News: July 2004 Archives

Nathan Seppa

Even as scientist Stanley B. Prusiner was accepting a Nobel prize in 1997 for linking misfolded proteins to certain brain diseases, doubters were pointing out that no one had ever actually shown that these proteins—which Prusiner dubbed prions—could cause infection.

Prusiner, a neurologist and biochemist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and his colleagues now report results that could silence many of his critics. The study, published in the July 30 Science, shows that purified prions can cause disease when injected into the brains of genetically engineered mice.

Science News - Article Link: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040731/fob1.asp

Violence-Related Behaviors Among High School Students --- United States, 1991--2003 (July 30, 2004). MMWR 53(29); 651-655.

Homicide and suicide are responsible for approximately one fourth of deaths among persons aged 10--24 years in the United States. Two of the national health objectives for 2010 are to reduce the prevalence of physical fighting among adolescents to <32% and to reduce the prevalence of carrying a weapon by adolescents on school property to <4.9% (objective nos. 15-38 and 15-39). To examine changes in violence-related behaviors among high school students in the United States during 1991--2003, CDC analyzed data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that most violence-related behaviors decreased during 1991--2003; however, students increasingly were likely to miss school because they felt too unsafe to attend. In addition, in 2003, nearly one in 10 high school students reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property during the preceding 12 months. Schools and communities should continue efforts to establish physical and social environments that prevent violence and promote actual and perceived safety in schools.

Link to MMWR

CDC: Child vaccinations at record high
'Million vulnerable children' remain despite high rate

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 79 percent of the nation's toddlers are getting vaccinated on time, a record level but not yet good enough, especially in pockets of the country where inoculations lag, federal health officials reported Thursday.

Connecticut was "the superstar," getting 94 percent of toddlers their main series of vaccinations on time last year, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Worst in the nation was Colorado, at 67.5 percent. Four other states had fewer than 75 percent on-time shots: Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia.

But even with immunization rates steadily rising, there are "a million vulnerable children" today, toddlers who haven't gotten their full series of shots, Gerberding cautioned.

"You can be lulled into a false sense of security" because so many vaccine-preventable diseases have been virtually eliminated in the United States, she said. But many are just a plane ride away, so "we cannot afford to lose our vigilance."

In 2002, almost 75 percent of the nation's 19- to 35-month-olds had received a full series of inoculations against nine diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, meningitis-causing Haemophilus influenza or Hib, measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis B.

Article

Strategic Report Outlines Steps to Implement Widespread Adoption of Electronic Health Records and New Nationwide Interoperable Health Information Network

On July 21, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson released the first outline of a 10-year plan to transform the delivery of health care by building a new health information infrastructure, including electronic health records and a new network to link health records nationwide. At the same time, he announced a number of new action steps to help advance health information technology immediately.

Press Release

Report

28 Jul 2004

Helping community pharmacists to fully understand the importance of understanding and active involvement in public health, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), along with PharmacyHealthLink, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the National Pharmaceutical Association has launched a new resource ‘Public Health: A Practical Guide for Community Pharmacists’.

The Guide also provides a handy information source on approaching Primary Care Organisations, how public health is funded and how community pharmacists can enhance their contributions.

Medical News Today

Posted on Friday, July 23, 2004 @ 1:42 PM PDT by bjs

President Bush today signed into law Project BioShield, which provides new tools to improve medical countermeasures protecting Americans against a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attack. The President first proposed Project BioShield in his 2003 State of the Union address and Congress approved it last week. Project BioShield is a comprehensive effort overseen jointly by Secretary Thompson and Secretary Ridge, and involving other Federal agencies as appropriate, to develop and make available modern, effective drugs and vaccines to protect against attack by CBRN weapons.

Article: http://www.scienceblog.com/community/article3395.html

Back after a few days off! A lot of news to catch up on.

Please note the following:

A new webpage (http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/ref/iaidsc.html) has been
created that lists all the International AIDS Conferences, and where
abstracts presented at them can be found. This webpage is linked from
both the Reference Quick Links page (aka the Reference Desk homepage)
in the "Meetings and Events" section, and on the Meeting Abstracts page
which is available via Health & Medicine in the News. This latter page
(http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/hmed/list.html) is an alphabetic lists
of professional organizations and meetings, and where abstracts from
those groups may be found.

Angola Press Agency (Luanda)
NEWS
July 21, 2004
Posted to the web July 21, 2004
Sumbe

About 284.000 children from zero to five years old will be vaccinated in Kwanza-Sul province, during the first phase of the campaign against infantile paralysis to be carried out from Friday to Sunday, an official of the local Public Health Management said on Monday.

Speaking to ANGOP, Henriques Silvestre, underlined that for the first phase there will be used about 447.230 doses of vaccine to be distributed in all municipalities of the coastal province.

Article: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200407210720.html

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 Posted: 10:15 AM EDT (1415 GMT)

President Bush on Wednesday signs Project BioShield into law during a Rose Garden ceremony.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Wednesday signed a bill to develop and stockpile vaccines and other antidotes to biological and chemical weapons.

The legislation provides the drug industry with incentives to research and develop bioterrorism countermeasures, speeds up the approval process of antidotes and, in an emergency, allows the government to distribute certain treatments before the Food and Drug Administration has approved them.

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/21/bush.vaccine.ap/index.html

Activate America to increase country's awareness of health, diet
By ROBIN BROWN
Staff reporter
07/17/2004

The YMCA of Delaware announced that it has been chosen to collaborate on a nationwide effort to fight Americans' declining health, increasing obesity and chronic disease.

The effort, called Activate America, comes on the heels of testimony to Congress by the national YMCA director about the need for healthier communities. The local organization noted statistics from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that:

• 30 percent of Delaware high school students are overweight.

• About 40 percent of them fail to get regular exercise.

• 80 percent of all Delawareans eat too few fruits and vegetables on a daily basis.

• Annual medical costs related to obesity are estimated at $207 million for Delaware alone.

Article: http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/07/17delymcachosenfo.html

7/19/2004 11:58:00 AM

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To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor, Healthcare Reporter

Contact: Jeanne Galatzer-Levy of the American Medical Association, 312-464-5890 or 312-953-6655 (cell), or CDC Media Relations, 404-639-3286

News Advisory:

WHO: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with the American Medical Association (AMA)

WHAT: First National Congress on Public Health Readiness

WHEN: July 20-22, 2004

WHERE: Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington, D.C.

Agenda: Available at http://www.CDC-AMA-ReadinessConference.org
CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding and AMA President Dr. John Nelson are among the featured speakers at the conference. Dr. Gerberding will talk about the continuum of readiness needs in a community spanning from clinical to public health and that training should not be standardized for those needs. This conference will bring together, for the first time, medical and public health leaders to discuss community readiness strategies for terrorism and naturally-occurring health threats, and interventions addressing critical healthcare and public-health challenges.

In the last two weeks, avian influenza appears to have re-emerged in poultry in several countries in Asia. These outbreaks could either be new outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) virus or a continuation of the outbreaks first reported earlier in the year. These events, in addition to two new research reports -- about the virus becoming increasingly pathogenic and becoming more widespread in birds in the region -- fuel the World Health Organization's concern about the threat the virus poses to human health.

WHO has been concerned about this virus, influenza A(H5N1), because of its threat to humans both in farm settings in Asia and its greater, potentially global risk. Several countries in Asia have witnessed this virus crossing the species barrier, moving from infected chickens or ducks directly into humans in three documented outbreaks since 1997. These direct human infections have produced severe and sometimes fatal outcomes. Moreover, the virus has the potential to acquire the ability to spread easily from human to human, and thus, trigger a global influenza pandemic.

Article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=10932#

7/16/2004 8:51:00 AM

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To: National Desk

Contact: David Fouse of the American Public Health Association, 202-777-2501 or david.fouse@apha.org

WASHINGTON, July 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The American Public Health Association applauds the U.S. Senate for passing an important amendment late yesterday that provides the Food and Drug Administration with the authority it needs to regulate tobacco, and at the same time, provides a responsible buyout of tobacco farmers that is paid for by tobacco companies, not the taxpayers. The amendment, offered by Senators Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Richard Durbin (D- Ill.), was adopted as part of the Foreign Sales Corporation tax legislation.

Article: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=103-07162004

DAILY BRIEFING
July 15, 2004

As the Bush administration prepares for next week's unveiling of its strategy for updating the nation's information technology infrastructure for health care, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., told a House subcommittee Wednesday that the effort needs to come much faster than many anticipate.
"Paper kills," Gingrich told the House Government Reform Technology Subcommittee. "Paper prescriptions kill. Paper records kill. And if there's a public health emergency, paper will kill a lot of people," he said.

Gingrich said the nation needs to create "a virtual public health service" that ties together literally every health facility. In the case of a major nuclear event, he said, officials would need to mobilize every nursing home and long-term care facility as well as every veterinarian's office, "because all the downtown hospitals will be gone."

Article: As the Bush administration prepares for next week's unveiling of its strategy for updating the nation's information technology infrastructure for health care, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., told a House subcommittee Wednesday that the effort needs to come much faster than many anticipate.
"Paper kills," Gingrich told the House Government Reform Technology Subcommittee. "Paper prescriptions kill. Paper records kill. And if there's a public health emergency, paper will kill a lot of people," he said.

Gingrich said the nation needs to create "a virtual public health service" that ties together literally every health facility. In the case of a major nuclear event, he said, officials would need to mobilize every nursing home and long-term care facility as well as every veterinarian's office, "because all the downtown hospitals will be gone."

Article: As the Bush administration prepares for next week's unveiling of its strategy for updating the nation's information technology infrastructure for health care, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., told a House subcommittee Wednesday that the effort needs to come much faster than many anticipate.
"Paper kills," Gingrich told the House Government Reform Technology Subcommittee. "Paper prescriptions kill. Paper records kill. And if there's a public health emergency, paper will kill a lot of people," he said.

Gingrich said the nation needs to create "a virtual public health service" that ties together literally every health facility. In the case of a major nuclear event, he said, officials would need to mobilize every nursing home and long-term care facility as well as every veterinarian's office, "because all the downtown hospitals will be gone."

Article: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0704/071504cdam1.htm

A goal of strengthening intellectual and academic networks and promoting best practice in public health has been set for nine new collaborating centres, launched across England and Wales by the Health Development Agency.

Based mainly in the university sector, the centres will each have their own focus on gathering evidence on what works to improve health and reduce health inequalities and building on practice development in areas such as smoking cessation and drug prevention. They will help strengthen public health infrastructure by creating a network of organisations and institutions working together to further develop HDA evidence and promote good practice.

Article: http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1385

Last Updated: 2004-07-09 9:18:33 -0400 (Reuters Health)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fewer U.S. adults are showing up with dangerously high lead levels, but lead remains a health threat, especially in the workplace, government researchers said on Thursday.

The CDC found 10,658 adults with high lead levels in 2002, 37 percent fewer than in 2001.

"Despite improvements in control of lead exposures, this hazard remains an occupational health problem in the United States," the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease.

Article: http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2004/07/09/eline/links/20040709elin006.html

09 Jul 2004

A Public Health article published online today (9 July 2004) highlights how a lack of access to health information for health workers in resource-poor settings is a major obstacle to achieving the 2015 millennium goals for global health. Authors of the article call on WHO to take the lead in championing the goal of 'Universal access to essential health-care information by 2015' or 'Health Information for All'.

This is a Press Release from The Lancet

Fiona Godlee (Editor of BMJ Clinical Evidence) and colleagues say there is little evidence that the majority of health professionals in the developing world (especially those in primary health care) are any better informed than they were 10 years ago. They cite a lack of physical access (absent, slow, or unreliable internet connectivity, expensive paper, and high subscription costs of products) as being the major barrier to knowledge-based health care in developing countries.

Article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=10530

7/7/2004 4:58:00 PM

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To: National Desk

Contact: Laura Segal 202-223-9870 ext. 278 or lsegal@tfah.org, or Michael Earls, 202-223-9870 ext. 273 or mearls@tfah.org, both of the Trust for America's Health

WASHINGTON, July 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Trust for America's Health (TFAH) commends U.S. Senators Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) for introducing "The Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act of 2004" today.

"The future of our public's health is contingent on recruiting a new generation of workers. An effective, responsive public health workforce is vital to our homeland security, disease prevention, lowering health care costs, and improving our national quality of life," said Shelley A. Hearne, DrPH, executive director of TFAH. "We are on the brink of a crisis of care. Hopefully the leadership demonstrated by Senators Hagel and Durbin by introducing this bill will inspire students to embark on a rewarding career path that will also protect the health of communities across the country."

Full Press Release: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=143-07072004

08 Jul 2004

U.S. Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) today introduced the Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act of 2004, designed to ensure that the United States has a well-trained public health workforce that can effectively respond to terrorist events, emerging infectious diseases, and other public health threats and emergencies. The Act will provide scholarships and a loan repayment program for eligible students pursuing health profession degrees or certificates preparing them to enter governmental public health service.

Article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=10458

Published Thursday
July 8, 2004

WASHINGTON - With many public health workers in Nebraska and nationwide nearing retirement, U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel introduced a bill Wednesday to beef up the workforce needed for terrorism preparedness and health emergencies.

The Nebraska Republican and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., propose new scholarships to students entering public health work and loan repayment aid for those who commit to working in public health for a specific number of years.

Article: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1642&u_sid=1142608

Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced today The Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act of 2004. This legislation aims to increase the pipeline of qualified public health workers at the federal, state, and local levels by offering scholarships to students going into the public health field. It also encourages current employees to stay in the public health field by providing loan repayments in exchange for a commitment of a designated number of years of service in public health.

"There are critical public health workforce shortages in federal, state, and local public health agencies. The ability of the public health system to respond to emerging infectious diseases like West Nile Virus, food-borne illnesses, or bioterrorism relies on a well-trained, adequately staffed public health network at all levels. It is important that we address this problem before it becomes a crisis," Hagel said.

Article: http://www.swnebr.net/newspaper/cgi-bin/articles/articlearchiver.pl?156078

Press Release Source: American Physical Therapy Association

Wednesday June 30, 3:51 pm ET

CHICAGO, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- In a keynote address today to physical therapists and physical therapist assistants attending the annual conference of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), US Surgeon General Vice Admiral Richard H Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS, outlined his vision for the nation's public health system.
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"We need to become a nation that embraces prevention, because for too long we have been a treatment-oriented society," Carmona declared. He said that the public health system must address the issues of prevention, preparedness, and health disparities. He wishes to raise awareness among Americans about nuclear and biological threats as well as awareness of the disparities that exist between white Americans and people of color in both access to health services and positive outcomes.

Full Press Release: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040630/dcw045_1.html

'Nancy Reagan happens to be right'
Monday, July 5, 2004 Posted: 9:41 AM EDT (1341 GMT)

Hatch says "moral and ethical standards" must be in place for stem cell research.


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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican supporter of embryonic stem cell research, said Sunday there is wide support in the Senate to ease the Bush administration's restrictive policy.

Hatch said supporters have more than the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster, but he's unsure whether Congress would act "in this hot political atmosphere."

The Utah senator predicted on CNN's "Late Edition" that the administration and supporters of the research would reach a compromise that would include moral and ethical standards set by the National Institutes of Health

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/conditions/07/05/hatch.stem.cells.ap/index.html