Free Republic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQD3B9vEe_M Interesting video where he announces that he and Obama have been tested for AIDS, while Al Sharpton gives Biden the "evil eye" afterward.

Updated federal estimates of the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States, released today, reveal that while the AIDS epidemic here is worse than previously thought, prevention efforts appear to be having some effect. Even though the number of Americans living with HIV has risen by more than a quarter million people since 1998 -- largely the result of life-extending antiretroviral drugs -- the number of new cases each year has declined slightly over that period. That suggests that a person's likelihood of transmitting the virus to someone else is substantially lower now than it was a...

Gun regulation is not a public health issue, according to more than 80% of some 2,000 respondents to a MedPage Today poll. When the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine decried the recent Supreme Court decision overturning the District of Columbia's handgun law, they did so claiming the issue is a matter of public health. Now doctors in the trenches have weighed in with their own views. The responses from physicians who are registered members of the site was remarkbly evenly divided. Just over half (52%) said Yes, that gun control is a public health issue. But for...

"Is gun regulation a public health issue?" http://broadcaster.medpagetoday.com/t?r=2&c=1898&l=15&ctl=CA06:5D21AFF7DD791D1C59086A13CA638538

Source of Largest Salmonella Outbreak in U.S. History May Never Be Found, Says FDA The salmonella outbreak in tomatoes isn't over and it's already the largest salmonella outbreak the CDC has ever tracked, in terms of lab-confirmed reported illness. Since the outbreak began in April, the CDC has gotten reports of 810 people in 36 states and Washington, D.C., sickened by Salmonella saintpaul, the outbreak's rare strain of salmonella. The most recent onset of illness was June 15, and that may not be the last case, since the CDC gets reports of illness about 16 days after an illness starts,...

I know there are people out there who may disagree with me on this one. But here I go anyway. Mind you this is not an issue that affects me personally as I am not a smoker. First and foremost, because any article dealing with smoking must add in a few caveats I will take this opportunity to state what should already be obvious. I obviously believe that those addicted to smoking should try their harderst to quit. No doubt about that. You will not hear arguments from me disputing the dangers of cigarette addiction. Now that I got that...

<p> FDA Home Page | Search FDA Site | FDA A-Z Index | Contact FDA Salmonellosis Outbreak in Certain Types of Tomatoes Updated: June 9, 2008 Topics on this Page IntroductionUpdate on the OutbreakNews UpdatesAdvice for Retailers, Restaurateurs and Food Service Operators Consumer Health Information What Is FDA Doing?Information About Salmonella How Do I Report a Tomato Complaint? Introduction The Food and Drug Administration is alerting consumers nationwide that a salmonellosis outbreak appears to be linked to consumption of certain types of raw red tomatoes and products containing raw red tomatoes. The bacteria causing the illnesses are Salmonella serotype Saintpaul,...

View the video at this link, and be prepared to get very angry: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1329217643?bctid=1329232712 This is a public health issue. Send this link to everyone you know.

"No longer a social hub of white convalescents, about one-third of the patients are from Latin America, Haiti or other parts of the Third World -- where TB claims 3 million lives yearly. Half suffer from AIDS, a disease that has "partnered up" with the TB bacterium that thrives in a weakened immune system, Ashkin said." ... "Jim Green of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a constitutional challenge to the state's TB statutes in the late 1980s. He said the state regularly detained patients and banished them to A.G. Holley without access to attorneys or other freedoms. "There were...

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh says he will “cut off the head” of any homosexual caught in his country. Addressing supporters at the end of his meet the farmers tour here Sunday, Jammeh also ordered any hotel or motel housing homosexuals to close down, adding that owners of such facilities would also be in trouble. He said the Gambia was a country of believers, indicating that no sinful and immoral act as homosexual would be tolerated in the country. He warned all homosexuals in the country to leave, noting that a legislation “stricter than those in Iran ” concerning the vice...

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Department of Water and Power are expected to announce on May 15 a revised water use and management plan for this city that includes using recycled wastewater to recharge drinking water aquifers, according to a May 15 Los Angeles Times article. The new plan allocates about $1 billion for the proposed reclamation system, also known as “toilet-to-tap” or “sewer-to-spigot.” The city would recycle about 4.9 billion gallons of treated wastewater to drinking standards by 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported on May 15. Villaraigosa, who less than a decade ago opposed such...

What initially looked to be a frightening infectious disease outbreak that led to the death of one woman aboard a Via Rail train turned out to be a remarkable series of unconnected coincidences, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, explained during a Friday afternoon press conference. The elderly woman died during the train ride from Vancouver to Toronto, but health officials say she likely didn't have an infectious disease. Six other passengers also fell ill, with the most serious being rushed to hospital with a respiratory illness of some sort. Officials, however, believe that passenger was suffering...

A Via Rail train, carrying more than 260 passengers to Toronto, has been quarantined in Foleyet, Ont. after one person died and several people fell ill. "Currently there are a few people who are seriously ill on the train and one person is being airlifted right now," OPP Sgt. Laura Nichols told CTV.ca from the North Bay Communications Centre. The train was quarantined at the train depot in Foleyet, a community near Sudbury, Ont., after officials notified police that someone was feeling ill. More than 260 people were aboard the train when it stopped in Foleyet. Police believe there are...

Your Very Good Health (UK COI, 1948)

BEIJING (AP) - A highly infectious virus that has killed 24 children in China is unlikely to be a threat to the Beijing Olympics, although it is too early to tell whether it has peaked, the World Health Organization said Sunday. The death toll from the virus, which mostly sickens children, rose to 24 Sunday as two more deaths were reported in a new province amid heightened efforts by China's Health Ministry to contain it. The outbreak of enterovirus 71—which causes a severe type of hand, foot and mouth disease—is another headache for the Communist government as it prepares for...

Call it one price of globalism. Last year, tuberculosis increased in four of the Bay Area's five largest counties, and the San Jose area in 2006 had the highest TB rate of any large American metro area, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health. San Francisco, after an outbreak of TB among Latino day workers in the Mission district, has the highest TB rate of any...

Don't eat at McDonald's on South West Marine Drive in Vancouver. Listen. I love McDonald's, both for their food and for what they stand for philosophically. I thought that Super Size Me was a piece of anti-capitalist, anti-beef propaganda. But when you're in Vancouver, skip the McDonald's on Marine Drive. That's because the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that one of the employees there has a human right not to wash her hands when working in their kitchen. Beena Datt claimed that she developed a "skin condition" that meant she couldn't wash her hands in compliance with McDonald's...

WASHINGTON -- The only U.S. facility allowed to research the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease experienced several accidents with the feared virus, the Bush administration acknowledged Friday. A 1978 release of the virus into cattle holding pens on Plum Island, N.Y., triggered new safety procedures. While that incident was previously known, the Homeland Security Department told a House committee there were other accidents inside the government's laboratory. The accidents are significant because the administration is likely to move foot-and-mouth research from the remote island to one of five sites on the U.S. mainland near livestock herds. This has raised concerns about...

The chances of surviving the Black Death Why did some people survive the Black Death, and others succumb? At the time of the plague – which ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, carrying off 50 million people, perhaps half the population – various prophylactics were tried, from the killing of birds, cats and rats to the wearing of leather breeches (protecting the legs from flea bites) and the burning of aromatic spices and herbs. Now it seems that the best way of avoiding death from the disease was to be fit and healthy. Sharon DeWitte and James Wood of the...

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...

A kitchen worker at a Hicksville pizzeria has contracted typhoid fever, putting more than 100 customers at risk for the .potentially deadly bacterial infection, the Nassau County Department of Health and the restaurant said Saturday. Customers who ate at Mama Sbarro's at 265 Broadway in Hicksville on March 14, 15 and 16 -- when the infected employee last worked -- have a "low risk" of contracting the rare intestinal infection, the Health Department said. The department emphasized that Mama Sbarro's had passed two inspections since Friday evening, when the county was informed of the kitchen worker's condition. The restaurant, which...

New 30-year high in tuberculosis cases March 24 is World TB Day Thursday, March 20, 2008 KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - Tuberculosis (TB) takes two million lives worldwide every year, and World TB Day on March 24 is an opportunity to focus on solutions to the devastating global epidemic. Locally, 161 cases were reported in 2007, a new 30-year high, serving as a stark reminder that TB also remains a significant challenge in King County.Today’s cases are increasingly among the foreign born. Also disproportionately represented are African Americans, Asian /Pacific Islanders, American Indian/Alaskan Natives, Latinos, the homeless and those living...

Contact: Natalie Bell, Concerned Women for America, 202-488-7000, ext. 126, 202-255-1959  WASHINGTON, March 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- Current U.S. health regulations prohibit men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood. Studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorically confirm that if MSM were permitted to give blood the general population would be placed at risk. According to the FDA, MSM, "have an HIV prevalence 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first time blood donors and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors...

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows. To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences...

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...

WASHINGTON DC, February 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The American Public Health Association (APHA) yesterday announced a range of policies that were approved by the Association's Governing Council during last year's annual meeting in Washington, DC.Among a long list of generally positive health policy initiatives is a call for the removal of all restrictions that limit access to abortion in the US, including the repeal of parental consent laws and partial birth abortion bans.The APHA promotes itself as the largest association of "public health professionals" in the world. It's declared aim is to "protect all Americans and their communities from preventable,...

LITTLE ROCK -- The people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands are among the unhealthiest people in the world. An estimated 6,000-8,000 Marshallese immigrants live in Springdale, AR. and the surrounding areas, of whom 867 are children enrolled in the Springdale School District, Pritchard told the House and Senate Interim Committees on Public Health, Welfare and Labor.Deputy State Health Officer Dr. Joe Bates testified that between 2000 and 2005, Northwest Arkansas had nine cases of congenital syphilis, six of which involved Marshallese; 38 people with infectious syphilis, 21 of whom were Marshallese; and nine cases of leprosy, all Marshallese....

Monday I start doing care plans. The next week is clinicals and I have do a care plan for each one of my patients and I'm feeling a little 'intimidated'. Want to know what your first care plan experience was like,etc.etc.etc. and some pointers for doing mine.

A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the “flesh-eating” MRSA bacteria is being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers reported on Monday. In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces. The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat. The new strain seems to have “spread rapidly” in...

'Flesh-eating' MRSA threatens Britain By Caroline Gammell and Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles Last Updated: 5:49pm GMT 15/01/2008 A potentially deadly and highly drug resistant strain of MRSA has developed which can lead to a flesh-eating form of pneumonia, researchers have warned. The USA300 strain is spreading outside hospitals into the general population Spreading rapidly among gay men in several major US cities, the bug can cause boils as large as tennis balls, blood poisoning or a necrotising condition which eats away at a person's lungs. The type of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) was identified in gay men in...

Britain in grip of norovirus as cases hit 3m By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor Last Updated: 1:50am GMT 12/01/2008 Three million people have been struck down by the winter vomiting bug - with experts fearing that cases could rise through this month and next. The norovirus season began a month earlier than normal this winter. Cases of the bug increased rapidly, with more than 200,000 people a week now catching the infection, official figures claim. Those with symptoms are urged to engage in good hygiene to prevent the virus spreading further Hospitals struggling to cope have closed hundreds of wards...

disease most Americans have never heard of could soon become more prevalent if dengue, a flu-like illness that can turn deadly, continues to expand into temperate climates and increase in severity, according to a new commentary by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and David M. Morens, M.D., Fauci’s senior scientific advisor. Their commentary appears in the January 9 and 16 double issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

PALA ALTO -- Health officials are looking for anyone who may have come into contact with a Santa Clara County woman under quarantine after becoming infected with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis. They say the 30-year-old Sunnyvale woman, who's not being identified, has a form of TB that is considered a public health problem, because it's difficult to treat and has a high death rate. She's being treated at Stanford hospital in Palo Alto. Health experts say a situation like this one has the potential for disaster

COALINGA, Calif. — When any of the 5,300 inmates at Pleasant Valley State Prison begin coughing and running a fever, doctors do not think flu, bronchitis or even the common cold. They think valley fever; and, more often than they would like, they are right. In the past three years, more than 900 inmates at the prison have contracted the fever, a fungal infection that has been both widespread and lethal. At least a dozen inmates here in Central California have died from the disease, which is on the rise in other Western states, including Arizona, where the health department...

A 30-year-old Sunnyvale woman, recently back from a stay in India, is in an isolation unit at Stanford Hospital with a tough-to-treat strain of tuberculosis, and health officials are scrambling to find any people with whom she may have come into close contact. The woman, whose name has not been released, was reportedly diagnosed with multidrug-resistant TB while in India and was being treated for the disease before she returned to the Bay Area on Dec. 13. "She was sick when she got on her airplane," said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for Santa Clara County's Public Health Department...."She finally made...

Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could ``pose a dangerous public health risk.'' As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies. ``If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague,'' Huckabee...

I have no idea who I will be voting for yet, as the presidential candidates make their way through the early primary states. But I do know who I will not be voting for: Fred Thompson. From CNN: Fred Thompson wants the government to keep its hands off your dinner plate. That's what he told a questioner Tuesday in South Carolina, anyway. Standing about 15 feet away from a mouth-watering steam tray buffet loaded with fried chicken, creamed corn and macaroni and cheese at Wade's Southern Cooking in Spartanburg, Thompson dismissed the idea that preventative care and wellness education should...

Hospital Superbugs Now In Nursing Homes And Community ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2007) — Hospital superbugs that can break down antibiotics are so widespread throughout Europe that doctors increasingly have to use the few remaining drugs that they reserve for emergencies. Now these hospital superbug strains have spread to nursing homes and into the community in Ireland, raising fears of wider antibiotic resistance, scientists heard 28 November 2007at the Federation of Infection Societies Conference 2007. Doctors collected 732 samples from 22 Irish hospitals over the last ten years and found that 61% of them, 448 samples, tested positive for bacteria that...

The parents of more than 2,300 Prince George's County students who failed to get needed vaccinations could face fines of $50 a day and up to 10 days in jail if their children do not meet the state's immunization requirements, county officials said yesterday. The threat of legal action is a last resort after months in which Prince George's has struggled to get its 131,000 students immunized for chicken pox and hepatitis B, as mandated by the state. More than 2,300 students have not been immunized and have been barred from attending schools, almost two months after a Sept. 20...

Alabama health officials have identified 212 workers who have tested positive for tuberculosis at a single poultry plant owned by one of the largest processors in the U.S. In two batteries of skin tests last month, given to 765 fresh processing employees at the Decatur, Ala., plant owned by Wayne Farms LLC by the State Department of Public Health's Tuberculosis Control Division, 28 percent were found to be infected, including one with active tuberculosis disease, which is contagious. Doctors have yet to evaluate X-rays for 165 current workers who tested positive to determine if any more are contagious. The testing...

All of the employees at the Wayne Farms fresh processing plant in Decatur have received tuberculosis skin tests and 212 of them tested positive. Health workers read and tabulated a final batch of tests Wednesday, said Scott Jones, interim director of the State Department of Public Health's Tuberculosis Control Division. Of the 598 tests administered Monday, 165 tested positive. In skin tests administered to 167 fresh processing employees Oct. 11, 47 tested positive. One of the 47 has active tuberculosis disease, which is contagious. All told, 28 percent of those who received skin tests at the fresh processing plant tested...

AIDS virus invaded U.S. from Haiti: study By Will Dunham 2 hours, 28 minutes ago The AIDS virus invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said on Monday. Michael Worobey, a University of Arizona evolutionary biologist, said the 1969 U.S. entry date is earlier than some experts had believed. The timeline laid out in the study led by Worobey indicates that HIV infections were occurring in the United States for roughly 12 years before AIDS...

An eastern Kentucky school district with one confirmed case of antibiotic-resistant staph infection plans to shut down all 23 of its schools Monday, affecting about 10,300 students, to disinfect the facilities. The project will involve disinfecting classrooms, restrooms, cafeterias, hallways, locker rooms, buses and even external areas such as playgrounds and sports fields, said Roger Wagner, superintendent of Pike County schools. "We're not closing schools because there's been a large number of breakouts, but as a preventive measure," Wagner said. One Pike County student was diagnosed with in September with MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The bacterial strain can be...

Prince William County Schools had four new cases of the antibiotic-resistant staph infection, bringing the total to nine. The new student cases were confirmed at Benton Middle School, Lake Ridge Elementary and Vaughan Elementary schools. The employee case was reported at Freedom High School. The school district released the information about the new cases Friday evening

Sen. Joe Lieberman wants to know how a Mexican with tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times. Capitol Hill lawmakers yesterday called for an investigation into why federal officials knowingly allowed a Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of TB to repeatedly board planes and cross U.S. borders. The Centers for Disease Control and Department of Homeland Security allowed a Mexican known to be infected with a highly drug-resistant form of TB to cross the border 76 times and board an airplane without detection. In addition to the delay in issuing a warning to border inspectors, a week...

A high school student hospitalized for more than a week with an antibiotic-resistant staph infection died on Monday, as schools across the country were reporting outbreaks of staph infections, including the antibiotic-resistant strain. The student, Ashton Bonds, 17, was a senior at Staunton River High School in Moneta, Va., and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, was diagnosed in him, his mother said. Officials shut down all 22 schools in Bedford County for cleaning today in an effort to keep the illness from spreading, after students at Staunton River organized a protest overnight Monday, using text messages and social networking sites....

A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the last year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times. he Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took the Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Homeland...