06-11:
Our Annual Meeting is
still scheduled for SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2006, at the HILTON CHICAGO,
(There are several other
Hiltons nearby. We're at the Hilton
Chicago,
From 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm,
we will hold a Business Meeting, including elections of officers and trustees,
and consideration of proposed bylaws amendments on outside business and on
succession planning.
At 5:30 pm, we will share
a presentation on "The AMA and Public Health" by MICHAEL D. MAVES,
MD, MBA, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the AMA. Dr. Maves' presentation, including questions
and answers, is scheduled from 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm.
From 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm,
we will share a presentation from the AAPHP's Preventive Services ToolKit
(PSTK) project. Dave Cundiff, MD, MPH,
from the PSTK faculty team, will present the team's work on "Implementing
Preventive Services: Tricks of the
Trade". Category 1 CME has been
applied for. We plan to serve pizza and
soft drinks during the PSTK presentation.
We regret the short notice
for this meeting. We hope as many
members as possible can attend.
3) Measles and
Mumps, Europe and
Measles Immunization is
recommended for all travelers to the World Cup Soccer Tournament in
Measles outbreaks are also
reported in
Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO) recommends that immunization (MMR or MR) should be obtained
at least 2 weeks prior to leaving for
The Pan American Health
Organization press release on this advisory is at http://www.paho.org/English/DD/PIN/pr060602a.htm.
***
The Midwestern USA has an
ongoing mumps outbreak. During January 1
- May 2, 11 states reported 2,597 cases of mumps. Twelve mumps viral isolates from six states
were characterized; all were mumps genotype G.
For 80% of the 2,597 mumps
cases with patient age available, the median age was 21 years (range: <1
year to 96 years). The incidence rate
was highest among persons aged 18--24 years (17.1 per 100,000 population),
followed by persons aged 5--17 years (5.2) and 25--39 years (4.8).
Parotitis was reported in
66% of the 1,327 patients for whom such data were available. Data regarding
mumps complications and hospitalizations are incomplete. However, complications
have included 27 reports of orchitis, 11 meningitis, four encephalitis, four
deafness, and one each of oophoritis, mastitis, pancreatitis, and unspecified
complications.
Preliminary vaccination
data in
A recent CDC summary on
this outbreak, as of 2006-05-18, is at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm55d518a1.htm.
4) HPAI H5N1 Raises
Alarms, But No Evidence of Mutation:
A recent family cluster of
highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1) showed much more efficient
intra-family spread than expected, initially causing worldwide alarm. Subsequent tests showed no change in the
virus; presumably this was an unfortunate and unusual circumstance of family
genetics or environment.
The European Centre for
Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published a revised risk assessment for
Another ECDC report as of
2006-06-09 concludes that there is only minimal human risk from possible HPAI
H5N1 exposure while bathing in lakes and rivers this summer.
Both ECDC reports are at http://www.ecdc.eu.int.
5) Parent Guides for Sex
Education:
Planned Parenthood Health
Services of Southwestern Oregon (http://www.pphsso.org) recently issued a new
adaptation of its “No Place Like Home” (for sexuality and sex
education) parents’ guides. The book by Mary Gossert, MS was already
published in English and Spanish versions.
It is divided into segments by age group, often subdivided by
theme. Medical student Jacqueline
Sequoia, MPH and illustrator Kathleen Brewer have now adapted the series as an
86-page PDF file for American Indian/Alaska Native parents.
To read any of the three
versions, go directly to http://www.noplacelikehome.org/contentsimages/contents.htm
for viewing and download. The PPHSSO Web
site is planned for renovation soon. If
this Web address doesn't work, try http://www.pphsso.org
or http://www.noplacelikehome.org
for access to the "No Place Like Home" series.
6) Tobacco-Related Policy
Controversies:
The National Institutes of
Health is convening a "State-of-the-Science" conference on
"Tobacco Use": Prevention, Cessation, Control" next week. Will they limit themselves to only the
"science" of randomized controlled trials, or will they consider
community and policy interventions that don't lend themselves to that form of
evaluation? We haven't been able to find
out -- but if and when we do, we'll let you know.
***
The World Health
Organization (WHO) was criticized in the Washington Post for its 2006-05-31
World No-Tobacco Day theme of "Tobacco: Deadly in Any Form or
Disguise". Distinguished scientists
and epidemiologists lined up to criticize or defend WHO's choice of slogan and
message. WHO's supporters and detractors agreed that WHO appears to draw few
practical distinctions between smoked tobacco products (proven to cause very
high rates of illness and death) and smokeless tobacco products (proven to
cause much lower rates of illness and death).
But they disagreed on whether the message, "Deadly in Any Form"
is an appropriate one for public health authorities.
Some policy experts call
for "harm reduction" -- in which most smokeless tobacco products are
seen as an inexpensive and well-tolerated method of smoking cessation. Many of them recommend a change in federal
policy to allow smokeless tobacco to be promoted as an alternate cessation
method, much safer than smoking. Others
laud pharmaceutical-grade nicotine delivery systems as the only safe nicotine
source, warning that promotion of smokeless tobacco may primarily result in
more non-users becoming addicted to nicotine.
None of this is happening
in a financial vacuum. "Big
Tobacco", faced with the progress of smoking restrictions in
[E-News editor's
note: Until we have better public health
data, it seems that personal beliefs will be the basis for much of the
policy-setting on smokeless tobacco products.
Given the large number of people wanting to quit, and the poor success
rates of all cessation methods, the need for community-based policy research
seems urgent.]
7) In Memoriam - Drs.
Atwood and McBeath:
Robert G.
Atwood, MD, MPH, Health Officer of the Yakima (WA) Health District from 1974 to
2001, died in April 2006. Bob was a
member of AAPHP for many years, and attended AAPHP's national meetings
regularly in the 1980's. An obituary
from the family is on the Web at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/ATWOOD/2006-05/1146714359. A tribute from Yakima Health District is on
Page 1 of the Health District's May Bulletin at http://www.co.yakima.us/health/documents/bulletin/bulletin5_3.pdf.
William H.
McBeath, MD, MPH, who served as Executive Director of the American Public
Health Association (APHA) from 1973 to 1993, died in May 2006. Bill was a good friend of many of us in
AAPHP, and of the public health community everywhere. A brief memorial from APHA is at http://www.apha.org/news/press/2006/051906_McBeath.htm.
8) Dr. Harmon will
AAPHP member and
Preventive Services ToolKit faculty member Robert G. Harmon, MD, MPH will
direct the Duval County Health Department in
We're proud that Dr.
Harmon was introduced to this job opening as a result of the AAPHP/ACPM Job
Market Initiative work. We wish him
every success!
An article
about Dr. Harmon's experience is in the ad-supported Web site of the Florida
Times-Union, which requires free registration and requests birthdates: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/052506/met_21961353.shtml.
9)
Acknowledgements:
In addition to
those listed above, thanks to AAPHP member Gloria Casale, MD, MPH and to the
ProMED-Mail service of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (http://www.promedmail.org) for most of
this issue's information on communicable diseases; and to Stephanie N. Craig
Rushing, MPH, Director of the “Project Red Talon” for STD/HIV
prevention at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, for information
about the “No Place Like Home” sex education support programs.
Dave Cundiff,
MD, MPH (cundiff@reachone.com)
AAPHP
Secretary and E-News Editor
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