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REPORT: Public Health Officials Make Shocking Discovery At Gene Hackman’s Home

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The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDH) reportedly discovered that Gene Hackman’s property was infested by rodents.

Authorities carried out an environmental assessment one week after the famous actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their New Mexico home, according to TMZ. Dead rodents and their nests found in eight detached outbuildings on Hackman’s property, the health report said. Authorities discovered rodent feces in three garages, two casitas and three sheds situated on the premises. Three detached garages held a living rodent, a dead rodent and a rodent nest.

There were two vehicles on Hackman’s property that also had indications of rodents and nests with observations of the animals noted in the health report.

Investigators located live traps installed in the outbuildings, indicating that the infestation was a continuing problem for the star, and Hackman and Arakawa were likely aware of the issue, according to TMZ.

The outlet reported that the NMDH conducted a risk assessment March 5 to ensure first responders attending the scene and family members who had made their way onto the property were not at risk. The primary residence was deemed to be low-risk, with no indications of rodents inside the home, according to TMZ. (Read more from “REPORT: Public Health Officials Make Shocking Discovery At Gene Hackman’s Home” HERE)

NIH Spends $3 Million To Study Health Risks of “Dating” Mexican Prostitutes

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Photo Credit: APJust how dangerous is it to your health to shack up with a Mexican hooker? That’s the question at the heart of a five-year, $3,029,663 study by researchers at the University of California San Diego funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The five-year study is taking the first-ever look at the love lives – and sexually transmitted diseases – of 200 prostitutas mexicanas and their “non-commercial” male partners.

Based on previous research, UCSD scientists have been able to determine conclusively that the “non-commercial male partners” of Mexican prostitutes are very likely to pick up and spread their partners’ sexually-transmitted diseases, and may in fact be “significant drivers of HIV/STI acquisition and/or their re-infection.”

Begun in 2009, the Mexican prostitute study has already been receiving federal funding of over half a million dollars annually, and the $3 million price tag does not include the as-of-yet undetermined 2014 grant for the study’s final year.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Gun Control Agenda Now Attempts to Link Public Health Issues to Gun Ownership

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In the near future, Americans who own or want guns likely will be subject to rafts of new questions from social scientists, medical researchers and law enforcement officials intent to discover just what guns they own, why they own them and what they intend to use them for — not to mention where and how they keep them.

They will also likely have more researchers poring over such issues as whether childhood education programs against gun violence actually work; whether there actually is any relationship between violence in the media and in real life; and whether the safety plans that were drawn up by schools, colleges and communities in the wake of highly publicized mass shootings actually are effective.

Those and many other gun-related questions are the thrust of a new social science research agenda that the Obama administration hopes will keep the push for gun control alive for years to come.

The research agenda is intended to produce mammoth amounts of raw data on American gun owners, users and their circumstances, meaning that violence resulting from firearms use will be studied for “its causes, approaches to interventions that could prevent it, and strategies to minimize its health burden”…

The agenda, which aims to sidestep Second Amendment political and constitutional issues of gun ownership through its public health focus, was released earlier this month in a 124-page report titled, “Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearms Related Violence.” It was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) with financial support from private foundations.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Medicine Facing Crisis: Only 25% of New Doctors Becoming Primary Care Physicians, Rural Areas Face Severe Shortages (+video)

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photo credit: jillk61

Despite a shortage of U.S. primary care doctors, less than 25 percent of new doctors go into this field, and fewer still work in rural areas, researchers say.

Lead study author Dr. Candice Chen, an assistant research professor of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, said the study also found only 4.8 percent of the new primary care physicians set up shop in rural areas.

“If residency programs do not ramp up the training of these physicians the shortage in primary care, especially in remote areas, will get worse,” Chen said in a statement. “The study’s findings raise questions about whether federally funded graduate medical education institutions are meeting the nation’s need for more primary care physicians.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Why MERS Virus is Terrifying Scientists Throughout the World

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Photo Credit: CNN

By Laurie Garrett. The head of the World Health Organization warned the world this week of a new virus, awkwardly dubbed MERS-CoV, found in Saudi Arabia.

“Looking at the overall global situation, my greatest concern right now is the novel coronavirus,” Margaret Chan said, calling it “a threat to the entire world.”

“We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat,” the director general said in her closing speech to the 66th session of the World Health Assembly. “Any new disease that is emerging faster than our understanding is never under control.

“These are alarm bells and we must respond. The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself.” Read more from this story HERE.

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UPDATE: MERS Virus Hits Death Toll Of 33 As New Cases Continue To Plague Middle East

By Samantha Olson. A 21-year-old man from Saudi Arabia has died this week after being placed in intensive care for the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which has brought the worldwide death toll up to 33, according to the World Health Organization.

Three new laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS were announced this week. The Saudi Ministry released a statement, which announced the young man’s death and the two other cases located in Saudi Arabia’s eastern governorate of Al-Ahsa.

All 58 cases of MERS across the globe since September 2012 have been linked to the Middle East and a majority of the disease cases have come from Al-Ahsa. The Saudi Arabia ministry announced the new cases and death only a day after saying it had made progress in its efforts to fight MERS outbreaks.

Researchers from Saudi Arabia and the UK have fully mapped out the genetic series from four infected cases of the MERS virus, according to the health ministry’s statement. Read more from this story HERE.

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2 more cases reported in Italy, total in Europe rises to 11

By WHO/Europe. The Ministry of Health in Italy, through the European Union’s Early Warning Response System, has notified WHO of 2 more laboratory-confirmed cases with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the country.

Both the patients are close contacts of the recent laboratory-confirmed case of a 45-year-old man who had travelled to Jordan. The first patient is a two-year-old girl and the second patient is a 42-year-old woman. All three cases are in stable condition.

The man had returned to Italy on 25 May 2013 with symptoms of cough and fatigue. His condition deteriorated and he was hospitalised on 28 May 2013. Laboratory test was conducted by the influenza reference laboratory of Tuscany and confirmed by the National Center of NHI (Istituto Superiore di sanità). Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Pay For Study On Why Lesbians Are Fat

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

A Harvard-affiliated hospital will study why so many lesbians are overweight, thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the federal government.

The grant was recently approved by the National Institutes of Health. It will allow Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a medical center affiliated with Harvard University, to examine an issue of “high public-health significance,” in the words of researchers.

Three quarters of gay women are obese, according to the grant for the study. But gay men have much lower obesity rates than heterosexual men—a discrepancy for which there is no scientific explanation, said researchers.

An NIH spokesperson claimed that the study would be in the best interests of public health.

Read more from this story HERE.

Piers Morgan Receives Flu Vaccine Injection from Dr. Oz, Then gets Sick

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Photo Credit: thisiscowIn a recent publicity stunt gone terribly but humorously wrong, Piers Morgan, the infamous CNN personality and British journalist whose unconstitutional views on gun control have sparked petitions for his deportation, agreed to take his first ever flu shot during a live taping of The Dr. Oz Show that aired on January 11, 2013. But just 10 days later, Morgan, who promised to “go after” Oz if he developed the flu following the shot, ironically came down with flu-like symptoms that all but debilitated him from hosting his own Piers Morgan Tonight show.

An obvious ploy to both quell the growing public distrust of the flu shot and advocate for its alleged safety and effectiveness, Morgan agreed to be this year’s media guinea pig in receiving a flu shot injection directly from vaccine advocate Dr. Mehmet Oz, who we recently exposed as being a shill for industrial agriculture. In front of a live studio audience, Morgan rolled up his sleeve and received the injection to help dispel the “myth” that flu shots cause the flu or are in any way dangerous.

But just a few days later, Piers reportedly began to develop flu-like symptoms that clearly inhibited his ability to speak properly. His symptoms quickly worsened, prompting him to publish a “tweet” on January 23, just 11 days after getting his flu shot, explaining that his voice had “plunged to [a] ludicrous level, fading in and out.”

Read more from this story HERE

Video: Santa Distributes Needles, Condoms in NYC

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A Bronx health clinic is promoting its services with a new video featuring Santa Claus distributing free needles and condoms.

CitiWide Harm Reduction (CitiWide) posted the video, titled “Santa Passes Out Clean Needles for Christmas,” on its website for the holiday season.

The video features not only Santa, but also clinic workers dressed like elves dancing to José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” with various needles, drug kits and condoms.

CitiWide is a needle-exchange program that offers drug users clean needles and other products to help combat HIV and hepatitis C.

Read more from this story HERE.