Iowa Hunger Summit, #Worldfoodprize Des Moines Iowa 10-12-10

9:00 AM  “Livestock’s Role in Reducing Food Insecurity”


Organized by Elanco and Heifer International
 
The Elanco Speaker, Kevin Watkins, presented data that in 1990's we were getting ahead of hunger in the world and the number of those hungry was going down at a good rate.  Then in this last decade the number of those in hunger has risen to some of the highest levels seen.  He talked about how improving hunger improved almost all aspects of their live.  Improved performance in school, better health on several metrics, improved economic situation.  He showed how one glass of milk and 2 ounces of protein a day was all that was needed to supplement diets and see measurable improvements.
 
The Heifer International speaker, an organization which gets livestock into the hands of poor and hungry, do complex engineering of their lives.  They teach them how to manage the environment and their livestock.  They are taught how to use the animal waste for fuel and fertilizing, how to use hoses to irrigate their fields, how to have safe fireplaces and burn fuel safely(one of the largest sources of death and disease in the third world).  They have developed models of how to work in these communities and get the most bang for the buck.
 
You cannot just give them food.  You have to ensure that what you do is sustainable.  They require 'Pass-On' were they person getting the livestock shares the result.  i.e. community that received ducks the fertile eggs are shared so more and more in the community can support themselves and self perpetuate.
 
 
10:00 a.m.

"Starving for Knowledge: Nutrition, Brain Development, & Education"
Mary Minter Hanson, Global Health Consortium: introduced panel.  Dr Shah, not on panel, organized the GHC to work on health issues .  It is a consortium of all the colleges and Univ.  in Iowa.
Dr Robert Zore, Millennium Dev Goal.  $ of seven are health related. Underrate/stunting/wasting is simply precursor to child mortality.Uganda: 17% underweight, 38%stunting, 128/1000 child mortality 

Two Students will present their work on brain development.

Heme is critical for Brain development.  Need to make sure you get enough iron.  If not your brain does not get enough oxygen.  Iron is the #1 deficiency in the world.  Vit C is critical for brain development.  Need to get it continuously not in spirits.  Countries with high vit C production have some of the highest deficiency since it is exported.
Vit D.  New appreciation of importance. Controls 900 genes in the Brain. Motor development, socialization.



Dr Jenifer Hall on impact of Iowan food on other countries.
Lindsey Willstra  Grad Student,

Organized by the Heartland Global Health Consortium

11:00 a.m.
“Local and Regional Food Systems:
Countering Food Insecurity in Iowa”
Organized by ISU Extension and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Food Insecurity, access to food on a regular basis. 11% of Iowa do not have enough food.  Leads to poor health, physical limitations, more chronic illness, stomach and headaches, more hospitalizations, anxiety and depression, psychosocial dysfunction. 
Rich Pirog: Leopold Center
Supply of food.  How do we build a local food system.  Leopold Center State funded on tax on nitrogen fertilizer.  Leopold center charged by legislature to develop sustainable local food plan.  12 key issues to developing a Local food economy:

1. financing
2. incentives to farm
3. Access to land
4. Insurance
5. Education-tech
6. Regulations and policy
7. workforce
8. Aggregation/distribution
9. Marketing Network
10. Consumer Ed
11. Data Collection
12. Resources to pay for programs

Regional food systems working group.  Umbrella network of stake holders to develop sustainable local food programs.


Angie Tagtow, Iowa access &health working Group. Emerging group just launched 3/10 six meetings so far. 32 partners,

Brenda Ranum,Iowa food and fitness initiative
Link health with food. Work in 6 counties in NE Iowa only 100,000 people. Ensue school district policies support healthy living. Local food procurement policies, Farm to school program. Goal two: Ensure local healthy food is available, mini-grants and micro-loans, food safety Certificate process , regional food directory. food sales by farmers increased 1.2 million $'s.

Bahia Barry,  Southwest Iowa food and farm initiative.
Least populated counties and also most elderly area in Iowa.  Mission: build a sustainable regional food system that link production, processing, distribution and consumption. Successes,connecting farmers to farmers markets, awareness building, Farm to School, Link Urban rural projects, Moving forward: issues- infrastructure, transportation, aging populating.  Encourage increased participation in human food based agriculture.  Increase fresh food in emergency food supply.





12:00 p.m.

The World Food Prize presents the “Hunger Luncheon,” featuring meals used by Iowa-based organizations in food assistance and hunger-relief efforts.
Keynote Address by Tony Hall, director of the Alliance to End Hunger and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee


Ambassador Quinn welcomed everyone and told about in this fourth year there is a record attendance.
FDL Financial and Iowa Farm Bureau pledges to sponsor this Hunger Summit for the next five years.  $150,000 donation toward the Hall of Laureates.

Ambassador Tony Hall was charged by GW Bush to Feed the world and end insecurity.  He has been to 130 nations in the world. 1984 was in Ethiopia during worst famine.  OUr elected officials have fallen way short of what the public wants.  During the next few eeks go ask the candidates about hunger issues. Mother Teresa: What I do is a drop in the Ocean not a bucket but without out it there would be one less drop.
Iowa
  efforts to reduce hunger in Iowa
Last year in 2009.
$ 8,720,000
15,600,000 pounds of food
451,000 hours

This year 2010 in Iowa.
9,380,125 dollars
18,266,006 pounds
539,086 hours.


Side conference on agriculture and health and nutrition.  This was amazing.  It was like being a fly sitting on the wall.  Here were seventeen of the Worlds leading experts on Hunger(see links).  Almost everyone has a wiki page.  They were discussing how to organize a conference coming up.  It was amazing to see this level of negotiating and international discussion.  I learned a lot.
Prabhu Pingali from the Gates Foundation.
Rajul Panlya-lorch
Why despite economic growth in India the poverty levels have remained high.  We are trying to see how economic growth ensures less poverty and better health.
Conference in India.  This is the planning meeting.  for "Leveraging Agriculture for improving nutrition and health"
How do you nutritionalize agriculture.
The summary of the conference schedule was reviewed.
Sukhadeo Thorat:  Need to improve nutritional value not just quantity of food.
Barbara Underwood:  Nutritional impact.
Peter McPhearson: have to make sure that the three professions: Agriculture, Nutrition and Health all need to internalize the other two arms of the conference and not just give lip service to it.
Emmy Simmons: Are we actually do what the title says or not be about production alone but about all aspects of the food-eating - health train.
MERIDITH  Soule:Are we really getting into the nutritional and the consumer choice part.
DEREK yach:Health relation from this needs to be greater.  Also the issue of livestock. Sweden when they saw that CV was major cause of death they changed their entire food chain to take care of this.Need to deal with satiety and affordability.  Need to address subsidy issues.
Bibi Giyose:We need to discuss the systems to implement the changes.  without a good system this will not work.
daSilverta Pimleiro:We need to ensure the quality and that contaminated food is not produced/shipped/sold/consumed.After conference make sure those suggestions are implemented.
Prabhu Pingali : Obesity needs to be addressed also. Session on governance and excluded populations, we also need discussion on excluded regions.
Kabba Joiner:  We have to avoid a one size fits all solution.  The side session on communication tools. Health people cannot communicate. NCD's (non-communicative diseases)  What went wrong that increased NCD's.  We are all individually comfortable in our comfort zone and we do not like to move out of them.  We need to make sure people move out of their comfort zone.
Christian Henckes:Describe at beginning of conference what our view of the future How can it look like.  Then let conference figure out how to get there.
Lisa Dreler: How can you create the institutional structure that comes out of the suggestions.
Marie Ruel:Make sure nutrition and health are not just outcomes but are the driving force.  The first 1000 days. The target group for malnutrition health vs food born disease health is critical and a big gap.
Stuart Gillespie:How do we design and implement nutrition sensitive agricultural issues.  There are very few examples.  How do we make visible joint incentives.How do we find all the stakeholders that we don't know about now( suggest to him a moderated poster session.
Peter McPherson: How can we make the 3 disciplines see that they are overlapping?  That is the dominant theme I hear here.
Prabhu Pingali: The title is fine. Most of these populations are primarily agricultural and not nutritionists or health workers.  You don't want to lose their ability to be good farmers.
Derek: Get historians to present how these three fields were historically linked in Hippocrates, Maimonides.

Shenggen fan:  Summed up what everyone said and discussed the plans for the up coming conference.

ACLU Iowa 75th Annual Meeting 10-9-2010

I covered the meeting for WHO Radio and for my Blog.

ACLU Iowa

Workshop 1: Racial Justice

Dave Kuker: Very disproportionate number of people of color incarcerated. Most arrest though are misdemeanors. project implicit a site to test your prejudices. They have tests on multiple items including race.  People of color at all stages of criminal Justice system have worse outcome then kids of non-color.  A lot said and basically can be summarized as if your of color the system is against you no solutions or suggestions at all.

Keynote Speaker.  Robert Sheer, journalist and social, political commentator.

Covered Vietnam war, 6Day war, interviewed Fidel Castro (first American), interviewed all presidents from Nixon to Clinton.  The Great American Stickup is his book just out.  Truthdig.com  will be having his talk on video.

Robert Scheer

He recommended check out Paul Conrads writings. He talked about the topic of his last two books were abuse of political power and abuse of financial power. Freedoms and local control broke down with the alien and sedition laws. The founding fathers foresaw that if you tried to be an empire you would loss individual freedoms.  Washington talks about this in his Farewell address(full Text).  Instead of trying to figure out why 9-11 happened we just used it to increase the military budget.  When it comes to war and peace rational discussion of freedoms and specifically freedom of the press take a back seat.  You can not have a republic and an Empire at the same time.  An empire by definition is more totalitarian.

You go to war forget a free press.  He talked about how 9-11 report has disclaimer that they had no direct access to witnesses but had to submit questions through military.  So even presidential commission did not have free access to info.  How can we expect reporters to do better.  Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch are examples of how military lies to press.  The military try to change the stories to aid public image of war and not the truth.

Our economic meltdown.  Ronald Reagan wanted to remove regulations but then savings and loan debacle hit and he pulled back.  Clinton ended federal obligation to poor people i.e welfare reform.  Then Rubin got rid of Glass-Steagal act.  The in 2000 the commodities future act. He asked to have it explained and was told it was too tricky to understand and was referred to lobbyist working for Wall Street. Formation of Citigroup was major blow to the protections in place from the 1930's.  He went through micro dissection of mortgage breakdown.  Nothing new but very good summary.Informed public making basic decisions about public policy.  He implied that we do not have an informed public but a deceived public.
Questions:  No ones going to touch Social Security.  There has been no more successful program in USA.
Person hood of corporations: Corrupting our political system.  Should FOX news be considered a political party and not a news media.  They are news said Scheer


Inteview with Robert Scheer




Workshop :Media:Are newspapers dead? The Future of in Depth Reporting. Rekha Basu, Kevin Cooney, Joyce Russell, Brian Steffen.

Brian Steffen-communication Prof Simpson  four of his 16 students did not know the name of the Governor.  They had an average score of three out of ten.  There were a couple of college students that only got Pres Obama right.

Joyce Russell Iowa Public Radio:New ways to get news since newspapers are cutting back.  ProPublica new type of free lance investigative news agency.Iowa center for news. web site. 



Rekha Basu



Rekha Basu:Newspapers are not dead but they are morphing.  The Des Moines Register is no longer calling itself a newspaper but a media outlet.  In India her mother reads 6 newspapers a day and is typical.  She also went into a journalism class and only a few of the students read newspaper on daily basis.  We cannot be everything to everyone.  WE can bring contextual information you can not leave to chance.

Kevin Cooney

Kevin Cooney:We are not as interested in medium but the message.  They will die but that doesn't talk about the message, i.e. in depth reporting.  That is decreasing because the media cannot pay for it. 

Robert Scheer:  Predictions of death are premature however the real question is will journalism survive and it will.  Readership is way up but profits are down.We are now subject to a ruthless honesty that our predicators did not.  Journalism should be driven by passion not that you are making a big living.  I wrote a column attacking proPublica.  James Leach (former US Rep.Iowa(R)) led fight to get rid of financial regs and is the Chairman of the Board of ProPublica.  We are not the Good Old Days but the future is much more promising.

Workshop 3: LGBT: Marriage equality.  Mostly a report on the retention vote and were public opinion is on gay marraige issue.  The most interesting item is that on Tuesday Oct 19th at Simpson College West Desd Moines 1450 28th Street between 4:30 and 6 pm there will be the only discussion between both side with Van De Platts being there.  All must attend.

Performance by 'Thursday's Children' did musical based upon the Tinker case.  Here is one song from it.

The Garst Family Tribute.  over 50 years of the Garst family supporting the ACLU.

Jonathan Turley:  Shapiro Chair for public interest at George Washington Univ.Legal Expert for major news outlets.  Considered one of the top 100 attorneys in the country.
Fantastic victory in Iowa on civil liberties.  Stripping the court of these three judges is an assault upon all civil liberties.  Why we have independent judiciary.  The Independence of judges is important to protect us from people of ill humor.by Jefferson.  At issue is not the future of these judges but the future of all Iowans.
Many Judges want to be Judge Judy and engage in outrageous actions.  Discussed Supreme Court.  A deeply flawed institution. He has suggestions to fix it.   Increase court to 19 members.  does not have ability to reform itself.  No term limits and serve for life.  Madison is only framer that looks good.  He was trusted by both sides.  He would have been a member of ACLU he insisted on and wrote Bill of Rights.  Mandatory retirement at 70.  his pick of nine greatest Justices of all time:  We have a disfunctional political system. 

Jonathan Turley: Supreme Court Flawed, History and Fix Part 1
 

Jonathan Turley: Supreme Court Flawed, History and Fix Part  2




Jonathan Turley: Supreme Court Flawed, History and Fix Part  3

I will be covering the World Food Prize and the many associated conferences and lectures and will be reporting on them her.

Future Party: A Rational Response To The Tea Party by Alan Koslow M.D.

by Alan Koslow M.D.

I am dismayed. I see a growing political movement that is based on looking to the past for answers. They believe the worlds is static and that solutions to current day problems can only be found in the political writings of our Founding Fathers. However, they like religious fundamentalists tend to pick those writings of these venerated Founding Fathers that support their views while ignoring those that refute it. The worst is that they do not see the need to change the game plan as the game changes. I felt this is a critical time to bring a rational perspective to the national political climate. It is the right time to birth a new political movement: The FUTURE PARTY.

The Future Party Manifesto

Where as: Public policy and politics have become irrational, and

Where as: Our Founding Fathers were products of the Enlightenment: and

Where as: The founding documents of the United States, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are based upon Enlightenment philosophy, and

Where as: The world is not static, and

Where as: Global Warming will make our future more uncertain, and

Where as: We are moving into the Future not the past, and

Where as: The rest of the world is moving into the Future at a faster rate then the USA, i.e. the world is flattening, and

Where as: The Scientific Method is well established as a way to understand our physical world, and

Where as: Rational, critical thinking is often lacking in our political process, and

Where as: Every human being have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness as defined in the Declaration of Independence, and

Where as: The majority does not the ability to deny a minority the same rights that majority enjoys, and

Where as: Our fore fathers came to the United States to escape religious intolerance and of all our freedoms the first one enumerated in the Bill of Rights is religious freedom and separation of church and state, and

Where as: The Constitution establishes that there shall be no religious test for office, and

Where as: Our politicians are for sale because of our campaign finance system, and

Where as: Our political system has deteriorated into One dollar One Vote instead of One Person One Vote, and

Where as: Corporation are not persons

Therefor:

We Pledge to: Restore sanity and rationality to public policy and politics, and

We Pledge that: The best scientific knowledge and predictions will be used to form public policy, and

We Pledge that: A Manhattan Project approach to solving Global Warming that does not cripple our economic system will be implemented, and

We Pledge to: Base all political solutions on Enlightenment principles and concepts, and

We Pledge to: Ensure all students are taught critical thinking skills in school starting in pre-K, and

We Pledge to: Ensure all students graduate High School with adequate science skills to understand our physical world and the scientific method that teaches us how that world functions, and

We Pledge to: Ensure all students be taught financial skills to thrive in our complex financial world, and

We Pledge to : Make Consumer Contracts and User agreements be required to have a plain word summary that would fit on a single page, and

We Pledge to: Eliminate the concept of person-hood for corporations, and

We Pledge to: Eliminate private financing of campaigns and have only public financing or small dollar individual contributions, and

We Pledge to: Ensure the freedom of religion, that our fore fathers felt so important is granted to all persons in the USA including the right to not have a religion, and

We Pledge to: Ensure the constitutional demand that NO religious test be used for public office be enforced, and

We pledge that: Theology will not be a basis for public policy and we will fight to uphold the first amendment, and

We Pledge that: College and professional school be affordable for all and not be a barrier to anyone, and

We pledge that: All persons in the United States will have health insurance, and

We Pledge to: Have a pathway to citizenship for all illegal aliens that have not committed a felony, and

We Pledge to: Have a rational visa system to allow enough seasonal workers to come into the country to fill the need not filled be legal residence, and

We Pledge to: Fight for human rights of all, regardless of how small or outcast a group they are in and regardless of age, race, country of national origin, religion (or lack of), sexual orientation, sex or philosophy.

This is a document in Flux. I have already made two major changes. As I get feedback and comments I may make more. i recommend if you are interested in this you re-check this on a weekly basis. I will also post major analysis and academic analysis as a separate blog on 'The Future Party' Blog.

Fools Rush In: Saving Two Lives

I started another Blog, 'Snippets Of My Life', here is a sample.  If you like it go to this link and follow that Blog also.  Also please leave comments.

We were living in Vienna Va. and I was working at the American Red Cross Blood Research Laboratories at the NIH campus. The director of industrial design for the Am Red Cross was the regional director of the Industrial Design Group. They arranged a trip to the Amish area of Pennsylvania to tour the John Deer design facility. We had great tour of the design facilities and saw some of the first 3-D CAD systems in the world. We then all had dinner at a family style Amish restaurant. And we left to drive the two and a half hour drive back to DC at about 8 P.M.

We started driving on route 83 from Pennsylvania toward Baltimore. There was a detour and we had to leave the highway and go on a small two lane road that went through a very mountainous area near Hereford MD. Margie was driving and I was sleeping in the passenger seat. All of a sudden Margie stopped short thrusting me against the seat belt. I quickly awoke and looking out the windshield I saw in front of the car before us a tractor trailer laying on its side having rolled over between 120 and 150 degrees, about halfway between being on it's side and being on it's top. There was fuel spilling out of the tank onto the road. I rushed out of the car to the tractor and climbed up to the drivers window.


I climbed up the twelve feet to the window on the drivers side and looked in. I could see the driver trapped by the steering wheel and climbed through the window. He groaned "my brother". All I could see was a massive amount of chains in the back seat of the cab. I quickly realized that his brother was under all those chains. I quickly started to dig out the brother from under out. He had been sleeping in the back seat. Fortunately, I was able to get his head exposed. Neither of them were conscious at this time. It took almost 17 minutes for the local volunteer fire department to arrive. During that time I was keeping the neck stable on the brother in the back seat (I suspected a severe neck injury from having hundreds of pounds of chains fall on him (they were in the compartment under the matress he was sleeping on). Also he was unrestrained and likely to have injured his neck. While I was doing this the driver, his brother vomited. When the Hereford volunteer fire Dept arrived I refused to leave until someone with at least comparable training to myself arrived. I had worked seven years with the FAST team of western NY, was an EMT, had three years of surgical residency behind me. I explained I was already in the best position to render aid and the best skilled at the scene. They explained it was a highly dangerous situation because of the hundreds of gallons of fuel that had spilled. I told them you take care of the fuel and hand me two cervical collars and IV catheters and bags. I started an I.V on each. BTW there was not enough room for anyone else to come into the cab. I was doing this all upside down.I placed an cervical collar on each of the men. Several times I had to clear their months from vomit. I was given the Menaris France Award For Valiant Service in Emergency Medicine at their annual dinner in January 1984.

The Go team from Baltimore Shock Trauma Center was just recently organized and had not flown a mission yet. This rescue was their maiden rescue. The unique aspect of the team was that they had a surgeon, anesthesiologist, trauma nurses and carried O-negative blood for field transfusion. They could set up a full field surgical unit. They arrived about 45 minutes after the fire department and I allowed them to take over from me. I slowly backed out of the cab and was helped down by several of the firemen. It took them nearly 2 hours to get the men extracted. They had to get a crane to lift the cab. They first got a twenty ton crane and it was not enough finally they got a 45 ton crane and were able to get the men out of the tractor cab. We were finally ablee to get on our way about 2:30 in the morning. I took thee next day off from work and slept in. I was given the Citizen Award by the Baltimore County Fire Department. The two men both survived after weeks in critical care and months of rehab.

This Blog Snippets of my life, is going to be a daily blog for at least one year. I will tell stories about me that I hope you find interesting. If you like them please do two things: click to become a follower; and post on your Facebook page or twitter them. I hope to have 10,000 followers by years end. Some stories will be very personal. I will try to remember the correct names of those involved, however, I have a terrible memory for names and some names will be completely fictitious. The stories however are completely truthful as far as I can remember. Hope you enjoy. Some of these blogs may seem mundane. However, they

I RESIGN: Candidacy in Iowa House District 60

I am(or was) the Democratic candidate for the Iowa House District 60, composed of most of the Polk County portion of West Des Moines. I am running against Peter Cownie the incumbent, who I ran against and lost to two years ago when it was an open seat. Two years ago he out spent me 17 to one. His father is Jim Cownie, one of the founders of the cable network in Iowa and after selling it in 1991 one of the richest men in Iowa. Peter Cownie has distinguished himself in the House with a lack luster first term. Looking at his website he can not even site a single accomplishment or single bill he introduced, other then his committee assignments. He has not a single new plan since he ran two years ago.

We have developed not a meritocracy but an affirmative action system for those of privilege. the system we have of private funding of campaigns through raising campaign contributions has led to corporatization of the United States Congress and our State Houses. We have representatives and senators at all levels costing the Government much more money because they spend based upon their contributors interest rather then the fiduciary interests of the public, their voters.

I feel we are long over due for a Clean Election Bill here in Iowa. There have been lots of court challenges of this because of potential unfairness to third part candidates. As described in Wikipedia:

Unlike traditional campaign finance laws that focus primarily on restricting spending and placing caps on campaign donations, Clean Elections laws provide a public grant to candidates who agree to limit their spending and private fundraising. Candidates participating in a Clean Elections system are required to meet certain qualification criteria, which usually includes collecting a number of signatures and small contributions (generally determined by statute and set at $5 in both Maine and Arizona) before the candidate can receive public support. In most Clean Elections programs, these qualifying contributions must be given by constituents. To receive the government campaign grant, "Clean Candidates" must forgo all other fundraising and accept no other private or personal funds. Candidates who choose not to participate are subject to limits on their fundraising, typically in the form of limits on the size of contributions they may accept and the sources of those contributions (such as limits on corporate or union contributions), and detailed reporting requirements.

I am as I describe myself a community activist who supports myself by being a Vascular Surgeon. I went to Haiti on two medical missions two weeks and two months after the devastating earthquake. I have developed a plan to allow every student attend college/university/professional/technical school and not pay a dime till they were working and then pay a fixed relatively small percentage of their salary for ten years. I developed a plan to pay for all health care in Iowa and not cost the taxpayers anything more. Several news sources credited me with keeping health care as a major issue in the last Presidential caucus cycle by attending and asking questions at 224 caucus events from all 18 candidates of both parties. I started my activism in High School and was one of ten to conceive of and run the first March of Dimes Walk (the first walk to raise money for charity) and developing the first program in the country for High school students to get academic credit for community service. Here in Iowa I have received National Volunteer of the year award from both the March of Dimes for my advocacy for the child health insurance HAWK-I and from the American Diabetes Association for conceiving of and getting passed the Farm-to-School bill and the seed that became the Healthy Child bill. The question and follow-up I asked Mr. Lightfoot in 1998 led to Vilsak being elected Governor (yes one person can make a difference). Seven months ago I completed a nine month diet losing 95 pounds and today is the seven month anniversary of completing it and I haven't gained a single pound back.

Speed your computer Ditch the bitchy virus software.

This is a draft the full version will be out later today.

Last week I was at Dragon-Con, the worlds largest Science Fiction convention. I happen to be the Volunteer director of the Blood drive and this year we were about 200 units short of the world record for a non-disaster blood drive (well there is always next year). I attended a session at the Electronic Freedom Foundation track ( the same track were I was a panel member discussing medical marijuana), on Why You Should NOT Use a Virus Scanner. My view of virus software was changed forever. I have already made the changes on both my office and home computer and plan to do this on all 7 computers at my medical practice, both desktops and all laptops at home.

First your need to understand that virus and worms need to have administrative permission to do what they do. If they are opened in a user that does not have administrative permission then they just sit there. You don't get infected.

Second you need to know that you can only get a virus if you allow it in. It is like a vampire that it cannot enter your house unless you give it permission(at least according to True Blood). So you have to be super careful not to open attachments you are absolutely sure about. Not to click on any part of a pop up. If anything is suspicious then restart your computer or use task manager to close it. Even if you get am e-mail from a close friend or loved one, unless you are expecting it do not open it.

Third thing to know is that virus/worm/hazard protection is the biggest hog of CPU and memory on your computer. Also you may have multiple competing programs running. i just finished doing this to my wife's computer and she had 7 different forms of protection. Also you will probably be infected before the virus software has your virus's information. Additionally virus software can get expensive. I spend over $450 dollars a year between all the computers at my medical practice and my family. Also it isn't unusual for the protection to lapse and a system not to be protected anyway. So why not ditch the BITCH.

Here is what you do:

• Update and run what ever virus software you have.
• Do a Back-up of your system.
  
• Using Add/Delete Program from Control panel remove every virus/ad-blocker/spam filter/protector you have on your computer.
• For good measure while your at it remove all this programs you haven't used in two years.
• I also removed all the Microsoft Office and Word-perfect software (ultimately replacing it with Open Office).
• Using Google Chrome Pack I loaded Spyware Doctor and Google Chrome(safest browser to use to prevent malicious programing), you can also load other great free programs at same time.
• In Control Panel I opened User Accounts and added user with limited access (no administrative capabilities). I called it by person using computers first name.
  
• I then run Spyware Doctor after updating it and also Defrag and disk Cleanup. All of which can be found in the Control Panel.
• I then open my computer Browser and in Documents and Settings, I copy the contents of the current user(with administrative abilities), into the folder of the new user with limited abilities. This gets all your e-mail and bookmarks and preferences to the new user. You obviously don't need to do this if you are setting up a new computer or don't have anything you care about if you were just getting a new computer.
• I then turn off all the features of Spyware Doctor so it will not run at all. This is very easy, on status page click the two green on buttons so computer immunization says Disabled and Intelliguard protection is off (when you click it you get pulldown and ppick the never(not recommended) line. Then in settings unclick every box but let it download updates silently.
• Now turn off computer and when you restart only open limited user. **Never leave administrative user running in back ground.*****
• You are ready to go.

But, you must remember that you need to change some of you habits:

• Never open attachment you are 100% sure about.
• Never hit reply to e-mail you are not 100% sure about.
• If you end up on a web page you didn't expect (i.e you got redirected), then close browser and re-open browser and resume your browsing.
• If not sure of e-mail instead of hitting return or clicking on link go to email program or browser and send e-mail asking to clarify if it was ligit email, link or attachment.
• If you do need to download something. down load it and then check it with a Web (cloud) based virus scanner, before opening or running it. It is actually less often then you think you will need to do this. I will post here a site to go to later today so it you see this before come back tomorrow.
  

Haiti: Follow-up, My Medical Experience and Future Needs.

I felt I should summarize what I did from a medical point of view and some new principles I notices. Also I will talk about the future needs.

I was with a group of 13 physicians and nurses. The first day we split up and eight of us went to CDTI Hospital (one of only two hospitals in Port Au Prince{PAP} still standing) and joined the American team of about 25 already there. The other 5 went to an orphanage 20 minutes away. The hospital had severe damage to the patient room section so all the patients were kept in the courtyard in eight(8) tents set up by the French. The Americans were responsible for four(4) and the French the rest. The Americans were there from 7:30 till 8:30 each day, and we left 3 military medics there over night. The French were there 9AM to 4:30PM and left no one to take care of their patients at night. If one of their patients had a problem hopefully their family would get one of the medics and they could handle it, otherwise the patient died as happened. 3-400 patients came to be evaluated at the hospital each day. I was consulted on about a dozen each day.

The surgeries I performed or assisted in included:

• Four reverse solius flaps (assisted 2 and performed 2)
• two gastrocnemius flaps
• Above elbow arm amputation
• Ten (10) dressings under anesthesia (ketamine/versed sedation)
• Eight (8) Drainage of abscess and/or debridement of wounds (bone.muscle and skin).

I saw the first patient I ever witnessed die of Tetanus. After that I gave every patient with an open wound a tetanus vaccine.

We had two patients who were anemic, one with HCT=17 and another with HCT=21. I wanted to transfer the patient with 17 to a facility when I found out we could not get blood to our facility to do the transfusion. I was told because of the limited resources we could not transfer the patients till their HCT=12 or HGB=4. This, by the way, is the point when 50% of patients will die. I was told to stop doing blood counts since we most likely couldn't do anything about it. This was one of the hardest things I have ever done in medicine (except maybe the next story).

I was the lead physician of a trauma patient that came in. He was a fifty something man who had been struck by a truck. The police brought him in a police car and dropped him on the curb and drove off without waiting or telling us anything. The man was in coma and had obvious abdominal trauma. In the states he would have been brought immediately to the operating room for an exploration. We had no anesthesia personnel, no labs, no x-ray. He had no blood pressure until we resuscitated him with three liters of fluids. We called the director of the hospital and asked her to arrange transport. She told us there was no transport and to put him in the courtyard on a stretcher and if he is alive in the AM we will then deal with it. I could not accept this. So I told the medics to pump fluid into him to keep his blood pressure over 100 and his urine output over 50 cc per hour. With hard work they kept him alive over night and had to give an additional 7 liters of fluids. He had a liver injury and a fractured pelvis. We transfered him to the French Hospital ship. We found out he had survived.

I wrote about baby Noah multiple times.

Privacy: There was none. Foleys were put in in an open co-ed tent with the other patients and their families looking on. Patients washed themselves out in the open.

There were many patients, I took care of 4 of them (amputating the arm of one and one other had the HCT=17), who had closed crush injuries of their arms. They came to the Hospital 7-14 days after the earthquake with a compartment syndrome. This is when from a crush injury the muscle swells to the point that the nerves and muscle in the limb dies. the skin and bone survive. If you see the patient within hours of the injury (usually less then 6) opening the arm and releasing the pressure can save function in the arm. Opening the arm at 7-14 days has no chance of saving function. It only exposes dead tissue to infection and gives a massive surface that will slowly loss blood (thus the low HCT). If they had not done fasciotomy(opening the arm) the patient would have ultimately needed an amputation but could have had a functional id forearm amputation instead of being condemned to an above elbow amputation.

The temperature was 85-94 degrees every day with 70-85% humidity. This is the definition of an incubator to culture bacteria. Except for the operating room there was no clean areas of patient care. As a matter of fact the patients were housed in an open field with every bacteria blowing around. Every open wound was contaminated, most with pseudomonus. The problem wasn't that we didn't have the antibiotics, we did. It was that with all those open fracture. Open fractures are being treated by putting on an ex-fixiture (ex-fix) to stabilize the bone. The problem is that the area of the fracture with the open skin wound has poor circulation so the antibiotics do not get there. To over come this I started using Daikin's solution. This is a 0ne percent clorax solution. I would drip it at 10 cc's per hour into the wound and the next day there would be no infection.

It was felt that a large number of early amputations may have been unneeded. Therefor before we left there was a policy in place that two American and one Haitian surgeons need to concur on all needs for amputation.

Every patient coming to the hospital was dehydrated and malnourished. I will talk about food and water in a separate post. It is just that from a medical point of view they started behind.

The obvious biggest need is food and water. From a medical perspective the care of the 200-300,000 open fractures is the major medical work that will be done over the next 3-6 weeks. This is phase two of these open fractures, phase one was applying the ex-fix and doing the early amputations. The third phase will be late amputations over the next two months. all of these 200-300,000 open fractures are at risk of this. This could double the number of amputations. Phase four is rehab. There will need to be multiple centers for rehab centers. There will need for 400-500,000 artificial limbs and the people to fit them and the people to do the rehab. I'm currently working to help start this effort. Also there are some inexpensive prostectics used in the third world. I am planning on contacting them.

Finally the rainy season will begin in one to two weeks. This means that almost every day there will be a one-two hour deluge delivering one to one and a half (1-1.5 inch) of rain. Almost every drainage ditch is filled with rubble. Even with them open many streets were turned into rivers in past rainy season. This year with almost no functional drainage ditches most streets will become rivers. With almost 1,000,000 homeless and living in tents on the streets, 200,000 buried inadequately in mass graves and 100-150,000 still under the rubble, a public health crisis on unimaginable proportion is on it's way. I cannot even imagine how to prepare for this or how when it happens it will be handled but I plan to return in the middle of the rainy season so I will be able to report on it.

cdti Hospital, Haiti, earthquake, disaster, Dr. Alan Koslow, french, patients, tetanus, solius flap, gastracnemeus flap, amputation, anesthesia, transfusion, trauma, fasciotomy, pseudomonus, daikin's, rainy season

Haiti: The Disaster and the People.

I am going to write a series of essays on the state of things in Haiti from my observations and my opinion. Do not take these as authoritative, they are the observations after six days on the ground and my analysis. I welcome any comments and corrections. All of my photos are posted on my facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/alan.koslow?v=wall&ref=profile and the videos are posted on my YouTube page:http://www.youtube.com/user/alankoslow .

Despite having the worst Urban disaster in the history of the world:

• 230,000 bodies as of 2/12/10 recovered
• 125-150,000 bodies still expected to be recovered still buried
• 300-400,000 amputations performed already
• 200-300,000 patients still at risk of amputation secondary to infection of open fractures
• 400-600,000 new orphans
• 800,000-1,000,000 homeless
• before earthquake 70% of population earned less then $3.00/day
• One of thirty poorest country in the world
• one of the highest per capital debts in the world.

This disaster happened in 30 seconds but will worsen critically with coming rainy season.

The Haitian people are among the proudest and dignified people I have ever encounted. They, despite being one of the most sh-t upon people in the history of the world (first by the French, then by the world economic system, by their own government and now by mother nature), have a dignity that is hard to express in words.I have been in several very poor slums (Brazil, Mexico, Middle East, El Salvador) and have been panhandled by many, yet I rarely felt panhandled the entire time in Haiti. Actually while walking by myself through a tent village only one person approached me and it was not for a hand-out but for a translation job at the Hospital. I almost got the feeling that despite they deserve handouts they are too proud to beg. They want to do something for you to earn what you give them. I was blown away by this.

I will be talking more about the makeshift economy and the tents cities that sprung up, but it was amazing how organized despite no-one organizing them they have become. The people want a normal life. The economy and their political system before the quake has conspired against that happening..

These are a people who expect to be sh-t upon yet show a grace that is one of the most noble things I have ever seen. how can you see this grace and nobility and not be moved to help them.

The Haitians are very stoic. I did dressing changes on patients that would not be tolerated by the typical American patient. I did major operations with local anesthesia and the patient awake and watching the operation and sometimes singing or praying.

I was impressed with the professionals I met. They would be impressive people here in the USA. I feel there is hope for Haiti with people of the caliber that I met. Not only are they intelligent they demonstrated a creativity that they do not allow their situation to bridle.

Hait Relief Mission: Dr Koslow Day 5

These are my facebook posts. I am puting them together in a blog for each day. If you read posts don't need to reread. If you want to see these posts with the comments go to facebook.com/alan.koslow

Haiti Relief Update:Just finnished doing dressing changes in the OR on my two big cases from yesterday. The solius flap looked great(forgot to take photo). the arm amputation looks good also. She feels much better. I have two more big cases a gastroc muscle flap to cover infected tial fx and a Full thickness skin graft. may not have enough anesthesia & OR staff to finish one or both. lots of cases booked

February 4 at 10:57am

Haiti Relief Update:the stafing situation is getting critical. We had close to 50 nurses/emt's/drs and helpers till now. by sat they are going to be down to 12-15, No way the hosp can keep running.Most of the 15 are drs and they won't be able to do routine post-op nursing care.they desprately need nuses and emt's.The second disatser is these patients who need special care not getting it and losing their leg or life.

February 4 at 11:02am ·

Haiti Relief Update:Yesterday I had a pt that needed a blood transfusion. The pt had a HCT=17 HGB=5.5 we had arrange transport after I found out we could not get blood here(I asked the 1st dayand told enough blood was avail.). So I I forgot about the patient and today found she was not transfered because you need Hct=12/HGB=4 before they will accept you for tx for transfusion. 50% of the pts will die before.

February 4 at 11:08am

Haiti Relief Update:The original was home Sun then Sat since no flight Sun.(It would also give me a day to recover before work on Mon.) Then last night told they have reserved seats on flight fri and cannot assure getting out Saturday. i am torn because they need help and would like to stay even single day more if I can but don't want to get stranded. They cannot assure a flight till Tues. if I miss friday.

February 4 at 11:14am

Haiti Relief Update: The busiest people are in triage and urgancy(ER) they see 2-300/day then call us for a question.Interesting things I've consulted on have been baby with chronic hydrocephelis, woman with a brachial plexus injury from arm trapped 6 hrs, Uterine bleeding.They get no rest and are out in the hot sun w/o aircondition.They & the tent nurses are doing the most work & most are leaving w no replacement.

February 4 at 11:23am ·

aiti Relief Update:The pts are in 8 to a tent. They have no change of clothes & we guard what they have. They undress in the open with no privacy. today I walked into a tent and a women was standing there undressed washing herself.Those around her when not paying any attention.Tues we put a foley cath in a pt out in the open were everyone could look and see. Everyone acted like nothing was happening & ignored us.

February 4 at 11:30am

Haiti Relief Update: I am back in Des Moines. I will keep posting till I run out of things to post about. I have lots of pictures still to post and lots of video. I will spend my entire radio show Monday on Haiti. Go to DesMoineLocalLive.com at 2:00 PM central time Monday and click Watch the full video experience. I would love to have you call in and talk to me about my experience.

February 5 at 10:21pm

Hait Relief Mission: Dr Koslow Day 4

These are my facebook posts. I am puting them together in a blog for each day. If you read posts don't need to reread. If you want to see these posts with the comments go to facebook.com/alan.koslow

Haiti Releif Update:I found out the baby is doing well. Did three wound debridements under anesthesia yesterday. Then went with Dr Savam the owner of the Hospital to tour some of the damages and also to see the nice part of Haiti. we went up to the mountains at 3900 feet and saw a beautiful country.

February 3 at 8:05am

Haiti relief update:Just heard Sunday there will be almost no flights so will try to get out Saturday, back to USA. Do not know what city I will land in, will then have to find way home. Hope the airlines are accomadating.

February 3 at 8:00am

Haiti Releif Update: now for the fun part. Monday night we went to Pizza garden. I had Kibby an apetizer that is a falafal outside wityh a very spicy beef inside. Very good. The piza I had a slice of seafood and a slice of vegitarian. IT was as good as any I have had in States. All the resturants are about 20 minutes drive to an area hardly hit by earthquake. This seams to be the new social center.

February 3 at 8:07am

Nicole Ovregaard I just wanted to let you know that I have been reading your Haiti updates and find your work inspiring, its helping me get through my less than exciting school work. I want to be involved in medical humanitarian aid in the future. I know my mom told you a little bit about what I want to do but hopefully when you get back from Haiti we can talk more. Good luck!

February 3 at 2:18pm ·

Haiti relief Update:The french are playing nicer.I just did a fascinating case that the fr Plastic surgeon, he thinks fr are snoty also, helped me. I watched him do 2. A muscle flap that is never done in USA,reverse solius flap.She has a bad ankle fracture and it was poring out pus. I cleamed it out past 2 days and dripped a weak solution of clorax bleach over night. Today we did flap. Only chance to save her leg.

February 3 at 2:25pm ·

HaitiReleif Update. I have a sad case today a thirty year old mother of two who said it was hard doing her work before the quake. She had a crush injury and now her are is infected she is septic and at risk of dying. I will do an amputation to try and save her live at firstshe said she rather die then have it. The Haitian Ortho Doc talked to her and we are going to do it in a few minutes. Hope it saves her life.

February 3 at 2:31pm

Haiti releief Update:Last night wewere just aboutto go to dinner when a man was dropped onour curb by police and they left very quickly. He had no blood pressure. we worked for an hr and resucitated him but could not transport him to hospital with blood till am. So we left him with army medics at our hosp. with order...

See MoreFebruary 3 at 2:36pm

Haiti Relief Update:Last night we went to gourmet fr rest.Balsamic and gorganzola salad, trad haitian fish dish, red beens &rice(w capers) , swt potato, plantain.Hd bananas flambet for desert. lunch has been the same each day, beens&rice, corn and sardines. Itwas ok 1st day but everyday, yech.Stoped at supermarket&got 10# friut, apples(3 types),tangerines and bananas.I'mnot starving. Actually I may have not lost wt.

February 3 at 2:53pm

Haiti Relief update:It is realy amazing. Ussually you go to a new Hosp. and it takes weeks to get to feel at home. I am the senior surgeon now that every other surgeon has lweft. I am after 3 days the old dog on the block. Also you make bonds with the fellow workers like you've known them for months not days and hours. It is amazing experiance. Waiting for surgery to start. Hope to post more pics tonight.

February 3 at 2:56pm

Haiti relief update. 3rd night in a row as we were leaving 7:30 emergancy comein. Monday Baby Noah,Tues-truck hit pedestrian, tonight two, woman with dysfunctionsal Uterine bleeding and 13 Y.O. w acute appendicitis The anesthesiologist did not want to stay to do case but we finaly conjoled one to stay(keeps all 4here so their stuck anyway.They are getting patient ready for OR dr David from NYC Gen Surg will do it.

February 3 at 6:50pm

Haiti relief update:baby noah had gone to german hospital, he is doing very well, theywere able to take out I.v. the women who found him and has beentrying to

February 3 at 9:54pm

Last pozst continued:have her own baby for ten years. She feels god led her to find baby and has never left it's side. She will be able to adopt him

February 3 at 9:58pm

Lisa N. D'Amico I have been reading your posts about the miracles you are performing in Haiti. Thank you so much for doing what you can to save lives. It has been harrowing, painful, shocking, and uplifting to read what you are doing. Please be safe and know that there are many, many people back here who are inspired by what you are doing. Bless you.

February 3 at 10:04pm ·

Debbie Dicker Keep up the energy and all your good will. My prays and blessings are with you. Keep enjoying the experience. Thanks for being you! Love you cus.

February 4 at 12:15am