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			Monday, April 20, 2009 News Clipping Archives *Maryland / Regional* REGION: DC area officials warn on measles after 5 cases (Carroll County Times) HEALTH: DC area health officials plan measles briefing (Salisbury Daily Times) Sleeping with baby not best idea (Baltimore Sun) For chronic diseases, prevention is key (Baltimore Sun) NBCI inmate dies after apparent hanging (Cumberland Times-News) *National / International* Diabetics, dementia (Baltimore Sun) Vets blame toxin in 21 polo horse deaths in Fla. (Frederick News-Post) *Opinion* --- *Maryland / Regional* REGION: DC area officials warn on measles after 5 cases Associated Press Carroll County Times Monday, April 20, 2009 WASHINGTON — An unusual series of five measles cases in the Washington area prompted public health officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Monday to start an awareness campaign to urge people to protect themselves from the potentially deadly disease. Officials also planned to announce details of recent measles activity in the area, including places, dates and times when people may have been exposed to the illness as part of the recent cases. Measles, best known for a red skin rash, is a potentially fatal, highly infectious virus that spreads through contact with an infected person sneezing or coughing. Health officials say because measles has been nearly eradicated in the United States, having multiple cases in a short time frame is cause for concern. World health authorities have said measles deaths have dropped significantly worldwide. But federal health officials say the disease has been resurgent in the U.S., with nearly half of those involving children whose parents refuse vaccination. Recent cases in California, Pennsylvania, Iowa and now the Washington region show that as long as measles exists somewhere in the world, it’s still a threat, said Athalia Christie, senior technical adviser with the American Red Cross and member of the Measles Initiative, a global group. The regional awareness effort will include urging parents to make sure their children are vaccinated and information on what symptoms to look out for. Earlier this month, health officials announced that four cases — affecting three adults and a child — had been reported since February in Montgomery County, Maryland. Officials believe the cases may have originated with an unvaccinated adult returning from abroad. In D.C., Department of Health spokeswoman Dena Iverson said doctors confirmed Friday that a city resident also had measles. That person was treated and released from a local hospital, and is no longer considered contagious, Iverson said. Officials did not provide the person’s age. She said health officials were working to contact people who may have been exposed to that case. The last confirmed measles case in Washington was April 2008. The D.C. case is not related to the four cases reported in Montgomery County, said Mary Anderson of the county’s health department. “It’s becoming a regional issue,” Anderson said. “We want to ... talk about specific exposure sites so people who’ve been at those places can be aware, and talk about the value of being protected against measles.” The disease is no longer endemic to the United States, thanks to high childhood vaccination rates, but every year cases enter the country through foreign visitors or Americans returning from abroad. Copyright © 2009 Carroll County Times. All Rights Reserved. HEALTH: DC area health officials plan measles briefing Salisbury Daily Times Monday, April 20, 2009 WASHINGTON — Public health officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia plan to announce details of measles activity in the Washington region, including potential exposure sites. Health officials plan a briefing Monday afternoon to release details on places, dates and times when people may have been exposed to the illness. State and local health officials from Virginia, and health officials from D.C. and Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland are expected at the briefing. Earlier this month, health officials announced that four cases had been reported in Montgomery County since February. Officials believe these cases may have originated with an unvaccinated adult returning from abroad. Copyright 2009 Salisbury Daily Times. Sleeping with baby not best idea Expert advice By Liz Atwood Baltimore Sun Monday, April 20, 2009 Allowing babies to sleep with their parents is a bad idea, say the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which note that the arrangement poses a risk of suffocation and strangulation. Still, sleep-deprived parents who can't get their babies to sleep in a crib often ask Dr. Terry Nguyen, a pediatrician at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, for her advice on co-sleeping. Nguyen discourages the practice and says this is what parents need to know: The Consumer Product Safety Commission does not recommend co-sleeping with children younger than 2 years old. While co-sleeping is common in other cultures, the environment is different. For example, the bed may be a mat on a hard surface, such as the floor, and there is typically less bedding (comforters, blankets, pillows). These conditions lower the risk of accidental injury. The risks associated with co-sleeping include suffocation when a baby is face down on a soft mattress or bedding; strangulation and/or entrapment of the baby's head through a cut-out in the bed frame; accidental injury from rolling off the bed; increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) for those whose parents smoke; and injury from parents rolling onto the child. Beyond safety concerns, co-sleeping often results in poor sleep for parents and children. Children often are very active during sleep, which can disturb light-sleeping parents. Also, children who sleep with their parents form a sleep association that requires being physically close to a parent and in their bed to sleep. This can make nap times a challenge and can lead to fatigue that can contribute to behavioral problems. If parents let babies sleep with them, they should have a firm mattress that fits snugly into the bed. There should be no soft bedding, pillows or stuffed animals. Parents should not drink alcohol or use medications that might decrease their alertness, and they should always place their baby to sleep on her back to reduce the risk of SIDS. Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun. For chronic diseases, prevention is key Maryland aims to better address, stem leading causes of death By Meredith Cohn Baltimore Sun Monday, April 20, 2009 As a doctor, Richard H. Carmona was often dismayed that the first he'd see of a patient with a chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension was after the often preventable malady had taken its toll. "We have a sick care system, not a health care system," said Carmona, who was U.S. surgeon general from 2002 to 2006. "People only get care after they are sick. I realized when I was a trauma surgeon that most people I cared for had preventable problems, but we never talked about prevention." Carmona was in Baltimore last week to spread the word about early intervention to stem the rising number of cases of chronic disease, which is the nation's leading causes of death and disability. He chairs the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, a coalition of health, business and government groups, and many in Maryland's health care community have just signed on. Chronic diseases include heart disease, asthma, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, mental disorder and pulmonary conditions, and they cause seven in 10 deaths across the country, according to the group. About 133 million Americans have one of the diseases, which account for three-quarters of the approximately $2 trillion spent on health care. In Maryland, 3.2 million people have at least one chronic disease. The state ranks just over the national average. State officials expect to report by the end of the year on ways to tackle some of the most deadly and costly problems. The Chronic Disease Management Plan will outline ways to prevent and more effectively treat chronic diseases. "We are the right people to partner with," said Del. Shawn Tarrant, a Baltimore Democrat who sponsored the first-in-the-nation legislation requiring the report. Maryland has several programs under way to specifically address such problems as childhood obesity, diabetes and lack of quality foods in poor neighborhoods. Both the programs and problems will be assessed in the report, he noted. But lack of information, poor dietary choices, culture and other factors make it difficult to change behaviors that can lead to disease, said Sharon Allison-Ottey, a local chair of the group and executive director of the COSHAR Foundation, a nonprofit group aimed at improving health care. Black Americans are disproportionally affected, so Baltimore city and Prince George's County have higher rates of chronic illness to tackle, she said. "We need to meet people where they are," she said. That means going to churches, community groups and doctors' offices to spread the message about diet, exercise and health screenings. About 40 local groups have signed on to support the effort, including many health care organizations, the Maryland State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branches, the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Carmona said the problem isn't just about quality of care; it's financial strain, too. Maryland spends about $26 billion annually on treatment and lost productivity. "The heartstrings argument won't work on everyone, so we're also making a business case," Carmona said during a news conference at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. "Healthier people aren't just happier, they are more productive, absent from work less. ... We're going at this from every angle. Over the years, we'll make incremental progress." Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun. NBCI inmate dies after apparent hanging By Staff Reports Cumberland Times-News Monday, April 20, 2009 CRESAPTOWN — An inmate of the North Branch Correctional Institution died of injuries after he was found hanging in his cell Sunday by correctional officers, according to the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS). Twenty-nine-year-old Wesley Williams died after being taken to Sacred Hospital by Cresaptown Ambulance. Williams was found hanging in his cell at about 4 p.m., prompting officers to immediately attempt life-saving measures including CPR, according to a DPSCS spokesman. The incident is being investigation by the DPSCS Internal Investigative Unit. Cresaptown Ambulance was assisted by a medic of the Bowling Green Volunteer Fire Company, according to the Allegany County 911 Joint Communications Division that alerted ambulance personnel to the incident at 4:02 p.m. Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc. *National / International* Diabetics, dementia McClatchy-Tribune Baltimore Sun Monday, April 20, 2009 People with diabetes whose blood sugar plummets so low that they have to go to a hospital are likelier to get dementia later in life, a new study shows. The Kaiser Permanente study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed the medical records of more than 16,000 diabetics throughout Northern California. Those who went to an emergency room once or were hospitalized once for low blood sugar had at least a 29 percent greater chance of being diagnosed later with dementia. Those who had three hospital or emergency room visits were more than twice as likely to later develop dementia. Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun. Vets blame toxin in 21 polo horse deaths in Fla. Associated Press By Brian Skoloff Frederick News-Post Monday, April 20, 2009 WELLINGTON, Fla. (AP) -- The sudden death of 21 polo horses in Florida may have been caused by a toxin that has yet to be identified by tests and could have been in the animals' feed, vitamins or supplements, veterinarians said Monday. The horses from the Venezuelan-owned team Lechuza Caracas sickened just before a tournament Sunday, collapsing and dying on the scene or while being treated at vet clinics or transported, officials said. Dr. Scott Swerdlin, a veterinarian at Palm Beach Equine Clinic near the polo grounds, treated one of the sick horses. He said it appeared the animals died of heart failure caused by some kind of toxin that could have been in tainted food, vitamins or supplements or some combination of all three that caused a toxic reaction. "A combination of something with an error in something that was given to these horses caused this toxic reaction," Swerdlin told reporters. It may take days or weeks to get the results of toxicology tests that could identify the toxin, he said. Another veterinarian who was at the scene said something triggered heart failure among the horses. "Well clearly, it's an intoxication, clearly there's some sort of a poison," Dr. James Belden told NBC's "Today Show". The team is owned by Venezuelan businessman Victor Vargas but most of the horses and players are Argentine, Swerdlin said. The team travels most of the year. Swerdlin said the team has up to 60 horses. All of those who fell sick have died, he said. The Lechuza Caracas horses were being unloaded from their trailers Sunday afternoon when two collapsed and others acted dizzy and disoriented, according to the International Polo Club Palm Beach. Seven horses died at the scene and the rest while being treated elsewhere or en route to medical care. The polo grounds in Wellington, a wealthy equestrian and golfing community in central Palm Beach County, hosts the U.S. Open every year. John Wash, the polo club's president of club operations, told reporters Monday that doctors had ruled out any sort of airborne infection. "This was an isolated incident involving that one team," Wash said. "This was devastating," he said. "It was heartbreaking to see that many horses to get sick all at once." Veterinarians already at the event quickly tried treating the horses, inserting intravenous lines and trying to cool them down with fans and water. Observers hung blue tarps to shield some of the horses from the crowd's view. The match in the U.S. Open Polo Championship was postponed and an exhibition game with a substitute team was held in its place. The carcasses of at least 14 horses were taken to a state agricultural laboratory for necropsies to learn the causes of their deaths. Wash said these types of horses can be worth from $10,000 to $200,000 each. He also said that because doctors had ruled out an infection, the games will resume Wednesday. © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. *Opinion* --- BACK TO TOP


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