Free Republic

HIGH PRAIRIE, Alta. — About 2,700 patients — including hundreds of children — need to be tested for HIV and hepatitis because a handful of hospital staff in a northern Alberta farming community administered drugs with dirty syringes for nearly two decades. Health officials said Monday they want to perform blood tests on 1,300 patients who had endoscopy procedures at the High Prairie Health Complex over four years dating back to March 2004. Officials said fewer than five staffers were routinely injecting pain killers into intravenous lines with syringes that had already been used in lines attached to other patients....

Op-Ed Contributor 1. If confirmed, you will be working in the city with the highest rate of AIDS cases in the country. Intravenous drug users are estimated to make up about one-third of Washington’s new AIDS cases. The House recently lifted a ban preventing the District from using municipal money to set up a needle exchange program. However, the Bush administration remains opposed to the use of federal funds for needle exchange. If asked to advise the president about changing this stance, using the epidemiological data on the effect of needle exchange on H.I.V. transmission, what would you tell him?...

The end of this month marks the anniversary of the judicially-ordered killing of Terri Schiavo, age 41, carried out at the behest of her husband who was living with another woman and his Scientologist lawyer. She was not brain-dead. She could breathe on her own. Yet despite the best efforts of Terri's family and the pro-life and disability-rights communities, the courts ordered Terri Schiavo to be killed by dehydration. Rush Limbaugh described the day as "the day our country hit rock bottom." One year later, it is still an apt description. Terri Schiavo left no written instructions nor a living...

LONDON, Ontario, January 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The London Public Library responded to drug use in its Central branch by installing needle disposal units in convenient locations.The library also offers information promoting homosexuality, both in literature and on their website.Disposal units were installed at the library, in the men’s public washrooms, during December 2005. Library staff were finding used needles plugging the drains, on the floor and in the sanitary napkin disposal units. Louis Dillon, who uses the library regularly, told the London Free Press he’s afraid the disposal units could act as a magnet for drug addicts.“I know there...

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 8:54 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration reissued a nationwide alert Friday against the use of IV Flush brand preloaded syringes containing either heparin or sodium chloride because the products have not been approved and may be contaminated. The FDA first warned consumers and institutions about the syringes on Monday. Since then the agency has been informed of a cluster of infections in patients that may be associated with the heparin flushes. Those cases are still being investigated, said the alert issued Friday. The syringes, distributed by Pinnacle Medical Supply...

Syringes, unkown medication, sleep inducing chemicals, anesthetizing agents, food stimulants, and honey were found on the bodies of the two terrorists who were killed by IDF troops Sunday night at the Nitzana border crossing between Israel and Egypt. The IDF is investigating the possible uses of the materials found on the terrorists. One of the working assumptions, based on intelligence information, is that the group of terrorists was planning to kidnap soldiers. The Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, has suggested his Islamic militant group might kidnap Israelis as ransom for Palestinian prisoners.

Editorial: Selling syringes Requiring prescriptions is spreading disease Sacramento Bee Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Tuesday, June 4, 2002 The syringe is a medical tool of great benefit and harm. Through its needle can flow insulin for the diabetic or heroin for the addict. While the diabetic usually has no trouble getting a doctor's prescription for syringes, the addict will find it impossible. The lack of a prescription for clean needles is no deterrent to shooting up. Addicts just share needles. This is how diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis C are spread. This is leading the California Legislature to the...