Health News

[Guardian Angel]

Some of the diseases we have been vaccinated for are making a re-appearance.  Mumps were a thing of the past until just recently.  Now it seems they are spreading across the midwest.....

Story

[pesoto74]

I remember having mumps when I was a kid.  About all I remember of if it was the lump on my neck.  I think that if you have had mumps than you can't get it again. 

[Guardian Angel]

You're right, once you have the mumps you're not apt to get them again......however, I am not sure I ever had them...................

[SpiritMan]

This is merely the tip of an iceberg. We are drowning in our own toxic soup. There are long lists of chemicals that are allowed in the US but banned in Europe for years. Our government is obsessed with allowing corporations to decide what is fair and safe based on their ability to make profit and to protect their investors. That's what deregulation is all about. But still there is no benefit to the American worker because these same corporations outsource American jobs.

Debate Revives as 9/11 Dust Is Called Fatal
     By Anthony DePalma
     The New York Times

    Friday 14 April 2006
 
    In the cold, clinical language of the autopsy report of a retired New York City detective that was released this week, there were words that thousands of New Yorkers have come to anticipate and to fear.

    "It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," stated the report from the medical examiner's office in Ocean County, N.J.

    That "reasonable degree of medical certainty" - coroner language for "as sure as I can be" - provides the first official link made by a medical expert between the hazardous air at ground zero after the trade center collapse and the death of someone who worked in the rescue effort.

    The report has reopened old wounds, giving lawsuits brought by first responders and downtown residents new evidence to back up allegations that the toxic mixture of dust and fumes at ground zero was deadly.

    The report has also reignited a fierce debate over whether to classify deaths like that of Detective James Zadroga, 34 - who died on Jan. 5 of respiratory failure at his parents' New Jersey home - as being "in the line of duty," making survivors eligible for more benefits.

    Dr. Robin Herbert, who has screened thousands of first responders through the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program, called Detective Zadroga's autopsy report a "sentinel event" and a warning sign.

    "It should be taken very seriously and investigated with great vigor," Dr. Herbert said.

    But while acknowledging that those exposed to the dust may develop fatal diseases, many medical experts who have tracked the health effects of the trade center collapse have been reluctant to cross the line in between probability and certainty.

    The autopsy report went further than any other medical document to link a death to the dust, but it by no means provides conclusive proof of the dust's general toxicity and its impact on other workers at the site. That, experts generally agree, may take 20 years to play out, depending on the latency period for many cancers and other diseases that could be linked to exposure to the toxic materials.

    Proving the cause of a disease, even when the cause may seem obvious, is difficult. Dr. Michael M. Baden, former chief medical examiner of New York and a forensics expert, said the phrase "reasonable degree of certainty" is the standard term used in court to mean that given the available information, "it's very likely that that opinion is correct."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041406L.shtml

[BaseballMom]

This is a growing fear of mine. I have gone on the WHO websites to find out more, since they are now saying, it's not if, it's when,it will happen. Scientists say there is a 50% chance that this disease will mutate into an airborn human to human virus. 

History and epidemiology. Influenza viruses are normally highly species-specific, meaning that viruses that infect an individual species (humans, certain species of birds, pigs, horses, and seals) stay “true” to that species, and only rarely spill over to cause infection in other species. Since 1959, instances of human infection with an avian influenza virus have been documented on only 10 occasions. Of the hundreds of strains of avian influenza A viruses, only four are known to have caused human infections: H5N1, H7N3, H7N7, and H9N2. In general, human infection with these viruses has resulted in mild symptoms and very little severe illness, with one notable exception: the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

Of all influenza viruses that circulate in birds, the H5N1 virus is of greatest present concern for human health for two main reasons. First, the H5N1 virus has caused by far the greatest number of human cases of very severe disease and the greatest number of deaths. It has crossed the species barrier to infect humans on at least three occasions in recent years: in Hong Kong in 1997 (18 cases with six deaths), in Hong Kong in 2003 (two cases with one death) and in the current outbreaks that began in December 2003 and were first recognized in January 2004.

A second implication for human health, of far greater concern, is the risk that the H5N1 virus – if given enough opportunities – will develop the characteristics it needs to start another influenza pandemic. The virus has met all prerequisites for the start of a pandemic save one: an ability to spread efficiently and sustainably among humans. While H5N1 is presently the virus of greatest concern, the possibility that other avian influenza viruses, known to infect humans, might cause a pandemic cannot be ruled out.

The virus can improve its transmissibility among humans via two principal mechanisms. The first is a “reassortment” event, in which genetic material is exchanged between human and avian viruses during co-infection of a human or pig. Reassortment could result in a fully transmissible pandemic virus, announced by a sudden surge of cases with explosive spread.

The second mechanism is a more gradual process of adaptive mutation, whereby the capability of the virus to bind to human cells increases during subsequent infections of humans. Adaptive mutation, expressed initially as small clusters of human cases with some evidence of human-to-human transmission, would probably give the world some time to take defensive action, if detected sufficiently early.

During the first documented outbreak of human infections with H5N1, which occurred in Hong Kong in 1997, the 18 human cases coincided with an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, caused by a virtually identical virus, in poultry farms and live markets. Extensive studies of the human cases determined that direct contact with diseased poultry was the source of infection. Studies carried out in family members and social contacts of patients, health workers engaged in their care, and poultry cullers found very limited, if any, evidence of spread of the virus from one person to another. Human infections ceased following the rapid destruction – within three days – of Hong Kong’s entire poultry population, estimated at around 1.5 million birds. Some experts believe that that drastic action may have averted an influenza pandemic.

All evidence to date indicates that close contact with dead or sick birds is the principal source of human infection with the H5N1 virus. Especially risky behaviours identified include the slaughtering, defeathering, butchering and preparation for consumption of infected birds. In a few cases, exposure to chicken faeces when children played in an area frequented by free-ranging poultry is thought to have been the source of infection. Swimming in water bodies where the carcasses of dead infected birds have been discarded or which may have been contaminated by faeces from infected ducks or other birds might be another source of exposure. In some cases, investigations have been unable to identify a plausible exposure source, suggesting that some as yet unknown environmental factor, involving contamination with the virus, may be implicated in a small number of cases. Some explanations that have been put forward include a possible role of peri-domestic birds, such as pigeons, or the use of untreated bird faeces as fertilizer. At present, H5N1 avian influenza remains largely a disease of birds. The species barrier is significant: the virus does not easily cross from birds to infect humans. Despite the infection of tens of millions of poultry over large geographical areas since mid-2003, fewer than 200 human cases have been laboratory confirmed. For unknown reasons, most cases have occurred in rural and periurban households where small flocks of poultry are kept. Again for unknown reasons, very few cases have been detected in presumed high-risk groups, such as commercial poultry workers, workers at live poultry markets, cullers, veterinarians, and health staff caring for patients without adequate protective equipment. Also lacking is an explanation for the puzzling concentration of cases in previously healthy children and young adults. Research is urgently needed to better define the exposure circumstances, behaviours, and possible genetic or immunological factors that might enhance the likelihood of human infection.

[Guardian Angel]

When you consider the population of the world and the relatively few cases and deaths from this disease, you can rest assured it's just another of the goverments scare tactics to keep us in fear and to take our minds off what is really scarey like invading Iran......

Story

[Guardian Angel]

This is more of a threat than Bird flu.......

Hystoplasmosis

[Guardian Angel]

Eye fungus causing real problems

Story

[Butterfly]

Illinois joins states funding stem cell research

Illinois became the first Midwestern state to use taxpayer dollars for stem cell research Monday when Gov. Rod Blagojevich awarded $10 million in grants to a group of Chicago scientists. Their work will include embryonic stem cell research.

Story

 

[pesoto74]

Jump in middle-income Americans who go without health insurance
The number of moderate-to-middle-income Americans of working age who lack health insurance has risen dramatically in recent years, a study to be released today found.

Forty-one percent of adults with incomes between $20,000 and $40,000 a year did not have health insurance for at least part of 2005, up from 28 percent without coverage in 2001, according to the report by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health care policy foundation.

The report illustrates how employers are dropping health coverage or are offering insurance plans that are too expensive for many workers to afford, according to the authors.

"These findings paint a disturbing picture of the day-to-day impact of being uninsured on the physical as well as financial health of millions of Americans," Sara Collins, the Commonwealth Fund's senior program officer and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

The Commonwealth study found that the percentage of individuals earning less than $20,000 a year without insurance rose to 53 percent, up from 49 percent in 2001. Overall, the percentage of people without insurance rose to 28 percent in 2005 from 24 percent in 2001.

About 45.8 million Americans did not have health insurance in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Almost 7 million Californians are uninsured.
Story

[pesoto74]

Man Kept Alive By Machine After Heart Removed
Former Transplant Patient Waits For New Heart

MIAMI -- Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital called a surgery in which a man had his entire heart removed while he awaits a transplant groundbreaking and rare.

Doctors said they had to perform a medical procedure done only 20 times in the entire world for Louis Quarterman, 61, or he might not be alive today.

Quarterman, a former transplant patient, is now living without a heart.

"I don't have anybody's heart inside me now, and that's amazing to me," Quarterman said. "That big machine right there at the foot of my bed, that's the heart. It's operating from the outside."
Story

[SpiritMan]

D for Debacle
     By Paul Krugman
     The New York Times

    Monday 15 May 2006

    Today is the last day to sign up for Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit. It appears that millions of Americans, confused by the array of competing plans or simply unaware of the cutoff date, will miss the deadline. This will leave them without drug coverage for the rest of the year, and subject to financial penalties for the rest of their lives.

    President Bush refuses to extend the sign-up period. "Deadlines," he said last week, "help people understand there's finality, and people need to get after it, you know?" His real objection to extending the deadline is probably that this would be an implicit admission that his administration botched the program's start-up. And Mr. Bush never, ever admits mistakes.

    But Part D's bad start isn't just another illustration of the administration's trademark incompetence. It's also an object lesson in what happens when the government is run by people who aren't interested in the business of governing.

    Before we get there, let's talk for a moment about the problems older Americans have encountered over the past few months.

    Even Mr. Bush has acknowledged that signing up for the program is a confusing process. But, he says, "there is plenty of help for you." Yeah, right.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051506M.shtml

[pesoto74]

Many young adults in US lack health insurance
Tue May 30, 11:45 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Americans in their 20s are one of the largest segments of the population lacking health insurance, and new research suggests the problem is growing.

In 2004, nearly 14 million Americans between 19 and 29 years old were uninsured, an increase of 2.5 million since 2000, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a private research foundation that focuses on health and social issues.

The findings, based on data from government and Commonwealth Fund surveys, suggest that the age of 19 or just after graduation from high school or college are crucial turning points in young Americans' health coverage. At these ages, private and public health plans often cut off benefits.

Dependents who were covered under their parents' employer-sponsored insurance are usually dropped at age 18 or 19 if they are not full-time students. Similarly, low-income teenagers insured under Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) lose coverage at age 19 unless they qualify for Medicaid as adults, which often does not happen because of the program's requirements become more strict, according to the report authors, led by Dr. Sara R. Collins, who is a senior program officer at The Commonwealth Fund.

The result is that the health coverage problem is most acute among low-income young adults, who often do not attend college and frequently have jobs with no health benefits.

At any given time, 40 percent of 19- to 23-year-olds who do not attend college or are part-time students have no health insurance, according to Collins and her colleagues. A Commonwealth Fund survey in 2005 found that among workers ages 19 to 29, 43 percent of those who earned less than $10 an hour were uninsured.
Story

[pesoto74]

For all the problems that some people in this country think the publically funded health plans that other countries have one thing stands out - people in countries with the publically funded plans are much healthier than we are in the US. Judged by results we don't have the best health care system.

Study: Canadians healthier than Americans
ATLANTA - You can add Canadians to the list of foreigners who are healthier than Americans. Americans are 42 percent more likely than Canadians to have diabetes, 32 percent more likely to have high blood pressure, and 12 percent more likely to have arthritis, Harvard Medical School researchers found. That is according to a survey in which American and Canadian adults were asked over the telephone about their health.

The study comes less than a month after other researchers reported that middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England.

"We're really falling behind other nations," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a co-author of the Canadian study.

Canada's national health insurance program is at least part of the reason for the differences found in the study, Woolhandler said. Universal coverage makes it easier for more Canadians to get disease-preventing health services, she said.
Story

[Bingo]

My annual physical is on Friday.  i can hardly wait until next week and see what horrors have shown up this time.

Blood sugar is testing/fasting pretty good so hopefully she will be pleased with that reading.