Results tagged “diseasecontrol”

Well, this explains a lot: The Center for Disease Control and Protection says this year's flu shot is only good for 40% of the flu bugs going around. Thanks a lot, new strains of flu viruses that are kicking people's butts!

A state disciplinary board fined Dr. Mark Nesselson $10,000 and ruled that the pediatrician could only work under supervision from now on. Nesselson filled out fake paperwork for parents who did not want their children to receive required immunizations before attending school, which is required by law. The doctor was caught when he moved to Hawaii and handed off patient records indicating that he had never actually immunized some children to another doctor, who reported him to state authorities.

The man with a highly drug-resistant strain of TB, who decamped to Italy aboard a commercial airline for his honeymoon against the CDC's advisement, and then eluded authorities when told that he would be quarantined abroad and banned from returning to the U.S., before smuggling himself back to the states via Canada, is sorry for putting everyone out. Andrew Speaker, who was initially not named by the press because of the stigma associated with being a TB-infected person, is a lawyer from Atlanta. The stigma of clearing one's name from being a total public pariah now outweighs being a deadly disease carrier.

A man being treated for a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis and who was advised by the Centers for Disease Control not to travel was briefly quarantined at Bellevue Hospital after he sneaked back into the U.S. in an effort to evade a travel embargo. He is now being detained under armed guard in an Atlanta hospital. The patient, who was in consultation with the CDC prior to traveling to Europe and scheduled to receive advanced life-saving treatment in Denver, had left the U.S. with his wife on their honeymoon to Greece. The CDC had attempted to hand-deliver an official directive barring him from traveling, but were unable to contact him before his departure.

Yesterday afternoon, a Continental flight from Hong Kong landed at Newark Liberty International Airport but passengers were held because some were feeling ill. In a reassuring piece of news, apparently seven passengers had "signs of fever and reported vomiting" even before the flight took off. We thought that Hong Kong's airport had those post-avian bird flu scanners that shows if a passenger has a higher body temperature than usual - and stop people who are sick.

- $36,200 to block terrorists from raising money in Kentucky bingo halls.If NYC set up more bingo halls...

The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygience and the Center for Disease Control says that a nurse with "infectious tuberculosis" exposed around 1,500 patients to the TB. And what's more, she was a maternity ward nurse, so babies were also at risk. According to the NY Times, four babies definitely got TB (they are now healthy), but 1,000 of the patients could not be found. The nurse worked at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, was was contagious for a period in 2003; apparently the early symptoms sound a lot like a cold...and who really thinks they get TB anymore?

birds right now, but we're wary nonetheless. The threat of the bird flu has caused plenty of concern around the world, with world leaders meeting to discuss what can be done to prevent a pandemic. Right now, the strain of avian flu that scientists are preparing for is H5N1, but it's possible that different strains may appear in the future. H5N1 has killed at least 60 people in Asia since late 2003. If you thought terrorists were going to kill you, you had it all wrong. It's birds, baby birds.

- Cubicle #217

My company, a big Wall Street firm, is going ahead with their annual free flu shot program despite the vaccine shortage this year. In fact, we recently got an e-mail encouraging us to get one when a nurse comes into the office next week. It seems a little selfish since the worst that would probably happen to anyone here if they got sick is that they'd miss a few days of work. Knowing what we know about the shortage, should I say something to the person who has scheduled the flu shot program or is it enough if I simply don't get a shot myself?

U.S. and Canadian scientists say they have identified the genetic structure of SARS, but