Steroid-related meningitis cases rise to 47
As the tally from a deadly meningitis outbreak rose Friday, health officials identified the medical clinics across the country that received steroid shots for back pain now linked to the illnesses.
Month: October 2012
Number of U.S. meningitis cases rises to 50 in deadly outbreak
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) – The number of people stricken with a rare form of meningitis linked to steroid injections rose to 50 in seven U.S. states, authorities said on Friday, in a widening outbreak that has killed at least five people. Michigan said it had confirmed six cases of fungal meningitis, the seventh state to report people falling ill after receiving the injections, mainly for back pain. Other states with cases are Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Indiana. The U.S. …
Russia urges Turkey to exercise restraint
"We hope that the Turkish side would exercise restraint and would not undertake any step that may further aggravate the situation in the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posed on its official website. The ministry said that …
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Colombian president to leave hospital on Saturday – doctors
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will be released from the hospital on Saturday following surgery for prostate cancer that has not spread beyond the gland, his medical team said. Santos, 61, said on Monday that doctors had discovered a tumor on his prostate. The cancer announcement came two weeks before his government was about to start peace talks with Marxist rebels. "The definitive pathology result now available shows that the tumor was confined to the prostate gland. …
Fungal Meningitis: Know the Subtle Symptoms
11,000 German schoolchildren probably laid low by strawberries
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s biggest outbreak of food poisoning, in which more than 11,000 schoolchildren have been laid low by diarrhoea and vomiting, is “very likely” to have been caused by a batch of frozen strawberries, authorities said on Friday. Children in almost 500 schools and daycare centres across eastern Germany that received food from a subcontractor of the catering firm Sodexo have been affected, and at least 32 have been treated in hospital. …
Fungi blamed for meningitis rarely cause trouble
Problems found at peanut butter plant in 2010
The Food and Drug Administration found what it called “objectionable conditions” at a New Mexico peanut butter plant in 2010, two years before the current outbreak of salmonella poisoning linked to Trader Joe’s peanut butter produced there.
BPA Is Bad to the Bone, Now We Know Why
BPA is no friend to the American consumer. The industrial chemical bisphenol A, found in thousands of commercial products, has been linked with reproductive problems, brain impairments, cancer, obesity and more. But now, scientists believe they’ve found another piece of the puzzle explaining how the chemical wreaks havoc on our health.
Docs say spine shots for steroids are usually safe
Intense pain, confusing diagnosis mark meningitis
A week after her annual steroid shot for back pain, Janet Russell began getting unbearable headaches. A fever followed. Doctors admitted her to the hospital, but couldn't say what was wrong.
Getting paid to quit may work for some smokers
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – During a single year when the Dutch government covered the costs of counseling and drugs to help smokers quit, calls to a national smoking-cessation hotline rose 10-fold, and the number of smokers in the country dropped significantly, according to a new study. The results, reported in the journal Addiction, suggest that more people may enroll in smoking cessation programs if their governments or insurance companies offer to pay for the therapies and medications, according to the study’s authors. “We can only speculate about what this means for individual smokers. …