Scrimp and Save

As well as the little piece I did for Discover NLS on "make do and mend" (on page 9, entitled "Three publications intended for hard times"), I noticed that the Imperial War Museum had done something similar with their "Top Tips for Hard Times" on their website. They also have Tweets from "Mrs Sew-and-Sew"!

One illustration that couldn't be fitted into the Discover NLS article is the one featured here, which was meant to show that ‘growing your own’ added to the war effort by lessening the need to import food, therefore freeing up ships to load cargoes of weapons and other wartime essentials instead. This is in the publication Food from the garden. The other 2 publications featured are "Make Do and Mend and Wise eating in wartime.

Pandemic influenza

Flu is topping the headlines this week as the [swine] influenza A (H1N1) virus has spread from Mexico to other countries.
In our Official Publications collection we have a good selection of documents and leaflets aimed at professionals and the public about pandemic influenza. The fascination and value of official publications is that it is information direct from the agencies themselves, such as the Department of Health , the Health Protection Agency and the Chief Medical Officer.
Some titles we hold are:

Pandemic flu : facing it together : an influenza pandemic will be the biggest test of planning and preparation you are ever likely to face / Department of Health (2008)
Pandemic flu : important information for you and your family / Department of Health (2005)
Explaining pandemic flu : a guide from the Chief Medical Officer (2005)
Pandemic flu : planning for pandemic influenza in community care : an operational and strategic framework / Scottish Government (2007)
Faith communities and pandemic flu : guidance for faith communities and local influenza pandemic communities / Department for Communities and Local Government (2008)

Shrinking the malaria map

25th April was World Malaria Day and today I was listening to the excellent Lancet podcast about the latest global programmes to control and eliminate malaria. Pam Das and Sir Richard Feacham discuss why, in the last 2 years, funding has made significant effect on controlling malaria particularly in the malaria heartland of tropical Africa and in other areas such as Sri Lanka, China and Latin America. Goals have been set to eradicate malaria by 2050. This involves a 3 pronged "Roll Back Malaria" programme: aggressive control in malaria heartlands; progressive elimination in endemic margins (also known as Shrinking the Malaria Map); intensive research.
World Malaria Day was the start of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership's "Counting Malaria out" campaign, which aims to provide effective intervention in 100% of the population of endemic countries by 2010. This will involve indoor spraying of 200 million homes annually, the installation of 700 million insecticide-treated bednets, 1.5 billion annual diagnostic tests and more than 200 million doses of treatment.
Online documents and multimedia resources are on the World Malaria Day website.
The WHO's World Malaria report 2008 is available in our Official Publications collection.