Friday, June 5, 2009

News Clipping Archives

 

Maryland / Regional

Health care expansion builds momentum (The Gazette)

5 swine flu cases at Md. rabbinical college (examiner.com)

Novavax surges on swine flu vaccine (Baltimore Business Journal)

Late-term abortion providers scarce (The Gazette)

City animal control officer faces 'heart-wrenching' job (Baltimore Sun)

Warning on Eating Some Atlantic Fish (Washington Post)

Lightning 'Was Like a Grenade' (Washington Post)

 

National / International

FDA: Adult Antipsychotic Drugs Effective in Children (Wall Street Journal)

Health-Care Jobs Update: Still Growing (Wall Street Journal)

Closure of Canadian Nuclear Reactor Hampers Medical Sector (Wall Street Journal)

Coventry sells Medicaid unit to Magellan for $110M (Washington Post)

Magellan Plans to Buy Medicaid-Administration Business (Wall Street Journal)

Medical Bills Cause Most Bankruptcies (New York Times)

Merck's heart failure drug misses trial goals (Washington Post)

Swine Flu? No Word of It at Pork Expo. (Washington Post)

Avian Flu Fears Said to Help U.S. Prepare for Swine Flu (New York Times)

New Attention on Late-Term Abortions (Washington Post)

 

Opinion

The rockfish risk (Baltimore Sun Editorial)

The vaccine-autism controversy (Baltimore Sun Letters to the Editor – 2 total)

 

 

Maryland / Regional

 

Health care expansion builds momentum

Economy creates a struggle, but poll shows support

 

By Sean R. Sedam

The Gazette

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

A new poll shows that despite the struggling economy, voters support expanding health coverage to more Marylanders. But as some business leaders are supporting higher taxes to pay for health careexpansion, others say the economy and an approaching election could be high hurdles to health care reform in Maryland.

 

Sixty-three percent of voters said the sputtering economy has made it "more urgent" to address health care reform as opposed to not taking on reform efforts, according to the survey commissioned by the Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative.

 

The telephone survey of 700 likely voters in 2010, conducted May 11-14 by the progressive national polling firm Lake Research Partners, also found support for a state plan that uses a 2 percent increase in the payroll tax and tax increases of 10 percent on alcohol and 75 cents per pack on cigarettes to fund the expansion of Medicaid coverage.

 

A plan passed by the General Assembly during the 2007 special legislation session has expanded Medicaid to more than 40,000 Maryland parents - some 15,000 more than the state had expected by this time - but with a downturn in state revenues, efforts to expand health care to childless adults have stalled.

 

The poll results come a week after the Greater Baltimore Black Chamber of Commerce joined black chambers from Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties in supporting the plan.

 

"I think the two of them together, the poll results and the support from the black chambers give big momentum to what we are doing," said Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative President Vincent DeMarco, adding that it was the first time that chambers of commerce in Maryland had endorsed a health care plan that requires employers to pay.

 

"It's going to cost employers a little bit of money, but over the long run they make something on it," said Hubert "Petey" Green, president of the Prince George's County Chamber of Commerce.

 

But not everyone is on board.

 

The plan is identical to legislation introduced this year by Sen. Verna L. Jones that stalled in the Senate Finance Committee in the face of opposition by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce and an economy in which lawmakers refused to attach any new taxes to the state budget.

 

Opposition to the plan is not likely to change.

 

"I think you'd find very few businesses advocating a 2 percent payroll tax, especially in this recession," said Ronald W. Wineholt, a lobbyist for the state chamber.

 

Lawmakers are not likely to bite either, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas McLain Middleton said.

 

"I think you're going to have a lot of apprehension during an election year to having a payroll tax," said Middleton (D-Dist. 28) of Waldorf.

 

With President Obama (D) urging Congress to pass national health care reform by October, legislators expect the issue to take on renewed urgency at the state level.

 

"There's going to be a push next year to do something because things are happening at the federal level," said Middleton, who met last week with House Health and Government Operations Committee Chairman Peter A. Hammen (D-Dist. 46) of Baltimore and state health Secretary John M. Colmers to begin discussions of what federal developments could mean for state legislation.

 

Advocates vow that in 2010 they will be "ready with our plan to fill in any gaps that the feds leave," DeMarco said.

 

The black chambers' position "shows that the Maryland chamber does not speak for everyone," said Jones (D-Dist. 44) of Baltimore. Jones called the chamber "very conservative," adding that its members "have to realize how business will contribute to the solution of health care for all."

 

Green said he hopes to chip away at the state chamber's opposition.

 

"We're going to keep pushing, and I know they're pushing back," hesaid. "I'm not a fan of the tax, but it's the only way to get itdone."

 

Copyright 2009 The Gazette.

 

5 swine flu cases at Md. rabbinical college

 

The Associated Press

examiner.com

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

BALTIMORE - Maryland health officials say the number of confirmed swine flu cases has risen to 83, including five new cases at a Baltimore County rabbinical college.

 

Baltimore County health officials say the five students at the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Mount Wilson have mild cases and none were hospitalized.

 

Health Department spokesman David Paulson said 22 new cases have been confirmed since Monday and none of the new cases have required hospitalization and all are recovering or have recovered.

 

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

Novavax surges on swine flu vaccine

 

By Jeff Clabaugh

Baltimore Business Journal

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Novavax stock surged nearly 50 percent Thursday after the Rockville company said it had succeeded in producing a swine flu vaccine and the government has agreed to test it.

 

Novavax, which began working on a vaccine for the N1H1 virus earlier this year, says it produced the first batch of the vaccine in May. Novavax uses a technology that greatly speeds the time it takes to make vaccines. It says it has now completed the genetic engineering and manufacture of the stock needed to mass produce the virus.

 

As a result, Novavax and the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have signed an agreement that will let government scientists evaluate the vaccine.

 

“The company has committed necessary resources to respond as rapidly as possible to construct and manufacture VLP vaccine against this new N1H1 influenza virus,” said Novavax CEO Rahul Singhvi in a statement.

 

Novavax has the capacity to produce large amounts the vaccine at its manufacturing facilities in Rockville.

 

Novavax stock (NASDAQ: NVAX) was up 88 cents to $2.75 per share in afternoon trading. Its stock was trading as low as 52 cents per share in early April.

 

All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.

 

EXCERPT:

*************

(Fatal Shooting of Kansas doctor spotlights (abortion) issue in Maryland)

 

For Medicaid to pay for an abortion, a physician must certify that it is medically necessary, said officials at Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

 

Maryland had 3,831 Medicaid claims for abortions in the 2006 budget year and 3,580 in 2007, according to the department.

 

Aside from Medicaid claims, abortion reporting has been voluntary in Maryland, and DHMH stopped tracking voluntary reports in 2006, citing staff and budget constraints.

 

In the 2006 budget year, which includes half of 2005, 8,139 abortions were reported to the state from 11 facilities under the state's voluntary reporting policy. That was less than half the 18,429 reported for 1992 by 28 facilities.

 

*******************

Late-term abortion providers scarce

Fatal shooting of Kansas doctor spotlights issue in Maryland

 

By Margie Hyslop

The Gazette

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Women in Maryland who seek abortions late in their pregnancies are referred out of state, according to officials with an organization that makes abortion referrals.

 

"If women in Maryland need that kind of care, they are going to be traveling somewhere" because there aren't many doctors who will do them, said Laura Meyers, president of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, which serves Montgomery and Prince George's counties, the District of Columbia and 15 counties in Northern Virginia.

 

The issue of late-term abortion came into focus this week when Dr. George Tiller, who performed the procedure at his clinic in Wichita, Kan., was shot and killed Sunday at his church.

 

In fact, more than three decades after the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade made abortion legal throughout the United States, access to an abortion, regardless of the stage of pregnancy, remains difficult in many places, including much of Maryland. Some rural counties have no abortion providers.

 

Women who live on the Eastern Shore and in far western Maryland generally have to travel to more-populous areas for abortion procedures, officials said.

 

The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit reproductive health advocacy group that was once a division of Planned Parenthood, estimates that 29 percent of Maryland pregnancies end in induced abortion, compared with 19 percent nationally.

 

Like its sister organization that covers metropolitan Washington, D.C., Planned Parenthood of Maryland, which serves the rest of the state, refers most women seeking a late-term abortion to distant providers. What's commonly referred to as a late-term abortion is performed late in the second trimester or in the third, when fetuses normally are viable outside the womb.

 

The three Planned Parenthood clinics in Maryland that perform abortions - in Annapolis, Baltimore and Silver Spring - do not offer the procedure past 13 weeks and six days into pregnancy.

 

Planned Parenthood clinics in Washington, D.C., do not offer abortion beyond 18weeks, and in Virginia, the procedure is not offered beyond 14 weeks.

 

A few private clinics in metropolitan areas offer abortions as late as 20 to 24 weeks.

 

Some Baltimore private clinics refer women seeking late-term abortions to the Washington Surgi-Clinic in northwest Washington, D.C., which offers the procedure up to the 26th week of pregnancy.

 

But Maryland women seeking late-term abortions generally are referred to clinics in Cherry Hill, N.J.; Boulder, Colo.; Atlanta; Seattle and, at least until recently, Wichita.

 

The D.C. Abortion Fund - which helps low-income women in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and, sometimes, other mid-Atlantic states pay for abortions - referred four women to Tiller's Kansas clinic last year, said Tiffany Reed, president of the fund.

 

"And that's only folks who had problems paying," she added.

 

Some obstetricians and gynecologists perform abortions, but their practices are not identified as abortion clinics, said Wendy Royalty, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Maryland.

 

Many doctors say, "‘I'm not equipped to do this' - people also know that those who do late-term abortions are targeted," and they don't want to risk harm to themselves or their families, Royalty said.

 

Even when abortion is available, "if you don't have the money to pay, you don't have a choice," Reed said.

 

For Medicaid to pay for an abortion, a physician must certify that it is medically necessary, said officials at Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

 

Maryland had 3,831 Medicaid claims for abortions in the 2006 budget year and 3,580 in 2007, according to the department.

 

Aside from Medicaid claims, abortion reporting has been voluntary in Maryland, and DHMH stopped tracking voluntary reports in 2006, citing staff and budget constraints.

 

In the 2006 budget year, which includes half of 2005, 8,139 abortions were reported to the state from 11 facilities under the state's voluntary reporting policy. That was less than half the 18,429 reported for 1992 by 28 facilities.

 

The cost of an abortion, which Reed says is about $400 to $500 before the 12th week of a pregnancy, increases about $100 a week or more thereafter.

 

"Women are not waiting because they want to; a lot of times they are chasing the cost," she said.

 

The D.C. Abortion Fund has helped 250 women pay for abortions this year, Reed said, more than doubling the average already for the budget year that ends June 30.

 

The group, whose last budget was $42,000, urges women to borrow, use credit cards or work extra hours to pay for the procedure, then pledges the additional amount needed so they can get the abortion early rather than wait longer.

 

Most women who seek late-term abortions wanted the pregnancy, but learned late that there is a life-threatening problem or physical anomaly that threatens their health or that of the child, Reed said.

 

"Even though it's legal, it's sort of an underground thing," she said. "A lot of women don't know about it until they have to find out."

 

Reed said she is worried that access to abortion may be more limited in a few years because fewer medical schools offer abortion training.

 

It's not that the law doesn't allow abortions or training for it, said Sen. Andrew P. Harris (R-Dist. 7) of Cockeysville, an anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and an abortion opponent, but training is not mandatory and more physicians and medical students "see serious moral and ethical issues with it."

 

Copyright 2009 The Gazette.

 

City animal control officer faces 'heart-wrenching' job

Abused, abandoned, hungry — all in a day's work

 

By Peter Hermann

Baltimore Sun

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Here is Ricky Martin's to-do list:

 

"Need to pick up injured cat from fire."

 

"Dog bit two family members."

 

"Stray cats and kittens on porch of vacant property and living in boxes without roof or water."

 

"A German shepherd puppy is being kept in a cage too small for him and can't stand up."

 

"Owner moved out and left animal on the street."

 

"Citizen walked by and saw ribs on a dog."

 

Ricky Martin is an animal control officer with the Baltimore health department, and this list is a fraction of complaints he investigated all over the city Thursday.

 

In just a few hours, he waded through shoulder-high weeds, over vacant lots covered with broken glass and into dingy rowhouses. Along the way, he chased down an errant dog, seized another dog the owner didn't want and rescued a stray cat that found its way into the Social Security Administration building on Greene Street.

 

He's been doing this for nine years and is unfazed by the horrific ways people mistreat their pets, though he acknowledged that he was shaken to return from vacation this week to learn that someone had doused a pit bull with gasoline and set it on fire on Presbury Street in West Baltimore.

 

The dog, nicknamed Phoenix, had to be euthanized; the reward for an arrest and conviction of its attackers has now climbed to $23,000. Perhaps because animals are so vulnerable and by nature innocent, attacks on them resonate in ways that don't when people are involved. Or perhaps the reason can be found on the sign that hangs inside the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter: "People who are violent to animals rarely stop there."

 

Said Martin: "It's heart-wrenching what we see out here."

 

His first stop was on Patterson Park Avenue. A woman had complained that a man's two pit bulls had bitten her two cocker spaniels and "tore off hunks of flesh." The owner of the pit bulls, Wesley Sanders, had previously been cited for not having a license, rabies shots and shelter for the dogs, but his paperwork was largely up to date when Martin visited.

 

"I went and did all those things," Sanders said, holding both his pit bulls, one named Savage, while standing on his front steps. "Now they come back and said some lady around the corner said that my dogs attack both of her dogs. I don't have no knowledge of that."

 

Martin leaned over and let the pit bulls lick his hand. "Nice dogs," he told Sanders, adding that the allegation would be investigated further.

 

Later, on Ramsay Street in South Baltimore, Martin pulled up to a small rowhouse to answer a complaint that two pit pulls inside were malnourished and that "there were wild animals in there."

 

Martin knocked and told a man inside, "Excuse me, sir, I'm from Animal Control. We got a complaint that you have pit bulls that aren't being fed."

 

A few minutes later, Martin emerged with John Rebhan, who was cradling his black Lab.

 

The two crossed the street and shoved the dog into a cage in Martin's truck. Rebhan said nothing was wrong with the dog. "I just don't want it anymore. I can't afford it."

 

Martin found no wild animals but did note another pit bull (well-fed and healthy), a snapping turtle, two snakes (less than 5 feet long) and a freshly caught perch swimming in a fish tank.

 

The officer headed back to the animal center near M&T Bank Stadium in South Baltimore. The staff there is still upset over the death of Phoenix and praying for an arrest, but more animals keep coming in - the injured cat from a fire that killed its owner, the abandoned, the stray, the injured, the abused.

 

The good news: The black Lab was healthy, playful and calm. Its owner doesn't want it, but Martin said he's sure the dog will be wanted by somebody. "He's sweet. He's good for adoption."

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Warning on Eating Some Atlantic Fish

 

By David A. Fahrenthold

Washington Post

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Maryland authorit ies have issued a new warning about consuming rockfish and bluefish caught by recreational anglers in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The warning says pregnant women, women of childbearing age, nursing women and children under 6 should not eat rockfish or bluefish caught in the Atlantic by amateur fishermen. People not in those groups may eat one meal of rockfish, also called striped bass, from the Atlantic every month, and one meal of bluefish every other month.

 

Maryland officials said the warning was prompted by other Atlantic Coast states, which have found the toxic contaminants polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in rockfish in coastal waters. They said the ruling did not apply to fish caught by commercial fishermen and sold in restaurants -- not because those fish come from a different place, but because they fall under federal, not state, jurisdiction.

 

Richard Eskin of the Maryland Department of the Environment said the risk was still low, and that people who have eaten the fish in the past should not be worried. "That's fine. Just modify your intake going forward," Eskin said. "Don't lose sleep, don't panic."

 

More details about fish consumption advisories in the Atlantic, the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland rivers can be found at www.mde.state.md.us.

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Lightning 'Was Like a Grenade'

Amid Grief, Family and Friends Recall Events Before Fatal Strike

 

By Jonathan Mummolo

Washington Post

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Thanks to the run he scored, 12-year-old Chelal Gross-Matos's Little League team was leading, 1-0, in the first inning when the umpire ordered everyone off the Fredericksburg area ballfield because of a gathering storm, a teammate recalled yesterday.

 

As players and parents filed to their cars about 6:30 Wednesday night, Chelal, with another teammate, did what many boys his age would do when the excitement of game day gives way to the disappointment of a cancellation: They tossed the ball around at the last minute as they made their way off the field, their parents standing close by, authorities said.

 

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning blasted into the outfield, the massive charge striking Chelal, then jumping to his 11-year-old teammate, authorities say they believe. Chelal was killed. The younger boy remained hospitalized in critical condition and on a ventilator yesterday in Richmond, but had shown a promising sign by following a doctor's finger movements with his eyes, said 1st Sgt. Liz Scott, a Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.

 

"It was like a grenade," said one of Chelal's teammates, Richard Albright, 11, who returned to the ballfield at Lee Hill Park with his mom yesterday morning. A few bouquets of flowers and a single baseball sat against the chain-link fence in left field.

 

"It's the last thing, absolute last thing, any of us expected," said a devastated Robert Matos, Chelal's dad, in an interview with WJLA (Channel 7). "A beautiful life, a good kid, got taken."

 

As grief and disbelief spread through the community, many struggled to reconcile the improbable odds.

 

Although about 25 million lightning flashes occurred last year in the United States, there were just 28 fatal strikes nationwide, including one in Virginia Beach that killed a 23-year-old jogger, according to National Weather Service data. The United States has averaged 58 fatal lightning strikes each year over the past three decades.

 

Such fatalities are far more common in the Southeast, especially in Florida, where strikes are more abundant and people spend a lot of time outdoors. Virginia has had 10 lightning fatalities over the past decade, Maryland has had five and there have been none during that period in the District, according to the Weather Service.

 

"People don't know that when they hear thunder, even a distant rumble, they need to react quickly," said John Jensenius, lightning safety expert at the Weather Service, adding that fatality rates have dropped dramatically as people have become more aware of the dangers and have planned accordingly. "Anytime anybody is outdoors and a thunderstorm is within 10 miles, there is a risk of people being struck."

 

Still, for many, the confluence of events -- the timing of the storm, the team schedule, Chelal's position on the field -- seemed difficult to comprehend.

 

"Completely chance, freak sort of thing," said Melvin J. Brown, principal of Chancellor Middle School, where Chelal was in the sixth grade.

 

He said that efforts by some to assign blame were ill-founded and that Chelal and his friend were just "being boys," trying to get in some last minutes of fun before packing it in for the night.

 

"I used to do the same thing," Brown said.

 

Brown said Chelal was a good student, well-liked by his teachers. "He had a lot of potential," Brown said.

 

Grief counselors were on hand at the school to meet with students, Brown said, and Chelal's sister, an eighth-grader there, chose to attend as well, offering comfort to classmates who expressed their anguish in letters and drawings throughout the day.

 

Brown said that he had spoken with Chelal's father -- who declined further interviews through the sheriff's office after his television interview yesterday morning -- and that Matos was doing "as well as could be expected." Brian Wolfe, a league spokesman, said the injured boy's family declined to comment as well.

 

"He's a good man and a very good father, and like anybody would, he's struggling with the loss and . . . questioning: Why?" Brown said.

 

All Little League activities have been suspended out of respect for the families.

 

Chelal, known for his aggressive base running, played second base for the Little League's Yankees, Albright said. The team was playing the Phillies in one of the last games of the season.

 

Staff writer Josh White and researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

National / International

 

FDA: Adult Antipsychotic Drugs Effective in Children

 

By Jennifer Corbett Dooren

Wall Street Journal

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

WASHINGTON -- Food and Drug Administration staff said Friday three drugs currently approved to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in adults were effective at treating the disorders in children and adolescents, but carry significant risks.

 

The agency is considering applications for AstraZeneca PLC's Seroquel and Eli Lilly and Co.'s Zyprexa to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in children and adolescents, and Pfizer Inc.'s Geodon to treat bipolar disorder in children 10 to 17. An FDA panel of outside medical experts is scheduled to meet to discuss the drugs next Tuesday and Wednesday. The panel is being asked to vote on whether each product is safe and effective for children ages 10 to 17.

 

The FDA as well as the companies said studies showed the products were effective at treating the symptoms of bipolar and schizophrenia, but the drugs all had side effects that included sedation and weight gain. Reviews of the products were posted on FDA's Web site Friday.

 

"These risks are of particular concern in pediatric patients because of the life-long nature of these disorders' said Thomas Laughren, director of the FDA's psychiatric product division, in a memo.

 

The concern with weight gain seen with most antipsychotic drugs whether it causes additional problems like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

 

The FDA said all three products are already being used in children even though they aren't approved. Approved products include Risperdal, by a unit of Johnson & Johnson, and Abilify by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, the agency said.

 

The FDA asked each company to look at which side effects were more commonly seen in children compared to adults who were studied in clinical trials.

 

Lilly said clinical studies of Zyprexa showed the product was associated with greater weight gain and changes in blood lipid parameters than seen in adults using the product.

 

The company is seeking FDA approval of Zyprexa as a second-treatment for children and adolescents, meaning that other products should be tried first. Zyprexa is Lilly's top-selling drug with $4.7 billion annual sales in 2008.

 

AstraZeneca said side effects that occurred more frequently in children compared to adults on Seroquel included increases in blood pressure and increased appetite. The company also said incidences of certain movement side effects such as tremors were higher among patient taking Seroquel compared to patients in placebo groups, or patients not taking the drug. Seroquel is AstraZeneca's second-best selling drug with $4.45 billion in sales in 2008.

 

Pfizer said children taking Geodon were more likely than adults to report feeling sleepy, or sedation. The company said the drug didn't have a big impact on weight gain with 7% of people taking Geodon experiencing a 7% or greater gain in weight compared to 4% in the placebo group. The company also said the drug didn't increase metabolic markers such as cholesterol.

 

Schizophrenia afflicts about 1% of Americans. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, people with schizophrenia may hear voices other people don't hear or they may believe that others are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts or plotting to harm them. The disorder is also a cause of suicide and is typically diagnosed in a person's late teens or 20s. Bipolar disorder also known as manic-depressive illness, is believed to affect about 1% to 3% of the population, and is characterized by unusual shifts in mood, energy and activity levels. There's evidence that bipolar disorder in children is more severe than typically seen in adults.

 

Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

Health-Care Jobs Update: Still Growing

 

Wall Street Journal

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

As job losses continued nationwide last month, health care kept growing.

 

Nonfarm payrolls shrank by 345,000 in May, but the number of payroll jobs in health care grew by more than 23,000, according to new jobs numbers out from the feds this morning.

 

Over the past year, as the nation has lost about 6 million nonfarm payroll jobs, health care has added more than 300,000. The sector now employs nearly 13.6 million people, according to the new numbers.

 

All of the categories included in the sector — doctors offices, home health-care services, hospitals, etc. — added jobs last month, though some of the gains were slight.

 

While a few hospitals here and there are laying off staff and citing higher numbers of indigent patients and fewer elective procedures, the total number of hospital jobs has grown by nearly 100,000 in the past year, including a few thousand new jobs added since January. Last month, according to the feds, hospitals added a scant few hundred jobs. But in this economy, any gain at all is a pretty big deal.

 

Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

Closure of Canadian Nuclear Reactor Hampers Medical Sector

 

By Jon Kamp

Wall Street Journal

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

The shutdown of a Canadian nuclear reactor that is a crucial supplier of medical scanning isotopes is interrupting care to patients and hindering suppliers.

 

Doctors are worried the 52-year-old plant in Ontario, run by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., could be down for a prolonged stretch or may never restart. Either scenario would further snarl a supply line running through Cardinal Health Inc., MDS Inc.'s Nordion unit and privately held Lantheus Medical Imaging Inc., among other companies.

 

There is also concern about how an industry with scant excess capacity will digest the looming shutdown at another important plant in the Netherlands.

 

"It's sort of medium-bad at this point, but it looks like it's going to get a whole lot worse," said Michael Graham, director of nuclear medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

 

Operators at the Canadian plant in mid-May found a small leak at the base of the reactor vessel and corrosion on the outside wall.

 

AECL initially estimated the problem, which isn't considered a safety concern, would keep the plant down for more than a month. It later stretched the estimate to "at least three months," and said an update will come after it picks a repair plan.

 

Jean-Luc Urbain, president of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine, believes the aging plant could be down much longer, and perhaps for good, because he sees this problem as "symptomatic" of further issues that need investigation. Mr. Graham, who is incoming president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, also worries "there's a real possibility it will never restart."

 

There are only five reactors around the globe supplying the market for isotopes commonly used in scans to check for heart problems and cancer, and the fleet has had repeated problems. The Dutch plant was shuttered this past winter by an unplanned outage, hurting financial results at Covidien Ltd. The Canadian plant that is having problems now rattled the industry when it last shut in late 2007.

 

The reactors produce material called molybdenum-99 that decays into technetium-99m, which is the most commonly used medical isotope in the U.S. The Canadian plant is the only one in North America creating this material, and it produces about half of all medical isotopes used on the continent.

 

The isotopes have an hours-long useful life, which means they can't be stockpiled.

 

Nordion performs additional processing of material from the Canadian plant. Then Covidien and Lantheus, which was formerly part of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., make generators that produce the medical isotope. These are distributed to hospitals and through radiopharmacies, many of which are run by Cardinal Health, Covidien and General Electric Co.

 

The outage creates headaches for companies in the supply line, with the ultimate impact being decided by the length of the disruption.

 

For example, in Cardinal Health's case, the company doesn't see any financial implications in the fiscal year ending June 30, spokesman Troy Kirkpatrick said. However, fresh guidance coming in August will address the matter, if needed.

 

Meanwhile, a prolonged Canadian outage is a more immediate concern for Nordion, where it will cut adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, by about $4 million each month, parent company MDS estimated.

 

J.P. Morgan said the outage creates big problems for Lantheus. Bill Dawes, the company's vice president of manufacturing and supply chain, however, said it has diversified its supplies since the 2007 Canadian outage.

 

Andy Georgiades contributed to this report.

 

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page B6

 

Copyright 2009 Wall Street Journal.

 

Coventry sells Medicaid unit to Magellan for $110M

 

Associated Press

Washington Post

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

NEW YORK -- Health insurer Coventry Health Care Inc. said Friday it will sell its fee-based Medicaid service business to Magellan Health Services Inc. for $110 million in cash.

 

Bethesda, Md.-based Coventry said that the First Health Services Corp. business no longer fit its long-term strategy.

 

The sale is expected to close in the third quarter. As part of the deal, Magellan Health has agreed to manage radiology services and provide cancer treatment management services in five Coventry markets.

 

Magellan, which is based in Avon, Conn., provides health care outsourcing services.

 

First Health Services is based in Glen Allen, Va., and provides pharmacy benefits management and other services for Medicaid programs. Coventry acquired the company in 2005.

 

Coventry plans to use the proceeds from the sale to pay back some of its debts and buy back stock. It expects a one-time goodwill impairment charge of 55 to 60 cents per share related to the sale, but because of the buyback, said the deal will be neutral to its per-share profit.

 

Based on a projected closing date of July 31, Magellan expects a boost of $7.5 million in profit and $60 million in revenue from First Health. That would raise its annual profit by 5 cents per share.

 

In February, Magellan forecast an annual profit of $1.99 to $2.54 per share for the year, on $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion in revenue. Analysts expected earnings of $2.19 per share.

 

© 2009 The Associated Press.

 

Magellan Plans to Buy Medicaid-Administration Business

 

By Kevin Kingsbury and Tess Stynes

Wall Street Journal

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Magellan Health Services Inc. announced plans to pay $110 million for Coventry Health Care Inc.'s Medicaid-administration business.

 

The business, First Health Services Corp., administers drug benefits and provides health-care management and information-technology services to state Medicaid programs. Assuming the deal closes July 31, the business would add $60 million in revenue and $7.5 million of earnings to Magellan in the rest of 2009.

 

Coventry Chief Executive Allen F. Wise said an internal review indicated that First Health didn't complement the company's long-term strategies. The proceeds from the sale of First Health, which it acquired in 2005, are earmarked to help reduce debt and for share repurchases.

 

Coventry expects a goodwill write-down of 55 cents to 60 cents a share related to the sale, but expects that earnings should not otherwise be affected for the rest of the year.

 

The move comes as Medicaid spending is rising faster than many other categories and is putting increased pressure on state budgets. Medicaid's pharmacy spending is growing 5% to 7% a year, Magellan said, making that a prime target for states to seek savings.

 

The purchase also would complement Magellan's behavioral health, radiology-benefits management and specialty-pharmacy operations.

 

The proposed deal also includes a preliminary three-year agreement for Magellan to manage radiology services and provide oncology management services for Coventry in five markets.

 

Coventry said in April its first-quarter profit slumped 65% on surging claims costs. A series of missteps last year led to Coventry slashing its 2008 forecasts in October, resulting in shares losing half their market value. A subsequent management shakeup returned Chairman Allen Wise, who had helped deliver strong results a decade earlier as chief executive, to the helm.

 

Magellan has recorded steady growth in recent years as it continues to expand.

 

Write to Kevin Kingsbury at kevin.kingsbury@dowjones.com and Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@dowjones.com

 

Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

Medical Bills Cause Most Bankruptcies

 

By Tara Parker-Pope

New York Times

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Nearly two out of three bankruptcies stem from medical bills, and even people with health insurance face financial disaster if they experience a serious illness, a new study shows.

 

The study data, published online Thursday in The American Journal of Medicine, likely understate the full scope of the problem because the data were collected before the current economic crisis. In 2007, medical problems contributed to 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies. Between 2001 and 2007, the proportion of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by about 50 percent.

 

“The U.S. health care financing system is broken, and not only for the poor and uninsured,” the study authors wrote. “Middle-class families frequently collapse under the strain of a health care system that treats physical wounds, but often inflicts fiscal ones.”

 

The data on medical bankruptcy, compiled by researchers at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University, is based on a survey of 2,314 randomly selected bankruptcy filers during early 2007.

 

Among families who were bankrupted by illness, those with private insurance reported average medical bills of $17,749 compared to those who were uninsured, who faced an average of $26,971 in medical costs. Those who had health insurance but lost it in the course of their illness reported average medical bills of $22,568.

 

Hospital costs accounted for about half the expenses (48 percent), followed by prescription drugs (18.6 percent), doctor’s bills (15.1 percent) and insurance premiums (4.1 percent). Medical equipment and nursing home care rounded out the list.

 

The health problems that left patients with the highest out-of-pocket expenses were ranked as follows:

 

·         Neurologic (i.e., multiple sclerosis): $34,167

·         Diabetes: $26,971

·         Injuries: 25,096

·         Stroke: $23,380

·         Mental illnesses: $23,178

·         Heart disease: $21,955

 

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company.

 

Merck's heart failure drug misses trial goals

 

Associated Press

Washington Post

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. -- Merck and Co. said Friday its heart failure treatment rolofylline missed its goals in a trial, failing to improve patient symptoms compared with a placebo.

 

The company said rolofylline did not reach its primary or secondary goals in the late-stage trial. Based on the results, Merck said it no longer plans to ask the Food and Drug Administration to approve the drug candidate this year.

 

The trial also showed that 30 mg of rolofylline did not reduce the risk of death or hospitalization due to heart or kidney problems 60 days after treatment, and that it did not reduce kidney impairment.

 

Merck is still analyzing study data from the study, which is called PROTECT, and it will present full results from the 2,033-patient trial at a medical conference later this year.

 

In morning trading, Merck shares fell 64 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $25.94.

 

© 2009 The Associated Press.

 

Swine Flu? No Word of It at Pork Expo.

 

By David Brown

Washington Post

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

DES MOINES -- Here at the World Pork Expo, H1N1 influenza is many contradictory things -- an unfolding disaster and a passing inconvenience, a cause of the pork industry's woes and an excuse for them, evidence of good animal husbandry and a challenge to it.

 

About the only thing it isn't is "swine flu." Never should have been called that, everyone agrees -- and don't even think of calling it that now.

 

H1N1 flu is casting a distinctly dappled shadow across the Iowa State Fair Grounds, where 18,000 pork producers (including about 3,000 from 50 foreign countries), 450 exhibitors and 2,500 pigs are spending much of this week.

 

On Grand Avenue, between the Colosseum-like grandstand and the cavernous Varied Industries Building, where the morning air is scented by wood smoke cooking ribs for half a dozen hospitality tents, influenza virus crosses almost everyone's mind at least once.

 

But that's less often than the swine business's other problems.

 

Pig farming is in an economic downturn that predates the nation's current one. H1N1 is just piling on.

 

"I wish I had better news for you," Don Butler, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said Wednesday as the three-day event opened. His news was that over the next six months, enough farmers would go out of business to shrink the sow herd -- the swine industry's four-legged engine -- by about 5 percent.

 

The pork industry has had six quarters in which production costs were greater than market prices. Business was looking up this spring until the new flu strain emerged in late April. Now, producers can expect to lose $11.16 on every hundred pounds of pig they sell, nearly the mirror image of the $11.36 profit they made in 2006, said Neil Dierks, another official of the council.

 

"We can't lock in a profit until well into next year, and the problem is getting from here to there," Dierks said.

 

Pig farmers can't just hold on to their animals and wait until the price improves. The animals get too big. In the mechanized world of pork production, animals go to slaughter when they are about 270 pounds. Above 320 pounds, butchering becomes a custom job -- with the carcass sold at a commensurate discount. Feed the animals an extra year, and many will be pushing a half a ton and loaded with fat -- not the pig of choice for contemporary American diets.

 

A big problem at the moment is the near-total ban on U.S. pork imposed by China, the second-biggest importer (behind Japan), and a partial ban by Russia, the fifth-leading importer. These restrictions were ostensibly taken because of fear that pork could transmit influenza, a possibility that all international human and animal health organizations discounted immediately.

 

Randy Spronk, a 49-year-old pig farmer from Edgerton, Minn., thinks it was the name that pretty much did it.

 

"If the CDC had called it anything but swine flu, I personally don't think you would have any of this," he said of the most recent downturn. "I think there's permanent damage."

 

For the record, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the virus's name twice, from "swine influenza" to "swine-origin influenza A (H1N1)" to "novel H1N1," purging it of all animal reference, even though molecular analysis showed that it almost certainly arose in a gene-swapping "reassortment" in some pig somewhere. Where and when is a mystery; no flu viruses sampled from North American herds in recent years show any trace of it.

 

Others, though, hardly give it a thought.

 

"This virus hasn't affected us in any way," said Ole Hansen.

 

"I haven't thought about it for a second today," said Soren Bank.

 

The two Danes are the founder and chief commercial officer of Hamlet Protein A/S. The company makes a soy-based feed ingredient for young animals: puppies, calves and piglets. It owns land near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where it plans to build a 30-worker factory, but it has delayed construction because of the economic doldrums of American pork. H1N1 hasn't changed that.

 

A big theme of Pork Expo is heightened "biosecurity," the strategy of keeping pigs in a highly controlled environment -- meaning a lifetime indoors -- and limiting their contact with all other animals, including human beings.

 

Tom Burkgren, a 53-year-old Iowa veterinarian who is executive director of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, is all in favor of that. But he's also a realist.

 

"I think it would be naive to say it will never be in pigs," he said of the new flu strain. "I think what we are preparing for as an industry is that it will one day be in pigs."

 

Having a plan for that, in fact, is a major piece of the advice being given to farmers here.

 

Elsewhere at the Pork Expo, the reminder of H1N1 is little more than a mandatory hand-sanitizing station "for the protection of our pigs" at the door to the swine barn.

 

Inside, Ella Marie Jordan, 5 1/2 ("don't forget the half," reminds her mother, Monica), was getting ready to show her first pig. The animal's name is Candy, and its birthday is Dec. 27, the same day as Ella Marie's grandfather, Frank Feeser, of Taneytown, Md. Candy was raised on his farm in Carroll County and then brought to Missouri, where Ella Marie lives, so she could get a taste of farming.

 

Spraying down the pink Yorkshire, 45-pound Ella Marie found herself 200 pounds to the worse in a brief jostling match with Candy in her slatted pen. There were a few tears but not enough to dissuade Ella Marie from showing the animal in the Junior National Swine Show.

 

Ella Marie likes her pig, which will eventually go back to Maryland to have piglets. She wants to be a teacher, not a farmer. She wore a pink shirt with a sequined pig on the front. She didn't have much to say about H1N1.

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Avian Flu Fears Said to Help U.S. Prepare for Swine Flu

 

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

New York Times

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Six years of worrying about bird flu did much to prepare the United States for the current swine flu outbreak, federal officials and an independent monitoring group said Thursday, but they cautioned that there were still gaps in planning.

 

After the H5N1 avian flu emerged widely in Asia in 2003, killing about 60 percent of those infected by it, many countries took steps to head off the crisis that would emerge if that virus were to acquire the ability to jump easily from human to human. It has not, but a number of the measures were helpful. These are some of them:

 

·         ¶The federal government stockpiled 50 million courses of Tamiflu.

·         ¶New vaccine factories were opened.

·         ¶Pandemic plans were written, and emergency drills were held.

 

“Everyone was concerned about the avian flu, and biology played a trick on us,” said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the monitoring group, the Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit organization that has tracked the country’s preparations for flu pandemics for several years.

 

The first case of the H1N1 virus in the United States — a San Diego resident who is believed to have fallen ill on March 28 — was uncovered only because of pandemic planning, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of immunization and respiratory disease for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

A Navy medical laboratory in San Diego was trying out a new rapid flu test and realized it had found something different from any previous virus. The sample then had to be sent to the C.D.C. for sequencing, which produced its results the same week as the Canadian national laboratory sequenced some flu samples taken in Mexico.

 

The H5N1 virus “was really a wake-up call for the world that serious threats are out there,” Dr. Schuchat said.

 

But a report from Dr. Levi’s organization pointed out weaknesses. These are some of them:

 

·         ¶Closing schools to slow the spread of the epidemic caused confusion and frustrated parents and their employers.

 

·         ¶Conversely, many adults went to work sick, endangering their co-workers. According to the report by the Trust for America’s Health, 48 percent of Americans have no paid sick days.

 

·         ¶Some hospitals were overwhelmed, even by mild cases, because the “worried well,” especially those people with no insurance or family doctor, filled emergency rooms.

 

·         ¶Underfinanced state laboratories fell chronically behind on testing.

 

·         ¶The World Health Organization’s pandemic alert levels caused confusion.

 

It also became clearer Thursday that little vaccine would be available by the fall, even if nothing went awry in production.

 

The goal of pandemic plans is to make 600 million doses in six months, enough for two doses for each American; that could cost $8 billion. Manufacturers now have seed virus. But clinical trials of their first runs will last into the summer, and federal regulators must wait until those are finished, Dr. Schuchat said.

 

Domestic production capacity is still “completely inadequate,” according to a 2008 Congressional Budget Office report, and it seems unlikely that foreign governments will let vaccine factories on their soil export doses before their own needs are met.

 

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company.

 

New Attention on Late-Term Abortions

Doctors Who Perform Procedures Provide Little Data but Underscore Reasoning

 

By Rob Stein

Washington Post

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

When Susan Fitzgerald went in for a routine ultrasound near the end of her pregnancy, she was expecting good news. Instead, she was stunned to learn that the fetus had a rare condition that left his bones so brittle he would live less than a day.

 

"It was unbelievable," Fitzgerald said. "You think by the third trimester you're home free. It was devastating."

 

Desperate to end the pregnancy, she flew from her home in New England to Wichita, where George Tiller was one of the few doctors in the country willing to perform an abortion so late in a pregnancy.

 

"It was very difficult, but I knew it was the most humane thing I could do for my baby," Fitzgerald said. "It was absolutely the right thing to do. I'm just so grateful that Dr. Tiller was there for me."

 

Her story is one of dozens that have surfaced in the past week during candlelight vigils, at memorials and on blog postings since the shooting death of Tiller. An antiabortion activist has been charged in his slaying.

 

Tiller's death has focused attention on abortions late in pregnancy. While it is clear that they account for a tiny fraction of the 1.2 million U.S. abortions each year, much about the procedures is unclear, including exactly how many are done, by whom and under what circumstances. The government does not collect detailed data, and doctors who perform them publish little information.

 

"This is an area that we just don't know much about," said Stanley K. Henshaw, a senior fellow at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group that has the best available data.

"The information just isn't available."

 

More than 88 percent of abortions are done in the first trimester, and most doctors will not perform them beyond 22 or 24 weeks because of moral qualms, social stigma, legal concerns, inadequate training or lack of experience. Barely 1 percent of procedures are done after 21 weeks. At 37 weeks, a baby is generally considered full-term.

 

But 2001 data from 15 states and New York City indicate that perhaps as many as 2,400 abortions were performed after 24 weeks in the United States that year, Henshaw said, most of them probably in the 25th or 26th week.

 

A survey of 1,819 providers found that at the time, 18 clinics and 12 hospitals performed abortions at 26 weeks. Because the overall number of abortion providers has dropped since 2001, the number offering procedures that late has probably fallen, too, and the number performing abortions even further along in the pregnancy is probably much smaller, Henshaw said.

 

'Targeted for Violence'

"We know it's a very small handful," said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, the largest group of abortion providers, who would not be more specific. "Given the fact that these people are targeted for violence, I don't necessarily want to name other providers that we know are providing necessary reproductive health care in these circumstances."

 

Abortion rights activists argue that late-term procedures are performed only when absolutely necessary -- often when devastating abnormalities in the fetus or life-threatening problems in the woman are discovered.

 

"What made Dr. Tiller unusual was that he specialized in seeing women who found out late in very wanted pregnancies that they were carrying fetuses with anomalies that were incompatible with life," Saporta said. "For them, there was really no good choice. They needed to terminate their pregnancies to protect their own health, and he provided both the emotional and physical care for women in that situation."

 

Abortion opponents condemn the procedures, regardless of the circumstances.

 

"They're homicide," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. "It's the taking of an innocent human life."

 

Under Kansas law, an abortion can be performed after a fetus is viable only if the doctor performing the procedure and an independent physician agree that the woman's life is at risk or that continuing the pregnancy would cause "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."

 

Many are performed in cases such as Fitzgerald's, where a major abnormality in the fetus is discovered late, Saporta and others said.

 

"The latest patient was a case where the fetus had no brain at all, would never take a breath on its own. That was probably just a few weeks before delivery," said LeRoy Carhart, a Bellevue, Neb., doctor who worked with Tiller, in an interview this week. "Her doctor knew the problem all along but just never told her."

 

In other cases, late-term abortions are performed for women who develop a life-threatening condition related to the pregnancy or need to terminate it for cancer treatment. But the procedures are sometimes done in other circumstances, including cases when the woman suffers serious emotional problems.

 

"There was a woman who tried to commit suicide three times. She was pregnant because she had been raped. She said every time she felt the baby move, it was the rape all over again. She could not live with that," said Carhart, who estimated that 400 procedures a year were performed beyond 24 weeks at Tiller's clinic.

 

Carhart and another physician said they are also willing to perform late-term procedures for some incest victims, especially very young girls for whom the pregnancy could pose physical and emotional risks.

 

"If someone calls me up, and she's 32 weeks pregnant and knew she was pregnant for six months and says, 'I want an abortion, because I just broke up with my boyfriend,' I won't do that," said Warren M. Hern, a Boulder, Colo., doctor who is one of the very few physicians who perform the procedures and are willing to speak publicly. "But a 13-year-old teenybopper clutching a pink teddy bear who has been raped by her stepfather -- I'll do that."

 

First Comes Counseling

Hern and Carhart said their patients must first undergo intensive counseling and evaluation.

 

"Many of these women are truly desperate. Many have a desired pregnancy that is terribly complicated by a lethal fetal anomaly. The baby is totally impaired, may die in delivery or after terrible struggle and pain. There is no justification for forcing the woman to carry this baby to term," Hern said.

 

While most of the late-term procedures involve physical health problems, neither Hern nor Carhart would specify what proportion falls into those categories.

 

"The antiabortion people take any facts and use them as a bludgeon," Hern said.

 

Newman disputed the contention that the procedures are commonly performed to save a woman's life, and condemned doing them for genetic defects or in cases or rape or incest.

 

"Performing these for fetal anomaly -- that's the same as going into a hospital and killing everyone in the hospital with a handicap," Newman said. "In the case of incest, prosecute the father. Don't punish the child for the crime of the father."

 

Fitzgerald wondered what happened to couples who might have flown to Wichita that day to see Tiller.

 

"I think of all the poor couples, knowing they made this heartbreaking choice," Fitzgerald said. "What did they do?"

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Opinion

 

The rockfish risk

Our view: Latest restrictions on eating state fish are a sadly familiar tale

 

Baltimore Sun Editorial

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

For seafood lovers, there's no more confounding dilemma than balancing the nutritional benefits of fish and shellfish against the ill effects of the environmental contaminants contained within them. The latest advisory issued by the state - a warning to restrict consumption of striped bass and bluefish caught by anglers off the coast of Maryland - is a depressingly familiar example.

 

In this case, the problem is polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, odorless and colorless compounds used by the electrical industry but banned by the U.S. more than three decades ago. PCBs have been linked to cancer and can cause damage to the human immune system and liver.

 

People shouldn't eat a lot of fish containing PCBs. This is especially true of pregnant women and kids. And older, bigger fish - those that live and feed in polluted coastal waters - are more likely to accumulate higher concentrations of PCBs in their flesh.

 

What sets the latest fish advisory from the Maryland Department of the Environment apart is: A) It involves striped bass or rockfish, the official state fish revered by sportsmen and gourmets alike, and B) These are fish caught in the ocean, which consumers tend to think is safer (or at least a place where pollution is more dilute than in freshwater near cities and major industry).

 

The advisory may be directed toward fish caught by recreational fishermen alone, but that's only because of regulatory province. A rockfish caught in Maryland is a rockfish caught in Maryland, and so those who are more likely to buy their catch from the supermarket ought to pay as much attention as anyone.

 

That the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees the health and safety of commercial seafood, hasn't issued a similar warning about striped bass is mostly a product of how it calculates risk. That means sampling fish from many places and not just from Maryland, for instance.

 

Is it safe to eat striped bass? For most people the answer is yes, within limits. Consumers would be wise to read up on all of Maryland's seafood warnings - all six pages of them, covering everything from Patapsco River eel and catfish (don't eat either) to Wye River white perch (enjoy) - at the MDE Web site, ( www.mde.state.md.us).

 

But one last warning: It's hard to read such a lengthy list without feeling miserable about how badly we have fouled the local waters. Eventually, PCBs may fade as an environmental concern (they do eventually degrade, and cleanup efforts are having an effect). But other too-common pollutants like mercury and pesticides that can concentrate in seafood suggest such health advisories are here to stay.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

The vaccine-autism controversy

 

Baltimore Sun Letters to the Editor - 2 total

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

We are at the precipice of a crisis when it comes to vaccines. Celebrities spread false accusations of danger, perpetuating the myth of a causal link between vaccines and autism. When science does not support their statements, they accuse the pediatric physician community of being in the pocket of the vaccine companies, accepting large grants and small gifts in exchange for our continued support of vaccines.

 

They falsely claim we make large profits in our practices from the sale of vaccines, and that this alone would cause us to turn our backs on all that is true, safe and ethical. They falsely claim that we would continue to give vaccines even if we knew they were dangerous. In some communities this false rhetoric has convinced large numbers of parents to refuse vaccines.

 

When 15 percent of the population is unvaccinated, there is loss of herd immunity - protection of the group as a result of there being only a small number of susceptible individuals. In several Western states there are large geographic areas where 20 percent to 35 percent of children are unvaccinated due to parental refusal! Some states, such as our neighbor West Virginia, have solved this problem by passing "no exception" legislation, requiring every child to be vaccinated for public health reasons.

 

Fortunately, we are not yet seeing high refusal rates here in Maryland, but the rates are climbing.

 

Unvaccinated children get preventable diseases. IIf vaccine refusals increase, we will see thousands of cases of preventable diseases, and hundreds of deaths from preventable diseases.

 

Virginia Keane, M.D.

Baltimore

 

The writer is president of the Maryland chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics

 

******

 

Your editorial, "A Dangerous Denial" (June 1), was objectionable in many ways. Characterizing the vaccine-autism issue as "a suspicion that has been thoroughly investigated and authoritatively debunked" is both wrong and irresponsible. None of the 19 shots most American children receive in their first six months has been studied for its relationship to autism. The majority of the studies that have been done are rife with conflicts of interest, including contributing authors who received funding from vaccine manufacturers.

 

The "odd beliefs" you describe don't seem so outlandish to Dr. Bernardine Healy, former director of the NIH, who said the government has been "too quick to dismiss the concerns of these families without studying the population that got sick." Condescending tone aside, the implication that these parents are anti-vaccine is an over-generalization. Along with many other parents who believe the current vaccine schedule played a role in our children's regression into autism, I believe that immunizations should be delivered at a pace that makes sense for children's developing systems and not at a rate that is merely convenient for health insurers.

 

Alison Hamilton

Crofton

 

The writer is co-coordinator of the Maryland/DC chapter of Talk About Curing Autism

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

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