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BP staff ill after opening package Police are carrying out chemical tests at the Moscow office of BP after staff fell ill following the arrival of suspicious mail.The British firm's employees suffered headaches, rashes and felt a stinging in their eye after handling mail that had arrived from Houston, Texas. A spokesman for BP in London said the office had received a parcel "which had a substance on the outside of the package which is now being tested by the authorities. Police experts are testing the air and the mail for chemicals, but have found no powder or liquid inside...

16 Staffers Known Exposed, No One Reported Ill By Lauran Neergaard The Associated Press Published: Feb 3, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) - Sixteen Senate staffers underwent decontamination - basically a fancy word for showering - for exposure to the deadly poison ricin, and so far no one has turned up ill. That reassures health officials, who note that enough people were around the ricin-containing powder that if anyone were going to be ill, symptoms should have begun by now. "As each minute ticks by, we are less and less concerned about the health effects," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the...

Source: BioMed Central Date: 2003-12-26 Don't Worry. You're Not Old – Just Ill "It's all just part of getting old" may not be enough to explain the health problems that elderly people suffer, according to two Dutch researchers, writing in BMC Geriatrics this week. They think that the infirmities associated with old age are symptoms of diseases contracted during life. When doctors consider how to treat elderly patients, they are likely to think, 'is this patient ill, or just old? Can their complaints be explained by the 'normal ageing process' or does the patient have an undiagnosed disease?' Gerbrand Izaks...

BOSTON -- As millions of Catholics prepare for the traditional midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, the Boston Archdiocese is making an unusual plea to parishioners. NewsCenter 5's Jorge Quiroga reported that church leaders are asking anyone with cold or flu symptoms to take certain precautions and avoid some rituals. The announcement comes days after two elderly men on Cape Cod died of flu complications. But public health officials warn against overreactions saying the cases are not unusual considering the ages of the victims, 89 and 90. Parishioners attending Christmas Mass are urged not to shake hands as a sign of...

One factor in the third general terror alert raised in the United States since the September 11 relates according to US media, to intelligence information indicating the the former Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden has gained possession of a so-called dirty or radiological bomb. The target date referred to in electronic intercepts is Mid-December. It has also been suggested that such weapons may have smuggled into the United States.On Oct. 12 DEBKA-Net-Weekley reported from its intelligence sources that Bin Laden had almost certainly procured a supply of uranium -235 six months before the September 11 suicide attacks. The uranium was ...

CHICAGO (AP)--For weeks, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been saying that Illinois, its employees and retired employees could save a lot of money buying medicine from Canada. Now, a report commissioned by the governor and scheduled to be released Monday found that importing drugs from Canada for state workers and retirees would save Illinois nearly 17 percent of its annual expense for prescription drugs, the governor's office said. Blagojevich plans to ask the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to waive a restriction on importing drugs, said his spokeswoman, Abby Ottenhoff. Federal law bars bringing foreign prescription drugs into...

Vichy mentally ill patients 'were not murdered' By Philip Delves Broughton (Filed: 17/10/2003) A two-year investigation into the deaths of 50,000 mentally ill patients under France's Vichy regime has found they mostly starved to death, rather than being intentionally killed following the Nazi example. French historians have argued recently that the Vichy government deliberately created appalling conditions in its asylums as a form of "gentle genocide". They supported their arguments with horrific reports written by the doctors working in the asylums during the war, describing patients eating their own hands and books, causing stomach ruptures and death. The latest research...

Dr David Kelly predicted he would be "found dead in the woods" if Iraq was invaded, months before his apparent suicide, the Hutton Inquiry has heard. Foreign Office official David Broucher said Dr Kelly had made what he thought to be the "throwaway" remark in February. Mr Broucher said he met the weapons expert in Geneva. Dr Kelly had told him that continued inspections "properly carried out would give a degree of certainty about compliance" with UN disarmament demands. "He said he had tried to reassure them that if they cooperated with the weapons inspections, they had nothing to fear,"...

Killer virus spreads as 60 more fall ill Health officials in Hong Kong have announced that 60 more people have fallen ill with a deadly flu-like disease. More than half of the new infections are in one apartment complex. The announcement pushes the number of infections worldwide past 1,600. New cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, have picked up pace in the past few days and at least 56 people are now known to have died of it worldwide.One of the latest victims was the doctor who identified the virus. Dr Carlo Urbani, 46, an Italian WHO expert...

Gracious Freepers, I would appreciate some prayers for my mom. She is under some mysterious illness starting rather recently. She feels weak, feels bad after she eats (stomach probs), and has pain in her gallbladder area. She has been researching on the internet for potential diseases that could be causing this. She has had at least one doctor's appt. that I know of to get a sonogram today to check the abdominal area. She has not gotten the results back. I ask your prayers that she will get a diagnosis and healing soon. Pray for God to give her strength....

Your prayers are requested for my sister's 9-month old granddaughter Kshama, who has a brain tumor. Her parents are awaiting notice of the date and time of her surgery.