International journal of circumpolar health
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Int J Circumpolar Health · Feb 2005
ReviewOtitis media: health and social consequences for aboriginal youth in Canada's north.
Otitis media is endemic among Inuit, First Nations and Métis children in northern Canada, with prevalence rates in some communities as high as 40 times that found in the urban south. Hearing impairment, much of it attributable to chronic otitis media, is the most common health problem in parts of the arctic, and conductive hearing loss among children may affect as many as two-thirds. ⋯ Approaches to treatment and prevention have enjoyed limited success. Public health and medical practice need to be informed by the traditional knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples.
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Accidental hypothermia is known to be a hazard to elderly people in temperate and cold climate. This is a review of the literature focusing on risk factors, clinical presentation and treatment of hypothermia in the elderly. ⋯ Clinical treatment protocols seems to be based on experience from younger patients. Based on general knowledge in geriatric medicine and experience from three recent cases of hypothermia in the elderly, the use of careful, active external rewarming and a low stress strategy are recommended for elderly patients.
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Int J Circumpolar Health · Oct 2000
ReviewRewarming from hypothermia. Newer aspects on the pathophysiology of rewarming shock.
The fatal circulatory derangements often observed when resuscitating victims of accidental hypothermia by rewarming are recognized as a falling cardiac output and a sudden drop in blood pressure, termed "rewarming shock". The real cause of this rewarming shock, or rewarming collapse, is, so far, unknown. ⋯ Cellular calcium overload, disturbed calcium homeostasis, changes in myocardial myofilament responsiveness to intracellular calcium as well as impaired high energy phosphate homeostasis could all be proposed as important factors leading to the changes observed in the hypothermic heart. Together with alteration of capillary function, increased capillary leakage of plasma protein, changes in intra- and extravascular volume-homeostasis and alteration of autonomous vascular control they all contribute to a maintained low cardiac output during and after rewarming which is associated with a fatal outcome.
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Int J Circumpolar Health · Jan 1998
ReviewPrimer on food-borne pathogens for subsistence food handlers.
Subsistence food preparations may lead to human illnesses caused by pathogenic bacteria and viruses. Little is known about the incidence of food-borne illnesses other than botulism in circumpolar indigenous populations. ⋯ This overview covers the major food-borne pathogens, their sources, transmission, growth parameters, and prevention. Examples of indigenous peoples' food preparations that may be susceptible to pathogenic bacterial growth and toxin formation are described.