Helene Gayle on Fighting Global Disease | Newsweek Women and Leadership

Hand-Washing Won’t Stop H1N1
9/15/2009 12:00:00 AM
In a speech to schoolchildren last week that had some conservative opponents up in arms, President Obama delivered at least one line that seemed incontestable: "I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter." The Disney corporation is now marketing Musical Hand Wash Timers featuring characters like the Little Mermaid, and encouraging parents to "take precaution against swine flu" by teaching children to wash their hands correctly. "Studies prove that regular hand-washing dramatically reduces the spread of infection," says the Disney Web page, which links to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site.
Who Says Americans Are Too Fat?
Daniel Heimpel 8/27/2009 12:00:00 AM
In late June the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched its LEAN Works Web site, a clearinghouse of information on the health costs of employing fat people replete with recommendations on how to prevent and control obesity. The site uses an "obesity cost calculator" to determine the added price of employing somebody with a body-mass index (BMI) of over 30, the threshold for obesity. The calculator asks employers to fill out a company profile including type of industry and location, employees' BMIs, and their wages and benefits. The software then estimates the "costs for medical expenditures and the dollar value of increased absenteeism resulting from obesity."
The Next Blockbuster Drugs
7/22/2009 12:00:00 AM
Safety and efficacy data are critical to drug candidates. But what really makes a potential drug attractive is strong top-line data, a new biotech-based treatment, and a massive potential market.
Female Trouble
Barbara Kantrowitz 2/26/2009 12:00:00 AM
In an age when so many once private topics are out in the open, many women are still very reluctant to talk about hysterectomies, perhaps because of the potential emotional implications of losing the womb, the organ that in some ways defines feminine identity. But it is a surprisingly common operation. By the time they reach age 60, nearly a third of all American women will have had their uteruses removed, making hysterectomy the second most frequently performed major surgical procedure (after Caesareans) for women of reproductive age.
HEALTH
Six Top Vaccine Myths
Dina Fine Maron 2/23/2009 12:00:00 AM
Hours after a baby is born, her parents are told it's best that she receive her first shot before she leaves the hospital. And that's just the beginning. By the child's sixth birthday, she'll have had at least 35 vaccinations—if she goes by government recommendations. Meanwhile, during those six years, her parents are likely to see hundreds of media reports and online message-board debates about which vaccines are necessary or even safe. It's confusing, to say the least.
My Elbow Is Killing Me!
David Noonan 1/17/2009 12:00:00 AM
Like most medical writers, I've been drawn over the years to the intense stuff—brain surgery, emergency medicine, open-heart surgery, clinical oncology. I like stories about bloody, complicated matters of life and death, with brilliant doctors trying to solve maddening mysteries, and courageous patients facing long odds with optimism and hope. Medicine is inherently dramatic, I say, when speaking to young journalists. And it is, for sure. But what I'm most interested in these days is my right elbow, which hurts like hell.