Health

Customers who ate at a seafood restaurant in Jackson County, Mississippi, may have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus, state health officials said Tuesday. The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) said it is investigating two cases of the disease in employees of Brady's Steaks and Seafood in the city of Pascagoula—located on the Gulf Coast. The two employees have been diagnosed with hepatitis A , and health officials said that the staff members had worked at the restaurant while potentially infectious, which could have led to "possible exposure" for customers. Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus. Individuals can become infected by ingesting contaminated food or water, or via close contact with a person who is infected—including sexual contact. The virus is most often spread via what is known as the "fecal-oral" route. This refers to when an individual eats or drinks something that contains small quantities of unseen fecal …

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A group of nearly 60 major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association, called on Monday for mandatory vaccination of health care workers. As the highly contagious Delta variant drives a new surge of coronavirus cases, vaccination is an ethical obligation for health care workers, the groups said in a joint statement . “Due to the recent Covid-19 surge and the availability of safe and effective vaccines, our health care organizations and societies advocate that all health care and long-term care employers require their workers to receive the Covid-19 vaccine,” the statement said. “This is the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment of all health care workers to put patients as well as residents of long-term care facilities first and take all steps necessary to ensure their health and well-being.” The statement was signed by a wide array of professional associations, including those representing doctors, nurses, …

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2 LONDON (AP) — The British government has tripled its pay increase offer for more than a million National Health Service employees in England, but unions said the proposed boost was insufficient given an anticipated spike in inflation. In a statement Wednesday, the Department of Health and Social Care said it had accepted the recommendations of a pay review body that NHS workers, including nurses, paramedics, medical specialists and dentists, receive a 3% pay hike backdated to April. The government had previously signaled it would only give a 1% increase but came under pressure to offer more. The department said the offer would mean an extra 1,000 pounds ($1,370) per year for the average nurse and 540 pounds ($740) for porters and cleaners. “NHS staff are rightly receiving a pay rise this year despite the wider public sector pay pause, in recognition of their extraordinary efforts,” said Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who remained in self-isolation …

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It does not require any higher wisdom to know that there is considerable risk to public health during massive religious gatherings in the midst of a pandemic. Yet, it took some prodding by the Supreme Court for Uttar Pradesh to cancel the annual Kanwar Yatra . The yatra, in which Kanwarias, devotees of Shiva , make a pilgrimage to collect water from the Ganga, was not held last year due to COVID-19 . This year, it was scheduled to start on July 25. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath appeared keen that the pilgrimage be held this year, and had convened a meeting on July 9 to discuss preparations and security arrangements, along with putting measures in place to avoid the spread of COVID-19 infection. However, the Court was perturbed by reports of the plan to conduct the yatra, resulting in the initiation of suo motu proceedings. Disagreeing with even the idea of a ‘symbolic yatra’ in deference to religious sentiment, the Court had reiterated a principle that is being …

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Salt Lake City’s mayor and city council adopted a joint resolution on Tuesday declaring racism a public health crisis and saying that the city is taking steps to “confront the systems that have resulted in generational injustice and health inequities.” In the joint resolution, the council and mayor stated that racism harmfully impacts the physical and mental health of communities of color, creating both preventable and measurable health disparities. “We are publicly acknowledging the existence of a grave inequity many in our community have long experienced, and are committing ourselves to creating policies and ordinances that are anti-racist,” Mayor Erin Mendenhall (D) said in a tweet on Tuesday. ADVERTISEMENT . @slccouncil and I signed a joint resolution declaring racism a public health crisis. We are publicly acknowledging the existence of a grave inequity many in our community have long experienced, and are committing ourselves to creating policies and …

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After Jessica W. was laid off from her job as an executive assistant in November, she began backsliding into the eating disorder that she thought she had overcome. “I started to not want to eat again,” Jessica, 33, said. “Those thoughts and behaviors — they’re just debilitating and they drain you. It becomes a constant battle with yourself.” Jessica, whose last name has been withheld to protect her privacy as she searches for a new job, was also struggling with anxiety and depression. So she went online and started searching for mental health providers in Connecticut, where she lives. One of the therapists she called wasn’t accepting new patients. Two of them told Jessica that they didn’t have the right skill sets to help her. Others simply didn’t respond. “It’s emotionally draining to tell your story,” she said. “You have to be resilient.” Since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in the United States more than a year ago , the number of people in need of mental …

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The test President Donald Trump specifically asked to take to prove his cognitive abilities can't tell us anything about his psychiatric health, experts say. White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, who is also a rear admiral in the Navy, announced at a press conference on Tuesday that Trump got a perfect score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA). Information about the test is normally available online ; since Tuesday night, however, the site has been intermittently unavailable. PDF copies of the test were still available online from other sources, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs . The test asks people to repeat sentences exactly, draw a cube, remember five words and name animals, including lions, camels and rhinoceroses. "I think it's important to understand what the MOCA does and doesn't tell you," Columbia University psychiatrist Dr. Paul Appelbaum told Newsweek . The test was developed as a simple screening tool for mild cognitive impairment—a …

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The hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe had some less than complimentary things to say about Ronny Jackson, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Confirmation hearings for Jackson—the current White House physician—have been delayed this week amid what Senator Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) described to NPR as "serious" but "unsubstantiated allegations." There have been concerns about Jackson's ability to head the massive VA bureaucracy and reports that suggest improper behavior in the workplace. Prior to receiving the VA nomination, Jackson made headlines for a January press conference during which he glowed about Trump's health. During the conference, Jackson said that with a better diet, the former reality TV star could live to be 200. "That display about the president's health I thought was quite incredible," host Mika Brzezinski said Tuesday morning, via a clip posted to Mediaite . "Incredible is a very nice word for it, Mika," …

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MENTAL health has been a hot topic over the last few months in Malaysia and other countries due in part to the strain brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. Should individuals suddenly find themselves in need of consulting a mental health professional, here are some pointers on what they should consider. Most high-functioning adults would require the services of a professional counsellor to meet their mental health needs as they face stressors in life, such as relationship problems, isolation due to the pandemic, grief from loss of a loved one, mild depression, mild anxieties and social discrimination. Counsellors are trained to help their clients navigate roadblocks in the mind using talk therapy, which has multiple bases. These include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), person-centred therapy, systemic family therapy, art therapy, and humanistic therapy. These approaches are usually sufficient to help people overcome their mental roadblocks and achieve wellness, especially if …

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Delrisa Sewell-Henry, a home health aide, was resigned to spending two hours on a bus and three subway trains just to get across Queens to care for a disabled man. But when one train recently stopped for a sick passenger, her commute expanded to a mind-boggling three hours and 15 minutes. She was late. To make up the lost time, she stayed longer with her patient instead of picking up her granddaughter from school. She had to enlist a neighbor to do that — for $35. Then last week, another train was delayed. And she was late again. “It makes me angry,” said Ms. Sewell-Henry, 54, who earns $13 an hour. “It’s not like we’re sitting around watching T.V. and doing nothing. We’re doing something. We have to be there on time.” By now, the many ways New York City’s failing subway system has upended countless lives have been well documented. But a new report finds that no group has been hurt more than the city’s army of health care workers who fan out across the city every day to take …

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