Friday, February 6, 2009

News Clipping Archives

 

Maryland / Regional

Howard eases restrictions on health access plan (Baltimore Sun)

Select STI testing no longer free for students (jhunewsletter.com)

Health officials get concerned calls; products come off shelves (Annapolis Capital)

Bill lets child-abuse victims sue until 50 (Daily Record)

Cradle to grave care at CHC (Carroll County Times)

Teen missing from group home (Hagerstown Herald-Mail)

Deal Forged to Ban Smoking in Va. Restaurants, Bars (Washington Post)

National / International

Senators berate food regulators (Baltimore Sun)

Health Official Admits Faster Action Needed in Salmonella Outbreak (Washington Post)

Obama Tries to Appease Both Sides of Abortion Debate (Washington Post)

Abuse Is Found at Psychiatric Unit Run by the City (New York Times)

Opinion

Help for Family Caregivers (New York Times Letter to the Editor)

 

Maryland / Regional

 

Howard eases restrictions on health access plan

 

Baltimore Sun Health Brief

Friday, February 6, 2009

 

In hopes of assisting unemployed people who lost or can't afford health insurance, Howard County officials are easing restrictions for enrollment in their new health access program. Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the county health officer, was to announce today that the program is dropping its requirement that new enrollees in Healthy Howard Inc. must have had no health insurance for at least six months if the person recently became unemployed. "That rule made sense six months ago," Beilenson said in a prepared statement. "Now it doesn't, so we're changing it." Healthy Howard provides legal county residents who are uninsured access to primary health care, specialists, health "coaches" and other services for a monthly fee ranging from $50 to $115 for limited-income people. The program matched more than 1,000 uninsured people with other programs. Beilenson estimated there are about 5,000 unemployed people in the county.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Select STI testing no longer free for students

 

By Becca Fishbein

jhunewsletter.com

Friday, February 6, 2009

 

Hopkins students seeking free testing for Chlamydia at the Health & Wellness Center may be surprised when they find themselves landed with a bill.

 

According to Health & Wellness Center Director Dr. Alain Joffe, due to new testing procedures at the Maryland State Laboratory, the lab that previously analyzed all of the Health Center's Chlamydia testing for free will no longer accept any samples sent to them by the University. As a result, students who were once able to get tested for Chlamydia free of charge will have to pay $28 to get tested on campus.

 

"We were informed [by the Maryland State Laboratory] in a memo that they were switching to a better test, meaning that it would pick up more cases more quickly, etc." Joffe said. "We were also told that it was a more costly test."

 

The lab claimed that since it had no way of billing students or recouping the money it would cost to analyze samples sent to them by the Health Center, they would only offer Chlamydia testing to a select group of people in the state, presumably through state family planning clinics.

 

According to plans outlined in the Maryland State Laboratory Web site, effective Feb. 2, the lab will be upgrading to Nucleic Acid Amplification (NAA) based testing, which is currently becoming the standard in Chlamydia detection. NAA based testing amplifies target nucleic acid, DNA or RNA affected by the Chlamydia bacteria, and tends to be more sensitive than older methods of testing. The researchers in charge of the new testing implementations could not be reached for comment.

 

The Health & Wellness Center will now be sending samples to the Hopkins School of Medicine Chlamydia lab, which will charge the school considerably less than a commercial laboratory would, whose fees could be as high as $160 for both Chlamydia and gonorrhea testing. Some students don't see the rise in prices as drastic enough to cause problems.

 

"As much as I think testing should be more easily accessible, it's still worth it for people to get tested if they need to," sophomore Emily King said. "Chlamydia can be a huge problem, and the price isn't astronomically high."

 

However, many are still concerned that the rise in costs will affect students' decisions in terms of getting tested.

 

"We're about to see a big fallout in testing on campus now that the option for free testing does not exist anymore," Joffe said. "This is not something that I am happy to see happen."

 

"I think that charging money for Chlamydia testing will hurt a lot of students, especially anyone who is struggling to save or who was ambivalent about taking the test in the first place," sophomore Remy Patrizio said. "If I was really nervous about [the possibility of having Chlamydia], I'd take the test, but otherwise I'd wait. There's less of an incentive to get tested if it's going to cost you money."

 

The new cost for testing will most likely affect women more than men. Testing for Chlamydia in males is usually done either through urine testing or through the less popular urethral swab; while the urethral swab method of testing had previously been free of charge, the urine test had cost $7.50 through the Maryland State Laboratory.

 

"Men are generally not a fan of the urethral swab, so most people probably didn't take advantage of free Chlamydia testing before the price change," junior Marc Perkins said. "They may not even notice the difference in cost for the urine testing."

 

Perkins added that he still thought that charging for STI testing would end up hurting the student body at Hopkins.

 

"We shouldn't have to pay for testing," he said. "It'll definitely reduce the number of people who will get tested. The last thing we need at Hopkins is a Chlamydia outbreak."

 

The tests are covered in full for those under the Hopkins student health insurance plan; additionally, it may be possible to bill part of the testing to independent insurance plans. However, some students see that as even more of a deterrent in terms of getting tested, voicing concern that billing their insurance companies for STI testing would compromise their anonymity.

 

"A lot of people's parents are the primary policy-holders for their insurance companies," freshman Rachel Sax said. "Most people wouldn't want their parents to know if they were getting tested for Chlamydia."

 

Joffe asserted that he was aware that the new cost for Chlamydia testing could be detrimental to the health of the student body, and affirmed that Health & Wellness was working to find new ways to promote outside sources for testing.

 

"I definitely worry that people won't get tested," Joffe said. "We're trying to come up with as many options as we can, especially for those who will not be able to afford the price at the Health Center."

 

Some of these outside options include providing the names of clinics around the Baltimore area that could perform the test for free. However, the most highly recommended alternative option for Chlamydia testing was iwantthekit.org, a Web site that offers men and women free Chlamydia testing kits in Maryland, West Virginia, Denver, Colo., D.C. and selected counties in rural Illinois.

 

Run by the Region III Infertility Prevention Project, a Center of Disease Control-run organization dedicated to the prevention of infertility caused by STIs like Chlamydia and gonorrhea, iwantthekit.org was started up in 2004 as a research project that hoped to reach out to offer screening to people who might not otherwise go to a clinic.

 

"Iwantthekit.org was started to be educational, to educate adolescents and teenagers about Chlamydia as well as other sexually transmitted diseases," Dr. Charlotte Gaydos, a professor in the Division of Infectious diseases at the Hopkins School of Medicine who was instrumental in developing the Web site, said. "It also made it easier for women who were asymptomatic to get tested for free, since if the disease went untreated it could lead to serious reproductive problems."

 

Iwantthekit.org accepts vaginal swabs from women and urine tests from men, providing the kits and sending back results for no charge. The entire process is completely confidential. Additionally, if students do test positive for Chlamydia through the iwantthekit.org process, they can still receive treatment through the Health & Wellness Center.

 

"We have agreements with clinics around Maryland, and we can assist in setting up appointments for you if you do test positive," Gaydos said. "Dr. Joffe has agreed to treat Chlamydia here should a student on the Homewood campus test positive for the disease."

 

The price change for Chlamydia testing will not affect anyone seeking testing for Herpes, HIV or syphilis. Students seeking testing for those diseases can still get tested confidentially for free at the Health & Wellness Center.

 

The most common sexually transmitted bacteria in the United States, Chlamydia is typically easily treatable once detected. However, Chlamydia is easily spread and, if undetected and untreated, could lead to pain, infection, infertility and sterility.

 

According to Joffe, the Center for Disease Control recommends that every sexually active woman under the age of 25 get tested annually for the disease.

 

© Copyright 2009 News-Letter.

 

Health officials get concerned calls; products come off shelves

 

By Elisha Sauers

Annapolis Capital

Friday, February 6, 2009

 

Though county residents haven't yet experienced any salmonella cases due to contaminated Georgia peanuts, the fear of the illness is still driving some locals - well, nuts.

 

Elsewhere in Maryland, there have been eight documented cases of salmonella linked to the outbreak thus far.

 

Since the investigation of nationwide salmonella cases began to garner national attention in early January, the county Health Department has been fielding calls from residents concerned about peanut-containing human and pet products, said Elin Jones, a spokesman for the agency.

 

States began identifying cases of salmonellosis back in mid-September, but it took another two months for officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to label the phenomenon an outbreak. Then, last month, the Food and Drug Administration traced the contaminants to a Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Ga.

 

Though King Nut and Parnell's Pride, two brands produced in the Georgia plant, are not sold in grocery stores, they are often supplied to bulk-food preparers like nursing homes, schools and hospital cafeterias.

 

As a precaution, many of these institutions locally reacted to the recalls by pulling every peanut product, regardless of brand, off their shelves.

 

Justin D. Paquette, a spokesman for Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, said the hospital stopped serving peanut products altogether, opting for a "better to be safe than sorry" approach.

 

"With the recalls, it's been very confusing to a lot of people," Paquette said. "So as the recall was evolving about two weeks ago, we just pulled all of the products to be on the safe side."

 

The hospital has not yet decided when it will resume serving peanut products, he said. But it has pulled six boxes of peanut butter crackers from the stock and pitched gallons of peanut butter spread, he added.

See a list of peanut product recalls

 

Allison Eatough, a spokesman for the Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, said hospital officials there also pulled products.

 

"Our bulk peanut butter does not come from the Peanut Corp. of America, but we still pulled it anyway," she said.

 

And Bruce Michalec, the executive director of the county Food and Resource Bank, said he set aside peanut butter cookies and candies, as well as including FDA information charts about the recalls with clients' food bundles.

 

In the recent outbreak, about 550 people in 43 states have contracted salmonellosis, and eight have died.

 

Salmonella is an organism that can cause deadly infections in children, seniors or anyone with a weak immune system. Those who suffer from it often experience fever, bloody diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps.

 

Last year, the county documented 85 cases of salmonellosis, with 100 instances reported just one year before. Those numbers are elevated from the total recorded in 2006: just 67 cases.

 

Fear has motivated many other establishments to act quickly as well.

 

On Monday, High's, a company based in Hanover in Anne Arundel County, initiated a voluntary recall of its 56-ounce Tin Roof Sundae, a peanut-related product manufactured at the PCA facility in Georgia, although the company "has not received any illness complaints about these products," according to a news release.

 

William F. Darnell, a High's spokesman, said the company would rather lose potential profits than risk a consumer getting sick.

 

"I mean what hurts more? Having a product out there that could possibly have a problem?" he said. "We'd rather give our customer a product that they and we feel safe about."

 

High's officials will issue refunds to any customer who returns the recalled product, Darnell said.

 

Giant grocery stores, based in Landover, have also voluntarily recalled a few items with peanut ingredients, according to several January news releases. The company has offered to refund customers who purchased those products.

 

Some reactions, such as discarding anything with peanut ingredients, could be unwarranted.

 

Capital Vending Inc., based in Laurel, distributes in a few Anne Arundel locations. Sales representative Thomas Berger said the company does not stock its vending machines with PCA products, but some businesses asked that the company remove peanut products from them anyway.

 

"I think we've probably taken them out at three locations," Berger said. "We don't even have any of those (recalled) products, but we just did it at the request of the clients."

 

Copyright © 2008 Capital Gazette Communications, Inc. , Annapolis, Md.

 

Bill lets child-abuse victims sue until 50

 

By Steve Lash

Daily Record

Friday, February 5, 2009

 

ANNAPOLIS — Saying child-abuse victims are often not ready to confront their attackers until middle age, a senator on Thursday urged her fellow lawmakers to raise from 25 to 50 the age by which a person may sue his or her abuser.

“Ideally, there shouldn’t be a statute of limitations for a crime such as this,” Sen. Delores G. Kelley told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. But Kelley said 50 was an appropriate age limit because victims of abuse, until they themselves are well into adulthood, cannot “muster the courage, the emotional ability” to confront their attackers, let alone take them to court.

Kelley’s proposal, Senate Bill 238, comes six years after the General Assembly raised the statute of limitations for child-abuse litigation from age 21 to 25, also at the Baltimore County Democrat’s urging.

Since that increase, victims and mental-health professionals have told Kelley that 25 is still too young because abuse victims need more time to understand and confront the source of their chronic depression, problems with intimacy, alcoholism and inability to hold down a job, she said.

“Their innocence was stolen,” Kelley said of the victims. Requiring them to sue by age 25 is “far too short” a deadline, leaving the victims with no opportunity to seek a financial remedy from their attackers in court.

“For the victims to be denied [their day in court] would be ungodly,” Kelley said.

She added that enabling victims to sue until age 50 could curtail childhood sexual abuse by forcing would-be abusers to consider the consequences of their actions.

“It helps children if perpetrators know that the [courthouse] door isn’t going to close for a long time,” she said.

The proposed legislation also would benefit victims between the ages of 25 and 50, whose claims are barred by the current statute of limitations. The measure, if passed, would give these victims a deadline of Jan. 1, 2012, to sue.

Defense difficulties
The proposed 25-year increase to the limitations period has drawn opposition from Catholic groups, who voiced concern that the additional time to sue could leave the church potentially facing litigation for years to come against allegations that are decades old and, thus, not easily defended against.

“The bill removes the right of an entity to access recent evidence, fresh memories of witnesses and other appropriate means to defend against civil claims,” the Maryland Catholic Conference told the committee in a prepared statement.

Kelley responded that her bill is meant to enable abuse victims to seek compensation from their attackers, not the institutions for which they worked.

But Sen. Brian E. Frosh, D-Montgomery, who chairs the committee, expressed concern about a potential 25-year increase to what he said is already the longest statute of limitations for a civil offense under Maryland law.

“It’s a complicated issue,” he said, referring to the appropriate way to compensate victims of childhood sexual abuse. But “it is difficult to defend against old actions,” he added.

The Catholic Church has acknowledged that sexual abuse by priests has occurred and that the church has settled many of those cases, even when the alleged offenses occurred decades earlier, the conference’s statement said.

It told the committee that the fight against child abuse would be better waged the way the church is fighting it: by requiring all employees and volunteers to undergo criminal background checks and training, and by paying for and providing counseling for victims. Conference members include the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington.

But Paul Livingston, who said he was sodomized by an adult when he was about 6, told the committee that counseling is not enough. He told the committee that he did not come to grips with the abuse until after his daughter was born in 2002, when he was in his mid-30s.

“We internalize this and make it about us; that it’s our fault,” Livingston said of the trauma endured into adulthood by victims of childhood sexual abuse.

Livingston sued his attacker in California and said he ultimately reached an out-of-court settlement.

“It’s turning 15 cents into a dollar,” Livingston said of the futility of the settlement. “I’d rather have my life back.”

Livingston, who lives in California, said he flew to Maryland at his own expense to support Kelley’s legislation.

“The only reason we’re all here is for the protection of Maryland children,” he told the committee.

Leaders of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee did not indicate whether and when the panel will vote on the proposed extension to the statute of limitations.

 

Copyright 2009 Daily Record.

 

Cradle to grave care at CHC

 

By Carolyn Scott, Columnist

Carroll County Times

Friday, February 6, 2009

 

We are very blessed in Carroll County to have a full spectrum of wonderful medical care right here.

 

I’ve written before about the great care our daughter has had in the Family Birth Place at Carroll Hospital Center. While my experiences with the births of two children in different hospitals were certainly adequate, they did not come close to what is available more than 30 years later, right here in Westminster.

 

Over the years as different family members have needed both scheduled and emergency care, we have been impressed with the caring attitude of all the personnel at the hospital. From the admitting clerks who personally take the patient to the next station to the doctor who comes to talk to the family before and after procedures, in my experience all were professional but friendly. Because we are a community hospital, many of the people we see are familiar to us.

 

Schools and offices may be able to close during bad weather, but hospitals obviously can’t. During the last ice and snow event we needed to be at the hospital at an early hour. We made it safely, however our doctor was delayed but he did arrive and everything proceeded smoothly.

 

In the hospital cafeteria I listened to stories from staff as they arrived, recounting sliding off the road, being held up by someone else sliding off the road or taking twice as long to creep along, faithfully arriving at their stations.

 

The hospital’s name now includes “Center” as we are fortunate to have a facility to treat cancer patients adjacent to the main building. There is The Women’s Place in the outpatient facility of the Dixon Building which also houses a radiology clinic.

 

A variety of doctors have their offices in a building on the same campus. We could almost call it one-stop shopping.

 

The newest construction is a much needed parking garage. Staff members have had to park at great distances and be bussed in so space could be left for patients and visitors.

 

The Family Birth Place has a relatively new neighbor across the street. It is Dove House, the Carroll Hospice in-patient facility. I had the sad occasion to visit there last week. I had heard a lot of nice things about it but had never been inside. It is where, when the hospital and doctors can do no more, patients are brought to die in peace and dignity.

 

It wasn’t until I started to write this column that I was struck by the similarity between where children are brought into the world and where, many years later, they may go to die.

 

Both are warm, family-oriented places with caring personnel. At Dove House the hospital beds are disguised as regular twin beds. Windows look out on patios or balconies. Soft music may be playing. There are neither beeping machines nor the hustle and bustle of the hospital.

 

Just as the babies receive hand-knit caps or blankets, hand-knit prayer shawls cover the patients and then are given to the family.

 

There is a sitting room for visitors with a piano and a fireplace and even a small playroom for children.

 

A dining room provides coffee and tea and breakfast breads or snacks all day. Family can visit any time day or night, just as if their loved one was at home.

 

It seems we are trying to return to the days when both being born and dying usually happened at home.

 

From cradle to grave, we can certainly be well cared for in Carroll County.

 

Carolyn Scott writes from Westminster. Her column appears every second Thursday. E-mail her at: carolynlss@hughes.net.

 

Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times.

 

Teen missing from group home

 

Hagerstown Herald-Mail

Friday, February 6, 2009

 

Deputies on Friday were searching for a teenager who reportedly ran away from a group home, The Oak Hill House, Monday, the Washington County Sheriff’s Department said.

 

Maurice L. Butler, 17, was described as black, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 196 pounds. He has short black hair, brown eyes and a mustache. He was last seen inside the home Sunday night.

 

Maurice may have returned to his hometown, Baltimore, deputies said in a news release.

 

Anyone with information can call police at 301-791-3020.

 

Copyright 2009 Hagerstown Herald-Mail.

 

Deal Forged to Ban Smoking in Va. Restaurants, Bars

 

By Tim Craig

Washington Post

Thursday, February 5, 2009

 

RICHMOND, Feb. 5 -- Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and House Speaker William J. Howell announced a deal Thursday morning to ban smoking in restaurants and bars in Virginia, a monumental decision in a state built on the profits of cigarette sales that remains the home to the nation's largest tobacco company.

 

Under the agreement, which the two men finalized last night, smoking will be permitted only in private clubs but public establishments can also construct enclosed, ventilated smoking rooms for patrons.

 

Kaine (D) and Howell (R-Stafford) said they expect the legislation to sail through the General Assembly with bipartisan support. The Republican-controlled House General Laws Committee, which has repeatedly killed previous smoking bans, was to take up the bill later Thursday.

 

"This is a good thing for restaurant patrons, and it's a good thing for workers," Kaine said.

 

Kaine said the bill is a "good example of compromise" and "a true bipartisan achievement."

 

Howell also described the legislative deal as one that will satisfy both smokers and nonsmokers.

 

"I feel comfortable that the rights of citizens to enjoy a legal product have been protected and that the rights of citizens who don't want smoke while having their dinners have been protected as well," he said.

 

But Teresa T. Gregson, a lobbyist for the American Heart Association, said her organization is "not happy" about the compromise.

 

Gregson said the bill as drafted does not clearly state what constitutes an enclosed room. Gregson said the bill also lacks stringent penalties for patrons or establishments that violate it.

 

"We are disappointed they would create a bill and show it to us two hours before the press conference," said Gregson, who vowed to try to amend it. "There are problems with this bill."

 

The District banned smoking in bars and restaurants in 2006, and Maryland followed with a similar prohibition in 2007. This is not the first year proposals to ban smoking have been proposed in Virginia, but they have repeatedly been defeated in the Republican-controlled House, where Howell has quietly blocked attempts to allow the debate to reach the floor.

 

Howell told Republican House members Wednesday afternoon that he now supports a "limited" prohibition -- one that would not extend, for instance, to private clubs. Howell told the delegates he met Kaine, who has made the ban one of his top legislative priorities, and the two men agreed to move forward with a compromise.

 

On Tuesday, the Democratic-controlled Senate approved four bills that would outlaw smoking in bars, restaurants and public places. Howell and Kaine agreed to draft a more narrow version of the Senate bills.

 

Even with Kaine's and Howell's support, a smoking ban could face obstacles in the House.

 

In 2007, Kaine tried to slip a ban past House leaders by attaching it as an amendment to a bill. But 10 House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong (D-Henry), helped defeat Kaine's amendment.

 

GOP delegates said Howell, who controls prized committee assignments, has told them they can vote freely, without fear of retribution.

 

"Everybody has got to make up their own mind," said House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem).

 

One GOP delegate, who declined to be identified because caucus meetings are supposed to be confidential, said Howell told them he was moving ahead with a proposed ban because of the looming elections.

 

Since 2003, Democrats have gained 11 seats. All 100 House seats are up for election in November. Democrats will take over the majority if they can pick up six seats this fall.

 

Public and private polls show strong support for a smoking ban, especially in the state's Democratic-leaning north, where several GOP delegates could face strong challenges this year.

 

Staff writer Anita Kumar contributed to this report.

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

National / International

 

Senators berate food regulators

Response to salmonella outbreak draws criticism of FDA, CDC

 

Tribune Washington Bureau

By Ben Meyerson

Baltimore Sun

Friday, February 6, 2009

 

WASHINGTON - Members of a Senate panel rebuked federal health and food safety regulators yesterday for their slow intervention in the nation's peanut-borne salmonella outbreak, demanding that officials find ways to cooperate when responsibility is split among different agencies.

 

"All of this happened because of a failure - the failure of our government to prevent unsafe food from entering the food chain," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, told officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing.

 

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, lamenting the lack of food safety enforcement authority, said he wanted to see penalties that are much steeper than fines.

 

"I'd like to see some people go to jail," the Vermont Democrat said. "You give them a fine, well, it's just the cost of doing business. But if somebody thinks they're going to go to jail ... that's an entirely different thing."

 

Federal officials are investigating a Georgia plant operated by Peanut Corp. of America in connection with a nationwide outbreak of salmonella poisoning in which nearly 600 people in 43 states have been sickened and eight have died.

 

The company produces only about 1 percent of the nation's peanut products.

 

Senators focused on the absence of strict regulation of the Blakely, Ga., plant, which had not undergone an FDA inspection since 2001. The FDA instead contracted its operations to the state of Georgia in 2006.

 

Georgia state inspectors found repeated cleanliness problems at the plant from 2006 to 2008, including grease and food buildup and gaps in doors that could allow rodents to enter, according to news reports.

 

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA's food safety program, said companies are required to inform the FDA if they discover contamination after they have shipped a product, but not if the food is still at the plant. States forward reports on inspections they conduct for the FDA, but they are not required to send inspections performed under their own laws.

 

"That's one of the very serious loopholes we need to plug," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican.

 

As a precautionary measure, Kentucky stopped distributing FEMA emergency meal kits yesterday for victims of last week's ice storm after authorities warned that the meals might include packets of recalled peanut butter.

 

No illnesses have been reported there.

 

Invoking federal antiterrorism laws, the FDA later obtained internal company test records that Georgia inspectors could not, including lab tests that found salmonella on 12 occasions in the past two years.

 

"We simply have an outdated system. Whatever worked 50 to 100 years ago certainly isn't working the way it used to," said Sen. Tom Harkin, the Agriculture Committee chairman and an Iowa Democrat.

 

Harkin proposed a uniform database allowing physicians across the country to enter information. He also suggested the possibility of a new federal agency dedicated solely to food.

 

Marion Nestle, a nutrition, food studies and public health professor at New York University, said in an interview that forming a single federal oversight agency is essential.

 

"Food safety agencies have proven over and over again that they cannot work together," Nestle said. "How much worse does it have to get?"

 

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Health Official Admits Faster Action Needed in Salmonella Outbreak

 

By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post

Thursday, February 5, 2009

 

A top federal official acknowledged for the first time today that public health officials were slow to recognize salmonella cases caused by contaminated peanut butter as they spread across the country and that faster action might have been able to contain an outbreak that has so far killed eight people and sickened at least 575 in 43 states.

 

"We need new laboratory tools, new information tools, computer assisted telephones to bring information together in real-time," said Rear Adm. Ali S. Khan, assistant surgeon general, told the Senate agriculture committee this morning. "We need better investment on the state and local level to make diagnoses more quickly. . . . There are a number of opportunities to shorten this timeline and have cases identified quicker."

 

Khan was responding to questions posed by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who said he did not understand why the first illnesses were reported in early September but it took five months before a recall of the contaminated products was issued.

 

"You all have got to figure out some way to speed up the process," Chambliss said. "This was a huge breakdown in the system here. A total lack of information sharing between all of our food safety organizations. It's pretty obvious we have to make some major changes."

 

State health officials in Minnesota and Connecticut were the first who first traced the salmonella illness outbreak to King Nut peanut butter, which was sold to institutions such as nursing homes and schools and was made at a small plant in Blakely, Ga., owned by the Peanut Corporation of America.

 

In Minnesota, Shirley Mae Almer, 72, died in December after being served peanut butter on toast in a nursing home. "It's shameful a death like this could happen in America," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

 

In addition to making peanut butter for private labels and institutions, the Blakely plant produced peanut paste and other peanut-containing ingredients that were sold to manufacturers who use them in a wide variety of consumer products, including cakes, crackers, ice cream and even dog biscuits.

 

Gabrielle Meunier, whose 7-year-old son, Christopher, was hospitalized in Vermont after eating peanut butter crackers contaminated with salmonella, told the committee her agony was magnified by a lack of information from health officials. Christopher ate the crackers Nov. 25, but it wasn't until January, when she stumbled on a news report, that she realized the bacteria came from crackers that were still in her kitchen cabinet.

 

"I was kept completely in the dark," Meunier said. "I wasn't even aware the FDA was involved. When I tried to call the CDC, they wouldn't even take my call. There were so many time delays. And I had that poison in my house the whole time."

 

Once Minnesota and Connecticut linked the salmonella to King Nut peanut butter, officials at the Food and Drug Administration launched an investigation of the Blakely plant Jan. 7. They found the company had knowingly shipped peanut products that tested positive for salmonella on at least 12 occasions in 2007 and 2008. The company never reported those test results to either state or federal officials because it is not required to do so.

 

"It seems to me that is a gaping loophole," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the committee chairman. "A company that does its own testing finds salmonella and doesn't have to report it to the FDA."

 

The FDA also did not know the company was making peanut butter at the Georgia plant. The last time the FDA inspected the Blakely plant was 2001, when it was blanching and roasting peanuts but not making peanut butter, said Stephen Sundlof of the FDA. In 2006, the FDA contracted with the state of Georgia to perform annual inspections of the facility on its behalf.

 

The Georgia inspectors never reported any serious problems to the FDA.

 

When FDA officials went into the plant last month for the first time in five years, however, they found a leaky roof, water stains, poor ventilation, mold, dead roaches, unsanitary equipment as well as four types of salmonella.

 

That suggests the inspection process was inadequate, Harkin said.

 

Peanut Corporation of America has another plant in Plainview, Tex., that has been operating unlicensed and uninspected since 2005, according to Texas officials.

 

The company has recalled all peanut products made at its Georgia plant since Jan. 1, 2007, one of the largest food recalls in history. More than 800 products are on the list. The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation.

 

Among the company's customers was the U.S. Agriculture Department, which purchased peanuts and peanut butter from the Blakely plant for distribution to schools in California, Idaho and Minnesota. Agriculture officials said today they are suspending the government's contract with the company and intend to prohibit it from doing business with the federal government for three years.

 

In addition, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack removed the company's president, Stewart Parnell, from a USDA advisory board on peanut product standards. The board advises the agriculture secretary on quality and handling standards for domestic and imported peanuts marketed in the United States.

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Obama Tries to Appease Both Sides of Abortion Debate

 

By Rob Stein

Washington Post

Thursday, February 5, 2009

 

President Obama is trying to blunt the edge of perhaps the sharpest, most divisive wedge issue in the country: abortion.

 

In a series of moves, Obama is attempting to nudge the debate away from the morality and legality of abortion and toward a goal he hopes both sides can endorse: decreasing the number of women who terminate their pregnancies by addressing the reasons they might choose the procedure.

 

The strategy is being met by deep skepticism from many prominent antiabortion activists, but it has been embraced by some others as well as by leading abortion rights activists, who hope it could fundamentally reshape one of the nation's most intransigent political stalemates.

 

"It's consistent with who he is and what he's articulated in a number of different areas," said a senior White House aide familiar with Obama's thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter freely. "How can we apply common-sense, common-ground approaches to difficult problems so that we can move the ball forward, so that we can start to change the dialogue away from just those things we disagree on to those areas where we do agree?"

 

Today, the president announced the creation of a new White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which will make abortion reduction one of its priorities.

 

But the campaign carries potential risks, including angering Obama's most ardent supporters if they think he is compromising too much, or alienating the nascent group of antiabortion allies who have aligned themselves with him if they end up feeling betrayed.

 

"He faces risks from both the right and left for pursuing this strategy," said Cynthia R. Daniels, a Rutgers University political scientist. "Of course, there are always risks involved in trying to shift to a new paradigm."

 

Obama's approach has already been tested: Three days after his inauguration, he lifted a ban on U.S. funding for international health programs that provide abortions and abortion counseling, and last week he persuaded House Democrats to drop from the stimulus package a plan to allow Medicaid to expand contraceptive services.

 

Both moves produced mixed results: The international funding decision thrilled family-planning proponents but infuriated abortion opponents, even though some praised Obama for doing it quietly and for postponing the announcement one day to avoid the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. The decision to back off the Medicaid family-planning expansion was welcomed by some conservatives but surprised and disappointed women's health advocates.

 

"What he's finding is that most of the interest groups are organized on sharp ideological divisions," said Amy E. Black, a political scientist at Wheaton College in Illinois. "What's more interesting to me is how the average voter will respond."

 

Obama's approach will be tested again by a series of upcoming decisions on sensitive issues, including how he deals with the Bush administration's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which is controversial because the cells are obtained by destroying human embryos. Obama is also under pressure to reverse a Bush administration regulation protecting the rights of health-care workers who object to providing abortion, the morning-after emergency contraceptive pill and other types of medical care, to take steps to increase access to contraception and abortion, and to cut funding for abstinence-only sex education.

 

"When it comes to an issue like abortion, any related issue becomes a de facto litmus test," Black said, noting that the subject will also come up when Obama begins naming judges, probably including a new Supreme Court justice.

 

Despite the difficulties, a variety of advocates and members of Congress across the ideological spectrum said they remain optimistic.

 

"The stars are starting to align," said Stephen Schneck, director of the Life Cycle Institute at Catholic University. "For a variety of reasons, this appears to be a unique political moment where this idea seems to have caught fire."

 

Obama's strategy emerged during the presidential campaign. In his third debate with Republican John McCain, he repeated his support for abortion rights but called it "a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on," adding: "There surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, 'We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies.' "

 

Obama also pushed for a rewrite of the Democratic platform to include a call for reducing "the need for abortions."

 

When he took office, he was expected to immediately reverse the international family-planning policy, but instead of doing so on the Roe v. Wade anniversary, Obama used the day to issue his first statement as president on abortion -- a statement that included similar conciliatory language.

 

Said Joel C. Hunter, pastor of the evangelical Northland Church near Orlando: "I'm pro-life. I hate abortion. But this administration is trying to be very sensitive. They are trying to approach things in the least inflammatory, least contentious way so we can work together and have a more nuanced approach."

 

Several pending proposals could offer the starting point for legislation aimed at reducing abortions by steps such as making contraception more available, making it easier for pregnant women to receive health care and day care and stay in school, and making it easier for prospective parents to adopt.

 

"The president could capture the imagination of the American people and do a lot to ease the culture wars on this issue," said David P. Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University in Georgia. "He could package together some of these initiatives to tackle the demand side of abortion."

 

But many abortion opponents doubt the president is committed to true compromise.

 

"The common ground Obama seeks for the pro-life movement is the burial ground," said Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee.

 

Even some of those taking a wait-and-see approach dismissed Obama's low-key reversal of the international family-planning restriction as meaningless.

 

"For me, it's the difference between killing you in broad daylight and me taking you out and killing you behind the barn," said Daniel Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. "The result is the same. And I'm one of the evangelicals willing to give him a chance."

 

Several abortion opponents who support Obama's efforts expressed concern about what will happen if he is unable to deliver. "Many of us feel like we've stuck our necks out with our constituencies," said Jonathan Merritt, an independent evangelical. "He will have done us a great disservice if he does not come through."

 

Many especially worry about Obama's support of the Freedom of Choice Act, which is designed to enshrine Roe v. Wade in federal law and could instantly polarize the debate again.

 

Reproductive rights advocates will be promoting measures that could inflame the issue, such as expanding access to contraceptives, including the morning-after pill, and lifting restrictions on providing abortions to women in the military at government facilities. While they were disappointed by the decision to back off the Medicaid provision in the stimulus bill, they were assured that Obama would pursue the issue later.

 

"I do think there's a difference between looking for common ground and compromising one's principles," said Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center.

 

Both sides will be closely watching Obama's decision on former President George W. Bush's funding restrictions on stem cell research. Many research proponents hope Obama will issue an executive order that lifts the constraints without any caveats. But he could accompany his order with a statement acknowledging opponents' moral concerns or go further -- allowing an expansion of the number of eligible cell lines but not allowing federal money to be used for stem cells from embryos destroyed in the future, for example.

 

"There are a number of things the president could do if he really wanted to do a compromise," said Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Abuse Is Found at Psychiatric Unit Run by the City

 

By Anemona Hartocollis

New York Times

Friday, February 6, 2009

 

The federal government has documented a pattern of sexual and other violent assaults among patients at the psychiatric unit of a city-run Brooklyn hospital where a woman died in June on the floor of the emergency waiting room while staff members ignored her.

 

After a yearlong investigation, the Department of Justice portrayed the unit at Kings County Hospital Center as a nightmarish place where patients were not treated for suicidal behavior, were routinely subdued with physical restraints and drugs instead of receiving individualized psychiatric treatment, and were frequently abused by other patients.

 

The details are laid out in a 58-page report to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that was made public on Thursday.

 

The investigators found that the psychiatric service operated like a prison. The report said that instead of meaningful treatment and diagnosis, the patients received frequent visual checks by the staff, and that even when patients were supposedly under watch, violence and attempted suicides occurred.

 

Among the most serious incidents the report documented were an October brawl among six patients that left one needing surgery, and an autistic patient being forced to perform oral sex in November. The report also included allegations that a woman was raped and that a 14-year-old was forced to engage in oral sex by a 16-year-old.

 

All four incidents occurred after the highly publicized death of Esmin Green, a Jamaican immigrant with a history of depression, who collapsed on the floor of the emergency waiting room after waiting nearly 24 hours to be seen. A surveillance video showed Ms. Green, 49, lying on the floor for nearly an hour; during that time, a guard came in to check on her by wheeling his chair along, and another staff member prodded her with a foot.

 

“While perhaps unique in the extent of the harm that resulted, the tragic case of Ms. Green typifies the patterns of inadequate care and treatment,” reads the report, from Loretta King, an acting assistant attorney general, and Benton J. Campbell, the United States attorney in Brooklyn.

 

The report, a summary account of the federal investigation that resulted from a 2007 lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union and others, found at least three cases, including Ms. Green’s, when employees falsified records to hide their neglect.

 

The report became public when Alan D. Aviles, president of the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, convened a news conference on Thursday to announce that “radical changes” had been made at Kings County, which treats many of the city’s most severely mentally ill. While questioning some details of the report, he admitted that the unit “too often failed” its patients.

 

At the hospital’s new $153 million building in central Brooklyn, he announced the replacement of its top two administrators and the addition of 200 medical personnel to its 600-member staff.

 

Mr. Aviles also outlined new protocols for screening emergency-room admissions, using nonuniformed security officers trained in crisis intervention rather than hospital police. Mr. Aviles noted that in Ms. Green’s case, two guards had looked in on her but decided that she was not their responsibility.

 

“They clearly felt disconnected from the treatment team,” Mr. Aviles said. “This says something very damning about the model.”

 

Mr. Aviles said the hospital had cut the average time in the emergency department to 8 hours from 27, and that the number of patients waiting seldom exceeded 25 now, compared with 50 or more on occasion.

 

“It would be disingenuous of me to suggest that we could prevent all such future incidents, but we can do better,” he said.

 

Stu Loeser, a City Hall spokesman, said that the mayor believed that the Justice Department report raised “serious issues” but that the changes Mr. Aviles announced “go a long way to addressing many of the conditions.”

 

The Justice Department’s report said conditions at the psychiatric unit were “highly dangerous and require immediate attention.” It added: “Substantial harm occurs regularly due to K.C.H.C.’s failure to properly assess, diagnose, supervise, monitor and treat its mental health patients.”

 

The report said that many patients were admitted with “catch-all” diagnoses and that the staff used “boilerplate forms and checklists” rather than writing “individualized narratives.”

 

The report said that patients were often left in restraints for the two-hour limit even though they had changed their behavior, suggesting that the confinement was punishment rather than therapy. And investigators found it was common to administer injections of more than one antipsychotic medication simultaneously, despite the risk of side effects and overdosing.

 

In one case, a patient’s treatment plan did not address his obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, until he had a stroke, according to the report.

 

Copyright 2009 New York Times.

 

Opinion

 

Help for Family Caregivers

 

New York Times Letter to the Editor

Friday, February 6, 2009

 

To the Editor:

 

Re “Caring for the Caregivers” (editorial, Jan. 28):

 

I applaud your attention to the needs of home health care aides. They are a vital component of the care needed by those with chronic conditions and disabilities.

 

But I hope you will bring equal attention to the unmet needs of the nation’s more than 50 million family caregivers. This unpaid, untrained, invisible work force of family members and friends provides more than 80 percent of all long-term care services at a market value of $375 billion annually.

 

It is imperative that Congress and the administration pay attention to both of these work forces, the paid and the unpaid, as they develop health care reform legislation.

 

Comprehensive care coordination across all settings for the chronically ill and disabled along with a navigator to help family caregivers get needed services and supports would be a valuable step in the right direction.

 

Suzanne Mintz

President and Co-founder

National Family Caregivers Association

Kensington, Md., Jan. 28, 2009

 

Copyright 2009 New York Times.

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