Sunday, May 24, 2009

News Clipping Archives

 

Maryland / Regional

Three swine flu cases reported in Baltimore (Baltimore Sun)

Heart tests for athletes (Baltimore Sun)

 

National / International

Wash. woman with terminal cancer becomes 1st to die under state's new assisted suicide law (Baltimore Sun)

 

Opinion

Flu vigilance still needed (Baltimore Sun Commentary)

 

 

Maryland / Regional

 

Three swine flu cases reported in Baltimore

City health department says infected individuals are all adults

 

By John- John Williams

Baltimore Sun

Sunday, May 24, 2009

 

Baltimore has its first three confirmed cases of H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, the city health department said Sunday.

 

All of the three people infected with the virus are adults, but not elderly, according to health officials. One of the people who fell ill is in a local hospital.

 

Health officials have released few details about the infected individuals, citing confidentiality. The three cases are still under investigation, according to Dr. Anne Bailowitz, medical director for Environmental Health and Emergency Programs at the City Health Department.

 

To date, there have been 46 confirmed cases reported in Maryland, according to the health department. There have been no deaths resulting from the virus in the state.

 

"We continue to closely monitor these cases and the spread of H1N1 flu here in the city," Interim Commissioner Olivia Farrow said in a release. "The outbreak of H1N1 in Maryland continues to involve generally mild symptoms similar to ordinary seasonal flu."

 

Initially, the virus caused wide-spread panic. But health officials now believe that cases have been mostly mild. Health officials have even backed off on closing schools where students are sick.

 

In a statement, Mayor Sheila Dixon said: "I urge city residents to do their part to stop the spread of this illness by washing their hands frequently, practicing good cough hygiene and staying home if flu-like symptoms do develop."

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

Heart tests for athletes

Hundreds of students participate in screenings aimed at preventing sudden cardiac death

 

By Justin Fenton

Baltimore Sun

Saturday, May 24, 2009

 

Tim Myers, an 18-year-old discus thrower participating in the state track meet at Morgan State University on Saturday, took a break from the heat and dashed into the university student center, where a team of doctors from Johns Hopkins Hospital had set up a makeshift heart checkup program.

 

The Elkton teen slipped off his red mesh jersey and lay down on his side as Ken Cresswell, a cardiac sonographer, placed electrodes on his chest. A mix of blues, greens, oranges and yellows pulsated as an ultrasound showed blood pumping through the aortic valve of his heart.

 

Myers was one of hundreds of student-athletes who took part in an event designed to raise awareness about the dangers of heart abnormalities. Sudden cardiac death is the leading cause of death among young people, claiming 3,000 lives each year, some of whom are athletes seemingly in peak health.

 

While exercise strengthens the heart, the rush of adrenaline can also increase the risk of fatal heart rhythm disturbances for athletes who have inherited tendencies to develop overly enlarged and thickened hearts, said Dr. Theodore Abraham, a Hopkins cardiologist.

 

"Hundreds of kids die each year suddenly from heart conditions that they don't even know about," said Abraham, who is leading the "Heart Hype" campaign. "Just because you're young and healthy does not mean you are not still at risk."

 

The heart screenings took place as more than 1,000 athletes competed in the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association track and field meet at Morgan's Hughes Stadium. Many of the students, after completing their event or while waiting to take the field, stopped by for the free heart checkup.

 

Last year, 250 athletes were screened, with more than 90 showing some type of abnormality that required follow-up. Abraham said that number was higher than expected and reinforced the importance of screening. On Saturday, at least one student-athlete showed a serious abnormality, he said.

 

Many conditions go undetected because they do not show up during a physical or other athletic screening. Hopkins brought more than $1.5 million in equipment and supplies, donated by Philips Healthcare, to the Morgan campus, where students received cardiac ultrasounds, to measure heart size and check for faulty heart valves, and electrocardiograms, or EKGs, to assess the heart's electrical rhythms.

 

A team of about 70 cardiologists, fellows, nurses, medical technicians and volunteers conducted the tests.

 

Abraham said there is a particular need to screen African-Americans, who he said are traditionally under-diagnosed. Experts estimate that one in 500 people has undiagnosed enlarged or thickened hearts, with African-Americans representing in some studies as much as 45 percent of all instances of sudden cardiac death.

 

Baltimore native Reggie Lewis, a basketball player for the Boston Celtics, died on the basketball court in 1993 at age 27, likely triggered by an overly enlarged and thickened heart. Lewis' mother attended Saturday's event to help spread awareness, Abraham said.

 

Jordan Helmick, 18, of Cumberland, who plays basketball and football and runs track, said he sometimes wonders if his heart pounding after running a race is cause for concern. So he jumped at the chance Saturday to learn more.

 

"My heart's good, from what they're saying," he said. "[The checkup] was pretty cool."--

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An earlier version of this story misstated Ken Cresswell's occupation. The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

National / International

 

Wash. woman with terminal cancer becomes 1st to die under state's new assisted suicide law

 

Associated Press

By Rachel La Corte

Baltimore Sun

Sunday, May 24, 2009

 

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Linda Fleming was diagnosed with terminal cancer and feared her last days would be filled with pain and ever-stronger doses of medication that would erode her mind.

 

The 66-year-old woman with late-stage pancreatic cancer wanted to be clear-headed at death, so she became the first person to kill herself under Washington state's new assisted suicide law, known as "death with dignity."

 

"I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death," Fleming said in a statement released Friday. "The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death. And I knew I would have to increase them."

 

With family members, her physician and her dog at her side, Fleming took a deadly dose of prescription barbiturates and died Thursday night at her home in Sequim, Wash.

 

Chris Carlson, who campaigned against the new law with the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide, called the death unfortunate.

 

"Any premature death is a sad occasion and it diminishes us all," he said.

 

Compassion & Choices of Washington, an advocacy group that aids people who seek to use the law, announced her death.

 

Last November, Washington became the second state to have a voter-approved assisted suicide law. It is based on a law adopted by Oregon voters in 1997. Since then, about 400 people have used the Oregon law to end their lives.

 

In December, a district judge in Montana ruled that doctor-assisted suicides are legal in that state. That decision, based on an individual lawsuit rather than a state law or voter initiative, is before the Montana Supreme Court.

 

Doctors in Montana are allowed to write prescriptions for life-ending drugs pending the appeal. But it's unknown whether any actually have because there's no reporting process in place.

 

Under the Washington law, any patient requesting fatal medication must be at least 18, declared mentally competent and be a resident of the state.

 

Additionally, two doctors must certify that the patient has a terminal condition and six months or less to live, and the patient must make two oral requests 15 days apart, plus a written request that is witnessed by two people. Patients must also administer the drugs themselves.

 

Under the Washington measure, as in Oregon, doctors and pharmacists are not required to write or fill lethal prescriptions if they oppose the law. Some hospitals have opted out, which precludes their doctors from participating on hospital property.

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Associated Press writer Curt Woodward contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Center for Health Statistics, Death with Dignity Act: http://www.doh.wa.gov/dwda/formsreceived.htm

 

Compassion & Choices of Washington: http://www.candcofwa.org

 

True Compassion Advocates: http://www.truecompassionadvocates.org/index.html

 

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

Opinion

 

Flu vigilance still needed

 

By Thomas Inglesby

Baltimore Sun Commentary

Sunday, May 24, 2009

 

The H1N1 flu epidemic is not over. It is just the end of its beginning.

 

This virus continues to sicken (and even kill) people in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. We will begin to see its broader impact here and elsewhere - particularly in the Southern Hemisphere - this summer. And the most important part of this story, at least the U.S. version of it, will come with the return of the fall flu season, when we return to conditions conducive to the spread of influenza.

 

While H1N1 is no longer as prominent a story in the press, the numbers of those ill and hospitalized continues to rise. More than 6,000 cases have been diagnosed across the U.S., with more than 300 hospitalized and nine deaths. Thousands more have been diagnosed elsewhere in the world. While this is still very small in scope compared to the impact of an average flu season, we have lived through only the first few weeks of H1N1.

 

We still don't know whether the reports of unusual numbers of lethal infections in previously healthy adults in Mexico indicate what will be seen in the U.S. The extent to which health care workers could become seriously sickened by H1N1 over time is still not certain. The virus might continue with its current characteristics, or it could evolve in unpredictable ways.

 

Have government reactions been hyped or exaggerated, as some have claimed? No. Top health officials responded appropriately to the discovery of a new influenza strain that was killing healthy people, appeared to be widely spreading in Mexico, and was being discovered around the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.

 

Given what was known about H1N1, the public health response was appropriate and necessary. It was only with the accrual of new information over many days about overall severity that it became possible to lower the level of immediate concern.

 

The federal government response so far has been excellent on the whole. Top officials have explained forthrightly what they know daily. Antivirals were distributed quickly to states. Guidance was issued on who should receive medicines and how the public could lower its chances of contracting or spreading influenza. Federal health officials communicated frequently with local health leaders. The federal government wisely chose not to close the borders.

 

I served as a member of the governor's external medical advisory board for Maryland's response. Experienced public health and emergency management professionals were in charge of communication and execution of the response. Maryland had a large antiviral stockpile reserve ready to use, and received additional antiviral supplies from the federal government. It managed extensive communications with a range of federal agencies and officials, local health departments, hospitals and pharmacies.

 

But we can't be complacent; there is much to be done before the fall. Federal, state and local health agencies need to understand what worked, and they need to fix what didn't.

 

For example, by this fall the country will need to build more local and state capacity for rapid H1N1 diagnostic testing; making a quick diagnosis is important for treatment decisions and for isolating the sick. Another lesson is how important it will be to prevent groups from being stigmatized, as they were in the early days of this epidemic.

 

Plans for a vaccination campaign need to be made, even as an H1N1 vaccine is developed and manufactured on scale. Decisions about antiviral treatment and prophylaxis will be much more difficult if the epidemic is more severe in the fall; these decisions should be worked through now. Federal funding to strengthen state and local response has been promised and will need to make its way into the system soon.

 

The impact on the health care system of this epidemic has scarcely yet been felt - hospitals, working with public health officials, need to have plans in place for caring for a far larger number of patients than would be expected during a normal seasonal outbreak.

 

This first chapter of 2009 H1N1 has provided many lessons. We now need to anticipate the various ways this story could unfold. And we need to plan wisely and pragmatically to try to give this story the best possible outcome.

 

Dr. Thomas Inglesby is the Baltimore-based deputy director of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His e-mail is tinglesby@upmc-biosecurity.org.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

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