Reporter recounts fellowship visit to CDC
Filed under: Government, Health journalism, Health policy
This is a guest post from Winnie Yu, a freelance journalist based in Voorheesville, N.Y. She was among this year’s class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows who spent last week studying public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The fellows met with Ali S. Khan, M.D., M.P.H., assistant surgeon general and director of the CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. (Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJ)
Life can get lonely when you work as a freelance writer. So it was a real thrill for me last week when I got the chance to attend the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellowship and listen to experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discuss the most pressing health issues of our day.
Ten journalists from around the country came to Atlanta to hear presentations on topics as varied as motor vehicle safety, vaccines, patient safety and prescription drug abuse. It was quickly apparent that the CDC is much more than the authority on when to get your vaccines.
We heard from numerous experts, including Mike Bell, M.D., associate director for Infection Control for the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion; William Dietz, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion; and Ann Albright, Ph.D., R.D., director of the Division of Diabetes Translation for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. We also enjoyed a brief presentation from the CDC’s director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
Each day ended with a tour. We saw the CDC’s emergency operations center, walked through the tobacco lab and peered in at scientists probing for foodborne illnesses. We looked at viruses under a microscope, marveled at slides the size of a pinhead (used under an electron microscope) and winced at the amount of nicotine that smokers continue to inhale from cigarettes.
And while I couldn’t get the tour guide to tell us where the United States hides its stockpile of smallpox - Russia has the only other one - I was amazed by the challenges that researchers must endure in order to work in the pathogen labs, including chemical showers and protective suits that preclude regular visits to the bathroom. Not surprisingly, we learned that a calm and even temperament is a requirement for the job.
No doubt, some of the information we already knew: Americans weigh more than ever. Autism is on the rise. Diabetes is a major health issue. But we also learned that polio remains a persistent problem in some parts of the world, tuberculosis still afflicts some segments of our population and the United States takes its role as a world leader seriously when it comes to public health.
It was truly an honor to be part of this fellowship, to get an up-close glimpse of the CDC and to share my time with a great group of journalists who were smart, funny and great dinner companions. I have no doubt the experience will spawn story ideas, beef up our source lists and provide ample background for future articles. I know it will for me.
Find health data at Childstats.gov, a clearinghouse for kid numbers
Filed under: Children, Government, Health data, Health journalism, Public records, Tools
Time to add another link to your “federal data clearinghouses” folder, if you haven’t already. Childstats.gov, published by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, synthesizes data from the CDC, NCHS, National Children’s Survey, AHRQ, Census and other specialized programs.
Photo by nasa hq photo via FlickrThe site is anchored by its annual report, “America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being,” and the easy-to-navigate nature of its databases seems to have already inspired some discussion on Twitter, particularly in relation to child homelessness.
Many of the data tools are simply links to general surveys (like AHRQ’s National Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project) that just happen to contain child-related information, but there are some more specifically relevant data sources, the best of which I’ve listed below.
- Data Resource Center for Child & Adolescent Health
- The National Children’s Study
- The National Center for Education Statistics
- Find Youth Info (findyouthinfo.gov)
- Census Child Care data
Health officials clashed over alerting public to fungal infection in wake of Joplin tornado
Filed under: Health journalism, Hospitals, Hot Health Headline, Public records
Following the devastating tornado in Joplin, Mo., county public health officials found themselves in conflict with state officials about alerting the public to an aggressive fungal infection that was showing up in people who were injured in the storm and its aftermath.
According to emails obtained by Sarah Okeson of the Springfield, Mo., News-Leader, state officials were concerned about panicking the public and declined to issue the alert.
Photo by Red Cross: Carl Manning GKCARC via Flickr
Local officials, on the other hand, say they wanted to “ensure that any hospital/health care provider would recognize the illness in a timely manner and begin aggressive anti-fungal treatment.” Faced with a denial from the state, the local officials issued a limited alert to 43 health care contacts and to health care providers.
A week after the county’s request – and two days after the News-Leader ran a story written by Okeson about the fungal infections – the state issued a health advisory.
The infections drew the interest of federal officials, including Benjamin Park, who leads an epidemiology team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Park repeatedly emailed acting state epidemiologist Dr. George Turabelidze offering assistance and emphasizing that “There could be some important public health information that is obtained from this (risk factors, exposures, environmental sampling?) that would be important for future disaster events.” In one email, Park refers to receiving “inquiries all the way up to HHS secretary about this.”
Guidance for releasing information in a public health crisis
The Association of Health Care Journalists recently worked with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) to develop guidelines for releasing information in a public health crisis.
“Stories like these raise questions about how public health agencies respond to outbreaks,” said Charles Ornstein, president of AHCJ’s board of directors. “That’s why I’m particularly glad that AHCJ has worked alongside ASTHO and NACCHO to come up with guidance about the type of information that should be released in public health emergencies. Working collaboratively, journalists and public health officials can improve the information shared during outbreaks and earn the public’s trust.”
The guidelines include advice to health official to consider publicizing an illness or death when “A major epidemic or novel illness is emerging, or a natural disaster or other major event affecting public health has occurred or is anticipated.”
The guidance emphasizes the importance of openness, stating that information should be withheld only when there is a clearly justified reason.
Related
- Joplin hospital staff took action during disaster
- Doctors operated by flashlight, workers scrambled in tornado-ravaged hospital
- Health officials, journalists agree on standards
- Guidance on the release of information concerning deaths, epidemics or emerging diseases
- CDC: Rare fungus risk in future tornadoes
- CDC releases report about Joplin fungus
- Fungus infects tornado victim
- Woman who survived Joplin tornado dies with rare fungus
International cooperative to share health data
Filed under: Europe, Health data, Health policy, Hot Health Headline, Public health, Public records, Tools
Writing that “the importance of data sharing in advancing health is becoming increasingly widely recognised,” 17 major public health players entities, from the CDC and AHRQ to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and the World Bank, have banded together to form a sort of data cooperative around the Wellcome Trust and the Hewlett foundation. In a Lancet commentary announcing the initiative, Wellcome director Mark Walport and Hewlett president Paul Brest write that, while fields such as genetics and molecular biology, a mature data-sharing system has sped up discoveries and increased efficiency, public health is lagging behind.
Much of the infrastructures, technical standards, and incentives that are needed to support data sharing are lacking, and these data can hold particular sensitivities. And some researchers are reluctant to share data. Too often, data are treated as the private property of investigators who aim to maximise their publication record at the expense of the widest possible use of the data. This situation threatens to limit both the progress of this research and its application for public health benefit.
Each organization will work within its own structure and their initial goals include the creation of data standards to facilitate sharing as well as increasing the prestige of creating public data sets. They acknowledge there will be some bumps along the way, but call on other organizations to join the initiative and to pursue the long-term goal of the widespread, fair and privacy-respecting sharing of public health data.
New stats: 1 in 6 get foodborne illnesses each year
More precise estimates than previously available find that one in six Americans suffer foodborne illnesses annually and that 3,000 die of such diseases.
The CDC says the newly released reports are the most accurate to date. They are “the first comprehensive estimates since 1999 and are CDC’s first to estimate illnesses caused solely by foods eaten in the United States.” According to the CDC’s release, these estimates are lower than those in the 1999 report, largely because of “improvements in the quality and quantity of the data used and new methods used to estimate foodborne-disease. ”
The articles are in the January 2011 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases:
• Foodborne Illness Acquired in the United States—Major Pathogens (PDF)
• Foodborne Illness Acquired in the United States—Unspecified Agents (PDF)
Other findings:
- Salmonella was the leading cause of estimated hospitalizations and deaths
- About 90 percent of estimated illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths were due to seven pathogens: Salmonella, norovirus, Campylobacter, Toxoplasma, E.coli O157, Listeria and Clostridium perfringens.
- Nearly 60 percent of estimated illnesses, but a much smaller proportion of severe illness, was caused by norovirus.
The reports were the subject of a telebriefing this morning; the transcript should be available later.
Additional resources
- Fatal Food: A study of illness outbreaks
- Lifting the shroud: Using multiple-cause-of-death data
- FDA Reform: The Time Has Come (Nancy Donley presentation)
- Why Is It So Difficult to Prevent Foodborne Illnesses? (Michael Doyle presentation)
- Reporting on the intersection of health and the environment
- Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy
- Outbreak Alert! Database
Fellows learn about BRFSS data on trends in health
This is a guest post from Lara Salahi, of ABC News. She is one of 11 AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows visiting the CDC this week.
I’ve been assigned the disease topic, perhaps even given the gist of the headline. And now I’ve got a few good hours to meet my deadline.
The 2010 AHCJ-CDC fellows take a break from their busy week in Atlanta. They are: (front row) Raymond Hainer, Health.com / Time Inc.; Meredith Matthews, Current Health Teens magazine/Weekly Reader; Ruby de Luna, KUOW-Seattle Public Radio; Kevin McCarthy, Consumer Reports/Consumers Union; (second row) Margaret Haskell, Bangor Daily News; Felice Freyer, The Providence Journal; Katherine Harmon, Scientific American; (back) Lara Salahi, ABC News; Rong Lin II, Los Angeles Times; Miranda Van Gelder, Martha Stewart Living; and Jori Lewis, freelance journalist & radio producer.
The patient story: compelling.
The expert opinion: piece of cake.
But finding accurate and current data that will pull the story into perspective? Suddenly I can hear the minutes taken from writing ticking away, one hour of research at a time.
Chalk this scenario up on the list of “You know you’re a daily reporter/producer when…” you’re the only one who wishes there were more hours in a workday.
Readers and viewers want to know how common a health issue is in their state, or whether a health trend has increased or decreased over time.
The CDC website is so expansive; it’s hard to tell where to start. But the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, or BRFSS, is a quick link to bookmark. BRFSS publishes annual prevalence and trends data on health issues such as diabetes, health care access, and oral health.
Lina Balluz, acting director of the Division of Behavior Surveillance at the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, walked the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows through finding the analyzed self-reported data from telephone-based questionnaires.
BRFSS is one of the fastest data collection methods analyzed on a given health issue, said Balluz. The system includes national data, stratified by states. It’s one tool that may help add perspective to a story and cut the time spent searching.
Editor’s note: For help finding additional information on the CDC website, we recommend AHCJ’s “Navigating the CDC: A Journalist’s Guide to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web Site.”
Other dispatches from the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows:
- Expect developments in screening, treatment for hepatitis C
- CDC: Cholera has spread throughout Haiti
- Diabetes project coming from the CDC
AHCJ-CDC Fellows learn about diabetes project
Editor’s note: This post, from the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows‘ visit to the CDC, originally reported the CDC is close to launching a diabetes project. In fact, the National Diabetes Prevention Program launched in April 2010 and the CDC continues to expand the program, which currently has 28 sites.
The Diabetes Prevention Program clinical trial, according to the CDC, is “designed to bring evidence-based programs for preventing type 2 diabetes to communities. The program supports establishing a network of lifestyle intervention programs for overweight or obese people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” including dietary changes, coping skills and group support. More information about lifestyle interventions is available from the YMCA and UnitedHealth Group.
More about the visit to the CDC:
Meredith Matthews, of Current Health Teens magazine/Weekly Reader, wrote a blog post wrote about the visit, reporting that the fellows visited the CDC’s emergency operations center, which is monitoring the cholera outbreak in Haiti. They also heard from CDC director Thomas Frieden, M.D., who Matthews says answered all of the fellows questions.
Other dispatches from the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows:
- CDC: Cholera has spread throughout Haiti
- Expect developments in screening, treatment for hepatitis C
CDC: Cholera has spread throughout Haiti
Ron Lin, of the Los Angeles Times, reports that cholera has spread throughout Haiti, according to CDC officials speaking to the CDC-AHCJ Health Journalism Fellows in Atlanta yesterday.
The disease, caused by a bacteria that spreads through tainted drinking water, also is turning up in the Dominican Republic. A Dec. 8 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report says 91,770 cases have been reported nationwide and 43,243 patients had been hospitalized. More than 2,000 have died.
At a community training event in Haiti, aid workers demonstrate how to make a rehydration solution for a patient with cholera.
Photo by EDV Media Director via Flickr
The report comes a day after the Associated Press reported that a contingent of U.N. peacekeepers was the likely source of the cholera outbreak, citing a report written by a scientist who was sent by the French government to assist Haitian health officials.
Soldiers who arrived at the U.N. base, upstream from where the first cases of cholera were reported, soon before the cholera outbreak came from Nepal, according to the story.
Dr. Jordan W. Tappero, director of the Health System Reconstruction Office at the CDC’s Center for Global Health, did tell reporters that the CDC did analyze the cholera strain in Haiti and identified it as a strain that is circulating in South Asia.
Lin is one of 11 AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows visiting the CDC this week. The fellows are attending sessions on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, pandemic flu preparedness, climate change, vaccine safety, obesity, autism and have toured the CDC director’s National Emergency Operations Center.
Other dispatches from the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows:
Expect developments in screening, treatment for hepatitis C
This is a guest post from Felice J. Freyer, a medical writer at The Providence (R.I.) Journal. Freyer, an AHCJ board member, is one of 11 AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows visiting the CDC this week.
Felice J. Freyer
One in 30 people born between 1945 and 1965 – the Baby Boom generation – suffer from hepatitis C, a viral infection that can lead to liver cancer.
But the majority of infected people don’t know they have it.
That may change soon, and journalists should keep their ears perked for developments that will lead to good stories about hepatitis, Dr. John Ward, director of the Viral Hepatitis Program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows this morning.
The CDC is in the process of developing screening guidelines in the hope of encouraging more people to get tested for hepatitis C. Current guidelines call for asking people about risk factors, such as intravenous drug use, that many may not want to disclose or consider part of their distant past, Ward said. The new guidelines may be based on age and other factors rather than just behaviors, he said.
Additionally, the FDA is considering approval of a new, more effective drug against hepatitis C. “We are on the cusp of a revolution in hepatitis C treatment,” Ward said.
The 11 AHCJ-CDC fellows today completed the third of four days at the CDC, where they have met with CDC experts on food-borne illness, diabetes, influenza, health care-acquired infections and other topics, as well as touring the CDC emergency operations center and laboratories in Atlanta.
Other dispatches from the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows:
11 chosen as 2010-11 AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows
The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced the selection of the third class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows. The 11 journalists will spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The fellowship program will include presentations, roundtable discussions and lab tours on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, obesity, vaccine safety, pandemic flu preparedness, autism and many other topics.
The 2010-11 AHCJ-CDC fellows are:
- Ruby de Luna, KUOW-Seattle Public Radio
- Felice Freyer, The Providence Journal
- Raymond Hainer, Health.com / Time Inc.
- Katherine Harmon, Scientific American
- Margaret Haskell, Bangor Daily News
- Jori Lewis, freelance journalist & radio producer
- Rong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
- Meredith Matthews, Current Health Teens magazine/Weekly Reader
- Kevin McCarthy, Consumer Reports/Consumers Union
- Lara Salahi, ABC News
- Miranda Van Gelder, Martha Stewart Living
Fellows will tour the CDC director’s National Emergency Operations Center, meet sources on policy and research and learn how to tap the agency’s abundant resources to produce better stories. The training will take place in December at CDC’s Atlanta and Chamblee campuses.
The CDC is charged with protecting public health and safety by preventing and controlling diseases and injuries; enhancing health decisions by providing credible information on critical health issues; and promoting healthy living through strong partnerships with local, national and international organizations.
AHCJ is a nonprofit membership organization of more than 1,000 journalists interested in health and health care. It conducts training and creates other educational materials through its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. AHCJ is housed at the Missouri School of Journalism.
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