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			Tuesday, January 20, 2009 News Clipping Archives Maryland / Regional Park Officials in Md. Dread Fiscal Dry Spell (Washington Post) Shingles can lead to other diseases (Carroll County Times) Abuse allegations probed at Cecil SPCA facility (Salisbury Daily Times) National / Inernational Peanut butter recalls widen (Baltimore Sun) Salmonella in Snack Crackers (Baltimore Sun) MRSA rising in kids' ear, nose, throat infections (Washington Post) Drug Making’s Move Abroad Stirs Concerns (New York Times) Wider cholesterol drug use may save lives (Baltimore Beacon) REGION: Wegmans recalls ice cream in salmonella scare (Carroll County Times) 16-year-old Chinese boy dies from H5N1 bird flu (Salisbury Daily Times) Something fishy? Counterfeit foods enter the U.S. market (USA Today) Opinion --- Park Officials in Md. Dread Fiscal Dry Spell By Lori Aratani Washington Post Tuesday, January 20, 2009; B01 One in a series of reports exploring the impact of budget cuts being contemplated by elected officials in Maryland and Virginia this session. Just months ago, Howard County officials celebrated the $1.3 million purchase of 29 acres of prime land along the Patuxent River. It was the final parcel they needed to expand a Fulton area park to the Patuxent Regional Greenway, an open-space corridor that follows the river across seven jurisdictions from central to Southern Maryland. But now they and other park and recreation officials across the state are worrying that they might have to slow or even stop such acquisitions. With the state facing a projected $1.9 billion budget shortfall, they fear that funding from a source that they have long depended on to fix playgrounds, buy parkland and preserve open space -- Program Open Space -- could be diverted for other purposes. A spokeswoman for the governor said she would not comment on the issue until Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) releases his $14 billion budget proposal this week. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) last month proposed a budget designed to close that state's projected two-year $2.9 billion deficit. Although O'Malley has publicly voiced support for the program, officials fear that the size of the state's projected shortfall puts even popular programs at risk. Open space and recreation are important priorities for the administration, but they might suffer if funding is needed for more-pressing needs, such as transportation and education. Local officials in Maryland worry that a loss of funding, or even a diversion of funds, could mean fewer recreation areas and less open space in a rapidly developing state. Program Open Space "is a vital tool for land preservation and for the environment," Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (D) said. "Our concern is that the pot is small and getting smaller," said Mary Bradford, parks director for the Montgomery County Department of Park and Planning. "People just need to know what the impacts are." Tom Ross, executive director of the Maryland Recreation and Parks Association, said: "The potential is that the money could be diverted to other purposes. It's happened under past administrations." But Ross noted that in public statements, O'Malley has been a strong backer of the program. Funding for Program Open Space comes from a percentage of Maryland's real estate transfer tax. The program was established in 1969, and since then it has helped buy more than 5,000 park and conservation areas. In Prince George's County, officials estimated that Program Open Space has provided 90 percent of the dollars used to buy open space and half of the dollars used to develop land and programs for parks. "Over time, it's been a very important funding source for us," said Chuck Montrie, park planning supervisor for the Prince George's County Parks and Recreation Department. Last year, Montgomery County officials received $4 million from Program Open Space to buy 32 acres near Black Hill Regional Park. The purchase will help protect the lake in the park, Bradford said. Without the funds, the county would not have been able to make as timely a deal, she said. It's not just large projects that Program Open Space helps support. Montgomery was able to use funds from the program to remodel the tennis center at Cabin John Regional Park. A shift in priorities for Program Open Space could slow many Montgomery projects, Bradford said. One of the higher-profile Montgomery projects that could be delayed is the effort to create park space in the area of downtown Silver Spring. Residents and workers there have been asking for green space after losing the artificial turf area that was installed temporarily on the site of an old parking garage at Fenton Street and Ellsworth Drive, Bradford said. Efforts to build parks and recreation facilities in the growing upcounty region of Montgomery could also be affected. Ross, of the recreation and parks association, said the state grants play a significant role in giving residents access to parks and recreation. Much has been written recently about out-of-shape Americans, and outdoor activity has never been more important, he said. "The parks and recreation play an important part in community well-being, in building community cohesiveness and in providing opportunities for young people to be physically active," Ross said. Copyright 2009 Washington Post. Shingles can lead to other diseases By Doris A. Hare, Carroll County Health Department Carroll County Times Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Shingles is a painful skin rash that begins as a cluster of small red spots that often blister and occur on one side of the face or body. Symptoms of shingles include fever, headache, chills and upset stomach, and can lead to other complications of pneumonia, hearing problems, blindness, brain inflammation known as encephalitis or death. For one in five people, severe pain called post-herpetic neuralgia can continue after the rash clears and can continue for weeks or months. Every year, about 500,000 people in the U.S. get shingles. It is common in people 60 and older and in people with immune systems weakened by disease such as cancer, or drugs such as steroids or chemotherapy.Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once a person has had chickenpox, the virus can live and remain inactive in one or more nerve roots in the body for many years and re-activate, causing shingles. Experiencing an episode of shingles does not prevent someone from getting shingles in the future. You cannot catch shingles from another person, but a person who has never had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine could get chickenpox from someone with shingles by direct contact with the shingles rash.A shingles vaccine called Zostavax manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc. was licensed in 2006. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults 60 and older receive this vaccine even if they have had a prior episode of shingles.In clinical trials, the vaccine prevented shingles in about half of the people and reduced the risk, pain and suffering associated with shingles. No serious problems have been identified with the shingle vaccine. The most common side effects are redness, pain, tenderness and swelling at the injection site, itching and headache.If you have had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine, you are at risk for shingles, and this risk increases with age. Consult and discuss this risk with your health-care provider and consider if Zostavax is right for you. Doris A. Hare is a supervisor in the Carroll County Health Department’s Communicable Disease Program. If you have a topic that you would like to see address in future articles, write to the Health Department at P.O. Box 845, Westminster, MD 21158-0845. Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times. Abuse allegations probed at Cecil SPCA facility Associated Press Salisbury Daily Times Tuesday, January 20, 2009 ELKTON, Md. (AP) -- Cecil County State's Attorney Christopher Eastridge has asked state police to lead an investigation into allegations of animal abuse at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals facility near Chesapeake City. Eastridge asked for the investigation in a letter sent Monday to Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. Terrence Sheridan. He has also talked with the Harford County State’s Attorney about handling the case to avoid any suggestion of a conflict. An assistant in Eastridge's office is on the SPCA board and Cecil County Sheriff Barry Janney is an ex-officio member of the board. Meanwhile, a subpoena was served Friday on behalf of the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners at the animal hospital inside the SPCA building. Information from: Cecil (Md.) Whig, http://www.cecilwhig.com © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Peanut butter recalls widen Salmonella confirmed in Kellogg's product Associated Press Baltimore Sun Monday, January 20, 2009 MILWAUKEE - Kellogg Co. said yesterday that federal authorities have confirmed that salmonella was found in a single package of its peanut butter crackers, as a Midwestern grocer and General Mills Corp. also recalled products because of the scare. Kellogg recalled 16 products last week because of the possibility of salmonella contamination. Yesterday, the Battle Creek, Mich.-based company said that contamination was confirmed by the Food and Drug Administration in a package of Austin Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter. Food companies and retailers have been recalling products with peanut butter in them because of suspicion of contamination amid a salmonella outbreak that has killed at least six people and sickened more than 470 others in 43 states. At least 90 people have been hospitalized. Also yesterday, Midwestern grocer and retailer Meijer Inc. said it was recalling two types of crackers and two varieties of ice cream because of the possibility of salmonella contamination: Meijer brand Cheese and Peanut Butter and Toasty Peanut Butter sandwich crackers, and Peanut Butter and Jelly and Peanut Butter Cup ice cream. Golden Valley, Minn.-based General Mills said in a news release yesterday afternoon that it was recalling two snack bars: Larabar Peanut Butter Cookie snack bars and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp snack bars. Over the weekend, McKee Foods Corp. of Collegedale, Tenn., issued a voluntary recall of Little Debbie peanut butter crackers. Other companies issuing recalls recently include Midwest supermarket chain Hy-Vee Inc. of West Des Moines, Iowa, and the South Bend Chocolate Co. in Indiana. Perry's Ice Cream Co. of Akron, N.Y., said it was recalling select ice cream products containing peanut butter. Its recall covered New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products, a division of St. Louis-based Ralcorp, recalled several brands of peanut butter cookies it sells through Wal-Mart stores. The government had advised consumers last weekend to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods containing peanut butter until health officials learn more about the contamination. Officials said that most peanut butter sold in jars at supermarkets appears to be safe. The investigation has focused on peanut paste and peanut butter made at Peanut Corp. of America's plant in Blakely, Ga. Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun. Salmonella in Snack Crackers By Jennifer Huget Baltimore Sun Tuesday, January 20, 2009 The list of companies recalling snack crackers, candy, ice cream and other products that contain peanut butter or peanut butter paste sold by the Peanut Corporation of America for fear of salmonella contamination continues to grow; check the FDA site for an updated list. The FDA cautions Because identification of products subject to recall is continuing, the FDA urges consumers to postpone eating commercially-prepared or manufactured peanut butter-containing products and institutionally-served peanut butter until further information becomes available about which products may be affected. Efforts to specifically identify those products are ongoing. There's no evidence as yet that anyone's been sickened by such products, though salmonella's presence has been confirmed in at least one package of crackers. (It's the peanut butter sold in big containers to hospitals, schools and other institutions that has been implicated in the current outbreak, which has claimed three lives.) The possible contamination of such items as processed, packaged snacks adds a new dimension to the salmonella scene. We've come to accept that fresh produce, raw eggs, chicken, ground beef, pet food, and even peanut butter itself may carry salmonella bacteria. But a packet of crackers? They've seemed so stable, so safe. It's unsettling. Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun. MRSA rising in kids' ear, nose, throat infections Associated Press By Lindsey Tanner Washington Post Tuesday, January 20, 2009 CHICAGO -- Researchers say they found an "alarming" increase in children's ear, nose and throat infections nationwide caused by dangerous drug-resistant staph germs. Other studies have shown rising numbers of skin infections in adults and children caused by these germs, nicknamed MRSA, but this is the first nationwide report on how common they are in deeper tissue infections in the head and neck, the study authors said. These include certain ear and sinus infections, and abcesses that can form in the tonsils and throat. The study found a total of 21,009 pediatric head and neck infections caused by staph germs from 2001 through 2006. The percentage caused by hard-to-treat MRSA bacteria more than doubled during that time from almost 12 percent to 28 percent. "In most parts of the United States, there's been an alarming rise," said study author Dr. Steven Sobol, a children's head and neck specialist at Emory University. The study appears in January's Archives of Otolaryngology, released Monday. It is based on nationally representative information from an electronic database that collects lab results from more than 300 hospitals nationwide. MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, can cause dangerous, life-threatening invasive infections and doctors believe inappropriate use of antibiotics has contributed to its rise. The study didn't look at the severity of MRSA illness in affected children. Almost 60 percent of the MRSA infections found in the study were thought to have been contracted outside a hospital setting. Dr. Robert Daum, a University of Chicago expert in community-acquired MRSA, said the study should serve as an alert to agencies that fund U.S. research "that this is a major public health problem." MRSA involvement in adult head and neck infections has been reported although data on prevalence is scarce. MRSA infections were once limited mostly to hospitals, nursing homes and other health-care settings but other studies have shown they are increasingly picked up in the community, in otherwise healthy people. This can happen through direct skin-to-skin contact or contact with surfaces contaminated with germs from cuts and other open wounds. But staph germs also normally live or "colonize" on the skin and in other tissues including inside the nose and throat, without causing symptoms. And other studies have shown that for poorly understood reasons, the number of people who carry MRSA germs is also on the rise. Sobol said MRSA head and neck infections most likely develop in MRSA carriers, who become susceptible because of ear, nose or throat infections caused by some other bug. Symptoms that it could be MRSA include ear infections that drain pus, or swollen neck lymph nodes caused by pus draining from a throat or nose abcess. Unlike cold and flu bugs, MRSA germs aren't airborne and don't spread through sneezing. MRSA does not respond to penicillin-based antibiotics and doctors are concerned that it is becoming resistant to others. The study authors said a worrisome 46 percent of MRSA infections studied were resistant to the antibiotic clindamycin, one of the non-penicillin drugs doctors often rely on to treat community-acquired MRSA. However, other doctors said it's more likely that at least some of infections thought to be community-acquired had actually originated in a hospital or other health-care setting, where MRSA resistance to clindamycin is common. Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the research "fits nicely" with smaller studies reporting local increases in MRSA head and neck infections. "Every time someone looks, the rates of MRSA are going up and that's certainly concerning because it's a bug that can cause dramatic disease," Creech said. On the Net: Archives:http://www.archoto.com CDC:http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa.html © 2009 The Associated Press. Drug Making’s Move Abroad Stirs Concerns By Gardiner Harris New York Times Tuesday, January 20, 2009 WASHINGTON — In 2004, when Bristol-Myers Squibb said it would close its factory in East Syracuse, N.Y. — the last plant in the United States to manufacture the key ingredients for crucial antibiotics like penicillin — few people worried about the consequences for national security. “The focus at the time was primarily on job losses in Syracuse,” said Rebecca Goldsmith, a company spokeswoman. But now experts and lawmakers are growing more and more concerned that the nation is far too reliant on medicine from abroad, and they are calling for a law that would require that certain drugs be made or stockpiled in the United States. “The lack of regulation around outsourcing is a blind spot that leaves room for supply disruptions, counterfeit medicines, even bioterrorism,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who has held hearings on the issue. Decades ago, most pills consumed in the United States were made here. But like other manufacturing operations, drug plants have been moving to Asia because labor, construction, regulatory and environmental costs are lower there. The critical ingredients for most antibiotics are now made almost exclusively in China and India. The same is true for dozens of other crucial medicines, including the popular allergy medicine prednisone; metformin, for diabetes; and amlodipine, for high blood pressure. Of the 1,154 pharmaceutical plants mentioned in generic drug applications to the Food and Drug Administration in 2007, only 13 percent were in the United States. Forty-three percent were in China, and 39 percent were in India. Some of these medicines are lifesaving, and health care in the United States depends on them. Half of all Americans take a prescription medicine every day. Penicillin, a crucial building block for two classes of antibiotics, tells the story of the shifting pharmaceutical marketplace. Industrial-scale production of penicillin was developed by an American military research group in World War II, and nearly every major drug manufacturer once made it in plants scattered throughout the country. But beginning in the 1980s, the Chinese government invested huge sums in penicillin fermenters, “disrupting prices around the globe and forcing most Western producers from the market,” said Enrico Polastro, a Belgian drug industry consultant who is an expert in antibiotics. Part of the reason these plants went overseas is that the F.D.A. inspects domestic plants far more often than foreign ones, making production more expensive in the United States. “U.S. companies are more regulated and are under more scrutiny than foreign producers, particularly those from emerging countries. And that’s just totally backwards,” said Joe Acker, president of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association. “We need a level playing field.” The Bush administration spent more than $50 billion after the 2001 anthrax attacks to protect the country from bioterrorism attacks and flu pandemics; some of that money went to increase domestic manufacturing capacity for flu vaccines. Even so, officials have said that during a pandemic the United States would not be able to rely on vaccines manufactured largely in Europe because of possible border closures and supply shortages. And the situation is similar with antibiotics like penicillin; researchers have found that during the 1918 flu pandemic, most victims died of bacterial infections, not viral ones. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a stockpile of medicines with enough antibiotics to treat 40 million people. If more are needed, however, the nation lacks the plants to produce them. A penicillin fermenter would take two years to build from scratch, Mr. Polastro said. Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla, one of the world’s most important suppliers of pharmaceutical ingredients, says his company and others have grown increasingly dependent on Chinese suppliers. “If tomorrow China stopped supplying pharmaceutical ingredients, the worldwide pharmaceutical industry would collapse,” he said. Since drug makers often view their supply chains as trade secrets, the true source of a drug’s ingredients can be difficult or impossible to discover. The F.D.A. has a public listing of drug suppliers, called drug master files. But the listing is neither up to date nor entirely reliable, because drug makers are not required to disclose supplier information. One federal database lists nearly 3,000 overseas drug plants that export to the United States; the other lists 6,800 plants. Nobody knows which is right. Drug labels often claim that the pills are manufactured in the United States, but the listed plants are often the sites where foreign-made drug powders are pounded into pills and packaged. “Pharmaceutical companies do not like to reveal where their sources are,” for fear that competitors will steal their suppliers, Mr. Polastro said. China’s position as the pre-eminent supplier of medicines is a result of government policy, said Guy Villax, the chief executive of Hovione, a maker of crucial drug ingredients with plants in Portugal and China. The regional government in Shanghai has promised to pay local drug makers about $15,000 for any drug approval they garner from the F.D.A. and about $5,000 for any approval from European regulators, according to a document Mr. Villax provided. “This shows that there has been a government plan in China to become a pharmaceutical industry leader,” Mr. Villax said. The world’s growing dependence on Chinese drug manufacturers became apparent in the heparin scare. A year ago, Baxter International and APP Pharmaceuticals split the domestic market for heparin, an anticlotting drug needed for surgery and dialysis. When federal drug regulators discovered that Baxter’s product had been contaminated by Chinese suppliers, the F.D.A. banned Baxter’s product and turned almost exclusively to the one from APP. But APP also got its product from China. So for now, like it or not, China has the upper hand. As Mr. Polastro put it, “If China ever got very upset with President Obama, it could be a big problem.” Copyright 2009 New York Times. Wider cholesterol drug use may save lives By Marilynn Marchione Baltimore Beacon Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Half of all heart attacks occur in people with high cholesterol. Hence the popularity of statins the world’s top-selling drugs which have been shown to cut the risk of heart attacks and death in people with high LDL, or bad cholesterol. But that means an equally large number of heart attacks occur in people with low cholesterol and no evident risk for heart disease. This has stumped researchers, and led to efforts to identify other risk factors and means of preventing heart attacks among apparently healthy individuals. A large study has found that such persons had dramatically lower rates of heart attacks, death and stroke if they took the statin Crestor. The pill not only lowered their cholesterol, but also their blood levels of C-reactive protein, known as CRP, a mark of inflammation in the body. Inflammation has been suspected of contributing to heart attacks. New test given boost The study gives the best evidence yet for using the relatively new high-sensitivity C-reactive protein test to identify people who may benefit from statins, according to a statement from Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The new research will be considered by experts reviewing current guidelines. Doctors check CRP with a blood test that costs about $80 to perform. A co-inventor on a patent of the test, Dr. Paul Ridker of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, led the new study. It involved 17,802 people in the U.S. and 25 other countries with high CRP and low LDL cholesterol (below 130). One-fourth were black or Hispanic, and 40 percent were women important because previous statin studies have included few women. Men had to be 50 or older; women, 60 or older. None had a history of heart problems or diabetes. They were randomly assigned to take dummy pills or Crestor, the strongest statin on the market, made by British based AstraZeneca PLC. Neither participants nor their doctors knew who was taking what. The study was supposed to last five years but was stopped in March, after about two years, when independent monitors saw that those taking Crestor were faring far better than the others. The impressive results were announced in November. “We reduced the risk of a heart attack by 54 percent, the risk of a stroke by 48 percent, and the chance of needing bypass surgery or angioplasty by 46 percent,” Ridker said. Looked at another way, there were 136 heart-related problems per year for every 10,000 people taking dummy pills versus 77 for those on Crestor. Benefits may prove costly The results, reported at an American Heart Association conference, were hailed as a watershed event in heart disease prevention. Doctors said the study might lead millions more people as many as 7 million more in the U.S. alone to consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, sold as Crestor, Lipitor, Zocor or in generic form. “This takes prevention to a whole new level, because it applies to patients who we now wouldn’t have any evidence to treat,” said Dr. W. Douglas Weaver, a Detroit cardiologist and president of the American College of Cardiology. However, some doctors urged caution. Crestor gave clear benefit in the study, but so few heart attacks and deaths occurred among these low-risk people that treating everyone like them in the United States could cost up to $9 billion a year—“a difficult sell,” one expert said. About 120 people would have to take Crestor for two years to prevent a single heart attack, stroke or death, said Stanford University cardiologist Dr. Mark Hlatky. He wrote an editorial accompanying the study published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. “Everybody likes the idea of prevention. We need to slow down and ask how many people arewe going to be treatingwith drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent heart disease, versus a lot of other things we’re not doing” to improve health, Hlatky said. Helps all, but may harm some Remarkably, every single subgroup benefited from the drug. “If you’re skinny it worked, if you’re heavy it worked. If you lived here or there, if you smoked, it worked,” Ridker said. AstraZeneca paid for the study, and Ridker and other authors have consulted for the company and other statin makers. One concern: More people in the Crestor group saw blood-sugar levels rise or were newly diagnosed with diabetes. Crestor also has the highest rate among statins of a rare but serious muscle problem, so there are probably safer and cheaper ways to get the same benefits, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the consumer group Public Citizen. “It is highly unlikely that (the benefits are) specific to Crestor,” saidWolfe, who has campaigned against the drug in the past. Researchers do not know whether the benefits seen in the study were due to reducing CRP or cholesterol, since Crestor did both. This study and two other government sponsored ones reported at the American Heart Association meeting “provide the strongest evidence to date” for testing Creactive protein. Adding it to traditional risk measures could identify millions more people who would benefit from treatment, Nabel’s statement said. —AP Copyright (c)2009 The Beacon. REGION: Wegmans recalls ice cream in salmonella scare By Associated Press Carroll County Times Tuesday, January 20, 2009 ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Supermarket chain Wegmans is recalling ice cream containing peanut butter as the government investigates a salmonella outbreak that has killed at least six people around the nation. With 72 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland, Wegmans is part of a growing list of food companies and retailers pulling items with peanut butter. Perry’s Ice Cream Co. of Akron, N.Y., is among those recently issuing recalls. The outbreak has been traced to a Georgia plant that makes peanut butter and peanut paste. The government has advised consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods containing peanut butter. Most peanut butter sold in jars at supermarkets appears to be safe. Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times. 16-year-old Chinese boy dies from H5N1 bird flu Associated Press By Audra Ang Salisbury Daily Times Tuesday, January 20, 2009 China's top health official on Tuesday ordered stronger measures to prevent the spread of bird flu as the country announced its third fatality from the H5N1 virus in a month. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, said the cases were a "perfectly normal occurrence" during colder months. Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu said health departments across the nation need to pay "great attention" to stepping up efforts to stop the disease before it sickens more people, especially at the peak of the Lunar New Year travel rush, when tens of millions of people were making their way home to rural areas. "It is the high season for human cases of bird flu. There is a severe need for the prevention of more cases," Chen said in a conference call to ministry officials. He said health officials need to be made fully aware of the risk and harm associated with bird flu, increase monitoring, strengthen clinical diagnoses and treatment, and report outbreaks in a timely manner. His call to action came as state media announced the death of a 16-year-old student in Hunan province in central China. The boy, surnamed Wu, had been in critical condition and died Tuesday morning, the official Xinhua News Agency said. He fell ill on Jan. 8 in his hometown in the neighboring province of Guizhou and was transferred to a hospital in Huaihua, a city in Hunan, on Jan. 16, when his condition worsened. He had contact with dead poultry, the report said without giving other details. The two other bird flu deaths were a 27-year-old woman in Shandong province in the country's east who died on Saturday and a 19-year-old woman who died in Beijing on Jan. 5. Until this month, no new human infections had been reported in China since February 2007. Peter Cordingley, the WHO's Asia spokesman, said the latest cases were a "perfectly predictable event." "The virus always starts to get active this time of year," he said. According to the WHO, bird flu has killed 249 people worldwide since 2003. The tally does not include Tuesday's death in China, where a total of 34 infections have been reported. The disease remains hard for humans to catch, but scientists have warned if outbreaks among poultry are not controlled, the virus may mutate into a form more easily passed between people, potentially sparking a pandemic. Copyright 2009 Salisbury Daily Times. Something fishy? Counterfeit foods enter the U.S. market By Elizabeth Weise USA Today Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Some of your favorite foods may be fakes. Foods masquerading as something else — a more nutritious something else — have been big news in the past two years. Chinese food companies in particular have been blamed for making deadly alterations to dairy, baby and pet foods by adding melamine. The chemical makes it appear that the food or beverage has the required level of protein. But what about food producers in this country? What fraudulent foods do U.S. consumers have to fear from American companies? Experts say dangerous U.S.-produced foods are comparatively few, but producers have been known to practice "economic adulteration" — adding a little to their bottom line by padding, thinning or substituting something cheap for something expensive. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration regulate the food industry, but with safety issues to deal with, economic adulteration has "really been back-burnered," says Bruce Silverglade of the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest. So in a caveat emptor world, what should consumers look out for? Seafood Fish is the most frequently faked food Americans buy. In the business, it's called "species adulteration" — selling a cheaper fish such as pen-raised Atlantic salmon as wild Alaska salmon. When Consumer Reports tested 23 supposedly wild-caught salmon fillets bought nationwide in 2005-2006, only 10 were wild salmon. The rest were farmed. In 2004, University of North Carolina scientists found 77% of fish labeled red snapper was actually something else. Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times tested fish at 17 sushi restaurants and found that fish being sold as red snapper actually was mostly tilapia. "It's really just fraud, plain and simple," says Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, an industry group. One thing consumers don't need to worry about is scallops. Tales of skate wings cut into circles and sold as scallops are common. But Randolph says the FDA has never found an actual case of it. Salmon is tricky. Randolph does have one tip, though. Farmed salmon gets its coloring from dyes added to food pellets the fish are fed, while wild salmon gets it from the plankton they eat. "When you cook it, the wild salmon retains its color, and in the aquaculture salmon, the color tends to leak out," she says. Suspicious consumers can call the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Nutrition hotline at 1-888-SAFEFOOD. Olive oil This luxury oil, touted for its heart-health properties and taste, has become a gourmet must-have. Americans consumed about 575 million pounds of the silky stuff last year, according to the North American Olive Oil Association. Sixty-three percent was the higher-grade extra virgin, which comes from the first pressing of the olives. It's also one of the most frequently counterfeited food products, says Martin Stutsman, the FDA's consumer safety officer for edible oils. There are no national figures on olive-oil fakery. But after complaints, Connecticut began testing two years ago. "We were coming across a lot of products labeled as extra-virgin olive oil that contained up to 90% soybean oil," says Jerry Farrell Jr., Connecticut's commissioner of consumer protection. Most name brands were fine, Farrell says. It was often off-brands sold in discount stores that were the problem. Connecticut was so concerned that in November, it became the first state in the nation to set standards for olive oil, enabling officials there to levy fines and pull adulterated products off store shelves. California is set to create its own standards this year. Reports from panels of testers have found as much as 60% to 70% of the olive oil sold as extra virgin in the state is a lower-quality olive oil, says Dan Flynn of the Olive Center at the University of California-Davis. The easiest thing is for fakers to add 10% vegetable oil in extra virgin, says Stutsman. "It will still smell as it should, but you've saved 10% of the cost." Bob Bauer, president of the North American Olive Oil Association, says it's more of a problem in restaurants than in supermarkets. Honey An expensive natural product that's mostly sugar, honey is easily faked. "If you can substitute a less expensive source of sugar for the expensive one, you can save some money and gain market share," says the FDA's Stutsman. It used to be that cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup was mostly used to thin out honey. But chemically, that was easy to spot. FDA used an isotope test that would easily identify the adulteration. So counterfeiters got wily and started using beet sugar. Its profile is similar to honey, so the FDA had to switch to a much more complicated, multistep test comparing the sugar profiles to see if the proportions and trace materials match. "But once we started catching people, they create a moving target. They'll switch to something more difficult (to detect)," says Stutsman. Maple syrup Maple syrup is another high-value item that can be adulterated. In these tough economic times, Vermont, the USA's largest supplier to flapjacks everywhere, may up its testing programs. The boiled-down sap of the sugar maple tree can be diluted with water or sugar by sellers "trying to get more bang for the buck," says Kristin Haas, food safety director in the state's Agency for Agriculture, Food and Markets. Vermont's testing program has found fraud only three times in the past 17 years, says Haas, but it's not taken lightly. "A couple of years back, there was a gentleman who actually went to prison because of this issue." When times get tight, the incentive to cheat can rise like sap in the spring, so the state may have to work harder to keep its premier product pure. Vanilla A product of the tropics, vanilla pods can be soaked in milk or stored in sugar to impart a delicate vanilla scent to foods. More commonly, they're soaked in alcohol that is then used as a flavoring. But vanillin (pronounced VAN-ah-lynn), a chemical copy of the richly organic vanilla flavor, was created in the laboratory in the 19th century. When used in foods, it's supposed to be labeled as an artificial flavor and usually is. One "too good to be true" product to watch out for is really inexpensive vanilla extract sometimes sold in Mexico and Latin America, says the FDA. It's often made with coumarin, a toxic substance that has been banned in U.S. foods since 1954. Coumarin is chemically related to warfarin, a blood thinner, and can be dangerous. It's "no bargain," the FDA says. Copyright 2009 USA Today. BACK TO TOP


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