Month: July 2014

Box of Pox: The Return of the Smallpox

According to a CDC media release, vials labeled "Variola", more commonly known as Smallpox, were found in an unused storage room in a laboratory at the NIH, Bethesda, which was used by the Food and Drug Administration. The laboratory had been shifted and these final materials were being transferred to the new facilities when these … Continue reading Box of Pox: The Return of the Smallpox

Diseases of Displaced People: Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Scabies, polio, tuberculosis, malaria, and a host of other diseases have been blamed on the penurious conditions that refugees are often forced to live in when in transitional shelters or refugee camps. In an "online ahead of print" report published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, which is run by the CDC, another disease has … Continue reading Diseases of Displaced People: Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Thoughts on h-index (and Google Scholar Metrics 2014)

The 2014 Google Scholar Metrics have been released a week or so now. The list for the top twenty journals in Health and Medicine are: [drumroll] Now, one thing that needs to be clarified is that the Google Scholar citation index used is the h-index (over a period of 5 years). The interesting thing is … Continue reading Thoughts on h-index (and Google Scholar Metrics 2014)

Florida Clampdown on Pain Pills Lowers Drug-Related Mortality

Ever since I started working with the homeless youth of Delhi, I have noticed their drug and substance dependence issues and how, despite knowing the ill-effects, they have not been able to get out from under the chemical spell. Thus, when I came across a short report in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports that Florida … Continue reading Florida Clampdown on Pain Pills Lowers Drug-Related Mortality

MERS CoV: Can it spread from camels to man?

The Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS CoV) is a novel single stranded RNA virus that has been doing the rounds in the Middle East, bits of Europe and North America. Given our experiences the last time we had a new respiratory virus (remember the pandemic?), things have moved rather fast this time once the … Continue reading MERS CoV: Can it spread from camels to man?