Part 1: Exploring Healthcare Delivery at Indian Health Service, Navajo Nation (Gallup, NM)

My first week at Indian Health Service (IHS) in Gallup, New Mexico was incredibly diverse. I spent the first couple days in clinic, where I learned about the detection and management of the most common diseases in the community--namely, diabetes, obesity, rheumatologic illnesses, alcohol dependence,...

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Indian Health Service and Navajo Nation

5/9/15It is a Saturday morning in early May here in Gallup, NM, and as I sit down to write this post, I am staring at a flurry of snow outside my window and a blanket of white upon the town. In Boston, the snow often cloaks and transforms the city, but here in Gallup, the snow only shades the imperturbable land and sky. Indeed, what struck me most when I came here was the vastness of the land, of...

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Snapdate: Confirmed Ebola virus disease cases - the end in sight?

I think we're a little bit beyond "jinxing" something by pointing it out, so here is graph of the confirmed Ebola virus disease cases based on the World Health Organization report date (Situation summary or Situation Report), including a basic model to predict when cases may hit zero, if nothing changes.The...

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The mechanics of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)...a primer

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique for copying a piece of DNA a billion-fold. As the name suggests, the process creates a chain of many pieces, in this case the pieces are nucleotides and the chain is a strand of DNA.PCR is an enzyme-mediated reaction, and as with any enzyme, the reaction...

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PCR primers...a primer!

A DNA Down Under postPCR (described here) functions mainly because of two components - a thermostable DNA polymerase and a pair of DNA 'primers'. Primers are short, made to order, stretches of oligonucleotides ('oligos' - from Greek meaning scanty or few). Modern oligos can be synthesized in lengths...

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Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)...a primer

A DNA Down Under postThe polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique for copying a chain of DNA as many as a billion times. It purpose is so that we can use some form of technology to detect what would otherwise be too little material to see in the first place. The process of PCR is covered on the...

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The third outbreak of influenza A(H7N9) virus seems to be over...

Cumulative curves of reported H7N9 cases and deaths in humans.Click on graph to enlarge.By the looks of the curve on the right, the rush of cases that defined the third known outbreak of the low pathogenicity avian influenza A virus subtype, H7N9, is over...for another season anyway. If we get...

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Hubei province listed its first H7N9 case in April...some rare detail

A new province was recently added to the list of those reporting cases of avian influenza A(H7N9) virus infection in humans. Of course reporting does not mean capturing. Reporting has been weak this season. The cases that have shown seem to be just those who were ill enough to visit a Doctor/hospital...

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