Emergency Preparedness

Labor Day: Double issue!

One of the best ways we can honor our country’s workforce is to stay informed on the many issues that affect their health and safety. This Friday, we commemorate the millions of hardworking migrants in our country with a Labor Day Double Issue of Five on Friday. That’s right -- ten articles, calls to action, research papers, webinar announcements and more, all recommended by MCN staff to help keep you updated in the world of migrant health.

Our work is focused on migrants in the US, but that work necessarily encompasses borders that are thousands of miles away. This week’s Five on Friday takes us around the world and into our own backyard to explore the cultures and policies that shape the day-to-day life of migrants.

Happy Friday! Here are some articles, talks, and resources that caught the eye of MCN employees this week. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Editor’s Note: MCN’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ed Zuroweste is in West Africa to provide trainings to incoming clinicians on properly treating Ebola at Ebola treatment centers (ETCs).  This is Ed’s second journey to Africa to assist in training clinicians on emergency response. This time, he is stationed in Guinea and Sierra Leone, at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. His weeks there are sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has organized the trainings. This is Ed’s summary of the first week in the field, in Conakry, Guinea.

EDIT: MCN is saddened to hear Thomas Duncan has passed away. We offer our condolences to his family and friends.

On September 25, Thomas Eric Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, with an unspecified illness. During the intake interview with the nurse, he noted that he had recently returned from Liberia, the country at the epicenter of the Ebola virus, which has already claimed the lives of more than 3400 people in West Africa. 

MCN’s Chief Medical Director, Ed Zuroweste, was asked by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a lead trainer for an international effort to train primary care clinicians in Africa to handle the Ebola crisis.  Here is Ed’s update from Uganda, where the third day of training has just finished.

There is a critical outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in California: it is classified now as an epidemic. Five infants, all Latino, have died. This is due to unrecognized pertussis in older children and adults which then infects babies before they’ve had a chance to get their shots.