Is it any wonder there’s a mental health crisis when the state of the country is so depressing, asks Arthur Ellis, whose own 'mental health walks' around the dystopian streets of London only made things worse.
The post My Therapist Told Me to Go for a Walk. London Had Other Ideas appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
First published in Respekt, adapted by EUobserver
Unsavoury news comes from Russia often these days. But the latest unexpected development is the spread of a deadly disease.
Behind the mysterious death of a young woman in Siberia in early October was reportedly pneumonic plague – a disease so contagious it is considered as bad as anthrax, smallpox, and Ebola.
Local authorities in Russia have denied the plague as cause of death, but despite this, they have implemented anti-epidemic measures.
Eva Hrncirova, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said on Thursday (8 October): “Russia should make information about the plague available as soon as possible. This is what we need”.
“We had a meeting with the member states yesterday within the [EU Commission’s] Health Security Committee, and with the WHO [World Health Organization], who are in contact with our delegation in Moscow,” she said.
Russia was asked by the WHO to share “timely, precise, and exact information” about the possible plague in Siberia, she also said.
“We don’t have enough information to assess the epidemiological situation,” she added.
Pneumonic plague disease can be treated with antibiotics if detected early, but officials beyond Russia’s borders are left with worrying questions.
Did an Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute lab technician in Shelekhov (Siberia) really die of plague?
If so, was it a natural version of the disease, or a more dangerous bacterium modified in military labs?
And what is the risk of the Middle Ages-era disease spreading?
Pneumonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis — the same one that once brought devastating plague epidemics known as the Black Death.
The pneumonic form of plague, a disease that killed up to half of Europe’s population in the 14th century, spreads through droplets by coughing or sneezing.
It manifests as severe, rapidly developing pneumonia that almost always ends in death if left untreated. But if antibiotics are administered in time (ideally within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms), the disease is treatable.
Independent Russian-language media say that Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old laboratory technician at the research and hygiene institute in question, accidentally broke a test tube containing plague bacteria in late September, became infected and died in hospital several days later, on 2 October.
Authorities have not confirmed the cause of the woman’s death, letting on only that she died of pneumonia and claiming that no microorganisms connected with her work had been found in her body.
Some 200 of her contacts were subsequently put into quarantine with medical supervision.
Authorities also ordered a three-week quarantine at several hospitals in the wider area, and facemasks for the wider population – even for schoolchildren.
Russia’s neighbours, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, have all introduced border controls.
Russia said the epidemic situation in the area was stable, that none of the deceased woman’s contacts had shown signs of infection, and that there was no cause for concern.
However, the head of Russia’s public health authority reportedly travelled to Irkutsk to attend a meeting with local officials, while residents of Shelekhov report that people in protective suits are moving around the town.
And epidemiologists say it is simply not possible that Russia’s public health service would resort to such dramatic measures, including closing hospitals, over a single case of ‘pneumonia of unknown origin’ .
The institute where the laboratory technician worked is said to be a civilian facility that, among other things, researches and monitors the incidence of plague.
In Siberia, especially near the borders with China and Mongolia, the bacteria in question still circulate among animals and occasionally infect humans, as they do in some parts of Africa, where the disease is most common.
This article continues, but the full version is available only to EUobserver.com subscribers. Visit account.euobserver.com/membership
The horrific story of Jane Doe and the Cornell Seven has spurred nationwide outrage and revived contentious debates around prevention and education. But one question is going unasked: Who really pays after a sexual assault? In terms of actual dollars and cents? The answer, Cosmopolitan finds, isn’t good:
Leah received an email from the first hospital. It was a bill for $3,338, including $663 for lab work and a pregnancy test she hadn’t asked for. She hadn’t been charged for the rape kit, but the price of just checking into the ER was $2,241. After her parents’ insurance was applied, she owed $451.06.
“I was so unbelievably angry,” she says. “I lost it. I was like, ‘You mean it cost me $450 to get raped?!’”
Most people don’t realize this care might not be covered, says Vega, who has worked as an emergency room nurse, emergency room director, and a SANE. But that’s actually common: KFF analyzed a sample of insurance claim data from 2016 to 2018 (the most up-to-date data KFF has) and found that 83 percent of women who received a sexual violence diagnosis were billed for treatment. Another analysis of emergency room department data from 2019 found that the average bill for sexual assault survivors was $3,551, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
Every now and again, the weight seemed so great that there was an almost irresistible pull to stop struggling against it and simply allow the stones to take her down.
The post I’m sorry I’m sad appeared first on Portugal Resident.
Login