Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Texting Ban, Superbug Gonorrhea Named Best/Worst Prevention Ideas of the Week
Posted by Partnership for Prevention at 12:03 PMThe proposed ban on text messaging at the wheel by interstate truck and bus drivers was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the possibility of gonorrhea becoming a drug-resistant superbug was named the “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week."
The “Best/Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Nominees are submitted by Partnership staff as well as the general public, and are voted on by the staff. Partnership for Prevention is a nonpartisan organization of business, nonprofit and government leaders who are working to make evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion a national priority. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.
BEST
Government Set to Ban Texting by Truck, Bus Drivers
WORST
Gonorrhea Close to Gaining Superbug Status
Unless medical experts devise a new way to treat it, gonorrhea -- the world's second most common sexually transmitted infection, after chlamydia -- will soon become a drug-resistant superbug. "This is a very clever bacteria. If this problem isn't addressed, there is a real possibility that gonorrhea will become a very difficult infection to treat," Catherine Ison, a British gonorrhea specialist, told Reuters. Right now, gonorrhea is treated with a single antibiotic dose, of either cefixime or ceftriaxone. But some strains of the illness are becoming resistant to both drugs, meaning treatment could become increasingly difficult without innovations.