This collection of open access articles, which includes highlights for quick reference and a topic summary, reflects the arduous work of experts in animal disaster preparedness and response who have grappled with the central questions involved and offered their findings and recommendations within the covers of the AVMA scientific journals. Areas discussed include:
• the veterinarian’s role in preparedness and response;
• biosecurity and bioterrorism preparedness;
• search-and-rescue dogs; and
• preparedness and response policy.
Use this direct link: http://www.avma.org/avmacollections/disaster/default.asp

This is available for personal and scholarly use as single-copy downloads and links to the collection are encouraged, but articles should not be further reproduced or distributed at web sites other than that of the AVMA. thanks to Diane Fagan, Librarian at the American Veterinary Medical Association]

Workshop #3. Roundtable on Health Disparities. America in Transition, A View from California: Implications for Addressing Health Disparities
Los Angeles, CA
July 28, 2008
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/44963/54766.aspx

Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities. Workshop Summary
In early 2007, the Institute of Medicine convened the Roundtable on Health Disparities to increase the visibility of racial and ethnic health disparities as a national problem, to further the development of programs and strategies to reduce disparities, to foster the emergence of leadership on this issue, and to track promising activities and developments in health care that could lead to dramatically reducing or eliminating disparities. The Roundtable’s first workshop, Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities, was held in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 31, 2007, and examined the importance of differences in life expectancy within the United States, the reasons for those differences, and the implications of this information for programs and policy makers.
http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/44963/55317.aspx

By AMARTYA SEN
Published: May 28, 2008 Cambridge, Mass.
The New York Times - Op-Ed Contributor

Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/opinion/28sen.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

“………WILL the food crisis that is menacing the lives of millions ease up — or grow worse over time? The answer may be both. The recent rise in food prices has largely been caused by temporary problems like drought in Australia, Ukraine and elsewhere. Though the need for huge rescue operations is urgent, the present acute crisis will eventually end. But underlying it is a basic problem that will only intensify unless we recognize it and try to remedy it.

It is a tale of two peoples. In one version of the story, a country with a lot of poor people suddenly experiences fast economic expansion, but only half of the people share in the new prosperity. The favored ones spend a lot of their new income on food, and unless supply expands very quickly, prices shoot up. The rest of the poor now face higher food prices but no greater income, and begin to starve. Tragedies like this happen repeatedly in the world………..”
[posted on PAHO/WHO Equity listserv]

ScanGrants is designed to facilitate the search for funding sources to enhance individual and community health. The funding sources listed here may be of interest to virtually anyone associated with the health field – medical researchers, social workers, nurses, students, community-based health educators, academics and others…The operator of ScanGrants is the SHS Center for Health Research and Quality. Samaritan Health Services, a nonprofit network of Oregon hospitals, physicians and senior care facilities that serves the needs of people in the mid-Willamette Valley and the Central Oregon Coast, established the Center for Health Research and Quality in 2008 to improve the quality of patient care and build healthier communities by advancing research and health promotion activities. http://www.scangrants.com/

I’m headed to California for the 2008 annual American Library Association Conference http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2008a/home.cfm . I will be presenting as a member of a panel on Monday afternoon on Partnering To Help Reduce Health Disparities in Our Communities. I’m also presenting later Monday afternoon: The Healthy Librarian: Cultivating Workplace Wellness. Finally, I’ll be helping to put on the Wellness Fair on Sunday afternoon in the exhibit hall. With all of this, the blog will be pretty quiet the next several days! See you all early July!

http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=true&oppId=17970
Recognized public health agencies are eligible for the announced funding; please see the full funding opportunity announcement for additional details.
Secretary’s Forecast Summary CDC-RFA-PS09-902 CDC’s Procurement and Grants Office has published a program announcement entitled, “Comprehensive STD Prevention Projects.” Approximately $104,263,809 will be available in fiscal year 2008 to fund approximately 202 awards. The purpose of the program is to enhance the prevention and control of STD by supporting and improving the ability of public health departments to (1) design, implement, and evaluate Comprehensive STD Prevention Systems (CSPS); (2) implement the Infertility Prevention Project (IPP) and promote interventions that prevent STD-related infertility; (3) implement the Syphilis Elimination Effort (SEE) in designated high morbidity areas (HMAs) to enhance activities to prevent, control and eliminate syphilis; and (4) implement the Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project (GISP) in eligible jurisdictions. For complete program details, please see the full announcement on the CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/od/pgo/funding/FOAs.htm. The estimated funding date is prior to January 1, 2009 [posted on Grants.gov Opportunities Posting Update]

This week, the National Latino AIDS Action Agenda Network (NLAAN), which includes organizations from cities across the country, released the Latino/Hispanic HIV/AIDS Federal Policy Recommendations Addressing the Latino AIDS Crisis. lease take a moment to read the press release and the recommendations below. For more information, visit http://www.latinoaidsagenda.org/. Read the reports in English and Spanish:

•Latino/Hispanic HIV/AIDS Federal Policy Recommendations Addressing the Latino AIDS Crisis
http://nmac.convio.net/site/DocServer/NLAAN_Recommendations_PageType_Eng.pdf?docID=483
•Recomendaciones de Política Federal sobre la crisis del SIDA sobre como abordar la Epidemia del VIH/SIDA entre los Latinos http://nmac.convio.net/site/DocServer/NLAAN_Recommendations_PageType_Esp.pdf?docID=484
[posted on NMAC in Action]

From: TechSoup By the Cup - June 24, 2008
The Newsletter from TechSoup.org
A Few Good Mapping and GIS Tools
Software for displaying and analyzing geographic information
By: Eric Leland
April 18, 2008
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/software/page8664.cfm
This article is courtesy of Idealware, which provides candid information to help nonprofits choose effective software. For more articles and reviews, go to http://www.idealware.org.

Imagine that you want to show your constituents where they can buy fair-trade coffee, or represent to decision-makers the lack of doctors in a particular region of town. Perhaps you want to communicate the disparities of housing levels and heath indicators across different counties, or show the impact of polluted rivers on the surrounding environment.These things are hard to effectively convey in writing, but a map can be worth a thousand words.

Jennifer A. Cohen, Rapporteur, Roundtable on Health Disparities
Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice (BPH)
US Institute of Medicine (IOM) [210p.] 2008

Available online at: http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12154
“….In early 2007, the Institute of Medicine convened the Roundtable on Health Disparities to increase the visibility of racial and ethnic health disparities as a national problem, to further the development of programs and strategies to reduce disparities, to foster the emergence of leadership on this issue, and to track promising activities and developments in health care that could lead to dramatically reducing or eliminating disparities. [posted on WHO/PAHO Equity list]

“MONDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) — Low socioeconomic status increases a cancer patient’s risk of dying, say U.S. researchers who analyzed data on almost 14,000 breast, prostate and colorectal patients in seven states.

The study found that cancer patients with low socioeconomic status had more advanced cancers at time of diagnosis, received less aggressive treatment, and had a higher risk of dying within five years of diagnosis. ” Read the complete article online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062300870.html