Health

WASHINGTON—Wider use of evidence-based food safety interventions on farms and feedlots would significantly reduce the risk of people getting sick from contaminated meat and poultry, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The report, “Food Safety From Farm to Fork,” examines potential means to prevent foodborne illnesses by investing in strategies to... Read More

Americans continue to be sickened by meat and poultry products contaminated with harmful bacteria. Microorganisms in these foods cause an estimated 2 million illnesses in the United States each year. Infection rates for some major pathogens, such as Salmonella, have been essentially unchanged for decades. Read More

Contaminated meat and poultry products are responsible for an estimated 2 million illnesses in the UnitedStates each year, and amount to more than 40 percent of all bacterial foodborne diseases. The annual cost ofillnesses—for instance, direct medical costs, lost income, and productivity—attributable to consumption ofthese foods has been estimated at about $2.5 billion for poultry,... Read More

A recent article I authored, together with several colleagues from The Pew Charitable Trusts’ antibiotic resistance project, systematically analyzes scientific evidence regarding the link between antibiotic use in animal agriculture and public health. Our review of the literature reaffirms what scientists have known for decades: Antibiotic use in animal agriculture, as in any setting,... Read More

The use of antibiotics in any setting contributes to the growing global threat of antibiotic resistance, so it is important to minimize the use of these drugs. This means eliminating unnecessary uses and finding other ways to prevent infections. In animal agriculture, alternative products play a crucial role in allowing farmers and veterinarians to reduce or largely phase out the use of... Read More

Americans continue to be sickened by meat and poultry products contaminated with harmful bacteria. Microorganisms in these foods cause an estimated 2 million illnesses in the United States each year. Infection rates for some major pathogens, such as Salmonella, have been essentially unchanged for decades. Read More

Contaminated meat and poultry products are responsible for an estimated 2 million illnesses in the UnitedStates each year, and amount to more than 40 percent of all bacterial foodborne diseases. The annual cost ofillnesses—for instance, direct medical costs, lost income, and productivity—attributable to consumption ofthese foods has been estimated at about $2.5 billion for poultry,... Read More

A recent article I authored, together with several colleagues from The Pew Charitable Trusts’ antibiotic resistance project, systematically analyzes scientific evidence regarding the link between antibiotic use in animal agriculture and public health. Our review of the literature reaffirms what scientists have known for decades: Antibiotic use in animal agriculture, as in any setting,... Read More

The use of antibiotics in any setting contributes to the growing global threat of antibiotic resistance, so it is important to minimize the use of these drugs. This means eliminating unnecessary uses and finding other ways to prevent infections. In animal agriculture, alternative products play a crucial role in allowing farmers and veterinarians to reduce or largely phase out the use of... Read More

A commission that advises Congress on issues affecting Medicare has recommended adding medical device identifiers to the next version of the standard claims form used by hospitals and health care providers to request reimbursement from a health plan. Read More

WASHINGTON—Wider use of evidence-based food safety interventions on farms and feedlots would significantly reduce the risk of people getting sick from contaminated meat and poultry, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The report, “Food Safety From Farm to Fork,” examines potential means to prevent foodborne illnesses by investing in strategies to... Read More

The Pew Charitable Trusts announces 22 exceptional early-career researchers as Pew scholars in the biomedical sciences. Each scholar will receive four years of flexible funding to pursue foundational research. Read More

Ten pioneering postdoctoral scientists from Latin America will each be awarded two years of funding to conduct research at laboratories and academic institutions in the United States. The 2017 fellows are from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, and their research interests range from the design of mosquito control tools to combat the spread of malaria to how obesity, cancer, and... Read More

The work of the 2017 class is investigating several promising avenues to slow or stop the development of cancer, including research on how to destroy leukemia cells and how cancer cells evade destruction by drug therapies. Read More

The US health care system is not delivering the care that patients with serious illness need and want. For example, although most people say they would like to die at home, nearly 70 percent die in nursing homes, intensive care units, or other medical settings. Given that approximately 70 percent of people who die in the United States each year are Medicare beneficiaries, the new administration... Read More

Electronic health records (EHRs) hold key information: a patient’s medical history, medications, allergies and more. But patients see multiple doctors in different locations, and current ways of matching people to their records are inadequate. Read More

As of March 2017, an estimated 32 new products with the potential to treat or prevent serious bacterial infections are in clinical development. Below is a snapshot of the current nontraditional products pipeline, based on publicly available information and informed by external experts. It is updated periodically, as products advance or are known to drop out of development. Because this list is... Read More

Where superbugs come from and what can be done to combat them. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose anurgent and growing public health threat. Read More

Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research organization and a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, is surveying public views about science-related issues and public trust in scientists. One scientific finding sometimes in the news involves childhood immunization. Here, the center found that the vast majority of Americans—88 percent—believe that the benefits of vaccines for children outweigh... Read More

Health impact assessment can be a useful tool to address a range of health-related areas in the community development sector, including economic development, infrastructure, community organizing, and access to resources. This figure illustrates the connections among these factors and health. Read More