Prof. Chinua Akukwe, global health and prevention and community health, at George Washington University, lectured yesterday at Uris Hall on the African Diaspora Health Initiative launched by the African Union in September 2008. 

Yesterday’s talk, “The Potential Role of Africans in the Diaspora in Improved Healthcare Delivery in Africa” was the first lecture of the “Issues in African Development Special Topic Seminar Series.” The series is designed “to foster awareness of African issues in the University,” according to Evangeline Ray, assistant program coordinator in C.U.’s Institute for African Development. which is sponsoring the lecture series.

There were 177,262 individuals infected with HIV/AIDS in New York as of 2006, according to the most recent data made available by the Kaiser State Health Facts website. 27,645 of these individuals were living in upstate New York. In an effort to combat the transmission of HIV, along with other blood-borne diseases, the Southern Tier AIDS Program and Tompkins County Prevention Point syringe exchange program continue to stand by their harm reduction philosophy, providing sterile syringes and information to the public.

When people suffer from chronic or long-lasting diseases life hangs by a thread. Patients remain under constant monitoring and medical supervision while they slowly recover from illnesses like congestive heart failure (CHF), a condition where the heart is unable to pump enough blood to the rest of the body. Traditionally, this monitoring confined sufferers to an uncomfortable hospital environment surrounded by other threatening diseases. But recent advances in wireless communication technology may soon allow for remote monitoring. Aside from improving patient comfort, “telehealth” may reduce healthcare costs. Telehealth is projected to be a $5 billion industry by 2010.

Sit in any lecture hall during the fall and spring months and you will inevitably hear someone cough or sneeze at least every five minutes. People plagued with allergies during these seasons see them simply as nuisances, but a study conducted by Cornell researchers revealed that allergies may actually help fight some cancers.

While healthy young adults may appear to be the least at risk for health problems, make no mistake — many young adults are uninsured. The current system of health insurance in the United States has placed college students in an incredible bind. Over 13.7 million young adults in the U.S. today do not have health insurance specifically, those between the ages of 19 and 29, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare think tank. With young adults comprise one of the largest segments of America’s uninsured, we can be certain this is a serious domestic issue.

CHICAGO (AP) — More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ.

Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.

The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study.

With classes, social interactions, future goals and constant deadlines, the Cornell world may seem overwhelming enough — but consider this chilling fact: One child dies of malaria every 30 seconds in Africa.

When Babette Stern ’09 and Shoshana Aleinikoff ’08 attended Americans for Informed Democracy’s two-day “Malaria Bootcamp” last January, they felt empowered upon learning that the devastating disease is preventable. They joined with Sarah Mongiello ’09 and Zeke Rediker ’09 to create Cover Africa — a non-profit organization to literally cover Africa with mosquito bed-nets.

In seventh grade, a good friend of mine was out at the typical middle school date hot spot: the movie theater. She had arrived 20 minutes early so as not to miss the previews, and things were getting hot and heavy with the guy of her pubescent dreams. However, “hot and heavy” means a very different thing when you are about to be bar mitzvahed than when you are about to bang like the bells on the top of the clock tower. She was giving this guy a hand job. Jacking him off, if you will.