[reliefweb] A new position paper by three human rights organizations, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-IL), Al-Mezan and Adalah, reviews Israel’s exit policy at the Erez Crossing regarding Gaza patients seeking medical treatment unavailable in Gaza. The paper argues that there is a consistent Israeli policy of distinguishing between life-threatening cases and cases that affect quality [...]

(FirstWord) World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan on Tuesday responded to a report by the BMJ that investigated potential conflicts of interest within the agency and pharmaceutical companies, noting that “at no time, not for one second, did commercial interests enter my decision-making.”
In her letter to the editors, Chan said “potential conflicts of interest [...]

[Economist] MORE than a week after the earth convulsed beneath it, Haiti has still to plumb the depths of suffering and want. The numbers are still only more-or-less informed guesses, but their magnitude is grim: perhaps 200,000 killed, 250,000 more injured and some 3m in desperate need of help. The generosity of the world’s response [...]

[WSJ] The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged health officials around the country Thursday to ensure swine-flu vaccine is getting to high-risk groups, after criticism erupted over distribution to some Wall Street firms. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. are among several large New York City employers that [...]

[medscape] H1N1 influenza has turned flu death statistics upside down, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed today.
In a normal flu season, 90% of deaths are in elderly people. But since September, 88% of deaths have been in people under age 65 — with almost a quarter of the deaths in young [...]

[healthfreedomalliance] Florida health officials are drawing up guidelines that recommend barring patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals if the state is overwhelmed by flu cases.
The plan, which would guide Florida hospitals on how to ration scarce medical care during a severe flu outbreak, also calls for [...]

[canada.com] An intensive care doctor speaking Wednesday at a conference on the H1N1 pandemic said the virus is the “most frightening” thing he has seen in his career — and other experts here warned that hospitals are not yet ready for a surge of severely sick patients.
In an interview just prior to his address, Dr. [...]

A third man has died of pneumonic plague in north-western China where a town of more than 10,000 people has been sealed off, officials say.

 
[BBC] The 64-year-old man was a neighbor of the first two people to die from the plague in Ziketan in Qinghai Province.
Police have set up checkpoints around Ziketan, as medics are [...]

[WSJ] A scramble among wealthy nations to guard against a swine-flu pandemic is raising concerns that billions of people in poorer countries could be left without adequate supplies of vaccine.
An increasing number of Western countries are signing agreements with vaccine makers guaranteeing them a certain number of doses should a pandemic occur. By locking up the [...]

[NYTimes] “Wash your hands when you shake hands; cover your mouth when you cough,” President Obama urged us at last Wednesday’s news conference when discussing the swine flu. “I know it sounds trivial, but it makes a huge difference. If you are sick, stay home. If your child is sick, keep them out of school. [...]