Office of Public Relations

[newsclippings/dhmh_header.htm]
Visitors to Date
Office of Public Relations
			Thursday, February 19, 2009 News Clipping Archives *Maryland / Regional* February flu fight: Prevention remains important as season likely to hit its Peak (Carroll County Times) Prescription drug abuse ‘the in thing’ (Carroll County Times) MedChi rallies in Annapolis for health care reform (Baltimore Business Journal) In sickness and in health? (Baltimore Business Journal) Montgomery County can't account for $900,000 to child care center (DC Examiner) Lead in Water Harmed Sons, D.C. Man Claims (Washington Post) *National / International* Gene test helps set accurate blood thinner dose (Washington Post) AIDS becomes China's deadliest infectious disease (Washington Post) *Opinion* Government's Limits In Providing Health Care (Washington Post Letter to the Editor) *Maryland / Regional* February flu fight: Prevention remains important as season likely to hit its peak Doris Hare, communicable disease program supervisor with the Carroll County Health Department, demonstrates how to wash hands. By Erica Kritt Carroll County Times Thursday, February 19, 2009 February is prime time for the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC said that in the past 26 years the flu hit its peak once in November, four times in December, four times in March, five times in January and 12 times in February. Doris Hare, communicable disease program supervisor for the Carroll County Health Department, said the best way to prevent the flu is to get a flu vaccine. While the Health Department held its flu vaccine clinics in November, Hare said you can still get a vaccine. “I’d rather give it than throw it away,” she said. Hand washing is another tool to use in flu prevention. The flu is spread through the passing of respiratory droplets, according to the CDC. When a person sneezes or coughs, if the mouth isn’t properly covered, the droplets can spread to other people and inanimate objects. Hare said that’s why it’s important to thoroughly wash hands after touching door knobs, faucets and other common objects. Hare said having antibacterial lotions and alcohol wipes is also helpful. Another preventive tip is to always cover your mouth when sneezing or coughing. “A tissue is the best thing, but the hand is better than nothing,” she said. Avoiding large crowds and keeping your distance from people who are sneezing and coughing is another good way to avoid catching the virus. And Hare warns that one of the worst things to do is go to work or school while you are sick and can infect others. “If you’re sick, stay home,” she said. So far Carroll has yet to be hit hard with the flu, according to Hare. Hare said she usually knows there is a big increase in flu when the public schools call or nursing home facilities report big increases. “Schools will call if they have a 10 percent absentee rate,” she said. Hare said she did get a report from an urgent care facility in Eldersburg that they had recently had three rapid flu tests come back positive for the virus. “That might be a clue [the flu is going to be hitting a peak soon],” she said. But Hare said it’s hard to predict when the flu will hit, since it runs from October to May. As of Feb. 7, the CDC reported that 16 states had widespread influenza, another 16 had regional activity. Widespread activity is defined as laboratory confirmed cases in at least half of the regions in the state and increased proportions of visits to providers. According to Karen Black, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Maryland’s flu is categorized as widespread now. According to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s latest report that covered up to Jan. 31 there have been 373 confirmed cases of the flu in the state for the 2008-2009 flu season. Reach staff writer Erica Kritt at 410-857-7876 or erica.kritt@carrollcountytimes.com. Ken Koons/Staff Photo Doris Hare, communicable disease program supervisor with the Carroll County Health Department, demonstrates how to wash hands. Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times. Prescription drug abuse ‘the in thing’ By Karen Kemp Carroll County Times Thursday, February 19, 2009 Parental involvement may be the key to combating a rise in prescription drug abuse among Carroll County youths, according to local health educators and officials. Prescription medications such as oxycodone and codeine have become the “new heroin,” said Sandra Johnson, senior assistant state’s attorney for the county, who was referring to an epidemic use of the illegal drug in the late 1990s. Results of the 2007 Maryland Adolescent Survey for Carroll County, which were released Wednesday afternoon, showed that nearly 12.9 percent of 12th-graders and 6.4 percent of 10th-graders in the county had abused some type of narcotic, up from 9.3 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, in 2004. The anonymous questionnaire is given to high school sophomores and seniors as well as sixth- and eight-graders to gauge their attitudes on drugs, alcohol and other risky behaviors. But the statistics don’t show the whole picture. Johnson said that in the year since the survey was conducted, she has seen a rise in the number of high school and middle school students possessing or distributing prescription drugs. “It’s the in thing,” she said. While some students may consider the drugs safe to take because they’re legal, officials say they can be as harmful as illegal substances. “They are [chemically] equal to heroin,” said Liv Myers, director of the Westminster-based treatment facility Junction Inc. “But because they are nice and clean and in the medicine chest, we don’t think about that.” Mark Yount, a substance abuse prevention coordinator for Junction, said teens are also abusing more types of prescription medications. Nineteen out of 35 substances mentioned by Junction clients between September and December of 2008 were prescription drugs, according to data from the facility. During a three-month period in 2006, there were only eight prescription medications out of 30 substances mentioned, he said. Anna Bible, coordinator of substance abuse prevention for Carroll County Public Schools, said that while she doesn’t think the problem is an epidemic yet, the community and parents need to come together to contain it. Information on prescription drugs has been added to the anti-drug DARE program and the curriculum for health classes in the past couple years, she said. According to Johnson, there have been cases this year where students had to be taken to the hospital after getting high on prescription drugs before or during school. Some swallow the pills whole, while others may crush them for a quicker release of the substance, she said. Johnson said she thinks prescription drug use is increasing because of peer pressure and the fact that these medications are readily available to teens. Some can be ordered on the Internet, but in the majority of cases Johnson has seen, the students were taking or distributing pills that had been prescribed to their parents. “They don’t know what it is, but they take it and sell it,” Johnson said. She said parents can help prevent this problem by locking up their medications, counting their pills regularly to make sure none is missing and throwing away expired prescription drugs. Parents also need to talk to their children about the dangers of abusing prescription medications, much like they would with alcohol or illegal drugs, she said. “With effective, responsible parenting, we can nip this issue in the bud before it becomes a problem like heroin [was],” she said. Reach staff writer Karen Kemp at 410-857-7890 or karen.kemp@carrollcountytimes.com. Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times. MedChi rallies in Annapolis for health care reform By Julekha Dash Baltimore Business Journal Wednesday, February 18, 2009 More than 300 patients, physicians and politicians turned out for a rally Wednesday morning in Annapolis to urge lawmakers to pass six bills that they say would improve patient care in Maryland. MedChi, the state’s medical society, organized the rally and urged support for Senate and House bills that would do the following: • Require health insurers to spend more of their premiums on health care, rather than administrative or other costs; • Require insurers to lower premiums when their reserves exceed a certain level; • Pay medical school loans for physicians working in rural areas; • Require health maintenance organizations to reimburse more for physicians who are not part of their network. MedChi is also urging lawmakers to oppose a bill that would ultimately force physicians to spend more money on malpractice premiums. The Maryland legislature limited damages on pain and suffering in wrongful death cases to $812,500 in 2005, after a special legislative session was called to deal with rising medical malpractice premiums. New bills in the Senate and House would double this cap. MedChi argues that businesses are paying rapidly increasing premiums for health insurance while patients are shelling out more money in co-payments. Physicians, meanwhile, are receiving less in reimbursement, contributing to a physician shortage in Maryland. MedChi represents 7,000 physicians in Maryland. Copyright 2009 Baltimore Business Journal. In sickness and in health? Honor your co-workers by keeping your germs at home Baltimore Business Journal By Scott Dance Staff Friday, February 13, 2009 In high school, it wasn’t too hard to get an extension on a project during flu season. But today? Imagine telling the federal government your company couldn’t come through on the terms of its contract - because everyone was home sick. It’s a stretch, but it was almost the situation in which Audacious Inquiry LLC principal Edmond Magny found his company recently. “We had a number of proposals due to the government,” he said. “In that case, we all had to kind of work from home and coordinate through conference calls. Everyone kind of pulled together there really hard.” At this time of year - and this year, especially - businesses can’t afford to lose productivity because workers are home sick. But that doesn’t mean they’re willing to sacrifice employee health. Many companies have found ways to be flexible when a flu epidemic arises, and in the meantime, to promote health and wellness to avoid sickness in the first place. Because not only can that keep business going, but it can cut the bottom line - healthier workers means lower health care costs for everyone. At Audacious Inquiry, flexibility often means telecommuting, since its information technology work can take place anywhere. And it can’t afford to lose too many people, with just 11 employees. Many of the company’s projects focus on health care information technology, so the company is especially conscious of health issues, Magny said. “When there’s a lot of work, we have to kind of power through it just because, given the current market conditions and deadlines, you just kind of have to bite the bullet,” Magny said. Having sick - but still able - workers contribute from home keeps productivity up by preventing others from getting infected. At RWD Technologies in Catonsville, the policy is similar, CEO Laurens “Mac” MacLure Jr. said. “Our philosophy is if you’re sick, don’t come in,” he said. “If you’re well enough to work at home, that’s great. If not, that’s OK too.” But employers find that many workers feel too much guilt taking a sick day, especially if they aren’t feeling well but aren’t exactly bedridden. According to a January survey by Menlo Park, Calif.-based OfficeTeam, 75 percent of workers said they frequently go in to work despite illness. Eight percent said they never try to work when they’re sick. OfficeTeam recommends employers communicate to workers that it’s OK to stay home, and set an example by staying home themselves when sick. At RWD, MacLure decided to encourage employees to take sick days by instituting a new time-off policy. Instead of separate sick and vacation days, RWD switched to a single, slightly larger, pool of paid time off. The hope is that people will feel less guilty about taking a so-called “mental health day,” he said, although he recognized that it could also backfire, if employees decide to work sick so they can save up vacation time. Guy D’Andrea, president of Baltimore health care consulting firm Discern Consulting, said the most effective way to avoid the whole issue is to approach it from the standpoint of prevention. “The best strategy is reducing the number of sick days they have to cope with,” he said. D’Andrea works with companies to put in place programs and policies that help reduce their health care costs. Because when an employer fully insures its workers, paying a premium for each employee and family member covered, every penny counts. And the healthier the entire group is, the cheaper it is to insure them. At W.R. Grace’s headquarters in Columbia, for example, the company helps employees monitor and maintain their health right in their own office. Grace keeps a nurse on-site full time and a physician part time, offering services like physicals, other testing and free flu shots, company spokeswoman Andrea Greenan said. There is also a gym on the Grace campus. After examining its health care costs, the company also began offering a unique diabetes management program when officials saw that the disease was one of its costliest health care expenses, Greenan said. Diabetic employees are connected to local pharmacists through the nonprofit Mid-Atlantic Business Group on Health for personal guidance on their treatment, as well as free medications, blood testing strips and glucose monitors. As for sick days, Grace gives anywhere from one to 10 weeks per year, depending on length of service, Greenan said. Company leaders encourage workers to use the days. “You’ll get better quicker, and you won’t get your colleagues sick,” Greenan said. All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved. Montgomery County can't account for $900,000 to child care center By Examiner Staff Writer DC Examiner Thursday, February 19, 2009 Montgomery County's Department of Health and Human Services can't account for more than $900,000 it paid to a child-care center for Latino immigrants founded by a local school board member, according to the county's inspector general. The county approved 70 invoices to Centro Familia in fiscal years 2007 and 2008 without verifying the “validity and appropriateness” of the payments, Inspector General Thomas Dagley wrote in a memo to the County Council on Wednesday. Also, Centro Familia was unable to provide accounting records to justify the county's payments, raising “significant concerns about … possible fraud, waste or abuse,” Dagley's office wrote. Centro Familia was founded in 1998 by Nancy Navarro, who is now a county school board member, and Pilar Torres with a goal of responding “to a dire but invisible crisis” concerning Latino immigrant children's early education, according to the organization's Web site. Navarro, who no longer works at Centro Familia, is running for a vacant County Council seat. Copyright 2009 DC Examiner. Lead in Water Harmed Sons, D.C. Man Claims By Keith L. Alexander and Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Wednesday, February 18, 2009; B04 A Capitol Hill father of twin boys sued the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority yesterday, claiming the children's ongoing health problems can be tied to high concentrations of lead in drinking water. John Parkhurst filed suit in D.C. Superior Court in a case that he hopes will become a class-action on behalf of others affected by elevated lead levels in the city's water from 2001 to 2004. The suit seeks $200 million in damages. The complaint states that Parkhurst's sons, now 8, were given food and formula as infants that were prepared with tap water. It alleges that both boys showed evidence of lead poisoning at their 2-year-old checkup, and that they have experienced serious behavioral and learning difficulties. Parkhurst, a psychologist, said he sought legal counsel in the wake of recent news reports that raised questions about a 2007 research paper that assured D.C. residents that there was no harm caused by the earlier elevated amounts of lead in the water. The news accounts revealed that the paper's author was a paid consultant for WASA and had a contract stating that the utility had final approval of anything published about it. The lawsuit accuses WASA officials of keeping the extent of the lead problems from the public. In addition to money, it seeks medical monitoring and other measures for children who experienced lead poisoning. Parkhurst's attorney, Stefanie Roemer, said her firm, Sanford, Wittels & Heisler, was interested in speaking with D.C. residents who have children who were 6 and younger between 2001 and 2004, especially residents living in the areas of Capitol Hill, Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights. In an e-mailed statement, WASA spokeswoman Michelle Quander-Collins said that her office had not seen the lawsuit, and added that more studies need to be completed to link lead in water to health and behavior concerns. "We continue to consult with health experts and the scientific community to learn more, but even the experts disagree," she said. "It is important for researchers to determine the health impacts of exposure to lead in water, and we continue to support that effort." Copyright 2009 Washington Post. *National /International* Gene test helps set accurate blood thinner dose Associated Press By Mike Stobbe Washington Post Wednesday, February 18, 2009 ATLANTA -- People taking warfarin, a leading blood thinner to prevent clots that cause heart attacks and strokes, soon may have a better way to get the tricky dose right. A new formula that includes gene testing proved much better at setting the ideal dose than what doctors do now: Give a standard amount and adjust it by trial and error. The formula was tested in a large international study, which found the usual approach gets it wrong about half the time. About 4 million Americans take warfarin, also known as Coumadin, the top-used blood thinner worldwide. It could be used even more, but doctors have worried about the all-too-common risks to patients if they get the dose wrong. Too little means a risk of stroke and too much can mean fatal bleeding. The new study is one of the first to show genetic testing can be used to prevent dosing problems, experts said. A new experiment will soon test the gene study's results in a more rigorous way. Most patients will likely have to wait at least a few years before genetic testing becomes a common factor in warfarin dosing, some experts said. Patients are generally started on 5 milligrams a day, but that's just a starting guess. The proper amount for one patient may be 10 times as much as what's best for another. Improper dosing leads to problems for thousands of patients each year and can even result in death, according to some estimates. "You need to be just right," said Donna Arnett, a researcher of genetic testing and cardiovascular health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who wasn't involved in the study. Variations in two genes can indicate how effective the drug will be, but such a test is not yet widely used. In the new study, researchers in nine countries collected data on about 5,700 patients who _ after some trial-and-error _ were already on stable doses of the blood thinner. The scientists developed a dosing formula based on the gene test and other factors, including age and weight. The formula using the gene test proved accurate in setting the dose in about 1 out of 3 warfarin users _ more accurate than a method based solely on age, weight and other characteristics. The study didn't report on serious side effects or consider how tobacco and alcohol use might figure into blood thinner dosing. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and several international medical organizations. Key researchers have received consulting fees and grants from pharmaceutical companies, and companies involved in genetic testing. Federal officials want to follow up the report by launching a large, three-year study of more than 1,200 patients beginning in April. "People will go to their doctors and ask" about genetic tests, predicted Jeremy Berg, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, one of the just-published study's funders. But until the larger study is done, "it's unlikely that very many places will offer this," he said. A few clinics are already using these gene tests and others to estimate warfarin dosing, but some researchers have concluded it's not cost-effective for most patients. Dr. Janet Woodcock, who heads the Food and Drug Administration's drug evaluation center, noted that many patients have, for a long time, complained to doctors that the standard warfarin treatment didn't work for them. Now science is showing how right they were. "The patients are beginning to be vindicated," Woodcock said. On the Net: New England Journal:http://nejm.org © 2009 The Associated Press. AIDS becomes China's deadliest infectious disease Associated Press Washington Post Wednesday, February 18, 2009 BEIJING -- AIDS was the top killer among infectious diseases in China for the first time last year, with 6,897 people dying in the nine months through September, a state news agency said. Though the report by the Xinhua News Agency, citing the Ministry of Health, did not explain the jump, a possible factor is the Chinese government's improved reporting of HIV/AIDS statistics in recent years as it slowly acknowledged the presence of the disease. The number of confirmed HIV infections also nearly doubled to 264,302 from 135,630 in 2005, the Xinhua report said. Neither World Health Organization nor UNAIDS representatives in Geneva commented on the report. China long denied that AIDS was a problem, accounting in part for the low number of reported deaths. But leaders have shifted in recent years, confronting the disease more openly and promising anonymous testing, free treatment for the poor and a ban on discrimination against people with the virus. Nevertheless, many Chinese are still reluctant to be tested. The government and UNAIDS estimate the number of people living with HIV in China is actually about 700,000 _ much higher than the confirmed number of infections. The government estimates that 85,000 of those have AIDS. AIDS was the third deadliest infectious disease in China in 2005, the health ministry said. It is now the first, followed by tuberculosis, rabies, hepatitis and infant's tetanus _ common in rural areas where the stump of a newborn's umbilical cord gets infected _ the Xinhua report late Tuesday said. The government says 34,864 people have died of AIDS since it reported its first death from the disease in 1985. The HIV virus that causes AIDS gained a foothold in China largely due to unsanitary blood plasma-buying schemes and tainted transfusions in hospitals. But last year, health authorities said sex had overtaken drug abuse as the main cause of HIV infections. The government remains sensitive about the disease, regularly cracking down on activists and patients who seek more support and rights. © 2009 The Associated Press. *Opinion* Government's Limits In Providing Health Care Washington Post Letter to the Editor Thursday, February 19, 2009; A14 Steven Pearlstein erred in his Feb. 13 Business column, "Bloviation vs. Reality on Stimulus Health-Care Provision," by saying that "in denying vital medical services to the 40 million Americans without health insurance, we engage in the most immoral kind of medical rationing imaginable." Certainly we are all sad to see the inequities in health care: Some sick people visit doctors with ease while others who can't afford medical care suffer. Nonetheless, I see three reasons that Mr. Pearlstein's condemnation of our health-care system as "immoral" was unjust. First, Mr. Pearlstein presumed that one of the fundamental rights of Americans is to receive medical care, which is false. While healing the sick is an act of the greatest compassion, it is not constitutionally guaranteed. Second, he presumed that the government is in perpetual possession of the capacity to care for all 300 million in the population but maliciously withholds care from those who can't pay. The sheer magnitude of the cost of providing such care disqualifies this assumption. Third, Mr. Pearlstein's sweeping denigration of "rationing by the ability to pay" damns capitalism altogether, including how Americans are housed and fed. Seeing children or anyone else go without adequate medical care is hard to bear. Increasing the quality and reach of our many doctors' caring hands will be most readily achieved by the medical community itself, and it is to the medical community that we must address our grievances. CHRIS STEVENSON Purcellville Copyright 2009 Washington Post. BACK TO TOP


[newsclippings/dhmh_footer.htm]