http://www.hivtest.org/

World AIDS Day Resources

• World AIDS Day Observance Materials Available
  Health communication materials and tools available for personal and professional Web sites and World AIDS Day events

• AIDS.gov Webinar
  Featuring Dr. Kevin Fenton from CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, Dr. Deborah Parham from HRSA, Beverly Watts Davis from SAMHSA, and Dr. Anthony Fauci from NIH.

Additional Resources from CDC

• CDC HIV Testing Database
  Locate an HIV testing site near you

• CDC HIV/AIDS
  CDC’s Web site for HIV/AIDS in the United States

• CDC Global HIV/AIDS
  CDC’s Global AIDS Program

• CDC Business and Labor Responds to AIDS
  CDC’s HIV/AIDS resource for businesses and labor organizations

• CDC National Prevention Information Network (NPIN)
  The U.S. reference, referral, and distribution service for information on HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and tuberculosis (TB)

http://www.hivtest.org/

Health issues are a vital concern for older adults, and surveys show that most of those who go online search for health and medical information. However, since only 34 percent of people age 65 and older are online, the majority of older adults are missing out on valuable health information.

To broaden the numbers of older adults able to search for and find reliable health information online, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) has developed a free training curriculum for those who teach and work with older adults. This Toolkit for Trainers is now available on NIHSeniorHealth.gov, a senior-friendly Web site developed by the NIA and the National Library of Medicine (NLM). This training program is designed to open up the Internet to older adults who want to know more about the health issues facing them as they age.”

The Toolkit for Trainers can be a welcome addition to computer training programs at public libraries, senior centers, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers, places where older adults typically take computer courses. Instructors at these locations can use the curriculum to teach older adults how to find accurate, up-to-date online health information on their own.

In addition to Web skills development, the easy-to-use curriculum focuses on top-notch health and wellness information offered by NIHSeniorHealth and MedlinePlus. NIHSeniorHealth features short, easy-to-read segments of information that can be accessed in a variety of formats, including various large-print type sizes, open-captioned videos and an audio version.

Trainers who download the toolkit at http://www.nihseniorhealth.gov/toolkit/toolkit.html
access a set of materials they can customize to their students’skill levels and interests. These include lesson plans, student handouts, Web searching exercises and illustrated glossaries. An introductory video gives a quick overview of the curriculum and a glimpse of Internet classes in action. Tips on how to set up a senior-friendly computer classroom also are provided.

The new edition of NIH MedlinePlus magazine features sections on understanding stroke, as well as help with back pain, and advice on smart food choices.

In the cover story, film actor and academy award winner Kirk Douglas says that his stroke in 1996 was ‘a blessing in disguise’ . Douglas explains his post-stroke commitment to speech therapy and exercise revitalized his appreciation for life, learning and health and affection for friends and family.

An accompanying article explains most strokes are either ischemic (or mini-strokes when the blood supply to the brain stops temporarily) or hemorrhagic — when a blood vessel breaks and bleeds into the brain. About 700,000 Americans suffer a stroke annually. Strokes are more common among African Americans than other racial or ethnic groups in the U.S.
The special section in NIH MedlinePlus magazine summarizes National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) ‘know stroke’ educational campaign. It explains the warning signs of a stroke include:

• sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg (especially on one side of the body)
• sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or understanding speech
• sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• a sudden severe headache with no known cause.

NIH MedlinePlus magazine notes some preventive steps for stroke are to:

• quit smoking
• get medical help to reduce high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, or high cholesterol – all of which are significant risk factors for stroke.

For more information on stroke, help with back pain, and advice on smart food choices, go to http://www.fnlm.org/magazine/summer2007.pdf.

FDA has developed an integrated strategy for protecting the nation’s food supply at:http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/advance/food/plan.html

FDA’s Integrated Plan Provides Three Elements of Protection:

PREVENT Foodborne Contamination

Promote Increased Corporate Responsibility to Prevent Foodborne Illnesses
Identify Food Vulnerabilities and Assess Risks
Expand the Understanding and Use of Effective Mitigation Measures

INTERVENE at Critical Points in the Food Supply Chain

Focus Inspections and Sampling Based on Risk
Enhance Risk-Based Surveillance
Improve the Detection of Food System “Signals” that Indicate Contamination

RESPOND Rapidly to Minimize Harm

Improve Immediate Response
Improve Risk Communications to the Public, Industry and Other Stakeholders

http://www.mchb.hrsa.gov/whusa_07/

Women’s Health USA provides data and information on emerging issues and trends in women’s health. Racial and ethnic, sex/gender, and socioeconomic disparities are highlighted where possible.

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) releases Women’s Health USA 2007, the sixth edition of the Women’s Health USA data book. To reflect the ever changing, increasingly diverse population and its characteristics, Women’s Health USA selectively highlights emerging issues and trends in women’s health. Data and information on autoimmune diseases, gynecological and reproductive disorders, and digestive disorders are a few of the new topics included in this edition.
Where possible, every effort has been made to highlight racial and ethnic, sex/gender, and socioeconomic disparities. In some instances, it was not possible to provide data for all races due to the size of the sample population.

Go to http://www.mchb.hrsa.gov/whusa_07/pdf/w07ctocprg.pdf to print a copy.

To order your complimentary copy of Women’s Health USA 2007, mail your request to:
HRSA Information Center
P.O. Box 2910
Merrifield, VA 22116

MedlinePlus.gov - Tips to Cook safely this Thanksgiving!

Visit the food safety topic page to learn more. Also, check out poultry preparation facts from the Department of Agriculture and tips to prevent foodborne illness from the Food and Drug Administration.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/foodsafety.html

Start Here

• Can Your Kitchen Pass the Food Safety Test?(Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition)
• Food Safety: Food Storage, Preparation & Handling (Dept. of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service)
• Keep Your Food Safe (Food and Drug Administration)

Also available in Spanish

by Sandy Oelschlegel, Director, Preston Medical Library, University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine

We at Preston Medical Library had a taste of what it would be like if we had a disaster that resulted in loss of power. Of course, we did not have our “emergency preparedness plan” finished!

One morning our power was out upon our arrival at 8:30 am and remained out until around 12 pm; long enough to experience the discomfort of not being “connected”.

In random order, here are ten things we learned:

1. Wireless, battery powered laptops are great to have on hand, especially if they are charged.
2. Everyone on campus figures out that wireless might be available and suddenly the wireless system gets overloaded, resulting in slow or no signal.
3. IT departments shut down servers, even if they are on battery backups “to preserve the batteries”.
4. All our e journals are “run through” the proxy server, so we had no access to any of our e-journals through our open url linking software.
5. Off campus access was unavailable because the server was down.
6. Printers require electricity, at least those that we had. See link below to a battery operated printer we ordered thereafter.
7. Our faculty still expected us to continue to be able to provide information services, including lit searches and copies of articles.
8. There was no communication system in place for the administrators to communicate with us about what was happening.
9. We did not know each other’s home and cell phone numbers.
10. The ILL staff can work at home.

Here is a link to a battery-powered printer. We will let you know how it works after we test it. http://www.tiny.cc/C032K

As part of Health Literacy month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a new health literacy tool for people who serve older adults. The Quick Guide to Health Literacy and Older Adults is designed to provide useful strategies and suggestions to professionals who work with older adults to help bridge the communication gap between professionals and older adults.

In a national assessment of health literacy, only three percent of the older adults surveyed were found to be proficient in health literacy. Persons with limited health literacy have more adverse health outcomes including less frequent use of preventive services, higher hospitalization rates, and more emergency room visits. For older Americans, difficulties with health literacy can complicate already challenging health problems since as many as 80 percent of older Americans have at least one chronic disease. For more information visit: http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy/olderadults/default.htm

The November issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now online at http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/. In this issue:

Feature Stories:
• Heft for the Holidays — How to Hold Off Those Extra Pounds
• The Vexing Pain of Vulvodynia — Giving Attention to a “Private Problem”

Health Capsules:
• Treatment for Depressed Teens
• African Americans and Kidney Disease

Featured Web Site:
• NIH Multimedia Gallery

You can subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options for this LISTSERV at any time by going to https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=nihnewsinhealth-l&A=1.

The National Library of Medicine, a constituent institute of the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with the Stanford University Archives, announces the release of an extensive selection from the papers of biochemist Arthur Kornberg (1918 - 2007), who received the 1959 Nobel Prize for his synthesis of DNA, on the Library’s Profiles in Science Web site.

With this addition, the number of prominent researchers, public health officials, and promoters of medical research whose personal and professional records are presented on Profiles has grown to 24. The site is http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/.