Prevention Matters

A New York City program that cuts billions of calories a year from student diets by switching milk has been named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the failure of current approaches to prevent Hepatitis B and C was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the week.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=adDpvkhJXjeg

New York City public schools cut 4.6 billion calories and 422 million grams of fat a year from students’ diets by eliminating whole milk, a switch that districts are adopting in the U.S. fight against obesity. Whole milk was cut out in 2006, and fat-free chocolate milk replaced low-fat chocolate milk, according to a study that’s the first to measure how banning whole milk affects school nutrition. Students didn’t drink less of the healthier options, and average milk consumption increased 1.3 percent from 2004 to 2009, researchers said in the report published today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Current Prevention Approach Not Working on Hepatitis B and C

 

The current approach to prevention and control of chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C is not working, says an Institute of Medicine study. It finds that as many as 5.3 million people in the United States have hepatitis B or C but most are unaware until they develop liver cancer or liver disease, researchers say. The report concludes that hepatitis is not widely recognized as a serious public health problem. As a result, viral hepatitis prevention, control and surveillance programs have inadequate resources.