Epidemic

You've heard about the "Wheat Belly" diet, right? Well, technically, it doesn't exist. Dr. William Davis points out that the word "diet" does not appear on either the cover of his bestselling "Wheat Belly" book published in 2011 or on the follow-up, "Wheat Belly Cookbook," which was published last month and already tops bestseller lists. And that omission is intentional, Davis said. "Wheat Belly" is about stripping your plate of a substance that contributes to heart disease, causes joint pain, inflammation, foggy thinking, bloating and much more, Davis said.

Plantar fasciitis. If you haven't had to deal with it personally, just ask around. Chances are you know lots of people who can describe it in great detail: stabbing heel pain and agonizing steps followed by a frustratingly slow recovery. Plantar fasciitis - an inflammation of the plantar facsia, a thick band of tissue that runs along the arch from the heel to the toes - has become so ubiquitous that podiatrists can practically make the diagnosis before a patient even sets foot in their office.

Plantar fasciitis. If you haven't had to deal with it personally, just ask around. Chances are you know lots of people who can describe it in great detail: stabbing heel pain and agonizing steps followed by a frustratingly slow recovery. Plantar fasciitis - an inflammation of the plantar facsia, a thick band of tissue that runs along the arch from the heel to the toes - has become so ubiquitous that podiatrists can practically make the diagnosis before a patient even sets foot in their office.

NEW YORK - In the 30 years that David France, director of the Oscar-nominated AIDS activism documentary "How to Survive a Plague," has lived at the corner of 7th Street and Avenue C, the neighborhood has transformed dramatically. During the worst years of the epidemic in the 1980s, death pervaded this far corner of the East Village. "It was inescapable. You would see people who were skinny, skinny skeletons trying to catch their breath, wheelchairs with men in their 20s, the KS [Kaposi's sarcoma]

U.S. researchers have linked a second strain of cholera to the epidemic that decimated the Haitian population in 2010-11. Previous studies have suggested that the epidemic was caused by bacteria inadvertently introduced by Nepalese soldiers who came to assist in recovery from a massive earthquake. The new strain appears to be local in origin, but its role in the epidemic is not clear because this strain does not normally produce epidemics. Haiti suffered a devastating magnitude 7 earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, followed by about 52 aftershocks with a magnitude of 4.5 or higher.

Should drug addiction be considered a disease, or will thinking about addiction in this way only further enable drug users by convincing them that they're powerless? Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the National Drug Control Policy and President Obama's top drug policy advisor, believes so, saying that addiction should be treated as a public health issue . Kerlikowske addressed the issue from the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs on Monday, calling for more accessible rehabilitation and recovery programs.

An epidemic of cholera in the Angolan province of Luanda has afflicted 673 people and left 59 dead since mid-May, the official Angolan news agency reported Monday.

Zimbabwe declared a national emergency as it battled a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 560 people and forced it to appeal for international assistance. The cases have been fueled by the collapse of the water system, which has forced residents to drink from contaminated wells and streams. Economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, isolated by Western countries under President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian rule, has left the health system ill-prepared to cope with the epidemic. There is not enough money to pay doctors and nurses or buy medicine.

Meningitis has killed 1,965 people since an epidemic broke out in November in the West African nation of Niger, health officials said Monday. They said a vaccination campaign is under way.

NEW YORK - In the 30 years that David France, director of the Oscar-nominated AIDS activism documentary "How to Survive a Plague," has lived at the corner of 7th Street and Avenue C, the neighborhood has transformed dramatically. During the worst years of the epidemic in the 1980s, death pervaded this far corner of the East Village. "It was inescapable. You would see people who were skinny, skinny skeletons trying to catch their breath, wheelchairs with men in their 20s, the KS [Kaposi's sarcoma]

In a move to stem the epidemic of prescription drug deaths, a federal advisory panel has recommended tighter controls on a narcotic painkiller best known by the brand name Vicodin. It is the nation's most widely prescribed drug. By a 19-to-10 vote, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended Friday that the agency reclassify hydrocodone, the active ingredient in Vicodin, as a Schedule II narcotic, placing it in the same category as other widely abused medications, including OxyContin and fentanyl.

Re "Diabetes a stubborn foe," Jan. 6 Though the article successfully portrayed indifferent diabetics, it neglected to mention the uncommon diabetics who work out and eat right. I am an 18-year-old diabetic, and while I can attest that diabetes is a terrible illness, most of its consequences can be avoided by putting down the potato chips and picking up a dumbbell. Unfortunately, in this day and age, something so simple is controversial. Eric Herschler Garden Grove Diabetes patients who store candy next to their insulin should be starkly confronted with the very real possibility of death from the disease.

Prescription drug overdoses killed more than 37,000 Americans in 2009, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control; that death rate has tripled since 1990. The increase is not surprising, considering these additional CDC statistics: The number of prescriptions for painkillers has more than quadrupled since 1999, and more than 12 million Americans reported using prescription painkillers for non-medical reasons during 2010. In emergency rooms, more than 1 million patients were treated in 2009 for problems involving prescription painkillers or psychotherapeutic drugs such as anti-anxiety and sleep medications.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Between the high-rises in the dark center of this megacity, a swarm of people covers an entire block. They are in constant, aimless motion, glazed eyes and dirty faces illuminated repeatedly by small flashes of fire. This is cracolandia , or crack land, and the horde is one of many moving settlements of homeless drug addicts that dominate this part of town. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, live here, sleeping and sometimes dying on the streets as other Paulistanos, residents of the fast-moving and gritty city, step past and over them on the way to work or Christmas shopping.

Scientists said Sunday that the Clostridium difficile epidemic from 2002 to 2006 - an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness that spanned hospitals across the globe - was caused by two closely-related strains of the bacterium and not one, as had been previously believed. Trevor Lawley of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England and coauthors from other institutions sequenced the genomes of C. difficile samples collected between 1985 and 2010, mainly from hospital patients.  Analyzing the samples, they found the two lineages of the bacterium,which they named FQR1 and FQR2.

The latest in a recent spate of AIDS-themed documentaries, "How to Survive a Plague" is an exceptional portrait of a community in crisis and the focused fury of its response. Journalist-turned-filmmaker David France set out to make a "witness account" of 1980s Greenwich Village and the rise of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, better known as ACT UP. His film succeeds not just as a vivid chronicle of recent history but as a primer in grassroots activism. France uses present-day interviews sparingly, to poignant effect, and wisely structures the film mainly from unofficial archives he dug up. Much of that footage was shot by frontline participants availing themselves of the newly accessible technology of camcorders, and it lends the doc an in-the-crucible immediacy.

So much stuff has been said about AIDS. Celebrities and everyone else cry bitter tears on TV in their pleas to help in the care, research and plight in general for those who have AIDS. We are all helping to pay for this epidemic. I am not insensitive to the terrible pain it brings to the person and those around him. I am not talking about the Ryan Whites nor the Paul Ganns nor the babies born to infected mothers. My concern is that most AIDS patients got that way knowing the risks and certainly knowing what causes it. My distress is that it is preventable and people are not being responsible.

It's that time of year again. Influenza, a contagious disease characterized by fever, muscle pain and an inflamed respiratory tract, is making its rounds in San Diego. In the past 30 days, five reported cases of influenza were confirmed by laboratory analysis, county health officials said. But, because most doctors don't confirm influenza by sending samples to a lab, "That's only the tip of the iceberg. . . .

An influential group of scientists gathered this week at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., is committing to a goal that just five years ago would have seemed ludicrous: to cure HIV. After studying the virus for more than 30 years and developing potent drugs that transformed the disease from a death sentence into a manageable chronic condition, a growing number of researchers now say the search for a cure should be a major research...

Cheating was, is and probably always will be a fact of life. Recently, technology has provided new ways to cheat, but advanced electronics can't be blamed for our increasing willingness to tolerate it. Once upon a time, being an honorable person included the notion that your word was your bond, and integrity was a crucial element in establishing a good reputation. At least, that was part of the narrative that made up our social compact. My teaching experience tells me, however, that lying and cheating are seen by a lot of kids today as a crucial part of any path to success.