Barrybill Patient Advocate (BBPA) supports National Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW).

Everyone can participate! For example, spread awareness about how your community is avoiding harm to patients, recognize ongoing patient safety initiatives, or highlight important patient safety issues.

To help in this endeavor, the Center for Patient Safety has provide excellent flyers, posters, and two-folds that you may use to plan and promote your activities.

Rare Disease Day is celebrated around the world to bring awareness of the impact diseases have on a community. In a country or region where a disease has ben eradicated it may be referred to as rare; however, if a particular disease remains a public health burden it is not considered rare but prevalent. Cholera for most nations is rare but conflict, displace-

ment, and climate-related disasters are disrupting access to clean water and sanitation. Cholera outbreaks has become one of the most pressing global health emergencies.

The causative agent of Cholera, which can be found in contaminated water and shellfish, is the bacteria, Vibrio cholera. When ingested, the bacteria sticks to the walls of of the small intestine. There, they release toxins that can cause mild to severe watery diarrhea that can quickly lead to life-threatening dehydration.

If an infected person is unable to replenish fluids, cholera can be fatal. Access to clean water and toileting facilities can help prevent the spread of cholera. A historic look at cholera in the early to mid 1980's London reveals the tragic, yet avoidable, cholera outbreak in Great Britain. A selected news event can be accessed at https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents.

Tick (suborder Ixodida), any of about 825 species of invertebrates in the order Parasitiformes (subclass Acari).

Hard ticks, such as the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis), attach to their hosts and feed continuously on blood for several days during each life stage. When an adult female has obtained a blood meal, she mates, drops from the host, and finds a suitable site where she lays her eggs in a mass and dies.

Six-legged larvae hatch from the eggs, move up on blades of grass, and wait for a suitable host (usually a mammal) to pass by. The odor of butyric acid, emanated by all mammals, stimulates the larvae to drop onto and attach to a host. After filling themselves with the host’s blood, the larvae detach and molt, becoming eight-legged nymphs.

Nymphs also wait for, and board, a suitable host in the same way as larvae. After they have found a host and engorged themselves, they also fall off, and then they molt into adult males or females. Adults may wait for a host for as long as three years. — end.

1. help an elder neighbor take out/in trash
2. help a carer for a day
3. signup to donate blood
4. signup to be an organ donor
5. volunteer at a local non-profit
6. walk/run in a charity fundraiser
7. learn CPR
8. introduce yourself with your pronouns
9. use social media for nice postings
10. pick an awareness day to celebrate
11. keep your word, it is simple
12. help a friend practice self-care
13. forgive someone
14. leave a welcome not for a new neighbor
15. pick up a piece of litter and throw it away
16. be the best you can be

Epilepsy is a paroxysmal disorder of cerebral function characterized by sudden brief attacks of altered consciousness, motor activity, or sensory phenomena. Convulsive seizures are the most common form of attacks, but any recurrent seizure pattern is considered epilepsy. Epilepsy is not necessarily a life-long diagnosis.

Tuberculosis (tubercle bacillus) disease is commonly acquired from contact with an infected person or an infected cow or through drinking contaminated milk.

Tuberculosis (TB) most often affects the respiratory system but other parts of the body such as the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts, bones, joints, nervous system, lymph nodes, and skin may become infected. Fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals are all subject to the disease.

A tuberculin skin test will determine the presence of the TB disease but will not reveal if the disease is active or inactive. A positive test requires further diagnosis and treatment. Treatment various based on the progressiveness of the disease In early stages the disease can be arrested and eradicated; however, reinfection may occur. Current treatments consist of weekly doses of medication, and in severe cases hospitalization. There are guidelines and recommendations on who should have a TB test and how often. Doctors, nurses, (anyone in contact with patients), school teachers and firemen are among the occupations which need regular TB testing. It is recommended that caregivers be tested for TB even though many states do not require it.

Policies will vary from state to state and with local health departments so it is best to contact your local department of health to obtain the recommendations for your area. Get tested. Caregivers must be diligent in protecting the health of patients and themselves.

During the mid-1800s and the first-half of the 1900s TB sanitariums were built to provide patients with a place to rest with supervision and care. Sanitariums were typically built in dry areas such as southern California.

Each brick below leads to Web sites which have resources for seniors and those who are victims of elder abuse. The first brick, eldercare locator, provides, among other things, a search engine to locate services in your area. The second brick, OVC, is a governmental (US) resource for those who are victims of financial fraud. And the third brick leads to an abundance of resources for caregivers and victims. Everyone should visit all three sites to gain an awareness of services that are available to seniors, seniors of abuse, caregivers, and families.