An influential panel at the CDC, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended that Whooping Cough (Pertussis) vaccinations be extended to all adults as well, including those aged over 65. The recommendation is in part because it is recognized that adults get the disease and then pass it to children and infants. The [...]

I’ve written before about obesity issues – mostly related to soda and diet soda (the message — even diet soda isn’t good for you — try to drink water instead) and also that even being a little overweight can still result in health problems. But a new study, coming out of the National Longitudinal Study [...]

I am a big fan of some vitamin supplements — notably vitamin D — which many people living urban lives tend to get significantly too little of. But there is some recent bad news about vitamin supplements. The first piece is that a large study suggests that there is a very slight link [...]

I spent the much of the weekend at a special event preceding this year’s Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco that started last night. This was the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge Code-a-thon. I made a short presentation on Saturday and got asked to be a judge on Sunday. The event runs for two [...]

Last time I wrote about Whooping Cough (Pertussis) was in the Summer of 2010, right in the middle of a big outbreak in California. It turns out that a group did a big study using that very outbreak to look at the Whooping Cough vaccine and its effectiveness. The study expected to find that [...]

I wrote the following post one year ago and pretty much nothing has changed except that we have had plenty of other disasters for emergency workers to react and respond to. I can’t think of anything better than to repeat my post from last year and renew the call for a day [...]

This is one in a series of articles, running the five weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, examining the relationship between housing loss and death in San Francisco. Ken sleeps under a sheltered overhang in the Financial District, an area full of sun-glinting towers and chic lunchtime hot-spots. Without a home and a sink, Ken is utterly dependent on the cheapest of prepared food options.

This is one in a series of articles, running the 5 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, examining the relationship between housing loss and death in San Francisco. Nate, a self-described “Tenderloin rat,” talks about having trained in the Navy, working on submarine sonar systems, then coming home to be employed by his wife’s wealthy family.

Despite the influx of police, the second man hadn’t fled — he was going to the hospital. He stood, swaying a bit, the blanket-cape of paramedic-care draped across his shoulders. The weepy woman still clung to him, her thin arms tight as a belt around his waist, her head pressed tight to his breastbone. He had tears on his cheeks, and the woman was muttering, “You almost died,” over and over. He was alive, truly, because of her.

I went to needle exchange to hang out. You may be asking yourself what a soccer mom from the burbs is doing perched on a folding chair in the parking garage of 101 Grove on a dark November night surrounded by syringes. Basically, I was looking for death on the streets.