A myth too tough to die: the dead of disasters cause epidemics of disease.

Myths abound in the practice of health care, death, and disease. Akin to the old adage of swallowing camels and straining gnats, the myth that mass fatalities cause epidemics of disease following natural or other disasters is alive and well. Despite the findings of observers, microbiologists, epidemiologists, and other scientists, even medical doctors and public health professionals lend support to the ancient belief and rush into mass graves or mass cremations the bodies of those victims of trauma in a disaster.

Interdisciplinary group approach to occupational safety and health administration standard: reductions in cost and duplication of effort.

After the December 1991 publication of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard, "Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens; Final Rule," medical facilities in the United States were challenged to meet the mandates of this standard with massive training in a relatively short time. An interdisciplinary task force composed of representative members of a major health maintenance organization was charged with the task of developing a training plan for 11 Southern California medical centers and their 42 satellite medical offices. The task force ultimately developed, refined, and distributed a Trainer Guidebook that could be used by a variety of disciplines.

Home health/public health/visiting nurse returning to our past: a comparison of public health nursing at the turn of the century.

The basic ingredients that made early home care a cornerstone in American healthcare are still the foundations for home health/visiting nurse/public health in the 1990s. Once overshadowed by the centralization of patient care in the hospital, home care has stepped into the place of cooperative healthcare with the hospital. This article highlights that cooperation and those basic ingredients.