Thursday, July 23, 2009

News Clipping Archives

 

 

Maryland / Regional

Md. Officials Split On Obama Health Plan (WBALTV.com)

Md. budget crisis could end O'Malley's tuition freeze (Baltimore Sun)

Maryland to Test Experimental H1N1 Vaccine (ABC2News.com)

Swine Flu Shot Test - Volunteers Wanted (myfoxdc.com)

UM will conduct early swine flu vaccine study (Daily Record)

Aggressive tests set for new flu vaccines (Baltimore Sun)

Preventive Medicine for A Shortage Of Nurses (Washington Post)

Consultants start review of hospital bids (The Gazette)

Residents weigh in on national health care reform debate (The Gazette)

Rabies numbers keep climbing (Salisbury Daily Times)

 

National / International

US: 160 million swine flu vaccine doses in October (Washington Post)

Testing swine flu vaccine amid supply questions (Washington Post)

FDA Cautions Public About Electronic Cigarettes (Washington Post)

Co-author of first AIDS report dies (USA Today)

NZ researchers to implant pig cells in diabetics (Washington Post)

Fla. hospital defends secretly deporting patient (Hagerstown Herald-Mail)

 

Opinion

Our Say: Deficits pushing O'Malley toward unpleasant choice (Annapolis Capital Editorial)

A drug by any other name might not be as effective (Hagerstown Herald-Mail Commentary)

A Misguided Budget Cut From Gov. O'Malley (Washington Post Letter to the Editor)

 

 

Maryland / Regional

Md. Officials Split On Obama Health Plan

 

By Kate Amara

WBALTV.com

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

BALTIMORE -- While some in Maryland are looking forward to President Barack Obama's health care plan, others are still not sure about its effect on families.

 

Currently, nearly 824,000 Marylanders are uninsured -- 165,000 of them are children. When they need treatment, many turn up at emergency rooms such as Shock Trauma.

 

"We have to provide care no matter what. We're bound by our oath that we have to provide care to anyone who presents to us," said Dr. Albert Reece, dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

 

Reece said he supports Obama's health care reform plan, saying it will save lives and help institutions like his balance the books.

 

According to state health officials, Maryland spends between $700 million and $1 billion a year reimbursing hospitals for emergency care for the uninsured.

 

"The status quo is not acceptable. There are far too many people uninsured. The cost of health care has escalated at levels that are unsustainable, and the quality of care is not where it ought to be," said state Health Department Secretary John Colmers.

 

Obama said his health care reform plan will fix that, but to pass, he needs to win over critics like 1st District Rep. Frank Kratovil. He's one of the Democrats currently on the fence about the plan.

 

"This could be one of the most significant votes I take in my career as a congressman, and I want to make sure that whatever we're doing, we're not doing it just to get it done but to get it right," Kratovil said.

 

He said the plan costs too much, could be detrimental to small businesses and doesn't address rural health care access issues that constituents in his district face.

 

"It doesn't do much good to have additional coverage of people when you don't have enough providers to provide coverage to those people, so in the rural areas in my district, we face significant doctor shortages, and I want to make sure that's being addressed," Kratovil said.

 

Though Kratovil said the current proposal in Congress lacks incentives for doctors to practice in rural areas, state officials said they've already plugged that hole on their own with a new state law that allocates $8 million to $11 million a year in loan forgiveness.

 

Copyright 2009 by wbaltv.com. All rights reserved.

 

Md. budget crisis could end O'Malley's tuition freeze

State looking to increase revenue as it makes hundreds of millions in cuts

 

By Julie Bykowicz

Baltimore Sun

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

State officials are signaling that Gov. Martin O'Malley's hallmark tuition freeze at public universities could end soon as Maryland grapples with a budget crisis that shows few signs of easing.

 

"I think the time has come to look at moderate tuition increases," said state Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp at a Wednesday meeting of the State Board of Public Works, where $281.5 million in midyear cuts to higher education and other agencies were approved.

 

O'Malley, a Democrat who sits on the spending panel, told her that many agree. The freeze - a campaign pledge that O'Malley has honored since his election in 2006 - was "not meant to last forever," he said.

 

Comptroller Peter Franchot, the third member of the board, later quipped that it was the most he'd seen O'Malley "thaw" on one of his signature accomplishments.

 

The board was forced to approve the deep cuts even though the state's budget year began a little more than three weeks ago, and officials lamented the dire economic situation that will lead to at least $420 million more in reductions by Labor Day.

 

By law, the state's budget must be balanced, and slumping tax revenue collections are triggering offsetting budget cuts - a condition in nearly every state.

 

O'Malley has long championed affordable tuition as a way to help Maryland families and develop an educated work force in the state. But budget woes mean that tuition could rise on O'Malley's watch for the first time as the governor prepares for an expected re-election bid next year.

 

While it is too late to change tuition for the semester that begins next month, University System Chancellor William E. Kirwan said an increase for the semester that begins in January is "definitely possible," though he said it is premature to speculate on whether one would be necessary or how large it might be.

 

"We need a little more information on where the bottom is in terms of the decline in state revenues," he said. "We're undoubtedly not out of the woods yet."

 

Kirwan has scheduled a conference call this morning with the Board of Regents to discuss Wednesday's nearly $40 million in cuts to the university system, but not tuition, he said.

 

Higher education is one of the largest discretionary areas in the state's $14 billion operating budget, and university officials can offset budget reductions by raising tuition, if the regents agree.

 

Meanwhile, O'Malley plans to meet with his Cabinet at noon to ask members to scour their budgets for more potential cuts. He said Wednesday that no reductions to primary education are planned. But the next round of cuts is expected to target state workers through furloughs and pay reductions, as well as state aid to counties and Baltimore City.

 

This time, the state's work force of more than 70,000 lost 58 positions, nearly half of them in the Department of Natural Resources.

 

DNR Secretary John R. Griffin said most employees who are being laid off were informed Tuesday night and 18 received letters Wednesday morning. The job cuts affected all areas of the department, including forestry workers, analysts and administrators, and 3.5 vacant positions were eliminated.

 

Griffin said the pink slips were particularly painful in a department in which the average age is 47 and employees tend to spend their entire careers.

 

"This is not fun at all, particularly in this economy," he said.

 

The Department of Business and Economic Development lost eight employees and eliminated three vacancies. The department closed the two Welcome Centers with the lowest visitor counts, Bay Country in Queen Anne's County and Sideling Hill in Washington County. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene lost seven workers and four vacancies and is reducing services at several facilities, including Western Maryland Hospital.

 

Health Secretary John M. Colmers compared the cuts to his agency with "going five rounds with Muhammad Ali."

 

"We are getting beat up pretty good," he told the Board of Public Works.

 

O'Malley said the state is "striving not to add to the unemployment challenges" of the bad economy as he works on the next round of reductions, a signal that he favors reducing employee compensation over sweeping layoffs.

 

Rick Abbruzzese, an O'Malley spokesman, said reductions in employee compensation, which are in discussion, could include furloughs and salary reductions.

 

Patrick Moran, Maryland director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the state "can't go down the route" of large-scale layoffs.

 

Those who rely on Maryland services "come to the state as the last vestige of hope," he said. "Our people see the realities of the economic situation every day."

 

He said the union will review O'Malley's proposals for employee compensation and "see whether it's feasible." Asked whether the union favors salary reductions over furloughs, he said, "We'll argue for whatever makes the most sense for our members."

 

Additional savings came from fund swaps. The biggest: cutting $75 million from the state's budget for Medicaid, the state's health insurance program for the poor, and replacing that amount with federal dollars.

 

That move was made possible because Maryland's rising unemployment rate triggered eligibility for more federal economic stimulus funds.

 

Wednesday was the fifth time during O'Malley's tenure that the Board of Public Works, which approves emergency cuts when state lawmakers are not in session, has kept Maryland from going into the red. The reductions have been prompted by a gap between expected and real state revenues, which has widened because of the recession.

 

"This has become an all-too-familiar, and, frankly, dreary, summertime tradition," Franchot said. "It isn't easy for anybody, but it has to be done."

 

On Wednesday, Franchot and Kopp joined a chorus of state leaders, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, in urging O'Malley to end the college tuition freeze, an effort that Franchot said is "commendable, but no longer practical."

 

Six years ago, after years of steep tuition increases, Maryland had the sixth-most expensive public universities in the country. Kirwan said he thinks figures due out this fall will show the state in about 20th place.

 

Maryland is one of the few states that have been able to keep tuition steady in a time of financial crisis. Thirty-five states decided to raise their college tuition for this fall, according to the American Council on Education. Florida plans a 10 percent increase, New York plans a 14 percent increase and California plans a 10 percent increase along with a reduction in enrollment. A recent report by the College Board says tuition costs at public universities will increase an average of 14.1 percent this year, compared with 6.1 percent at private colleges.

 

"Everywhere we look, we see substantial tuition increases," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president for the American Council on Education. "States are kind to higher education when times are good, but at times like this they tend to say, 'You know, those students look a lot like paying customers.' "

 

Public universities have endured past tuition increases without substantial changes in their programs, Hartle said. But with so many states facing deep financial crises, "we might be entering an era of significant decline in support," he added. "Then the question becomes, can public institutions continue to do everything they have in the past?"

 

Hartle praised O'Malley for holding the line on tuition for as long as he has.

 

"I don't think any state has done a better job this decade," Hartle said. "It's good for Maryland, because it keeps the best students in the state."

 

Baltimore Sun reporters Laura Smitherman and Childs Walker contributed to this article.

 

Comparing tuition

The freeze has helped keep in-state tuition and fees at the University of Maryland, College Park below those at flagship campuses in nearby states:

 

College Park: $8,053

 

University of Delaware: $8,540

 

University of Virginia: $9,680

 

Rutgers: $11,886

 

Penn State: $13,604

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

Maryland to Test Experimental H1N1 Vaccine

 

By Jeff Hager

ABC2News.com

Thursday, July 24, 2009

 

"My family was a little concerned,” said Rachel Wingard, a student from Houston, “They were just worried that I was gonna get sick."

 

"My parents called me worried, but I said it would be fine," added Samantha Sarvet of North Hampton, Massachusetts.

 

But in the five days since news of the MICA cases broke, the state has confirmed almost three dozen more across Maryland and the numbers continue to climb.

 

 "We have 766 confirmed cases in the state and three flu-related deaths, and we know there are many, many times that many cases that are in the community at large," said Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary John Colmers.

 

With the traditional flu season just a few months away and concern that the H1N1 virus could strengthen over time, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has turned to the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine to test one of two experimental vaccines.

 

The trials are set to begin here in Baltimore with healthy adults and seniors with tests on children to follow in Frederick and Annapolis.

 

The school’s lead researcher for the trials, Dr. Karen Kotloff, says further studeies may target infants under six months of age, but it can be difficult to gauge whether a vaccine is effective in those children.

 

 "Another way to protect those infants is to vaccinate pregnant women and right now, the seasonal flu vaccine is recommended for pregnant women, and there will be efforts to do studies with pregnant women with this vaccine," said Dr. Kotloff.

 

To test the vaccine, researchers will need about a thousand volunteers, and they anticipate many of them will come from the medical community

 

If you’re interested in volunteering for the trials, you can call the Center for Vaccine Development at 410-706-6156.

 

At this point, it has not been determined how participants will be compensated.

 

Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved.

 

Swine Flu Shot Test - Volunteers Wanted

 

By Karen Gray Houston

myfoxdc.com

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

BALTIMORE, Md. - The H1N1 flu outbreak has already been declared a global pandemic, and now the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore is testing an experimental vaccine aimed at preventing the spread of the disease.

 

Researchers at the school are taking part in a national study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Maryland is recruiting volunteers so it can start testing the vaccine next month.

 

It's a tight window for researchers. The flu season usually begins in the fall, but we're already seeing people come down with this unusual strain of the flu during the summer.

 

Scientists aren't quite sure what to expect as the weather gets colder, but they're hoping the new vaccine will work.

 

Anyone interested in being a volunteer can get more information by calling (410) 706-6156.

 

Copyright MyFox Washington DC - Washington, DC, USA.

 

UM will conduct early swine flu vaccine study

 

By Danielle Ulman

Daily Record

Thursday, July 22, 2009

 

UPDATEDThe University of Maryland is among eight centers chosen to conduct one of the first studies on an experimental vaccine that would prevent the spread of the swine flu, officials said Wednesday.

 

The country is in a race against time to produce a vaccine for the public at the start of the flu season, when those in public health expect the number of people infected with the new strain of the flu to grow rapidly.

 

The University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development will start recruiting as many as 1,000 healthy adults and children to test the safety of the vaccine and study its ability to stimulate immune responses to the swine flu, known as the H1N1 virus.

 

The study will begin in August, as soon as the manufacturer is able to provide the university with enough of the vaccine, said Karen L. Kotloff, professor of pediatrics and a researcher at the Center for Vaccine Development. The estimated start date is August 10.

 

“This is such a time crunch … every week we have an update on when the manufacturer will get the vaccine to us,” Kotloff said. “This is just the latest.”

 

Maryland and the seven other federally -funded Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units will do their research under the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Maryland will be the lead investigator to test the vaccine produced by Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi-aventis Group, while another institution will lead the investigation on the vaccine developed by CSL Biotherapies.

 

CSL, an Australian firm, began the world’s first human trial of the company’s vaccine Wednesday in Australia.

 

The swine flu has caused the deaths of three people in Maryland and 263 people in the United States since the outbreak began this spring in Mexico, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

 

The World Health Organization has declared the H1N1 virus a pandemic because it has continued to spread. The swine flu has killed 700 people worldwide.

 

Maryland has had 766 confirmed cases of the swine flu, said John M. Colmers, secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene. Colmers said he suspects that number is low because in most cases the flu is mild and many do not seek treatment.

 

Public health officials are keeping an eye on the Southern Hemisphere to see how the flu progresses during that part of the world’s winter season, Colmers said. He called this summer “the summer of the flu” because cases have continued to pop up, even though the flu is usually dormant in the summer months.

 

Researchers at Maryland said they expect the vaccine to be as safe as traditional flu vaccines.

 

“Seasonal flu vaccines have an enormous record,” Kotloff said. “In reality, this is a seasonal flu and there is no reason to think that this vaccine will behave any differently.”

 

Participants in the trial will receive two doses of vaccine in three-week intervals, and the centers will compare reactions following each dose. Two strengths of the vaccine will be tested to determine which level of vaccine will produce a response that will best protect people from the flu.

 

U.S. researchers will first test a group of healthy adults and elderly volunteers and then move on to children if the vaccines are well tolerated by the adults. As many as 200 adults, 200 seniors and 600 children may be enrolled in the trials.

 

In Maryland, testing will take place in Baltimore at the University of Maryland Medical Center and in Frederick and Annapolis.

 

Maryland’s researchers also will participate in future studies of the vaccine that will be led by other members of the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units, which will examine how the vaccine works in combination with the seasonal flu vaccine.

 

Copyright 2009 Daily Record.

 

Aggressive tests set for new flu vaccines

Maryland one of 8 U.S. universities to take part in effort to stave off dangerous mutation of H1N1 virus

 

By Kelly Brewington

Baltimore Sun

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

In a race to stave off an unusually dangerous flu season, scientists at the University of Maryland and seven other universities in the U.S. will begin testing a swine flu vaccine in adults and children within the next few weeks - the first step in what could be a mass vaccination campaign.

 

The trials, which will test the vaccines of two manufacturers, mark the launch of an aggressive government timetable to have inoculations ready for as many as 200 million Americans, including 2 million Marylanders, by mid-October. While there are unanswered questions about the campaign - from the logistics and cost to whether the vaccine will protect everyone from the virus - researchers expect to determine the vaccine's safety and effectiveness within six weeks of starting the trials. Public health officials and infectious disease experts fear the virus, known as H1N1, could mutate into a nastier strain this fall. With that in mind, vulnerable groups - children, people who work with children, pregnant women, health care workers and adults with chronic diseases - are likely to be first in line for the vaccine. But first, scientists must determine whether it's safe, if it works and if not, what should be their next steps.

 

"What we are trying to do is to be prepared in case the infections come back with a vengeance," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, which is funding the trials. "The concern is that we will see a lot of infection, serious illness and maybe some deaths as kids go back to school. So we are going to try as best we can to get as much information about whether we are going to vaccinate on Oct. 15 and beyond. Doing these trials is our best effort to get as much information as we can."

 

Researchers nationwide will enroll about 2,400 volunteers in trials that will test two vaccines in five population groups. They will also study the best time to give the vaccine: before, during or after the typical vaccination schedule for the seasonal flu.

 

Scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine expect to receive a vaccine from manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur as soon as Aug. 10 and begin testing immediately on roughly 1,000 volunteers - adults at University of Maryland Medical Center and later on children at sites in Frederick and Annapolis.

 

The other vaccine, by Australian drug maker CSL, will be tested at another U.S. site, and testing is under way in Australia, said Dr. Karen L. Kotloff, professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Maryland's Center for Vaccine Development, and the principal investigator for the trial here.

 

Volunteers will receive two doses of the vaccine, three weeks apart and at two strengths. Healthy adults and the elderly will be tested before the vaccine is tried in children as young as 6 months old. Children have been more susceptible to the new H1N1 strain. Medical experts think that older people may have been exposed to similar strains of the virus and may have some immune protection against it.

 

Health officials, infectious disease experts and vaccine makers have been scrambling for months to confront the swine flu pandemic, which has killed at least 263 people nationwide since its outbreak this spring - including three in Maryland - and sickened as many as 1 million, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most cases have been mild, however, and people who fall ill with flulike symptoms usually recover with in a week or so, much like the seasonal flu.

 

Still, public health officials have been monitoring the virus' spread in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season is now at its peak, paying close attention to any changes in the strain.

 

Kotloff acknowledged that researchers are rushing to provide as much information as they can, but that despite the short timetable, they are taking clues from seasonal flu vaccine. Seasonal flu kills 36,000 in the U.S. each year and hospitalizes hundreds of thousands.

 

"Every year there's a race against time," she said. "At the beginning of the calendar year, authorities need to make a decision which strains they think will circulate in the autumn, and then the vaccine makers have to race to make sure the vaccine is available to the public."

 

But there are key differences between this effort and the seasonal flu vaccine process. Vaccine makers didn't get hold of the swine flu virus until this spring and seasonal flu vaccines are not tested on people before they are rolled out for flu season.

 

"This is different because we have never seen it before," said Fauci. "It behooves us, before the fact, to get some safety data. In many respects this is very similar to a seasonal vaccine that we give on a yearly basis. But, because of an abundance of caution, we are going to do clinical trials before we make that decision to vaccinate."

 

Fauci said the trial's timetable is fast, but the initial six weeks is enough time to get immediate safety data and enough research to learn if there are any immediate adverse reactions.

 

"You'll have a reasonably good idea of whether you need one dose or two and whether you need a higher dose or the standard dose," he said.

 

Still, the study won't be large enough to measure any rare side effects, Fauci said. After a 1976 outbreak of a different swine flu, the government launched a vaccination effort. Some reports found the vaccine increased the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder.

 

There's still a lot that researchers don't know about the new virus. It has not been as deadly in its initial stages as the 1918 pandemic, in which flu appeared in the spring and was fairly mild before coming back more fiercely in the fall.

 

Researchers hope that as the virus has continued to spread this summer, people who have become sickened by it have built up an immunity that will protect them this fall.

 

"It's very likely that they will be partially protected or completely protected," said Fauci. "But you can't depend on that."

 

Assuming all goes well with the trial, there are still questions about how to administer mass vaccinations. The federal government is making $350 million available to states and hospitals for pandemic planning, but the logistics are still being hashed out, said John M. Colmers, Maryland's health secretary. Maryland expects to receive some $6.4 million for planning and disease investigation.

 

Colmers said he expects a mass vaccination effort would include several partners to get the word out and to conduct the actual vaccinations. Shots would be given at a combination of private clinics, doctors' offices, schools and workplaces, he said.

 

"Right now, what we are working on is designing plans for how all of us, along with colleagues in the hospitals and insurance industry, are going to go about doing this," he said. "Outside of the mass vaccination activities, we are working on... improving our communication skills and making sure that individual families, businesses and state government have good contingency plans in the case things are worse than we anticipate."

 

Testing swine flu vaccine

•Mid-August: Researchers at the University of Maryland and other centers expect to begin clinical trials of an H1N1 vaccine.

 

•Late September: Researchers expect to complete an initial six weeks of testing two doses of a vaccine.

 

•Mid-October: A mass vaccination campaign could begin nationwide.

 

•The University of Maryland School of Medicine's Center for Vaccine Development is seeking volunteers for the trial. For more information: 410-706-6156.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

Preventive Medicine for A Shortage Of Nurses

Hospitals Back Grants For College Programs

 

By Rick Rojas

Washington Post

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

An initiative by the Maryland Hospital Association will provide $15.5 million over the next five years to 17 nursing schools across the state to help increase the number of students in the programs and stave off a predicted shortage of nurses.

 

The plan will be financed through donations from health-care providers, insurers and individuals who are concerned that the average age of nurses is rising at the same time aging baby boomers are expected to increase the demand for medical care.

 

Programs that will receive the grants include Montgomery College, Prince George's Community College, Anne Arundel Community College, the College of Southern Maryland, Howard Community College and the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

 

"We're getting older, getting ready to retire, and the demand is going to increase," said John M. Colmers, secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

 

About 33 percent of the state's population will be older than 50 by next year, and those numbers are expected to grow to nearly 40 percent by 2020, according to the Maryland Department of Planning.

 

"People are living longer, are more healthy, more active, and they want to stay that way," said Catherine Crowley, vice president of the Maryland Hospital Association.

 

Maryland will require 10,000 more nurses to meet those needs, Crowley said.

 

Moreover, the average age of nurses in Maryland is 47, and 43 percent of nurses plan to retire in the "next few years," said Nancy Fiedler, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Hospital Association.

 

The problem, though, is not a lack of students pursuing nursing as a career. Nursing schools throughout the state are crowded, turning down more than 1,000 "qualified applicants" each year, Crowley said.

 

Colmers, secretary of the state health department, said the potential crisis boils down to "having enough seats in the classrooms and people teaching in the classrooms." The grants are aimed at helping the nursing schools take in more students and hire additional faculty.

 

Although the hospital association says it has commitments for $15.5 million, its fundraising target is $60 million over five years.

 

Such an investment is needed, Crowley said, because nursing education is expensive. In addition to the 360 more faculty members needed in Maryland nursing programs, the schools have to buy medical technology and build laboratories.

 

"Nursing programs are labor intensive and very costly," said Barbara Nubile, director of nursing and associate dean at Montgomery College.

 

Nubile said Montgomery College has been working to bulk up its faculty and facilities in recent years because of an increase in the number of students. She said the nursing program typically receives 400 to 500 applications each semester and used to accept and enroll 60 students a year. Last semester, 104 were enrolled, and Nubile said she expects the same number to be admitted in the fall.

 

Nubile said she likes to have an 8-to-1 student-teacher ratio in the upper-level laboratory courses.

 

Montgomery College recently expanded the staff of its nursing program by eight instructors, bringing the full-time faculty to 30. Faculty members are required to have a master's in nursing or nursing education. Nubile said one difficulty of adding to the faculty is that many newcomers to teaching are "experienced nurses but not experienced nursing educators."

 

Many experienced nurses also choose to keep working in clinical settings instead of teaching because they can earn "more on the floor than in the classroom," Colmers said.

 

Montgomery College plans to use the $235,000 it has received from the hospital association initiative to build three laboratories on its Takoma Park campus, where the nursing program is located.

 

Nubile said teachers have also started incorporating more gerontology into their courses to prepare for the baby boomers.

 

The discussion over the looming shortage of nurses has been muted by the louder debate over overall health-care coverage nationwide, Colmers said. Although there has been some talk of fewer doctors in the future, "much of the care patients receive is from nurses," he said.

 

"It's not just whether or not you have coverage," Colmers said. "It's the quality of the caregivers you have."

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Consultants start review of hospital bids

Officials hope to have deals ready by end of year

 

By Daniel Valentine

The Gazette

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

Consultants will spend the next month reviewing the nine bids to purchase Prince George's County's public hospital centers, the county Hospital Authority said Monday.

 

The authority, a state-created committee of doctors, lawyers and finance officials charged with selling the troubled health care centers, said companies submitted bids for the properties July 14, but that consultants will spend August reviewing the proposals and meeting with buyers.

 

"A number of [interested companies] have started to talk among themselves," said Kenneth E. Glover, chairman of the authority. "But I suspect it will be a long and complicated dialogue."

 

The authority plans to meet in September to discuss proposals and progress, Glover said.

 

The Hospital Authority hopes to have buyers lined up for all three hospitals by the end of the year, enough time for a deal to be approved by the Maryland General Assembly in early 2010.

 

The committee has been meeting for a year to find buyers for Prince George's Medical Center in Cheverly, The Bowie Health Campus and Laurel Regional Hospital, which have been losing money for more than a decade. Since the 1990s, losses have stemmed largely from the high number of uninsured patients served by the health centers.

 

Under a deal between the state and county, companies willing to purchase and take over the centers will receive up to $174 million in funding from the two governments.

 

Bidders include Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis; Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park; the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton; and Dimensions Healthcare System, the company that currently manages the hospitals.

 

Authority members said Monday they will discuss buyers' proposals for attracting more paying customers to the hospitals.

 

"We want improvements to the facilities," said authority member Thomas A. Himler. "They need to put something in beyond the state and county [contribution]. How are they going to address the long-term stability of the facilities?"

 

Copyright © 2009 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net.

 

Residents weigh in on national health care reform debate

Town Hall meeting invites questions on proposals

 

By Liz Skalski

The Gazette

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

Forestville resident Gretchen Jones retired in 2001, and while she can afford her current health care plan, she said she has concerns about whether she will be able to maintain her plan if federal lawmakers pass health care reform legislation.

 

"I'm lucky now - I don't take a lot of medication, but if I do, can I afford it?" said Jones, 62. "I don't want anyone to tell me what physicians I have to go to."

 

On Monday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) held his first health care Town Hall meeting at Prince George's Community College in Largo to hear Prince George's County residents' concerns, dispel myths and share information about the current status of health care reform. Other Town Hall meetings are planned to be held across the state.

 

Affordable and adequate health care is a central concern to county residents, where the high number of uninsured patients has put the county's public hospital system in debt for more than a decade.

 

Residents seemed mixed in their support for or against health care reform.

 

"Make no mistake - health care is a priority of the Obama administration [and] of the Congress," Cardin said to the nearly 500 people in attendance. "The first thing that needs to be fixed is the 46 million [people] without health care in the U.S."

 

Dr. Donald Shell, health officer for the county's health department, said during the meeting that there are 150,000 uninsured residents in the county.

 

President Obama (D) has pushed Congress to sign a health care bill before its August recess but has been met with opposition stemming from how the country will afford the hefty cost of about $1 trillion during the next decade.

 

The plan would require all Americans to have health insurance and all employers to provide it. The poor would get subsidies to purchase insurance and insurance companies would be prohibited from denying coverage to people based on pre-existing medical conditions.

 

Cardin said the reform is only in the first stages and that no bill has been drafted by either the House or the Senate.

 

"It will cost money to get to the plateau we want," he said. "We need to bring down the growth rate of overall health care costs of America."

 

Andrea Faller, 56, of Hyattsville said she would support health care reform.

 

She said she thought the plan would aid small businesses, like the one her husband owns, and students - like her two daughters who graduated from college in May - who are dropped by their parents' health care company, as well as people who work part-time.

 

"I want what other countries have," Faller said. "For Pete's sake, we can figure this out. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. We can learn from them."

 

Residents asked Cardin questions about whether their current coverage would change if they were already satisfied with it, if dental coverage will be included and whether people without health care will be forced to pay for health care if they don't want it.

 

Cardin said that those happy with their current health care plans shouldn't worry because their plans won't change, that he is hopeful dental health care will be included in the reform and that all Americans will be required to have health insurance.

 

"I am optimistic we are going to succeed," Cardin said. "We want to get it right, and I'm confident we can get it right."

 

To contact Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) with questions about health care reform, visit www.cardin.senate.gov and click on the contact link at the bottom of the page.

 

Copyright © 2009 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net.

 

Rabies numbers keep climbing

Tests confirm 24 racoons, 3 foxes, 1 opossum caught in Worcester County were diseased

 

By Jenny Hopkinson

Salisbury Daily Times

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

OCEAN CITY — Dr. Anne Marie Lange always checks to make sure her four-legged patients are up to date with rabies vaccination at each visit.

 

The veterinarian at the VCA Delmarva Animal Hospital in Berlin said maintaining protection from the disease is one of the most important things owners do for their pets. And with dozens of rabid wild animals seen in Worcester so far this year, the reasons why are more obvious than ever.

 

“Some people don’t think about it,” Lange said. “They know rabies is dangerous and it’s happening somewhere else, but they don’t think it is happening here.”

 

Laboratory tests have confirmed that 24 raccoons, three foxes and one opossum caught in Worcester County carried rabies. Another 16 animals displayed behavior indicative of the disease, but weren’t caught and tested.

 

With infected creatures found everywhere in Worcester — from Ocean City to Pocomoke City to Showell and all the places in between — the message from county health officials is that everyone should be prepared.

 

“Our entire county is water-based and prime habitat for wildlife such as raccoons and foxes,” said Janet Tull, rabies coordinator for the health department. “So we have no way of knowing where the next case may come from.”

 

Of the confirmed cases, infected animals have been found in densely populated and rural areas. Ocean City has had one confirmed case, the first in the resort in five years.

 

Last year, there were only 20 cases in the county.

 

Rabies is a virus that attacks the nervous system and is spread through contact with the saliva of an infected animal normally through bites, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. A rabid animal can be recognized by changes in behavior — wild animals may become more friendly, while domestic pets might become more aggressive. Infected creatures may stagger or drool and become active during unusual times of day.

 

The Health Department recommends feeding pets indoors so as to avoid leaving food outside overnight and attracting wild animals. Animals with indicative behavior should immediately be reported to local law enforcement.

 

Most importantly, Lange said, vaccinations should be kept up to date.

 

Copyright 2009 Salisbury Daily Times.

 

National / International

US: 160 million swine flu vaccine doses in October

 

Associated Press

By Lauran Neergaard

Washington Post

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials say the U.S. expects to have 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine available sometime in October - if all goes well.

 

That's despite continued bad production from manufacturers around the world. The chief ingredient for vaccine is grown in chicken eggs, and companies are getting far fewer doses per egg than is usual with regular winter flu.

 

Another complication: That 160 million estimate assumes a low dose will work. Studies will begin in a few weeks to see if this new vaccine will protect with a low dose or if people will need a higher one. Scientists also expect people will need two separate inoculations, about a month apart, for protection..

 

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal health officials say the new swine flu isn't yet mutating to become more dangerous, but they're closely tracking that as the virus continues to circle the globe.

 

Dr. Nancy Cox of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls it "quite surprising" that more genetic variation hasn't emerged given the virus' quick spread - sickening more than an estimated million people in the U.S. alone since April.

 

People under 25 get sick most often, although most of the 262 deaths recorded in the U.S. so far have been in 25- to 49-year-olds. People older than 65 have far lower risk of getting sick - perhaps because of years of exposure to viruses in the same influenza family.

 

© 2009 The Associated Press.

 

Testing swine flu vaccine amid supply questions

 

Associated Press

By Lauran Neergaard

Washington Post.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

WASHINGTON -- Attention is shifting to the world's five leading flu vaccine makers: How fast are they really producing swine flu vaccine, and just how do they plan to test that it works?

 

A meeting Thursday of the Food and Drug Administration's scientific advisers offers the first in-depth public progress report since U.S. scientists delivered the novel virus to manufacturers and asked them to turn it into usable vaccine.

 

They've succeeded to a degree. The National Institutes of Health on Wednesday called for a few thousand volunteers, from babies to the elderly, for studies to see if pilot batches are safe and protective. The first shots should go into adult volunteers' arms in early August, with child studies to follow quickly if there are no signs of immediate side effects.

 

Those government-directed studies - and more that manufacturers will run - are key as the government decides whether to offer swine flu vaccine to millions of Americans starting in mid-October, besides vaccinating against the regular winter flu. Health authorities in other countries are looking to the U.S. studies, too, as they make their own plans.

 

Assuming the studies show the vaccine is OK, a big question is how much will be available and when. Last week, the World Health Organization warned that production is going slower than predicted, with the strains now in use yielding only about half as much of the main vaccine ingredient as is usual.

 

Wednesday, London-based GlaxoSmithKline echoed that caution, saying it is "working as quickly as possible" but being hindered by those low yields.

 

"Some of us are skeptical that very much will be available by mid-October," said Dr. William Schaffner, a vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University.

 

And the government has warned that any vaccination campaign will put higher-risk people in line for the first batches, as supplies gradually increase over time.

 

Manufacturers' vaccine studies are expected to largely mirror the NIH's plans: Volunteers will get two vaccinations, 21 days apart. By early September, the NIH should have blood tests showing how much immune protection the initial inoculation triggered, and if a low-dose or higher-dose version was needed. It will take another month to get information on the second inoculation.

 

Complicating the question: If plain vaccine doesn't spur enough protection or there isn't enough supply, manufacturers could add immune-system boosters called adjuvants. That will pose a dilemma as the U.S. has never approved a flu vaccine containing those ingredients, although they are widely used in vaccine given to older adults in Europe.

 

But there's little information on their safety in children and pregnant women. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the NIH's infectious disease chief, said it's highly unlikely that flu vaccine with an adjuvant would be part of a children's immunization campaign. Part of FDA's debate on Thursday, however, is how to do additional testing of that combination in various age groups.

 

The NIH's first studies will use flu shots made by France-based Sanofi-Pasteur and CSL Ltd., which on Wednesday began a much smaller study of its vaccine in its home country of Australia.

 

Also yet to be studied are shots made by Glaxo and Swiss-based Novartis, and a nasal-spray flu vaccine from Maryland-based MedImmune.

 

© 2009 The Associated Press.

 

FDA Cautions Public About Electronic Cigarettes

 

By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

 

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that an analysis of leading brands of electronic cigarettes, a new type of "smokeless" nicotine product, detected carcinogens and a chemical used in antifreeze that is toxic to humans.

 

Officials at the FDA and other public health experts cautioned consumers against using the products, saying that the health effects of electronic cigarettes are unknown.

 

"The FDA is concerned about the safety of these products and how they are marketed to the public," said Margaret A. Hamburg, the agency's commissioner.

 

The FDA studied the ingredients in cartridges from two leading brands of electronic cigarettes. In one sample, it detected diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze. Other samples turned up carcinogens, including nitrosamines, according to the agency.

 

Electronic cigarettes, also called "e-cigarettes," are battery-operated devices that generally contain cartridges filled with nicotine, flavor and other chemicals. The electronic cigarette turns nicotine, which is highly addictive, and other chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled by the user. Since they produce no smoke, they can be used in workplaces, restaurants and airports.

 

The products are relatively new and began appearing on the market about five years ago, sold over the Internet, in mall kiosks and in stores. They often come in candy and fruit flavors, leading critics to charge that they are being targeted toward children.

 

The FDA considers e-cigarettes to be drug devices and, as such, says that manufacturers must first get federal approval to market them. It has refused to allow imports of e-cigarettes.

 

In May, two e-cigarette suppliers filed suit against the FDA to allow the shipments, claiming that the regulatory agency has no authority over the products. The suit is pending in a District federal court.

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Co-author of first AIDS report dies

 

Associated Press

USA Today

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dr. Joel Weisman, who co-wrote the first report on AIDS in 1981, has died. He was 66.

 

Weisman died Saturday at his Los Angeles home, the Los Angeles Times reports. His domestic partner, Bill Hutton, said Weisman had heart disease and was ill for several months.

 

Weisman was a private physician in 1980 when he saw three gay patients who had symptoms of what would become known as AIDS. Weisman referred two of the patients to an immunologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Weisman, along with UCLA immunologist Dr. Martin Gottlieb, wrote a brief report of what they learned.

 

Their paper appeared on June 5, 1981, in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was the first report on AIDS in the medical literature.

 

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

NZ researchers to implant pig cells in diabetics

 

Associated Press

By Ray Lilley

Washington Post

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A New Zealand biotech company began a trial Thursday of an experimental treatment for diabetes in which cells from newborn pigs will be implanted into eight human volunteers.

 

Living Cell Technologies hopes the cells may be able to delay the effects of Type 1 diabetes, including blindness, premature coronary illness and limb amputation resulting from poor blood circulation.

 

Prof. Bob Elliott, medical director of the company, acknowledged that, even in the best-case scenario, the treatment would not eliminate all symptoms.

 

Some scientists have warned that implanting pig cells has risks. Others say it is too soon to begin testing on humans because no animal trials were conducted.

 

One risk is that viruses that exist in animals but not in humans could jump species, potentially causing new illnesses and possible new pandemics. Scientists say there are more than 100 pig viruses that could potentially transfer to humans.

 

Elliott said Thursday that the possibility of a pig endogenous retrovirus - the virus thought to be most contagious for humans - infecting humans is largely "theoretical."

 

"There is no evidence of a risk" of a pig retrovirus infection, he said.

 

He said the piglets being used, recovered from 150 years of isolation on islands south of New Zealand, carried no known agent that could infect humans and are held in a fully closed, sterile environment.

 

Prof. Martin Wilkinson, past chairman of the New Zealand Bioethics Council, said pig islet cells pose "a very small risk" that "is low enough to be managed in human recipients."

 

"There is no conclusion that it (transplanting animal cells in humans) should be banned just because of the possibility of risk," Wilkinson, who is not involved in the trials, told reporters Thursday.

 

Elliott has run two previous trials, the first with six patients in New Zealand in 1995-1996. The other, in Russia with 10 patients, began in July 2007. He said he has seen increased insulin production in some subjects, while others rejected the pig cells or the implanted cells stopped producing insulin after a year.

 

A scientific paper on the trial is to be produced by the end of 2009, he said.

 

In Type 1 diabetes, the body mistakenly attacks and destroys cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, the hormone crucial to converting blood sugar to energy. It is different from the far more common Type 2 diabetes that is usually linked to obesity, in which the body produces insulin but gradually loses the ability to use it properly.

 

© 2009 The Associated Press.

 

Fla. hospital defends secretly deporting patient

 

Associated Press Hispanic Affairs Writer

By Laura Wides-Munoz

Hagerstown Herald-Mail

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

STUART, Fla. (AP) -- All sides agree on one thing in the case of a South Florida hospital that secretly repatriated a seriously brain injured patient back to Guatemala.

 

During the early hours of a steamy July 2003 morning, Martin Memorial Medical Center chartered a private plane and sent Luis Jimenez back to the Central American country without telling his relatives in the U.S. or Guatemala - even as his cousin and legal guardian, Montejo Gaspar, frantically sought to stop the move.

 

There, things get murky. Gaspar is suing the hospital for essentially deporting Jimenez, who was an illegal immigrant. The hospital, which spent more than $1.5 million on his care over three years, says Jimenez wanted to go home.

 

Underlying the dispute is the broader question of what do Americans expect a hospital to do with a patient who requires long-term care, is unable to pay and doesn't qualify for federal or state aid because of his immigration status. Health care and immigration experts across the country are watching the case, which could set precedent in Florida and possibly beyond. Lawyers for Jimenez said this appears to be the first time a lawsuit has been filed in such a case.

 

In closing arguments Thursday, a lawyer for Gaspar and Jimenez said the hospital wanted to send Jimenez back to Guatemala to halt what would have been a long and expensive appeals process.

 

"The plan was designed once and for all to stop the meter from running, to stop the expenses ... to stop the case from going all the way up to the Supreme Court - because Luis Jimenez was gone," attorney Jack Hill told a packed courtroom in the sleepy South Florida town of Stuart, just north of the exclusive community of Palm Beach.

 

Scott Michaud, the lawyer for the hospital, countered that Martin Memorial was in an impossible situation, but ultimately a judge - not the hospital - decided that it was acceptable to send Jimenez back to Guatemala. Michaud said the hospital saved Jimenez's life and provided free care for him for three years, only to be unfairly hit with a lawsuit.

 

"Paging Alice in Wonderland where up is down and down is up and no good deed goes unpunished," he exclaimed Thursday.

 

The case also raises the question of whether a hospital and a state court should be deciding whether to deport someone - a power long held by the federal government.

 

"Regardless of the decision, it will heighten the awareness of hospitals nationwide. The next time they debate shipping a patient overseas, they're going to have to do their homework because it's going to leave them open to a lot of legal challenges and questions," said Steve Larson, an assistant dean at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine and medical director of a nonprofit clinic for Latino immigrants.

 

But Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital & Healthcare Association, says hospitals may become even more wary about providing extended care to uninsured immigrants.

 

Hospitals are already struggling under the staggering costs of treating the nation's roughly 47 million uninsured. Illegal immigrants make up an estimated 15 percent of this group, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

 

"I think they'll do what's required according to physician orders," she said, "but I think they will be more pro-active and aggressive in finding a discharge plan."

 

Like millions of others, Jimenez, now 37, came the U.S to work as a day laborer, sending money home to his wife and small children. In 2000, a drunk driver crashed into a van he was riding in, leaving the robust soccer player a paraplegic. For more than a year he lingered in a vegetative state before he began to recuperate, eventually reaching a fourth grade level in cognitive ability. The hospital sent him to a long-term care facility for a brief stint, but eventually he was returned to the hospital for care.

 

Because Jimenez has diminished capacity to make decisions, Gaspar was named as his legal guardian. Initially he supported Jimenez's return to Guatemala, but after a court-appointed attorney for Jimenez questioned whether any hospital there could take him, Gaspar grew concerned.

 

Then, armed with a vague letter from the Guatemalan minister of health stating the poverty-ridden country could care for Jimenez, the hospital got a county judge to OK the move.

 

While Gaspar sought an emergency order to stop the move so he could appeal the decision, the hospital put Jimenez on a $30,000 charter flight home.

 

Gaspar eventually won his appeal, with the court ruling a state judge doesn't have the power to decide immigration cases. By then, it was too late. Jimenez had been released from the Guatemalan hospital and was living with his 73-year-old mother in a one-room home in the mountainous state of Huehuetenango - a steep hike from the village center and 12 hours from the Guatemalan capital.

 

Jimenez's lawsuit seeks nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of his care in Guatemala, as well as damages for the hospital's alleged "false imprisonment" of his cousin.

 

A South Florida Roman Catholic priest described a visit to Jimenez in an e-mail to The Associated Press: "He was clean, glad of the visit and occasionally made apparently good sense comments," wrote the Rev. Frank O'Laughlin. "It seemed that he was cooperating with his caregiver and would survive, I guessed, until his first pneumonia."

 

O'Laughlin said he wasn't sure that Jimenez should be returned to "medical care in an alien Florida institution."

 

But he said the lawsuit is important because hospitals should not be allowed to deport people.

 

He and Larson also say a country that relies on cheap immigrant labor for everything from agriculture, to clothing to construction, should factor in the cost of catastrophic injuries to those providing these essential services - whether it means requiring employers to offer coverage for day laborers or ensuring public and nonprofit hospitals can care for them.

 

Carla Luggiero, a senior associate director for American Hospital Association, said that cases such as Jimenez's are rare. Most of the time, hospitals are able to work with the families to find acceptable care.

 

And most of the time families don't have pro bono lawyers working for them as Jimenez does.

 

But she also warned the issue is serious, and it is one Congress has yet to address in its health care reform proposals.

 

"There is absolutely no discussion about it," Luggiero said. And yet, hospitals that receive Medicare reimbursements are required to provide emergency care to all patients and must provide an acceptable discharge plan once the patient is stabilized.

 

"It's a complicated, huge issue. Without repatriation, the issue of undocumented immigrants is already a hand grenade and so is health care," Larson said. "So together, you're really walking a tightrope."

 

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

Opinion

Our Say: Deficits pushing O'Malley toward unpleasant choice

 

Annapolis Capital Editorial

Sunday, July 19, 2009

 

The latest estimates from Warren Deschenaux, the director of policy analysis for the state Department of Legislative Services, confirmed what everyone already knew in his gut: While glimmers of recovery may be visible in the economy, state tax collection, like employment, is a lagging indicator.

 

Deschenaux projects that the state is looking at a $700 million budget shortfall in fiscal 2010. It will go to $1 billion in fiscal 2011 and $2 billion in fiscal 2012 - when the one-time federal stimulus package that enabled Gov. Martin O'Malley to plug some of the holes in the last budget is a distant, rosy memory.

 

The shortfall will eventually come to 15 percent of the general fund, at a time when substantial cuts have already been made and all the easy steps have already been taken.

 

Deschenaux says the state needs to begin "racheting down expectations" about what it can do in the next few years. That's correct - but that shouldn't just mean the expectations of taxpayers. It's time for the governor to break the news to the state's public employee unions that they can't expect to get out of this recession without not just furloughs but layoffs.

 

We sympathize with O'Malley's problems. When he was elected, he was handed a long-term structural deficit that his predecessors gimmicked their way around. Then, after a legislative special session whose budget cuts and tax increases were supposed to produce a long-term fix, the bottom fell out of the national economy.

 

On Wednesday, the governor will be back before the state Board of Public Works with another $300 million in cuts suggested by his staff. Meanwhile, leaders from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees warned the governor not to make big cuts in prisons, foster care, public health facilities and juvenile services.

 

Well, something has to give. It can't be aid to the counties, which already gave plenty in the last legislative session. O'Malley has already done the maximum when it comes to raiding funds and finding temporary patches. And the Obama administration clearly won't be offering any more stimulus packages.

 

Deschenaux thinks eliminating jobs has become unavoidable. We agree. How many CEOs of companies with steadily shrinking revenue have been able to avoid layoffs? If it comes down to a choice of cutting services or programs, or thinning the state work force that delivers those services and programs, which do you think most state taxpayers would prefer?

 

O'Malley has already gotten remarkably deep into this recession without cutting the salaried positions that make up the bulk of any budget, state or corporate. He can't get much further. While we have no affection for layoffs, unpleasant realities have to be faced.

 

No doubt it's tough for a Democratic governor to risk alienating the employee unions that lavishly supported him - and do it while he's on the brink of his re-election campaign. But O'Malley's first responsibility is to the taxpayers of Maryland, not to the unions or even to the political viability of Martin O'Malley.

 

Copyright 2009 Annapolis Capital.

 

A drug by any other name might not be as effective

 

By Tim Rowland

Hagerstown Herald –Mail Commentary

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

Smoking can kill you, we all know that. But stopping smoking can cause you to kill yourself. Tough decision.

 

The Food and Drug Administration this month ordered a “black box” warning be placed on two popular smoking cessation drugs known as Zyban and Chantix.

 

According to Top News, “The FDA decision about the warning labels on Chantix and Zyban comes after the agency’s adverse event reporting system noted incidents of wacky behavior linked to the use of the drugs - the changes in behavior included depressed mood, agitation, hostility and suicidal thoughts!”

 

Since it is my new policy to only get my news through reporters who are bold enough to use exclamation points and the word “wacky,” I can also cite this story in relaying the findings that 112 suicides and 205 attempted suicides have been linked to these and similar drugs.

 

One question: Isn’t every freshly ex-smoker depressed, agitated, hostile and suicidal?

 

You never hear anyone say, “Hey, I had my last cigarette 36 hours ago and I’m on top of the world!” Even if quitting smoking doesn’t make you suicidal, it usually makes everyone around you consider downing a few boxes of rat poison.

 

According to Business Week, “For many users, the problems started soon after they started taking the drugs! And ended when they stopped taking them!” (And yes, I added the exclamation points, but only because Business Week needs to lighten up.)

 

All right, so it does look bad for Zyban and Chantix, but that brings me to my main question: What lunatic is responsible for naming pharmaceutical products, and is he over the age of 6?

 

Is there no such thing as a reasonably named drug? There has to be a happy medium between Cyklokapron and Goody’s Headache Powder.

 

Just run down the list: Cerebyx, Azulfidine, Sinequan, Cozaar, Vytorin, Xanax, Valtrex, Imitrex, Selzentry, Tykerb, Zinacef, Abarelix, pzicom, Zetia. (After compiling this list, I can only pray that our insurance provider doesn’t take a look at my Web search history, or they’ll boot me out of the plan faster than you can say pre-existing condition.)

 

But really, Zinacef? It’s as if the drugs are being named by frustrated Scrabble players.

 

Thank goodness these guys don’t work over at Post Cereals, or Shredded Wheat would be going by the name of Zcerksvopyykr.

 

I refuse to take any drug with a Z or an X in it. Maybe it works, but it just doesn’t sound like serious medicine to me. If my heart’s on the fritz, the last thing I want to be taking is something called Xyxpookzer. I want to be taking something called Happy Ticker brand beta blockers.

 

A lot of the names look alike too, and you’ve seen doctors’ handwriting. You take the prescription to the pharmacist just praying that they don’t get the hemorrhoid treatment mixed up with the nasal spray.

 

I suppose there’s a reason for all the gonzo names that I don’t know about. Maybe they’re linked to the Latin names of diseases. Maybe there actually is a drug inventor named Artimus P. Xanax.

 

But short of that, just a little more normalcy would be appreciated. Or not. The over-the-counter stuff takes it too far in the other direction, as evidenced by an ad I saw recently for an anti-gas pill. Name: Beano.

 

Perhaps I have been too hard on Pfizer.

 

Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist. He can be reached at 301-733-5131, ext. 2324, or by e-mail at timr@herald-mail.com. Tune in to the Rowland Rant video at www.herald-mail.com, on antpod.com or on Antietam Cable's WCL-TV Channel 30 evenings at 6:30. New episodes are released every Wednesday.

 

Copyright 2009 Hagerstown Herald-Mail.

 

A Misguided Budget Cut From Gov. O'Malley

 

Washington Post. Letter to the Editor

Thursday, July 23, 2009

 

Though it is understandable that Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) must make budget cuts, he should coordinate his efforts with the Obama administration to determine how proposed health reform might affect care in the state ["O'Malley Pitches $281.5 Million in Md. Cuts, Shifts," Metro, July 22].

 

Canceling a less than 1 percent increase in the rate paid to community care providers -- whose clients include disabled people and substance abusers -- would be demoralizing to these frontline workers who have received only a fraction of their cost-of-living raises for a number of years. Surely there are other areas that the governor can trim without demoralizing a vital sector of health care in our state.

 

ALICE L. HABER

Rockville

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

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