Health’s Blog

Congress may be on break this week, but two industry groups launched ads spurring the Senate to take action on a Medicare bill that affects nursing home residents and other older adults when it returns from the Fourth of July recess.

The American Medical Association unveiled an advertising campaign to encourage passing the bill, H.R. 6331. Targeted towards opponents of the legislation, the ads say the issue boils down to a choice: insurance company profits, or seniors and disabled vets who will lose their access to healthcare. Meanwhile, insurance lobbyists are working on their own anti-H.R. 6331 advertising blitz. They argue that the cuts to Medicare Advantage plans that would fund the bill would limit choices, reduce benefits and pass on higher costs to seniors.

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Tomatoes, originally considered the sole source of the outbreak, remain one of the targeted items, investigators say.

The CDC does not currently have new recommendations for consumers on what to avoid as the investigation is ongoing. The Food and Drug Administration’s suggestion to avoid red round, Roma and plum tomatoes grown in certain areas is still in effect. (For more information, go to www.fda.gov.)

The latest figures for the outbreak are 887 sickened nationwide, with an additional 18 newly confirmed cases. At least 108 people were hospitalized.

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(CBS/AP) A government survey of teens done from 2002 to 2006 said slightly more than half had engaged in underage drinking.

Asked about the source of alcohol, 40 percent they had gotten it from an adult for free over the previous month, the survey said. Of those, about one-in-four said they had obtained it from an unrelated adult, one-in-16 from a parent or guardian, and one-in-12 from another adult family member.

Roughly 4 percent reported taking the alcohol from their own home.

“In far too many instances, parents directly enable their children’s underage drinking - in essence, encouraging them to risk their health and well-being,” said acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson. “Proper parental guidance alone may not be the complete solution to this devastating public health problem - but it is a critical part.”

Not only that, pointed out CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom on The Early Show Thursday, “parents can be looking at criminal as well as civil liability (if they give their kids alcohol). Translation — jail time, money damages to victims of teen drunk driving, paying for their medical costs, even punitive damages.

“If parents knew they had a ticking time bomb, if they knew they had a kid who was a danger, and they give that kid alcohol, they give that kid a car, the kid goes out and causes an injury to somebody, parents can lose their home. We’re talking about dire consequences.”

Bloom says that also applies to parites held without parents’ knowledge in their homes: “They would be liable. Parents are responsible to know what’s going on in their homes. Parents are responsible to keep their kids away from alcohol, because parents are in the best position to know. Parents are in the best position to protect the rest of us from teen drunk drivers. And many have had a rude awakening the next day, after those parties, to find that social host laws now apply to them.”

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new analysis of HIV diagnoses among “men who have sex with men” points to troubling signs of increases in new diagnoses among young men who have sex with men, US health officials reported Thursday.

Public health experts use the term “men who have sex with men,” or MSM, because many of these men are not strictly homosexual or even bisexual.

Between 2001 and 2006, male-to-male sex was the largest HIV transmission category in the US, and the only one associated with an increasing number of HIV/AIDS diagnoses, according to a report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The increase was highest among boys and men between the ages of 13 and 24 years who had sex with other males, particularly among ethnic minorities.

“To reduce transmission of HIV among MSM of all races/ethnicities, prevention strategies should be strengthened, improved, and implemented more broadly,” health officials wrote in Friday’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, publication of the CDC.

Testing is important, they add, because “after persons become aware that they are HIV positive, most reduce their high-risk sexual behavior.”

The report describes trends in diagnoses of HIV/AIDS in 33 states that have confidential, name-based HIV case reporting.

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By LAURAN NEERGAARD

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fears of bird flu are receding and sales of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu have slumped. Now its maker is offering a deal to U.S. employers: Pay an annual fee and reserve enough to protect every worker if a new super-flu strikes.

The plan announced Thursday comes as the federal government also begins a new effort to encourage many businesses to stockpile anti-flu drugs in case of a pandemic. Those private stockpiles would supplement a national stockpile that contains enough doses to treat only a fraction of the population.

But stockpiling is a big upfront investment for a threat that may never arrive — and requires replacing supplies whenever drug doses expire. Roche Holding AG says its new plan would remove some of those barriers for companies otherwise interested in Tamiflu.

The U.S. government, in an unusual move, congratulated Roche on the program and helped to publicize it.

“We applaud them,” said Tevi Troy, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which directs the nation’s pandemic flu preparations. “Preparedness is a shared responsibility that extends across all levels of government and all levels of society.”

Pandemics can strike when the easy-to-mutate flu virus shifts to a strain that people have never experienced. There is concern that the Asian bird flu known as H5N1 might trigger one if it acquires the ability to spread easily from person to person.

It would take months to custom-brew a vaccine against a new super-flu. So the government has stockpiled enough antiviral drugs, mostly Tamiflu, to treat 50 million people, and is urging states to purchase enough for 31 million more.

The antiviral drugs also can be used to prevent infection before a vaccine arrives. Until recently, federal health officials didn’t recommend employer stockpiling for fear that there wasn’t enough Tamiflu being produced to satisfy global demand during regular flu seasons, and to build up the pandemic stockpiles of the U.S. and other governments.

But Roche increased global production 15-fold — and U.S. guidelines proposed earlier this month not only say that employer stockpiling is feasible, but encourage businesses to set aside enough antiviral drugs to help their workers ward off infection and stay on the job.

“Businesses that provide goods or services essential to community health, safety, or well-being have an obligation to plan and prepare for continued operations in the event of a pandemic,” say the guidelines.

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By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judged dismissed on Wednesday a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that claimed the government was failing to meet the mental health needs of former troops, who have a rate of suicide far higher than the general population.

Two groups had sought a court order to require the department to improve the way it cares for veterans and processes benefits.

U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti said Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth were demanding an overhaul of the VA system, “something clearly outside this court’s jurisdiction.”

“Congress has specifically precluded district courts from reviewing veterans’ benefits decisions and has entrusted decisions regarding veterans’ medical care to the discretion of the VA Secretary,” Conti wrote in his 82-page decision.

“The court can find no systemic violations system-wide that would compel district court intervention,” he said.

Lawyers pressing the suit said in April that veterans commit suicide between three and 7.5 times more often than the national average.

That kind of evidence was used to bolster the argument that the VA has systemic problems treating mental health problems. But Conti disagreed.

“He adopted a definition of ’systemic’ that is very, very limited,” Gordon Erspamer, a lawyer with the firm Morrison & Foerster, said during a telephone conference call. “We think the bar was set too high.”

The VA, which has come under fire for its care of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, said in a statement that it was “pleased with the decision.”

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NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Kroger Co said on Wednesday it is voluntarily recalling all ground beef products sold in Michigan and certain Ohio stores between May 21 and June 8 because the meat has been linked to recent outbreaks of E. coli bacteria.

The grocery store chain said the ground beef products are no longer available to purchase in its stores, but they were sold at its stores throughout Michigan and in central and northern Ohio, near the cities of Columbus and Toledo.

The recall comes after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that outbreaks of E. coli bacteria in Michigan and Ohio were linked, and officials in both states suspected the outbreak was caused by ground beef.

Health officials in Michigan said late Tuesday more than half of the 15 people in the state with confirmed E. coli cases reported purchasing ground beef from Kroger, the largest U.S. grocery chain.

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The International Whaling Commission has agreed to put off votes on a Japanese bid to resume commercial whaling.

It also has postponed voting on an environmentalist initiative to create a whale reserve in the South Atlantic.

The 80 nation IWC is divided over the issue of commercial whaling.

Iceland, Japan and Norway are among those in favor.

Australia does not support commercial whaling.

Voting right changes

The International Whaling Commission has officially endorsed changes to members’ voting rights.

As environment reporter Sarah Clarke explains, the conditions make it tougher for new members to participate in debate.

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East Timor’s president Jose Ramos Horta has called on Australia to be much more generous in providing access for East Timorese to work and study in Australia.

Dr Horta has described Canberra’s current stand as “embarrassing”, and says he is disappointed with Australia’s efforts, which are lagging far behind that of Portugal, the United States and even Cuba.

He has told Australia Network’s Jim Middleton while Australia is the biggest aid donor to East Timor, when it comes to education, it is falling behind.

“Unfortunately, even though Australia is our closest neighbour, Australia still provides very, very few places, no more than ten or 20 a year, compare that with Cuba, a poor country, 20,000 miles away, has received almost 700 Timorese students to study in the medical field,” he said.

“Now if Australia wants to really assist Timor Leste… it should be more generous and more expeditious in allowing Timorese students in greater numbers to study in Australia and to allow guest workers from Timor, including youth, to come Australia.”

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PREMIER John Brumby has unveiled a 10-point blueprint for national health reform, calling for more money for hospitals, a nationwide preventive health strategy and GPs in hospital emergency departments.

He will spruik the plan to state and federal leaders at next Thursday’s Council of Australian Governments meeting.

At the launch yesterday he said the Commonwealth needed to pump an extra $1 billion into the country’s public hospitals every year, to make up for previous neglect.

The proposals also include:

â–  An expansion of Victoria’s proposed WorkHealth workplace health check-up scheme across the country.

â–  More “super clinics” that bring GPs and other health professionals together in one spot.

â–  Faster roll-out of a national e-health program including a single electronic health record for every Australian.

â–  Expanded Medicare payments to other health services.

â–  Bulk-billing GPs inside hospital emergency departments.

Mr Brumby said the last idea was “one divide that must be overcome” in order to “give patients the right care that they need”.

However, the idea was undermined only hours later by a senior state public servant.

Department of Human Services undersecretary Peter Allen told a health reform conference that six co-located GP clinics were placed in Victorian hospitals under a 2003 reform plan between the state and federal governments.

“They have had minimal effect on stemming the flow of people into emergency departments,” he said.

The idea was also rejected by the Australian Medical Association, whose federal president Rosanna Capolingua said 99% of emergency department patients could not be dealt with by a GP.

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