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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made public on Thursday a report according to which 1,013 Americans died after overdosing on an illegal version of the powerful prescription painkiller fentanyl. The report published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report focused on fatal overdoses from April 2005 to March 2007. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opiate analgesic similar but more powerful than morhine. It is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, or to manage pain after surgery. It is also sometimes used to treat people with chronic pain who are physically tolerant to opiates. In its...

A study published on the July 22 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association called for more aggressive action against tuberculosis, after it had discovered an increase in the number of foreigners in the US infected with TB. Although TB cases in the US dropped 45 percent between 1996 and 2006 (from more than 25,000 to less than 14,000), according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s statistics, there was a five percent increase in TB cases among immigrant populations living in the US during the same period, Dr. Kevin P. Cain head of the CDC’s...

Tomatoes are OK, but watch out for jalapenos, avocados and serrano peppers. That’s what state and federal health departments are saying now after months of searching for the source of a nationwide salmonella outbreak. Originally thought to be traced to tomatoes, now, after Texas and North Carolina’s departments of state health services located tainted produce from a south Texas importer/distributor, officials are telling people to be wary of other produce often used in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. The importer, Grande Produce, is conducting a voluntary recall of all peppers and avocados it distributed. Confusion among what to eat and what...

Want pico de gallo on your fajita taco? You just might have to settle for chopped onion. Jalapeño and serrano chiles, as well as cilantro, have been implicated in the multistate outbreak of salmonella infections. They join the list that began with tomatoes — and all are ingredients in the enormously popular Tex-Mex relish, pico de gallo. San Antonio’s hundreds of Tex-Mex restaurateurs are faced with some important decisions this week. Blanca Aldaco, owner of two local Aldaco restaurants, said she’s not serving pico de gallo at this time. “We’re only using our cooked salsa,” she said. Tomatoes, connected with...

Q: How does information from state and local levels flow to and between the federal agencies? A: The whole system is flawed. The relationship between FDA and CDC is strained; it’s improved but still lacking. It’s not clear who is really in charge. Authority is split up in a way that decisions get bogged down and you don’t have anyone in command. You need that to effectively launch and oversee an outbreak investigation. I’m not sure who’s in charge. We have people identified as being in charge. We need someone that understands outbreaks, not just manages them. In this case,...

cientists are conducting experiments on bioterror bacteria in a room with a containment door sealed with duct tape. The tape was applied around the edges of the door a year ago after the building's ventilation system malfunctioned and pulled potentially contaminated air out of the lab and into a "clean" hallway. Nine CDC workers were tested in May 2007 for potential exposure to the Q fever bacteria being studied in the lab, CDC officials said this week in response to questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The air-flow incident occurred very early in the morning, before the workday began. The blood...

US health official says flu threat high A top U.S. health official says the threat of a flu pandemic remains high. And while the world has made great strides to prepare, it's not enough. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Julie Gerberding says bird flu fatigue among countries and the public is a growing concern. Scientists have identified the H5N1 bird flu virus as a potential candidate that could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people. "People have very short attention spans and when something is in the news for a while, it becomes old...

A rare form of tuberculosis caused by illegal, unpasteurized dairy products, including the popular queso fresco cheese, is rising among Hispanic immigrants in Southern California and raising fears about a resurgence of a strain all but eradicated in the U.S. Cases of the Mycobacterium bovis strain of TB have increased in San Diego county, particularly among children who drink or eat dairy foods made from the milk of infected cattle, a study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases shows. But the germ can infect anyone who eats contaminated fresh cheeses sold by street vendors, smuggled across the Mexican border or...

(La Crosse, WI company will track health of ground zero workers) Washington - As President Bush's health chief, Tommy Thompson proudly trumpeted millions of taxpayer dollars to help workers sickened by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center, even amid complaints that his agency wasn't doing enough. Now, Thompson's private company has won an $11 million contract to treat some of those same workers - the latest twist in a fitful government effort to determine how many people were made ill by the toxic debris and to care for them. The contract awarded by the U.S. Centers...

BROWNSVILLE - The origin of drug-resistant bacteria's recent outbreak at Cameron County hospitals is stumping health officials. Similar outbreaks of the opportunistic Acinetobacter baumannii have been possibly linked to war veterans. But Dr. Brian Smith of the Texas Department of State Health Services said Friday that the source of the local AB outbreaks was still unknown. And while U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention studies suggests the bacteria could be linked to war veterans, there is no evidence that the local outbreak could have originated from a military veteran who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, Smith said. In an...

An epidemic of obesity is compromising the lives of millions of American children, with burgeoning problems that reveal how much more vulnerable young bodies are to the toxic effects of fat. In ways only beginning to be understood, being overweight at a young age appears to be far more destructive to well-being than adding excess pounds later in life. Virtually every major organ is at risk. The greater damage is probably irreversible. Doctors are seeing confirmation of this daily: boys and girls in elementary school suffering from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and painful joint conditions; a soaring incidence of...

LifeNews.com Note: Roeten is a very conservative Catholic who likes the facts over readily displayed emotions. He is an editorial columnist who has frequently been published in numerous Internet and newspaper forums.It’s been discovered. Nobody thought having “safe sex” was possible in every case. Each year 2.6 million teenagers become sexually active—a rate of 7000/day. With high school, nearly half report having engaged in sexual activity and 1/3 are currently active (Kim/Rector//Heritage Foundation).As it turns out, teen sexual activity is extremely costly for teens and for society as a whole. From 1985-1990 alone, the federal government spent $120 billion...

ATLANTA - People who sleep fewer than six hours a night — or more than nine — are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies. The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use. The research adds weight to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don't get proper shuteye, said Dr. Ron Kramer, a Colorado physician and a spokesman for the American Academy...

Call it one price of globalism. Last year, tuberculosis increased in four of the Bay Area's five largest counties, and the San Jose area in 2006 had the highest TB rate of any large American metro area, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health. San Francisco, after an outbreak of TB among Latino day workers in the Mission district, has the highest TB rate of any...

CDC: Flu season worst in 4 years; vaccine didn't work well Published: 4/17/08, 7:45 PM EDT By MIKE STOBBE ATLANTA (AP) - The current flu season has shaped up to be the worst in four years, partly because the vaccine didn't work well against the viruses that made most people sick, health officials said Thursday. This season's vaccine was the worst match since 1997-1998, when the vaccine didn't work at all against the circulating virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2007-2008 season started slowly, peaked in mid-February and seems to be declining, although cases are...

ASSOCIATED PRESS MINNEAPOLIS -- At least 23 people in 14 states have been sickened by the same strain of salmonella found in two breakfast cereals recalled by Malt-O-Meal, the federal Food and Drug Administration said Saturday. Officials in Minnesota are investigating whether a case in that state might be linked to the cereals produced by the Minneapolis-based company, the state health department said. Malt-O-Meal voluntarily recalled its unsweetened Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat cereals April 5 after finding salmonella contamination during routine testing. The affected bags were produced in the past 12 months in Northfield. "The Malt-O-Meal company has been...

Mystery food poisoning traced to salads 24 March 2008 NewScientist.com news service Analysis of 2006 spinach poisoning outbreak in the US The rate of food poisoning from salad greens in the US is hugely outstripping increases in their consumption. Three large outbreaks in 2006 that between them made 300 Americans sick were traced to bulk-prepared greens. "For most outbreaks, investigators are unable to pinpoint where contamination occurred," says Michael Lynch of the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. Whatever the cause, increased consumption is not it. Between 1986 and 1995, Americans ate 17 per cent more leafy greens...

Alternatives, a North Side youth agency, recently held three forums for teenagers ages 14 to 19. The series was called "Let's Talk about Sex." And talk, they did. In a co-ed forum, the teens pondered contraception. One well-meaning young man stood and said aluminum foil could be used in lieu of a condom. Other teens offered up myths such as the efficacy of plastic baggies, having sex while standing and bathing right after sex. Adults in attendance informed the students that none of those methods protected against unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control...

Vegas hepatitis exposure list incomplete By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago Health officials used an incomplete patient list to notify people exposed to hepatitis and HIV at a Las Vegas clinic, an epidemiologist testified Thursday."We know of patients who had been there whose names were not on the list," Southern Nevada Health District epidemiologist Brian Labus told a state legislative committee on health care.The public hearing was the first investigating the spread of hepatitis C from unsafe practices at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. An outbreak of six cases of acute hepatitis C was made...

CDC Says Problems with Hepatitis C at Clinic Could Be 'Tip of an Iceberg' Posted: 11:10 AM Mar 4, 2008 Last Updated: 2:44 PM Mar 4, 2008 Washington (AP) The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an outbreak of Hepatitis C at a Nevada clinic may represent “the tip of an iceberg” of safety problems at clinics around the country. The City of Las Vegas shut down the Endoscopy center of Southern Nevada last Friday after state health officials determined that six patients had contracted Hepatitis C because of unsafe practices including clinic staff reusing syringes...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today it has entered the investigation of a 57-year-old man who is hospitalized in critical condition who may have been exposed to the deadly plant toxin ricin. The Centers for Disease Control says it is working with the Southern Nevada Health District’s Environmental Health Division, the FBI and other public health and law enforcement agencies investigating a former resident of the Extended Stay America motel. CDC investigators believe the man may be the victim of deliberate ricin poisoning, which may be injected, ingested or inhaled. Metro Police said that they do not...

ATLANTA — All children — not just those under 5 — should get vaccinated against the flu, a federal advisory panel said Wednesday. The panel voted to expand annual flu shots to virtually all children except infants younger than 6 months and those with serious egg allergies. That means about 30 million more children could be getting vaccinated. If heeded, it would be one of the largest expansions in flu vaccination coverage in U.S. history. The flu vaccine has been available since the 1940s. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said all children should start getting vaccinated as soon as...

Infamous computer hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) said Friday it is offering a software tool that lets people use Google to scan websites for security flaws. CDC says a "Goolag Scanner" program based on work done by a hacker using the name "Johnny I Hack Stuff" is available for free download at its website. The tool lets people with fundamental programming skills check websites or Internet domains for weaknesses that could be exploited by hackers, according to CDC. The group said it uncovered "some pretty scary holes" through random tests of the tool in North America, Europe,...

THURSDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel on Thursday approved the inclusion of three new flu strains in next year's batch of flu vaccine, in an unusual move that health officials hope will avoid the shortcomings of this year's vaccine. --snip-- The expansion of flu strains for next year comes during a current flu season that has not been easy so far. This year's flu shot has missed its mark badly, and the end result has been widespread or regional flu activity in virtually every state. Many of the infections are being caused by...

ATLANTA — The flu season is getting worse, and U.S. health officials say it's partly because the flu vaccine doesn't protect against most of the spreading flu bugs. The flu shot is a good match for only about 40 percent of this year's flu viruses, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The situation has even deteriorated since last week when the CDC said the vaccine was protective against roughly half the circulating strains. In good years, the vaccine can fend off 70 to 90 percent of flu bugs. Infections from an unexpected strain have...

NEW ORLEANS — The Federal Emergency Management Agency said today it will step up efforts to move Gulf Coast hurricane victims out of more than 35,000 trailers because tests indicate some of the temporary homes contain high levels of formaldehyde. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fumes from 519 tested trailer and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi were — on average — about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes. FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison and CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said at a news conference they hope to get people out of...

The AIDS virus can be passed from an infected mother to her baby if she pre-chews the child's food as sometimes occurs in developing countries, U.S. government scientists said on Wednesday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had identified three cases -- two in Miami and one in Memphis, Tennessee -- in which a child was infected in this way between 1993 and 2004. The mother was involved in two of the cases and a relative who acted as a caregiver was involved in the third. In developing countries, some mothers pre-chew food for babies. These...

Swiss change safe sex message on HIV By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press WriterThu Jan 31, 8:10 PM ET Swiss AIDS experts said Thursday that some people with HIV who meet strict conditions and are under treatment can safely have unprotected sex with non-infected partners.The proposal astonished AIDS researchers in Europe and North America who have long argued that safe sex with a condom is the single most effective way of preventing the spread of the disease — apart from abstinence."Not only is (the Swiss proposal) dangerous, it's misleading and it is not considering the implications of the biological facts involved...

CDC: Flu outbreaks reported in 11 states By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Fri Feb 1, 8:29 PM ET WASHINGTON - Flu season is in full swing, with wide outbreaks in 11 states — and a new strain is starting to emerge that this year's vaccine doesn't specifically target, the government's public health chief said Friday. People still should get their flu shot, and there's plenty available, Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press. So far, the majority of flu cases are being caused by strains that are a good match...

The ABC network said on Monday it will go ahead with plans to air an episode of its new legal drama "Eli Stone" despite objections from pediatricians who say the show may discourage parents from having their children immunized. The debut episode features the show's title character and hero, a trial lawyer for big corporations who decides to fight for the little guy, convincing a jury that a mercury-based preservative in a vaccine caused a child's autism. On the show, a jury awards the boy's mother $5.2 million in damages after it is revealed the CEO of the vaccine maker...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- An unexplained disease that sufferers say cause overwhelming sensations of bugs crawling, biting and stinging their skin and mystery lesions that never heal is being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness is called Morgellons and Florida, Texas and California are states with apparent hot spots for the condition, Local 6 reported. People who report suffering from the condition identify a range of symptoms including vision loss, mental confusion and fatigue. Some sufferers also said they have experienced tiny fibers that pop out of their skin. "They typically describe a disturbing skin sensation...

On Wednesday, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta announced a study of reports of an unexplained dermopathy known as Morgellons disease and has issued a $338,000 contract to Kaiser Permanente to aid in research due to the numerous cases being found in Northern California. *SNIP* Disease symptoms documented by the Mayo Clinic include - Skin lesions accompanied by intense itching - Fibers that grow out of the skin tissue, some with a spore like root, which are variously colored and sized, and fluoresce under ultra-violet light. - Sensation like bugs crawling beneath the skin - Fatigue that interferes with...

to antibiotics, is now spreading among homosexual males in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, according to a new report in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "Due to liberal political correctness, which insists on treating aberrant – even deadly – behaviors and lifestyles as a 'civil right,' we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic," he said. He called it an "eerie reminder" of the first stories about AIDS. "It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of a new infection with...

Raleigh — North Carolina scored nearly all F's in the American Lung Association's new report on anti-smoking initiatives. The 2007 State of Tobacco Control report released Thursday flunked the state for its low cigarette tax of 35 cents a pack, which is the seventh-lowest tax in the country. North Carolina also received an F for spending on tobacco-control programs. The almost $19 million the state plans to spend this fiscal year is less than half recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. North Carolina also got an F for its smoke-free-air legislation. Although smoking is banned in...

Health Authorities Check 44 Passengers On Flight From India To Chicago CHICAGO (STNG) ― Forty-four American Airlines passengers in 17 states -- including Illinois -- are being tracked down for testing after U.S. health authorities learned a woman on a flight from India to Chicago was suffering from a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, officials said Friday. The 30-year-old Sunnyvale, Calif., woman was diagnosed with the deadly disease in India in August, authorities said. She was a passenger on Flight 293 from Delhi to O'Hare Airport to San Francisco on Dec. 13. "She certainly knew she had TB," said Dr. Marty...

Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday. Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Writing in the journal, Hotez...

Holiday shoppers this season may still worry if the toys they buy contain lead after more than 10 million children’s products were recalled this year for that reason. But some scientists are urging consumers to focus on a different problem: the lack of hazard information on the thousands of chemicals in everyday products. “We have enormous gaps in our understanding of how these chemicals affect health and the environment.” said Michael P. Wilson, a public health scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. “And where we do have information, we see cause for concern.” The effects of human exposure to...

Whooping cough makes comeback Pertussis kills 1, strikes 8,000 in all 50 states, closes schools, colleges Posted: December 4, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com WASHINGTON – Cover your mouth when you cough. Wash your hands frequently. And don't knowingly expose yourself to those infected with an illness you may have thought was a thing of the past. That's the advice from public health officials who report small outbreaks of whooping cough, or pertussis, in all 50 states – with some pockets resulting in school closings and even one infant death. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reports...

Estimate of AIDS cases in U.S. rises New test places the rate of infection 50 percent higher The Washington Post Estimate of AIDS Cases In U.S. Rises By David Brown updated 4:00 a.m. ET, Sat., Dec. 1, 2007 New government estimates of the number of Americans who become infected with the AIDS virus each year are 50 percent higher than previous calculations suggested, sources said yesterday. For more than a decade, epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have pegged the number of new HIV infections each year at 40,000. They now believe it is between 55,000 and...

ATLANTA (AP) - There's a mutated version of the common cold and it can be deadly. It's killed 10 people in the U.S. in the last 18 months. And infectious diseases investigator with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a new variant of an adenovirus has caused at least 140 illnesses in New York, Oregon, Washington and Texas. It was called boot camp flu when hundreds of Air Force recruits got sick earlier this year at Lackland Air Force base in Texas. One 19-year-old trainee died. The recruits were infected with a variety of cold viruses but at...

ATLANTA (AP) - A mutated version of a common cold virus has caused 10 deaths in the last 18 months, U.S. health officials said Thursday. Adenoviruses usually cause respiratory infections that aren't considered lethal. But a new variant has caused at least 140 illnesses in New York, Oregon, Washington and Texas, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness made headlines in Texas earlier this year, when a so- called boot camp flu sickened hundreds at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The most serious cases were blamed on the...

ATLANTA - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday. ADVERTISEMENT Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they think better and more intensive screening accounts for much of the increase, but added that chlamydia was not the only sexually transmitted disease on the rise. Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics.

The rate at which infants die in the United States has dropped substantially over the past half-century, but broad disparities remain among racial groups, and the country stacks up poorly next to other industrialized nations. In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, roughly seven babies died for every 1,000 live births before reaching their first birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That was down from about 26 in 1960. Babies born to black mothers died at two and a half times the rate of those born to white mothers, according to the CDC...

New research from University of Alabama at Birmingham identifies two genes that may play a role in insulin resistance, opening a new avenue for researchers searching for treatments for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The UAB team found that two genes, NR4A3 and NR4A1, seem to boost insulin sensitivity in muscle tissue. Insulin lowers blood glucose, or sugar, by moving it from the bloodstream into skeletal muscle, where it is metabolized for energy or stored for later use. Type 2 diabetes results from either a shortage of insulin or from de-sensitized muscle that does not respond well to insulin,...

By Sara A. Carter and Audrey Hudson - A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on the...

Thirty percent of the population at any one time carries colonies of staphylococcus aureus on their skin and in their nose. One percent carries colonies of the antibiotic-resistant version of the bacteria that recently infected students in Anne Arundel County, Md., and Rappahannock County, Va., public schools. Carrying the bacteria known as staph is common, but it usually doesn't lead to an infection, area doctors say. "Colonization is to have staph on our skin without any symptoms," says Dr. Jose Bordon, associate director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program, Section of Infectious Diseases, at Providence Hospital in Northeast. "However, colonized...

AP Medical Writer More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ. Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting. The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical...

NUEVO LAREDO - Health officials here Monday said there are now 71 pending or confirmed cases of Dengue Fever, including 17 of the type which causes hemorrhaging.Luis Eduardo Campbell Loa, director of state Sanitation District V, said about 75 percent of the city is being sprayed in an effort to control the mosquito population. Cases are located mainly in areas south and east of the city, and centered in the Nueva Era and Villas neighborhoods. In a news conference Monday, Campbell Loa said about 20 of the 71 cases are pending confirmation as to whether they are in fact Dengue....

NUEVO LAREDO - Public health officials joined the municipal government to urge residents to clear out properties of junk to help prevent the spread of dengue.Dr. Luis Eduardo Campbell and Mayor Daniel Peña Treviño called on home and property owners to cooperate in clearing and maintaining given sites and discarding holding water. There are 32 confirmed cases of dengue in the lab, according to Campbell. Those infected are aged 9 to 19-years-old. Public health officials said fumigating equipment will be taken to designated areas while the mayor called on residents to support the anti-dengue campaign. Campbell said Tamaulipas state government...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Dengue fever is spreading across Latin America and the Caribbean in one of the worst outbreaks in decades, causing agonizing joint pain for hundreds of thousands of people and killing nearly 200 so far this year. The mosquitoes that carry dengue are thriving in expanded urban slums scattered with water-collecting trash and old tires. Experts say dengue is approaching record levels this year as many countries enter their wettest months. "If we do not slow it down, it will intensify and take a greater social and economic toll on these countries," said Dr. Jose Luis...