Chronic respiratory disease is a serious and growing threat to global health. The WHO estimates that 300 million people worldwide have asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, already one of the top killers. Having worked in clinical settings in low and lower-middle income countries, I’ve always been struck by the absence of basic equipment like [...]
About David
Press coverage of the chlorine hospitalizations report
Preparing for a Chlorine Gas Disaster U.S. News & World Report, DC - Jan 8, 2009 Preparing for a Chlorine Gas Disaster CBC.ca, Canada - Jan 8, 2009 Preparing for a Chlorine Gas Disaster Washington Post, United States - Jan 7, 2009 Preparing for a Chlorine Gas Disaster Forbes, NY - Jan 7, 2009 Study looks at major chlorine disaster United Press International - Jan 6, 2009 Going Back to Graniteville: Studying the 2005 chlorine leak could help prepare [...]
Chlorine gas hospitalizations article press release
For Immediate Release Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008 Contact: Jennifer Combs (240) 221-4256 jcombs@iqsolutions.com New Study Examines Effects of [...]
New edition of Anthropology and Public Health published
The first edition of Anthropology and Public Health, which was edited by Robert Hahn, is one of my favorite books of medical anthropology – full of great pieces like Dorothy Mull’s report on acute respiratory infections in Pakistan (I’ve written about it here). Last year, Marcia Inhorn and Robert Hahn asked me to write a [...]
Acute health effects from chlorine gas exposure
In January 2005, a train derailment in South Carolina released 42-60 tons of chlorine gas in the middle of a small town. I was part of the CDC team that went to South Carolina to help the Dept of Health and Environmental Control respond to the disaster and investigate the health effects. One of our [...]
How do physicians in India treat asthma exacerbations?
Raj B. Singh MD (Apollo Hospital – Chennai) and I recently published a paper in the Clinical Respiratory Journal describing the management of asthma exacerbations by physicians in India. We used a well-known epidemiological instrument, the ISAAC video questionnaire, to simulate five presentations of asthma. For more details, please take a look: [abstract] [pdf]
About
Medical anthropologist, asthma epidemiologist in Madison, WI. Co-Founder of Reciprocal Labs and Asthmapolis.
