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Barbara Glickstein is co-director of the Center for Health, Media & Policy.

photo credit: Richard Malley www.richmalley.com

photo credit: Richard Malley www.richmalley.com

In today’s New York Times Opinionator blog,  Ezekiel J. Emanuel’s A Simple Way to Reduce Suicides argues for changing the packaging of Tylenol from 50-100 pills in a bottle to blister packs as a measure to decrease suicides.  He suggests that blister packs, being more labor-intensive and time-consuming to get the right dosage for toxicity, add a time-delay that potentially could stop the suicide from happening. This impact could contribute to the saving of thousands of lives each year.

A mental health professional posted a comment online comparing it to a speed bump in the road slowing down the suicide attempt.  This pause in the action may create the emotional mind-space for them to reconsider their actions. Maybe even get some help.

The comments section mainly includes outcries by environmentalists because blister packaging increases waste and arthritis sufferers dependent on Tylenol for symptom management who struggle with this type of packaging due to their restricted mobility and aching joints. Then there are those who cry out stop the nanny state. They just want to be left alone.

This post is written by Senior Fellow Nancy Cabelus, DNP, MSN, RN, an international forensic nurse consultant currently working with Physicians for Human Rights on a program addressing sexual violence in conflict zones in central and east Africa.

Kenya1In recent weeks I reported from Kenya that I was invited to join a medical team sponsored by a Global Grant awarded to Rotary Club of Davis, California.  Our mission was to provide training to medical doctors, nurses and students on Abusive Head Trauma in infants.  One morning after lecturing in western Kenya at Kisii District Hospital, Rotarian and director of Africa HEART (Health Education Africa Resource Team), Vickie Winkler gave us a new assignment. She arranged for us to help local residents build a mud house for a Kenyan woman living with HIV.  In the making of this hut, history happened inside a village of Kisii, Kenya

A Kenyan woman, I will call Ann, is married with one daughter. When Ann was tested for HIV and found to be positive, Ann was “chased” from her husband’s home, meaning disposed of by her husband and the community. How Ann acquired HIV makes no difference. In many circumstances, women like Ann are infected with the virus by their spouse or they could be infected during childbirth.  Regardless, Ann was thrown out of the village without a job, financial means, an education, and a home for her and her young daughter. The stigma and shame placed upon African women like Ann is insurmountable and meanwhile, these women are also fighting with a life-threatening virus. Situations like Ann’s are not unusual in Africa.

Barbara Glickstein is the co-director of the Center for Health, Media & Policy and is reporting from Australia.

“Equity is an ethical principle; it also is consonant with and closely related to human rights principles”

Braveman and Gruskin 2003

It was early morning. Most felt out-of-whack as their confused body rhythms adjusted to the Australian time zone after hours in flight to Melbourne.

They streamed into the Melbourne Convention Center auditorium, chose their seats, exchanged smiles or words of introduction to those next to them from lands distances away from their home countries. There were close to 4000 nurses from over 130 countries in Melbourne to attend the International Congress of Nurses. The local Australian host nurses, who worked planning this Congress for years, greeted their guests with warm Aussie hospitality.

The energy in the room was palpable gearing up to hear the first keynote address by Michel D. Kazatchkine MD, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe, on the Congress’ theme “Equity and Access to Healthcare.”

Dr. Kazatchkine reported that the inequitable burden of infectious disease globally is concentrated in developing countries where 90% of infections, mainly HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, kill up to 4 million people a year.

The response to these inequities demands a redistribution of resources and an increase access to health and education. He said, “Health should no longer be expected as an outcome of development, but rather as a necessary priority investment for development and economic growth.”

He noted that as a result of social mobilization and political engagement access to health care is increasingly being accepted as a human right globally. Innovation in new forms of global governance created high level decision-making bodies where community members, government officials and corporate representatives each held an equal vote shaping policies.