Reading Room
The reading room includes articles and videos of potential interest to consumers and medical professionals. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the NC Medical Board, its members, and staff. Note: Some links may require registration or subscription.
How do you stay cool without air conditioning?
NPR (via Goats and Soda)
July 27, 2024
Happy dog days of summer, readers!
Heat waves continue and worsen in parts of the world, and temperature records have been breaking all season. Beating the heat is on many people’s minds — including ours. We published Dr. Gulrez Shah Azhar’s suggestions for how to stay cool in the absence of air conditioning – as he did growing up in a part of India where temperatures soared into the 100s. And we asked for your tips and tricks. You send us a heat-relief wave, involving ice, chilled pickles and an Arctic immersion — via TV.
Read More…CDC data shows over 70 Million U.S. adults reported having a disability
CDC
July 16, 2024
The CDC released the annual update to the Disability and Health Data System (DHDS), providing quick and easy online access to state-level health data on adults with disabilities. The latest data, from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), reveal that more than 1 in 4—over 70 million—adults in the United States reported having a disability in 2022.
For the first time, the 2022 BRFSS collected data on experiences with Long COVID, defined as symptoms lasting three months or longer that the person did not have before COVID, to help us better understand the relationship between disabilities and Long COVID. Of particular concern is the finding that Long COVID symptoms were more prevalent among people with disabilities (10.8%) than among those without disabilities (6.6%).
Read More…Bird flu could become a human pandemic. How are countries preparing?
Nature
July 12, 2024
Experts say the bird flu virus infecting dairy herds and some farmworkers is just “a single mutation” from becoming a human pandemic. Read how countries are preparing.
