Free Republic

VICTORIAN health authorities have renewed their warnings over links between semi-dried tomatoes and an outbreak of hepatitis A ... "Because the incubation period for hepatitis A could be as long as two months, trying to get people who fell ill to accurately pin down what and where they actually ate this product can be difficult," Dr Carnie said. Bottled semi-dried tomatoes in supermarkets were pasteurised and considered safe along with any of the cooked product such as in pizzas or quiches. The greatest risk would appear to be at restaurants and cafes, where semi-dried tomatoes are served in foods such...

It is a health crisis of alarming proportions. Up to nine million Egyptians have been exposed to hepatitis C, and tens of thousands will die each year unless they receive a liver transplant. Health authorities are taking steps to stop the spread of the blood-borne virus, but must also contend with higher liver failure mortality rates as the disease advances in those infected decades ago. "The prevalence of hepatitis C is not growing, but the impact of an outbreak in the 1960s and 70s is appearing now as a clinical outcome," says Dr. Mostafa Kamal Mohamed, professor of community medicine...

For years, the use of unscreened blood transfusions exposed severely wounded servicemembers and other trauma patients in Iraq and Afghanistan to the inherent risk of diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and malaria, according to medical experts who advise the secretary of defense. Battlefield attacks that resulted in mass casualties or severe injuries often overtaxed the military’s blood supply system until 2007, meaning medics collected fresh blood from those on site for emergency treatment of the wounded, the Defense Health Board wrote in a June 2008 report. The unscreened blood transfusions, however, did not meet federal safety standards required of all...

EL PASO, Texas — Sixteen patients exposed to a mismanaged insulin needle program have tested positive for hepatitis C, Army officials said Tuesday. The William Beaumont Army Medical Center patients were among more than 2,000 diabetics who may have been exposed to blood-borne illnesses between August 2007 and January 2009 because of the program that systematically gave multiple patients injections from the same insulin pen. Lt. Col. Sandy LaFon, the hospital's chief of preventive medicine, said it's unclear if the infections came from the improper insulin injections or were previously undiagnosed infections. Either way, the 16 patients are being treated...

Two former Philadelphia funeral directors on Tuesday admitted to selling cadavers to a ring that cut them up and sold the body parts to hospitals for implants. Gerald Garzone and his brother Louis Garzone pleaded guilty to charges that they conspired with others to take bones, skin and organs from 244 bodies in their funeral homes between February 2004 and September 2005. They were part of a scheme that plundered 1,077 bodies in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania without the permission of relatives in an operation that netted the conspirators $3.8 million. One of the bodies belonged to Alistair...

Predator missile strike? Delta Force hit-and-run deep behind enemy lines? Nope. Better: The senior al Qaida operative who helped direct the 2005 London subway bombings and a plot to blow up commercial airliners over the Atlantic Ocean has died in Pakistan’s tribal region, U.S. counter terrorism officials said Tuesday.The senior militant, an Egyptian who used the nom de guerre Abu Ubaida al-Masri, recently succumbed to hepatitis, they said. Never heard of him? Most people haven’t. The Times devoted a few paragraphs to him in a story last May about the next generation of Al Qaeda leadership, but I can’t even...

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Scientists in Japan have designed artificial molecules that when used with rats successfully reversed liver cirrhosis, a serious chronic disease in humans that until now can only be cured by transplants. Cirrhosis is the hardening or scarring of the liver, and is caused by factors such as heavy drinking and Hepatitis B and C. The disease is especially serious in parts of Asia, including China. Cirrhosis occurs when a class of liver cells starts producing collagen, a fibrous material that toughens skin and tendons. Such damage cannot be reversed although steps can be taken to prevent...

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Virginia hospital has asked more than 300 former patients to come in for blood tests because a nurse suspected of infecting patients with hepatitis in Texas worked there last year. Retired Army Capt. Jon Dale Jones, 45, was arrested this month in Miami on federal charges of assaulting three patients and possession of a controlled substance by fraud. Federal prosecutors said they believe Jones spread hepatitis in 2004 at an El Paso military hospital by diverting fentanyl -- a powerful painkiller often used for anesthesia -- from patients to himself. At least 15 military service...

MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A man running around a Lancaster County Chuck E. Cheese restaurant on Thursday evening was spitting and yelling "I have hepatitis C," police said. Manheim Township police said they arrived at the Chuck E. Cheese of Fruitville Pike around 7:45 p.m. and found David Ecenrode, 45, of Ephrata outside the restaurant. He was taken to a local hospital. Police said they have not confirmed whether he has hepatitis C. "He was running around acting crazy and spitting, which I think that was probably most significant cause for concern because you're in an eating establishment and this...

More Nevada surgery clinics to be cited By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 8, 5:09 AM ET A statewide inspection of outpatient surgery centers like the one believed to have spread hepatitis C to its patients has uncovered dangerous practices at four other clinics, a health official said Friday.The state swore to quickly inspect all 50 Nevada outpatient surgery centers after it was discovered the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada spread the blood-borne virus to at least six patients by reusing syringes and sharing vials of medication.Of the 18 clinics inspected by Friday, three in northern Nevada...

Vegas hepatitis exposure list incomplete By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago Health officials used an incomplete patient list to notify people exposed to hepatitis and HIV at a Las Vegas clinic, an epidemiologist testified Thursday."We know of patients who had been there whose names were not on the list," Southern Nevada Health District epidemiologist Brian Labus told a state legislative committee on health care.The public hearing was the first investigating the spread of hepatitis C from unsafe practices at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. An outbreak of six cases of acute hepatitis C was made...

CDC Says Problems with Hepatitis C at Clinic Could Be 'Tip of an Iceberg' Posted: 11:10 AM Mar 4, 2008 Last Updated: 2:44 PM Mar 4, 2008 Washington (AP) The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an outbreak of Hepatitis C at a Nevada clinic may represent “the tip of an iceberg” of safety problems at clinics around the country. The City of Las Vegas shut down the Endoscopy center of Southern Nevada last Friday after state health officials determined that six patients had contracted Hepatitis C because of unsafe practices including clinic staff reusing syringes...

LOS ANGELES — The city of Las Vegas has shut down a clinic where up to 40,000 people may have been exposed to hepatitis C and the HIV virus through the reuse of syringes and vials, officials said on Sunday. The clinic at the heart of the scandal, the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, "was served with an emergency suspension of its business license," city authorities said in a statement. Officials are asking about 40,000 people to be tested for hepatitis B and C and HIV because of unsafe medical practices at the clinic. Health authorities launched an investigation into...

One Sunday after church, Rich Miller headed to a local Chi-Chi's restaurant in Beaver, Pa., where he dipped into the house salsa that came with the meal. That simple act in 2003 changed his life forever. What Miller didn't know was that imported Mexican green onions in the salsa carried a deadly passenger: hepatitis A. A few days later, as Miller recalled recently, "I couldn't even get out of bed. It was like the worst case of flu that you could ever imagine." His health quickly deteriorating, the 57-year-old railroad superintendent was diagnosed with rare fulminant hepatitis A disease --...

A U.S. Coast Guard officer and devout Catholic has filed suit to prevent being forced to receive a vaccination derived from the lung of an aborted child after a higher ranking officer disputed his understanding of Church theology. The Alliance Defense Fund filed a complaint last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Healy, charging the government with using its own arbitrary judgment of what constitutes Catholic theology while permitting religious exemptions to others, effectively discriminating against Healy's sincerely held religious beliefs. Healy's request for religious exemption cited a 2005...

New evidence shows that the drug makers Merck and Schering-Plough have conducted several studies of their popular cholesterol medicine Zetia that raise questions about its risks to the liver, but the companies have never published those results. Partial results of the studies, alluded to in documents on the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site, raise questions about whether Zetia can cause liver damage when used long term with other cholesterol drugs called statins. Most of the millions of people who use Zetia take it along with a statin like Lipitor, Crestor or Zocor. Or they take it in a single...

Governor Spitzer said that the NY State Department of Health's response regarding the Nassau County doctor exposed over 600 patients to hepatitis C and HIV was "unacceptably slow" and ordered an investigation. Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, an anesthesiologist, reused syringes and multiple-dose medicine vials between January 2000 and January 2005; some patients learned they had contracted hepatitis in 2005, but the state and Nassau County officials waited 34 months to contact other patients. It turns out that it took health officials so long to let patients know because of , per the NY Times, "prolonged negotiations between the doctor and Health...

CHICAGO - A woman in her 30s who is one of the four organ transplant patients infected with HIV and hepatitis was not told that the infected donor was high risk, and had previously rejected another donor "because of his lifestyle," her attorney said. Attorney Thomas Demetrio filed a petition Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of the woman, asking officials to keep a hospital and an organ procurement center from destroying or altering any records involving the donation. "She's really a mess right now," Demetrio said of the Chicago-area woman. "She's still in shock." The patient, identified...

Over the years, I have thought about getting a tattoo. Surprising considering my fear of needles! lol I see them everywhere on every classs of person, I see the artwork vary from onr body to another.What causes someone to decide to have a tattoo. Is it cultural? Is it a fad? I am seriously thinking about it now. Any stories, suggestions? Thank you!

MADRID, Spain — A Spanish anesthesiologist with hepatitis C was sentenced to 1,933 years in prison Tuesday for infecting 275 people with the virus by injecting them with morphine from the same needles he used to feed his addiction to that drug. The Valencia Provincial Court said Juan Maeso, 65, tainted the patients by first giving himself a portion of morphine shots meant for them, then shooting the rest into them without changing the syringes. Maeso worked in four hospitals in the coastal city of Valencia when he infected the people from 1988-1997, the court said. Four of the patients...

Stores in question are in Harlingen and Raymondville An employee who worked at two Rio Grande Valley Whataburger restaurants may have exposed customers to hepatitis A at specific periods in March, according to state health officials. The Texas Department of State Health Services issued a warning Tuesday to anyone who ate at the Harlingen restaurant at 1605 W. Harrison St. between March 1 and 12 and its Raymondville restaurant at 1007 E. Hidalgo Ave. between March 13 and March 31 to seek medical treatment for hepatitis A if experiencing symptoms. An employee working at both restaurants was diagnosed with the...

CBS) LOS ANGELES An employee of Wolfgang Puck Catering in Hollywood has been diagnosed with acute hepatitis A, according to the county Department of Public Health. Attendees of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue party at the Pacific Design Center on Feb. 14 may have been exposed and should receive an immune globulin shot by Wednesday to prevent illness, health officials said. There is no risk to any one who ate food prepared after Feb. 20. Attendees at the post-Academy Awards Governors Ball, which was catered by Wolfgang Puck, are not at risk for contracting hepatitis A, public health officials said

Hundreds Line Up for Hepatitis A ShotsThousands may have been exposed recently to hepatitis A at a Pappasito's Cantina on Houston's north side, and shots are being offered to those who may have been infected.By KTRH News StaffTuesday, February 20, 2007Because hepatitis is contagious, the Harris County Department of Public Health is offering free shots of "immune globulin." However health officials say the shot only works for those who've come in contact with hepatitis within the previous two weeks. After that, anyone possibly exposed should watch for symptoms of fever, nausea, vomiting, exhaustion. Anyone who experiences such symptoms should see...

Recent diners at Pappasito's on I-45 North were possibly exposed, may need shots The health department will offer free shots of immune globulin antibodies for those who dined at the restaurant Feb. 7, 8 and 9: • When: 8:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday • Where: Mangum-Howell Center, formerly the Doss Community Center, 2500 Frick • Information: 713-212-0200 or www.hcphes.org Health officials say that anyone who ate at a north Houston Pappasito's Cantina in late January or earlier this month may have been exposed to hepatitis A by an infected member of the waitstaff. A health advisory was issued Sunday...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>

According to the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, tattooing has been practiced since the days of the ancient Egyptians, although the pharaohs and their gang must have called it some other word. Tatau is a Tahitian word, and ta-tu the Marquesan word that Captain Cook's sailors brought back from their 18th-century travels to Polynesia, where tattooing held great cultural significance on most of the far flung islands of the South Pacific. Sailors became the first segment of western populations to go for tattoos in a big way. Veterans of overseas wars and convicts followed.

Biggest concern is human and dog waste contained in a trench, Forest Service says... Between 300 and 500 people remain in Big Red Park this week after the mass exodus of people from the Rainbow Gathering in Medicine Bow/Routt County National Forest. The Forest Service is working with these people this week to develop the environmental rehabilitation process, after an estimated 15,000 people attended the annual event. So far, approximately 600 citations have been distributed by the Forest Service for camping and parking violations. The Forest Service’s biggest concern regarding the rehabilitation is the human and dog waste, which is...

(snip) From Mexico's perspective, the border encompasses some of the country's most economically prosperous states. In contrast, the U.S. border region is among the poorest areas in the United States, with >30% of families living at or below the poverty level[8]. Along the Texas border, an estimated 350,000 or more people live in 1,450 unincorporated areas known as colonias, which lack adequate sanitation infrastructure[8]. The large population movement, limited public health infrastructure, and poor environmental conditions contribute to increased incidence of certain infectious diseases[8-11] Analysis of data from the U.S. National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System for 1990 through 1998 showed...

So like Dude... I learned that the capitol of Texas is Cuba. That means that the capitol of Arizona is like, Brazil. WHOA DUDE! IT MUST BE! Uh Huh Huh Huh Huh Huh Huh...

Tattoos and piercings are ways for an individual to express their personality, but most employers are looking for presentable employees. "I think that appearance is very important, [because] it lets the employer know that you know how to take care of yourself," said Eric Constantine, the manager of Athlete's House in Nashville. It can be a very difficult choice whether or not to have your ears pierced or to get a tattoo, as Lisa Stevens, a freshman, found out. "I really wanted the lifeguard job at the local pool back home," she said. "The only thing was that I also...

Fellow Americans, there comes a time every mans life when we must give up ourselves before we are worthy to recieve. There comes a time in this war on terror when in order to protect liberty, we have to give it up in the mean time for safty. That's right folks. Today, Americans have forsaken the creator for the creation and have decided that they would value our "civil liberties" than protecting western civilization and rich white people from the tender mercies of radical Islamic terrorists. Selfish liberals insist and whine that Bush has no right to spy on Americans...

Dr. Roger Perrault The trial of the doctor at the centre of the tainted blood scandal is set to begin Monday after months of legal wrangling and delays. Dr. Roger Perrault, former national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross, faces criminal charges for his alleged role in allowing hemophilia patients to receive tainted blood products in the 1980s and early 1990s. The incident is widely considered to be Canada's worst medical disaster of the last century. More than 1,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and as many as 20,000 contracted hepatitis C after receiving the blood. It's not...

After reading all of the crap that people have been saying regarding Adult Private Social Clubs, I felt that I had to post an article and give my opinion. I am sick and tired of all the religous groups that are saying that there are drugs, prostitution, minors, non-consenting people, and just immoral people at these clubs! First of all, who do these people think they are to decide what is morally right or wrong for me? I believe that I have a good set of morals. I am a law abiding, tax paying citizen, I work full time and...

Donor Network Right to Refuse Organs from Homosexual, Says Christian Doc By Mary Rettig December 7, 2005 (AgapePress) - Friends and family of a Tucson man are crying discrimination after the homosexual man's organs were rejected by the Donor Network of Arizona. However, a Kansas surgeon who works in organ transplantation says the decision was a good one. Albert Soto, 51, intended to donate his eyes and other tissues after death, but a spokesman from the Network says the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has established guidelines allowing centers to reject donations from men who have had sex with...

Health officials on Thursday identified lettuce as the likely source for a hepatitis A outbreak in Los Angeles County and urged residents to thoroughly wash the vegetable before eating it. At least 60 people have fallen ill from the virus in Los Angeles County over the last three months. Officials are concerned because the outbreak comes after years of declining hepatitis A cases, but they have been unable to link the outbreak to a particular farm or type of lettuce. There were at least two outbreaks: one in a downtown Los Angeles restaurant in September that affected 13; the other...

FORMER US President Bill Clinton may be forced to appear in court over a medical scandal which claimed the lives of innocent Scots. Many haemophiliacs were infected with hepatitis C after tainted blood from American prisoners was imported into the UK. Glasgow firm Thomsons are representing the families of Scots sufferers who died after contracting the disease. They allege inmates in an Arkansas jail were paid to donate blood despite the authorities knowing they had AIDS and hepatitis. They are threatening to call the ex-president, who was state governor at the time, to the witness stand. The infected bloodwasused to...

FoxNews - on the Record w/Greta Van SusterenSeptember 9th, 2005 Transcript of an interview with Michael Baden, renowned Forensic Pathologist. Van Susteren / BadenOfficials say the grim job of collecting and identifying the dead could take months.  Are the dead bodies dangerous to those now collecting them?  And how do you give the person dignity in death under these circumstances?  And what about disease or even mosquitoes?  Joining us live in New York is Forensic Pathologist Doctor Michael Baden.Hi Gretta.  Doc...Good evening Doctor Baden.Doctor Baden, earlier in the show Trace Gallager my colleague talked about the mosquitoes that have now descended upon New Orleans once...

Two Democratic Governors, Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Janet Napolitano of Arizona, have declared a state of emergency and asked for federal help to deal with the costs of the violence and property damage caused by illegal aliens coming over their southern borders. If President Bush lets these partisan Democrats get to the right of him on the immigration issue, all Republicans will suffer in the next election. Dr. Madeleine Cosman, Esq. is a national authority on the diseases brought into our country by illegal aliens, who of course are not given health examinations required of all legal immigrants....

WASHINGTON — For more than a decade, gay rights advocates have grumbled about a federal policy that forbids blood donation by men who have had sex with men. They say that the policy, originally intended to keep HIV-positive blood from entering the nation's blood supply, implies gay men are inherently ill and that it prevents healthy people from donating. Occasional protests and talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees blood banks, have brought no change. Now, some college students have taken up the cause, and they're taking a new tack. Instead of pressuring the FDA directly, they...

Gay men should be able to donate blood, students say College group pressures Red Cross By STEVEN BODZIN Los Angeles Times July 11. 2005 8:06AM WASHINGTON - For more than a decade, gay rights advocates have grumbled about a federal policy that forbids blood donation by men who have had sex with men. They say that the policy, originally intended to keep HIV-positive blood from entering the nation's blood supply, implies gay men are inherently sick and that it prevents healthy people from donating. Occasional protests and talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees blood banks, have...

With some 574 people hospitalized with hepatitis A in the Tver region and an initial influx of some 45 new patients each day, regional investigators are looking into a possibility that the outbreak - which began over a week ago and has been blamed on an infection in the water supply - may be linked to a biological attack. The outbreak began in the last days of May in the town of Rzhev, and with hundreds of people getting sick, local authorities were suspecting everything from the tap water to bottling factories. Early on, the initial culprit was Rzhevpivo, a...

Posting note: Gleaned from shaky translation of a Russian press report.Reliability ? Thursday, June 09, 2005 Russians Investigating Possible Bio-Attack Investigators are checking whether the mass outbreak of hepatitis A in the Tver region near Moscow could be linked to the bio-weapons sector. At the moment 363 people are in hospital, and some newspapers have linked the outbreak to the recent murder of Russia’s leading specialist in bio weapons. The outbreak began at the end of May in the Tver region and has now reached the neighboring region of Smolensk, agencies report. It was initially blamed on a local soft...

Original title: Hepatitis A epidemic in Russia's center likely caused by terrorist act 06/09/2005 10:56 The virus was most likely discharged in the water, which a local brewing enterprise used in the production Hepatitis A epidemic is gathering steam in the Tver region of Russia, spreading to other regions of Russia's center. Eleven residents have been hospitalized with hepatitis in the neighboring Smolensk region. 352 people in total, including 75 children, have been infected with hepatitis A as of 9 a.m. of June 9th. Investigators say that the infection sprang from the Rzhev-based brewing company Rzhevpivo (the Tver region), which...

Telling consumers where their meat, fruit and vegetables came from seemed such a good idea to U.S. ranchers and farmers in competition with imports that Congress two years ago ordered the food industry to do it. But meatpackers and food processors fought the law from the start, and newly emboldened Republicans now plan to repeal it before Thanksgiving. As part of the 2002 farm bill, country-of-origin labeling was supposed to have gone into effect this fall. Congress last year postponed it until 2006. Now, House Republicans are trying to wipe it off the books as part of a spending bill...

“Man and Woman”, “Wife”, “Husband”, “Widow”, “Widower” Banished From all Ontario Law Terms, when referring to spouses, are banned from all government programs, services, documentsToronto, February 25, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With the obscenely rapid, three-day introduction and passage of its same-sex “marriage” Bill 171, the Ontario government has advanced a revolutionary change in the way all laws and government programs and institutions refer to marriage and married persons. Everything referring to spouses must now be gender neutral. No longer can a married couple be referred to as “husband and wife” or “man and woman”. The terms “Widow” and “widower” are...

Each year, about 350 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus. Spread through blood and other bodily fluids, this virus puts them at high risk for cirrhosis, chronic liver disease and liver cancer -- diseases that kill about 1 million people each year. Yet through the magic of biotechnology, the lowly spud may change that. For centuries, potatoes have saved lives with their nourishment. Now they'e tackling diseases spread by viruses and bacteria. Using potatoes with a protein gene (called antigens) from HBV spliced into them, researchers have produced high levels of immunity-providing antibodies in volunteers who...

Health officials are worried that a sharp object used to stab about 20 students at a school dance could have transmitted the hepatitis C virus. One boy who was stuck at the Warren Hills Regional Middle School in Washington on Feb. 11 has tested positive in an initial screening for the virus, and more tests are pending to confirm the result, Warren County health officer John Hawk said. Officials do not believe the boy got the virus from being stabbed at the Valentine's Day dance. "But the problem is, whoever attacked this student stuck other people. So others could have...

Woo hoo! I've made the big time. Last month, the website Free Republic featured a thread about my Nov. 18 column, "Queers Who Don't Act Right." You probably don't know much about Free Republic unless you are a right-wing lunatic. Free Republic is so far right that wing-nut gay muckraker Matt Drudge and Lucianne Goldberg, one of the architects of the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky brouhaha, both left the site in 1999 because it was too extreme, even for them. In the years since, the site has become the contemporary version of a marathon meeting of the old John Birch Society and...

Sweat trickles down the face of a man busking in a steamy town square. Buenos Aires is now relatively cheap to visit A young woman paints the final brushstrokes of a summertime cityscape. Gaggles of children giggle by the lakeside in a gloriously green park. This is Buenos Aires: So pretty, so elegant and so European that it has often been described as the "Paris of South America". Before Argentina's economic crisis struck in 2001, Buenos Aires was probably the most expensive city in South America: $1 bought you one peso. Now it gets you three, allowing visitors to experience...

Homosexual activists blast man who posted warning to families ___ A promoter of tourism in a Colorado ski town has stirred up a controversy among local residents after posting a warning to potential visiting families about the city's Gay Ski Week. Al Heirich runs an online guide to Telluride, Colo., offering information about the town, its skiing, lodging and restaurants. Telluride is a world-class ski resort with a population of about 3,000. Heirich says promoters of the homosexual event, including the Telluride Ski Resort, have demanded he remove his warning to families on his website, claiming it is discriminatory. The...