Dr. Sherri Tenpenney, DO: There must be some other, non-obvious reason they want us all to have that flu shot that I haven't completely figured out yet. Last year, less than 20% of total population got Swine flu shot; they burned $450M worth of the stuff. I can hear CDC's Anthony Fauci now, "we're just lucky this year." Right.
Flu barely on the radar this season
There are so few cases reported in Mich. that health officials aren't tracking them
Kim Kozlowski / The Detroit News
One year after the swine flu sickened, hospitalized and killed residents around the globe, this season's flu is so mild that state health officials aren't even tracking cases.
Like the rest of the nation, flu activity is low in Michigan, said James McCurtis, spokesman for the state Department of Community Health. This contrasts sharply with last year, when few were immune to the H1N1 flu strain that created a worldwide pandemic, leading people to stand in line at clinics for a vaccine initially reserved for those deemed most at risk.
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McCurtis wondered if last season's public health campaign encouraging people to cover their mouths when coughing, wash their hands more often and use sanitizers led to habits that have helped stave off seasonal flu thus far.
"Maybe people are listening and adhering to the guidelines," McCurtis said. "This is a very good start. We're at the end of November and only seeing sporadic cases. That's pretty good."
The flu is a contagious respiratory illness that can be mild to severe and sometimes fatal, mostly among people over age 65. Symptoms can include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headaches and fatigue.
Last year's swine flu was the first global pandemic in 40 years. It was first detected in the United States in April 2009 in a 10-year-old California patient, and then spread to the rest of the nation. In contrast with seasonal flu, the H1N1 virus preyed primarily on people under age 65: Schools closed; people clamored to get the vaccine; health officials gave regular reports of vaccine availability and updated the number of people struck by the virus.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 12,000 Americans died of swine flu last season.
But this year, flu is barely on the radar screen. McCurtis was aware of only one case of seasonal flu that has been confirmed in Michigan, but he added that people don't always go to see their doctor when they are sick.
Even so, McCurtis cautioned that it's early in the season, which runs from late August through May, with the peak usually occurring during January and February.
That means people should still get a flu shot, which includes protection against the H1N1 virus and two seasonal strains. People can get the vaccine from their local physicians and various retailers.
The CDC recommends flu shots for everyone over the age of 6 months, especially those at high risk of complications, including children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with chronic health conditions, such as asthma.
An early surge of people have gotten flu shots at Dr. George Blum's offices in Bingham Farms and West Bloomfield. Blum, a pediatrician, has been trying to encourage others who are not interested in the flu shot to get it. Some people have concerns about the vaccine making people sick afterward and that is not true, Blum said.
"If everybody would get flu vaccines," Blum said, "there wouldn't be an epidemic every year."
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101126/LIFESTYLE03/11260374/Flu-barely-on-the-radar-this-season#ixzz16WP03giM
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
A new study suggests that time in front of the television may be partially to blame for weight gain, high blood pressure, and heart disease risk.
The study looked at close to 4,000 individuals, divided into two groups -- those whose TV-watching increased over five years and those whose TV-watching remained the same. The researchers then examined the two groups for symptoms of metabolic syndrome.
FYI Living reports:
"The results showed that an increase in TV-watching does have an unhealthy effect.
For both men and women, people who increased their TV viewing similarly increased their waistlines. Meanwhile, women who watched more TV also developed higher blood pressure than women who watched the same amount as before.
Interestingly, these factors were not affected by exercise".
The study looked at close to 4,000 individuals, divided into two groups -- those whose TV-watching increased over five years and those whose TV-watching remained the same. The researchers then examined the two groups for symptoms of metabolic syndrome.
FYI Living reports:
"The results showed that an increase in TV-watching does have an unhealthy effect.
For both men and women, people who increased their TV viewing similarly increased their waistlines. Meanwhile, women who watched more TV also developed higher blood pressure than women who watched the same amount as before.
Interestingly, these factors were not affected by exercise".
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a leading privacy group, has asked a federal appeals court to suspend the U.S. government's program of introducing full-body imaging machines at airports.
According to the group, the imaging machines constitute a suspicionless search of all airport travelers in an extremely invasive way -- so invasive that it violates the reasonable standard contained in the Fourth Amendment.
Wired reports:
"The constitutional challenge aside, EPIC also charges that the Department of Homeland Security, in rolling out the devices, violated a host of bureaucratic policies requiring public review, including the Administrative Procedures Act. What's more, the group claims the machines, among other things, violate the federal Video Voyeurism Prevent Act, which protects against capturing improper images that violate one's privacy."
Further, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) sent a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology in April warning of potential health risks -- including skin cancer -- from the scanners, which distribute a dose of radiation to the skin and underlying tissue.
According to the group, the imaging machines constitute a suspicionless search of all airport travelers in an extremely invasive way -- so invasive that it violates the reasonable standard contained in the Fourth Amendment.
Wired reports:
"The constitutional challenge aside, EPIC also charges that the Department of Homeland Security, in rolling out the devices, violated a host of bureaucratic policies requiring public review, including the Administrative Procedures Act. What's more, the group claims the machines, among other things, violate the federal Video Voyeurism Prevent Act, which protects against capturing improper images that violate one's privacy."
Further, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) sent a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology in April warning of potential health risks -- including skin cancer -- from the scanners, which distribute a dose of radiation to the skin and underlying tissue.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Hospital Errors still at an all time high!
Report: Harmful Errors, Accidents Still Common in Hospitals
Published November 25, 2010
| Reuters
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AP
NEW YORK - Despite a decade of efforts to improve patient safety in hospitals -- initially inspired by a seminal report on the problem from the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 2000 -- harmful errors and accidents are still common, new research suggests.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that between 2002 and 2007, the number of patients experiencing infections acquired in the hospital, medication errors, complications from diagnostic techniques or treatments, and other such "harms" did not change.
Researchers looked at 2,300 patient admission records from 10 randomly selected hospitals in North Carolina. They found 588 incidents of patient harm resulting from medical procedures, medications, or other causes. Two-thirds of these complications were considered preventable by reviewers at the hospitals themselves.
Recently, the U.S. Office of the Inspector General released a report estimating that medical complications contribute to 180,000 patient deaths per year, and that overall, these complications cost Medicare up to $4.4 billion annually.
"These harms are still very common, and there's no evidence that they're improving," said the current study's lead author Dr. Christopher Landrigan, a physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "The problem is that the methods that have been best proven to improve care have not been implemented across the nation."
Read more: http://ping.fm/4SGY7
Published November 25, 2010
| Reuters
Print Email Share Comments (7) Text Size
AP
NEW YORK - Despite a decade of efforts to improve patient safety in hospitals -- initially inspired by a seminal report on the problem from the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 2000 -- harmful errors and accidents are still common, new research suggests.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that between 2002 and 2007, the number of patients experiencing infections acquired in the hospital, medication errors, complications from diagnostic techniques or treatments, and other such "harms" did not change.
Researchers looked at 2,300 patient admission records from 10 randomly selected hospitals in North Carolina. They found 588 incidents of patient harm resulting from medical procedures, medications, or other causes. Two-thirds of these complications were considered preventable by reviewers at the hospitals themselves.
Recently, the U.S. Office of the Inspector General released a report estimating that medical complications contribute to 180,000 patient deaths per year, and that overall, these complications cost Medicare up to $4.4 billion annually.
"These harms are still very common, and there's no evidence that they're improving," said the current study's lead author Dr. Christopher Landrigan, a physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "The problem is that the methods that have been best proven to improve care have not been implemented across the nation."
Read more: http://ping.fm/4SGY7
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