WiRED provided medical and health education programs in Iraq from spring 2003 to late 2009. As the two prior stories in this history series describe, we worked initially from the relative safety of the Green Zone, then from Baghdad hotels and safe houses while providing Iraqi hospitals and universities throughout the country with equipment and training software.
Cholera in Yemen today … and in Texas tomorrow? The catastrophic flooding in Texas from Hurricane Harvey has caused death, destruction and displacement. The storm’s aftershock has produced contaminated and stagnant water and poor sanitation, conditions ideally suited to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery and typhoid fever — all caused by pathogenic microbes.
The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the moon up above and a thing called … One Health? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) One Health program states that the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the health of the environment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that every year 21 million cases of typhoid fever are diagnosed, and 222,000 deaths are caused by typhoid fever.
What is the deadliest of all animal families in the world? It isn’t the great white shark, or the massive grizzly bear or the ferocious lion. It’s the tiny mosquito.
WiRED International announces the release of a Dysentery Module as part of its Community Preparedness for Infectious Disease Outbreaks project. The Dysentery Module joins more than 400 interactive training modules in WiRED’s Health Learning Center.
Coffee. Love it or hate it? Is it good or bad for your health? August is National Coffee Month, and the good news is that drinking coffee in moderation may actually lead to living longer — according to a growing body of evidence.
Two years ago, WiRED’s team of medical writers and computer experts began an adventurous project to train communities how to prepare for the onset of an infectious disease outbreak. Thousands of communities around the world face the threat of serious diseases without suitable preparation or even basic information.
Before leaving Iraq after my first visit, I frantically searched computer shops in Baghdad to find hardware for the MIC we would install at the largest hospital complex in the country. I found a good lead in Talal, an Iraqi businessman who saved his computers from the violence of war by securing them in a barn outside of town.
WiRED International expanded its work with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua, Leon, by training medical students both onsite and in the field this July, providing equipment and updating the WiRED Health Learning Center modules.