In The News

Flu Q and A

Mexico flu deaths raise fears of global epidemic Unique virus connected to cases in Calif. and Texas; source still a mystery

"Mexico shut down schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters across its overcrowded capital Friday in hopes of containing a swine flu outbreak that authorities say killed at least 20 people â€" and perhaps dozens more. World health authorities worried openly that the strange new virus could become a global epidemic.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tests show some of the Mexico victims died from the same new strain of swine flu that sickened eight people in Texas and California. Of the 14 samples tested from Mexico, seven were matches, said the CDC's acting director Dr. Richard Besser.

Mexico put the confirmed toll at 20 dead, but 40 other fatalities were being probed, and at least 943 nationwide were sick from the suspected flu, the health department said.

Scientists said the virus combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before.

We are very, very concerned,” World Health Organization spokesman Thomas Abraham said.

śWe have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human,” he said. “It’s all hands on deck at the moment.ť

President Felipe Calderon cancelled a trip and met with his Cabinet to coordinate Mexico’s response. The government planned to administer its remaining 500,000 vaccines from the flu season to health workers, the highest risk group, although it is not known how effective they are on swine flu. It said it also has enough oseltamivir, the generic name of Tamiflu, to treat 1 million people, but the medicine will be strictly controlled and handed out only by doctors.

Authorities urged people to avoid hospitals unless they had a medical emergency, since hospitals are centers of infection.

They also said Mexicans should refrain from customary greetings such as shaking hands or kissing cheeks, and authorities at Mexico City’s international airport were questioning passengers to try to prevent anybody with possible influenza from boarding airplanes and spreading the disease.

But the CDC said Americans need not avoid traveling to Mexico, as long as they take the usual precautions, such as frequent handwashing.

We certainly have 60 deaths that we can't be sure are from the same virus, but it is probable, said Health Secretary Jose Cordova. He called it a new, different strain ... that originally came from pigs.

Epidemiologists are particularly concerned because the only people killed so far were normally less-vulnerable young people and adults. It's possible that more vulnerable populations infants and the aged had been vaccinated against other strains, and that those vaccines may be providing some protection.

All eight U.S. patients recovered from symptoms that were like those of the regular flu, mostly involving fever, cough and sore throat, though some of them also experienced vomiting and diarrhea.

Scientists have long been concerned that a new flu virus could launch a pandemic, a worldwide spread of a killer disease. A new virus could evolve when different flu viruses infect a pig, a person or a bird, mingling their genetic material. The resulting hybrid could spread quickly because people would have no natural defenses against it."

Insurers Offer a New Deal?

"The health insurance industry offered Tuesday for the first time to curb its controversial practice of charging higher premiums to people with a history of medical problems.

The offer from America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a potentially significant shift in the debate over reforming the nation's health care system to rein in costs and cover an estimated 48 million uninsured people. It was contained in a letter to key senators.

In the letter, the two insurance industry groups said their members are willing to "phase out the practice of varying premiums based on health status in the individual market" if all Americans are required to get coverage.

"The offer here is to transition away from risk rating, which is one of the things that makes life hell for real people," said health economist Len Nichols of the New America Foundation public policy center. "They have never in their history offered to give up risk rating." Heading off the competition

Insurers are trying to head off the creation of a government insurance plan that would compete with them, something that liberals and many Democrats are pressing for. To try to win political support, the industry has already made a number of concessions. Last year, for example, insurers offered to end the practice of denying coverage to sick people. They also said they would support a national goal of restraining cost increases.

The latest offer goes beyond that.

Insurance companies now charge very high premiums to people who are trying to purchase coverage as individuals and have a history of medical problems, such as diabetes or skin cancer. Even if such a person is offered coverage, that individual is often unable to afford the high premiums. About 7 percent of Americans buy their coverage as individuals, while more than 60 percent have job-based insurance."

"Fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major U.S. cities had residues of pharmaceuticals in them, including medicines used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder and depression, researchers reported Wednesday. Findings from this first nationwide study of human drugs in fish tissue have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to significantly expand similar ongoing research to more than 150 different locations.

"The average person hopefully will see this type of a study and see the importance of us thinking about water that we use every day, where does it come from, where does it go to? We need to understand this is a limited resource and we need to learn a lot more about our impacts on it," said study co-author Bryan Brooks, a Baylor University researcher and professor who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment.

A person would have to eat hundreds of thousands of fish dinners to get even a single therapeutic dose, Brooks said. But researchers including Brooks have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues can harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species because of their constant exposure to contaminated water.

Fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major U.S. cities had residues of pharmaceuticals in them, including medicines used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder and depression, researchers reported Wednesday. Findings from this first nationwide study of human drugs in fish tissue have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to significantly expand similar ongoing research to more than 150 different locations.

"The average person hopefully will see this type of a study and see the importance of us thinking about water that we use every day, where does it come from, where does it go to? We need to understand this is a limited resource and we need to learn a lot more about our impacts on it," said study co-author Bryan Brooks, a Baylor University researcher and professor who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment.

A person would have to eat hundreds of thousands of fish dinners to get even a single therapeutic dose, Brooks said. But researchers including Brooks have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues can harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species because of their constant exposure to contaminated water."

Vaccine scare threatens health in UK

"I never thought I'd see the day where perfectly good vaccines are being destroyed," said Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for UNICEF.

Around the world, health officials say they are struggling with the repercussions of vaccine fears they call unwarranted and dangerous.

In 2003, imams in northern Nigeria fomented a boycott of polio vaccinations claiming they were a Western plot to make Muslims infertile or infect them with HIV. Authorities in Indonesia are discussing a plan to end childhood immunizations against a number of diseases out of fears that foreign drug companies are using the country as a testing ground. A budding movement of parents getting exemptions from pre-school vaccination laws is seen as partly responsible for a spike in U.S. measles cases.

Fear escalated with death of teen

Experts blame the Ukrainian scare on government mismanagement and irresponsible media coverage of an anti-vaccination campaign launched after the May death of a 17-year-old boy who had received a combined shot for measles and rubella."

Eating a lot of red meat? Death risk.

"...Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That's compared to those who ate the least red meat, just 5 ounces per week.

People whose diets contained more white meat like chicken and fish had lower risks of death. The researchers surveyed more than 545,000 people, ages 50 to 71 years old, on their eating habits, then followed them for 10 years. There were more than 70,000 deaths during that time..."

Eat this not that,restaurant scorecard

"Eating out invariably raises a number of tricky questions: sit-down or drive-thru? Burgers or pizza? Thin or stuffed crust? Choosing one over the other could mean saving hundreds of calories in a single meal, and up to 50 pounds of flab in the course of a year and countless health woes over the course of a lifetime. That’s why Eat This, Not That! launched an investigation and put 66 major chain restaurants under the nutritional microscopeâ€"so that you and your family can continue to eat out, but do so knowing the types of insider tips and savvy strategies that can help melt fat all year long. And the good news is that many fan favorites scored top marks!

To separate the commendable from the deplorable, we calculated the total number of calories per entrĂ©e. This gave us a snapshot of how each restaurant compared in average serving sizeâ€"a key indicator of unhealthy portion distortion. Then we rewarded establishments with fruit and vegetable side-dish choices, as well as for providing whole-grain options. Finally, we penalized places for excessive amounts of trans fats and menus laden with gut-busting desserts.

What we ended up with is the Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Report Card, which will show you how all of the nation’s largest eating establishments stack up nutritionally....continued"

New cases of salmonella poisoning linked to tainted peanut products have slowed so much that federal officials will no longer provide weekly updates for one of the nation's largest-ever foodborne outbreaks. But they're stopping short of declaring the danger done.

"No, the outbreak is not over," said Lola Russell, a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some 692 people in 46 states and Canada have been sickened in the outbreak since last fall, according to figures posted Tuesday in what officials said was the last planned public update of the problem. Salmonella poisoning contributed to nine deaths, and more than 3,400 potentially tainted peanut products have been recalled.

The CDC has been reporting between five and 10 new confirmed cases a week for more than a month. Half of the new cases have been reported in people who ate tainted peanut butter crackers manufactured by the Kellogg Co. Russell said information about new cases would be available by request, but that CDC officials decided to use employees for other duties...continued"

The fish was delicious, no doubt about it. Perfectly seasoned and cooked just right, the broiled grouper on the Texas menu last summer tempted Donna Schroeder to eat every bite.

The only problem? It was poisoned, tainted with a hard-to-detect toxin that produces symptoms so bizarre, they put peanut-linked salmonella infections to shame.

"It's horrible, I'm telling you," said Schroeder, 65, a retired Beaumont, Texas, realtor, who is only now recovering from the worst symptoms of ciguatera fish poisoning, an exotic foodborne illness that health officials say may be dramatically under-recognized in the United States.

The malady afflicts at least 50,000 people a year worldwide - and the real number may be 100 times that many. While ciguatera fish poisoning is largely unknown in most of the U.S., several recent cases have attracted growing concern, officials say. They hope a greater awareness will help alert consumers and doctors and improve treatment of the incurable illness caused by coral algae toxins that accumulate in large tropical reef fish.

Within hours of the July dinner, Schroeder was stricken not only with typical nasty food poisoning symptoms - diarrhea, vomiting and fatigue - but also with a dangerously slow heart rate and neurological problems that caused her hands and feet to tingle painfully and, oddest of all, reversed her sense of hot and cold. Some patients also say they feel like their teeth are falling out - and the symptoms can linger for years.

"Whatever I touched, if it was hot, it would feel cold. If it was cold, it felt hot," Schroeder recalled. "I couldn't walk on the tile floor. It felt like it was burning me."

Cold and flu

Checking in on winter's ills: What to expect

So far it's a mild season for flu outbreaks, but not for colds and norovirus

So far there haven't been any major flu outbreaks, experts say, but the season still could take off.

By Linda Carroll msnbc.com contributor

It hit Stephanie Sipe’s oldest kid first. Twelve hours later, Sipe and the rest of her family were down with the worst gut-wrenching stomach bug Sipe can remember. “It spread through like a wildfire,” says the 42-year-old shop owner from Rock Hill, S.C. “It was ugly. I haven’t been that sick in my entire life â€" and that includes pregnancy and morning sickness.”

Winter’s here, heralding the season of sickness. While frigid temperatures and howling winds may seem to be the obvious culprits, studies have shown that cold weather, in and of itself, doesn’t make you sick. The problem, experts say, is that the grim weather being felt around much of the country drives us indoors. And the closer people are crammed together, the easier it is to spread the germs that are causing this year’s most common winter ills: the flu, colds and the nasty group of bugs known as norovirus.

Some viruses have come up with wintertime adaptations that make them especially good at sneaking past natural defenses. Scientists have learned that when the weather gets cold, flu viruses develop a hard outer shell that allows them to more efficiently float on air currents and then down into nasal passages. Like the covering on an M&M candy, scientists say, the coating dissolves when it enters the respiratory system.

But when it comes to the flu, there's some good news. This year’s vaccine appears to be a better match than last year’s to the strains of flu circulating around the country, says Dr. Neil Fishman, an infectious disease specialist and an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

And although flu season can start as early as September or early October, so far there haven’t been any major outbreaks, indicating that this might be a light year.

It’s a good sign that flu season hasn’t started yet,” says Dr. William Pasculle, director of clinical microbiology and a professor of pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “That tends to mean that it will be a mild year.”

But there are no guarantees, Pasculle is quick to add. Even with a slow start, the season could take off â€" and for many people, it's a good idea to get a flu shot if they haven't already, experts say. The shot is especially recommended for children older than six months, pregnant women, people older than 50, health care workers, those with certain chronic health conditions like asthma and people who care for babies less than six months old.

While about 70 percent of those in the U.S. meet the suggested criteria for getting a flu shot, only about 30 percent say they've gotten a flu vaccine this year, according to report released earlier this month by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. Dr. Larry Baraff, associate director of the Emergency Medicine Center at the Ronald Reagan University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center, urges people to consider the dangers associated with the flu. More than 35,000 people in the U.S. die each year as a result of influenza, he says.

While there are some antiviral medications out there to treat the flu once you’ve got it, the drugs may be losing their effectiveness. A recent advisory from the CDC warned that certain strains of the flu appeared to be developing a resistance to one of the antiviral medications â€" Tamiflu.

This may be even worse than it sounds, Fishman says, explaining that Tamiflu has also been used to treat the avian flu.

Even if you manage to evade the flu, you may not make it through winter unscathed. There are plenty of other viruses out there that can make your life miserable, says Pasculle. Winter’s when people are most likely to be hit by the illness that felled the Sipe family â€" norovirus infection.

Norovirus is the name given to a group of viruses that cause gastroenteritis, more commonly known as the stomach flu, in people.

The bug is highly transmissible. And “it doesn’t die rapidly in the environment,” Pasculle says. “It’s not unusual for it to run right through a house. One child brings it home from daycare and then mom and dad get it … and … yadda, yadda, yadda.” For the most part, the only thing you can do when you get a stomach virus is to wait it out. But, if you get to the point where you have diarrhea and are so nauseous that you can’t keep any fluids down, it’s time to see your doctor, Baraff says. And then there’s the common cold. It’s supposed to last only three to five days, but sometimes the hacking and dribbling can go on for weeks. That’s not because the virus is still active, Fishman says. Rather, it’s because the immune system has gotten too revved up. The inflammation designed to kill germs did its job, but your body is still attacking the now non-existent foe. The remaining immune response may be so out of whack that people develop an asthma-like condition. In general, experts say, people should see a doctor if two weeks have gone by and they're still experiencing symptoms. “First, you have to make sure you haven’t developed a bacterial infection,” Fishman says. “In a small number of cases people develop a bacterial infection that can turn into pneumonia. You would almost always have a fever, though, if it’s bacterial.” And if you’re still hacking, but have no fever, you should see the doctor to get medication to quiet your immune system down. Usually this will involve a course of inhaled steroids, says Fishman.

These help control local inflammation,” he says, adding that inhaled steroids aren’t associated with any of the serious side effects that can come with orally administered steroids. Linda Carroll is a health and science writer living in New Jersey. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, Health magazine and SmartMoney. 2008 msnbc.com.

source
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jL7mHkJcSHVOLlejms7eQS2xXDiwD93UEKQ82 go there

1,500 Chinese raccoon dogs die from tainted feed

BEIJING (AP) — Some 1,500 dogs bred for their raccoon-like fur have died after eating feed tainted with melamine, a veterinarian said Monday, raising questions about how widespread the industrial chemical is in China's food chain.

The revelation comes amid a crisis over dairy products tainted with melamine that has caused kidney stones in tens of thousands of Chinese children and has been linked to the deaths of four infants."...continued

Sick economy has patients skimping on meds

Fewer getting prenatal care

Dr. Ted Epperly, a family physician at a Boise, Idaho, clinic for the poor, said office visits were down 20 percent in August, mostly in prenatal visits by pregnant women and checkups for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes. "The longer it goes and the more skipped visits, the greater the opportunity there will be for bad outcomes," Epperly said. "It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when."

Walgreen Co. pharmacies have been calling customers, making emotional arguments for why they should be getting prescriptions refilled. "For example, do they want to be around when their kids grow up, or their grandkids?" Jeff Rein, Walgreen's chief executive, told analysts last month.

In Sacramento, Calif., an area with lots of home foreclosures, primary care physician Dr. Ron Sokolov said he saw a 5 percent drop last month in patient visits compared with the year before.

He said the decline is mostly in cash-paying patients. It means those with rashes, sore ankles and other non-emergency symptoms put off treatment, he said. He has also noticed more patients are overdue for screening tests such as Pap smears and mammograms.

"A lot of people have to first put food on their table and keep their shelter," Sokolov said.

'Everything gets stretched out'

In the Palm Beach, Fla., area, another spot rife with foreclosures, Dr. Richard Hays said patients ask him to phone in prescriptions because they cannot afford an office visit or a missed day's work. Patients are demanding more generics and more drug samples, too, and stretching annual visits to 18 months.

"Everything gets a little stretched out," he said.

"People have become acutely aware of the cost."

At Ohio State Medical Center in Columbus, Dr. Andrew Thomas said one of his patients put off having an MRI done for severe back pain "because literally she didn't have the gas money to drive across town."....continued.