http://www.guatemala-times.com/health/global-health/3389-preventing-maternal-mortality-a-complications.html

Babies having Babies


Every year, 16 million girls between 15-19 give birth before they really are ready to. In many countries, having a child as an adolescent can nearly double your risk of maternal death. Conditions and complications from pregnancy is the 2nd most common cause of death among young females. Severe bleeding, infections, unsafe abortion and high blood pressure conditions are four of the main factors that cause 70 percent of deaths. In all, over 358,000 women die per year and most of these are preventable. Among these data, this article provides more and more data, seemingly to inform the masses. Unsafe abortions is one of the most astonishing topics I thought that this article had to include. WHO defines unsafe abortion as a “procedure for terminating a pregnancy that is performed by an individual lacking the necessary skills, or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards, or both.” There are over 18 million of these unsafe abortions held worldwide yearly. The article then goes on to say that education is directly related to the health of these women, and their children. The education of mothers is directly related to their health and their childs health, and in turn, has other positive effects, being educated and healthy helps create less of a burden on healthcare delivery systems and overall improves society. With this article, hopefully the young women of today will read through it and become informed for the next generation.

Update on SARS-Like virus

http://www.thespec.com/news/article/821454--new-sars-like-virus-discovered-before-it-causes-outbreak

New SARS-like virus discovered before it causes outbreak

Four months ago a virus had been discovered that gave the WHO a bit of a fright. It was a coronavirus, the same kind of virus that caused the SARS breakout in 2003 that swept the world and put humanity at risk, the significance behind it being a coronavirus is that there are few viruses of this type, and they tend to be very dangerous. Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki's laboratory in Saudi Arabia is to thank for this mankind-saving event. The first case that arose was a 60yr old Saudi Arabian man with a diagnosed case of pneumonia. After his kidneys failed, and he later died, it seemed that something was amiss. Dr. Zaki and his associates acted quickly and diligently to help prevent another string of preventable deaths by identifying the virus, and making a test that could be used worldwide to detect any more cases. After posting his information online to a website designed to alert other health officals, a new case was quickly unveiled. With the fast actions of Dr. Zaki, they were able to identify it as such and continue to test anyone the patient had contact with. Luckily there have been no new cases and if anything pops up, were ready to deal with it. The means of how this situation was handled are impressive, and show that mankind has a will to live. Within a month of finding an abnormality in a sickness, they now know so much more about it and are prepared to handle it. This article hopefully concludes this SARS-like virus' potential of being a threat. 

New SARS-like virus not spreading easily between people: WHO

New SARS-like virus not spreading easily between people: WHO

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/virus+spreading+easily+between+people/7324939/story.html#ixzz285IwF7yI


     A new and potentially fatal virus, allegedly originating in Saudi, appears not to spread easily from person to person, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. This virus has already killed one man, and put another into critical condition, both patients who have so far been confirmed with the new virus suffered kidney failure. Found about a week ago or so, the studies surrounding it are short of conclusive. After putting out a Global Alert on the severity of the virus, finding that it cannot be transmitted easily is a sigh of relief for us all. Since those 2 cases have been released, there has been no confirmation of any other cases like it. 
     It is not however, being discounted as dangerous, given the cost of hosting this virus, the WHO is still monitoring the situation. Scientists at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), said initial virology results and the separation in time of the only two confirmed cases suggest the infection may have developed from animals. Such diseases are known as zoonoses. "(It) is quite probably of zoonotic origin and different in behaviour from SARS," the scientists from Eurosurveillance said. 

     I find this quote disturbing though:

"But from the evidence we have, and given that there are only two cases confirmed so far and there was a distance and time distance between the two cases, (the) assumption is that it isn't easily transferable person to person," he told reporters.

     The above content is seemingly based on assumption, not to say that it is right or wrong, but it seems that the statements released regarding the communicability of this virus are not fact based or test based. The health and well-being of the world seems like a rather large pot to gamble on, but next week they said they will be able to release much more conclusive judgments and be able to make much more well informed decisions.