Aetna International • Mark Ray

Pandemic: controlling infectious diseases before they spread

He’s been called Patient Zero, but his real name was Emile Ouamouno. He was two years old, he lived in the Guinean farming village of Meliandou, and he loved listening to his family’s bright red portable radio. Emile died in December 2013, the first...

The forgotten killer: cardiovascular disease

In his days as an Australian Rules footballer, Nicky Winmar had felt plenty of pain and discomfort. But none of it compared to the chest pain that sent the 46-year-old retired athlete reeling early one morning in August 2012. The intense, crushing pain left...

How reducing workplace stress could help prevent heart attacks

When the leader of a major organisation suffers a heart attack, it tends to make the headlines. That was the case in 2017, when the American Heart Association’s volunteer president, cardiologist John Warner, M.D., went into cardiac arrest. That was the case...

Flu fighters: How flu vaccines and workplace hygiene can benefit you and your workers

Are you a comfort giver or a flu giver? That’s the question the UK’s South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust recently posed in a series of advertisements targeting its employees. In one advert, an elderly woman reaches out to a nurse, who...

Antibiotic resistance: Toward better stewardship of a precious medical resource

Antibiotic resistance has emerged as one of the world’s deadliest health crises. The spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria is threatening the effectiveness of last-resort treatments for life-threatening infections. Every year, 700,000 deaths (and...

The ticking time bomb: Ageing population

When Emma Morano died in Italy April 2017, she was the world’s oldest person. She was also the last link to the 19th century, having been born in November 1899. According to a BBC report, the 117-year-old woman’s life “not only spanned three centuries...