Fourth Swine Flu Case

State health officials say a new swine flu case has been confirmed in Georgia, bringing the number of patients in the state to four. Dr. Elizabeth Ford, head of the state Division of Public Health, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Friday that a 13-year-old boy from Henry County tested positive for the H1N1 virus. They said his symptoms were mild and he did not require hospitalization. The swine flu case of a 30-year-old Kentucky woman who was hospitalized in LaGrange after attending a wedding has been attributed to her home state. She has been transferred to an Atlanta hospital, which has better access to infectious disease experts.

For the latest on H1N1 swine flu in Georgia, go to www.gpb.org and click on "Flu Facts."

(Associated Press)

Possible Swine Flu Case Closes Private School

Eagles Landing Christian Academy in Henry County has temporarily suspended all classes until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms the status of a student who has become ill. The school acted Monday in conjunction with the Department of Human Resources Division of Public Health following current recommendations on possible swine flu cases. The specimen was sent to the CDC for further testing during the weekend.

Associated Press

Perdue Signs Access to Flu Vaccines Act into Law

Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law today the Access to Flu Vaccines Act. The law gives the governor power to declare a “pandemic influenza” state of emergency. That would come if the World Health Organization declares a Phase 5 Pandemic Alert for influenza or the Centers for Disease Control declares at least a Category 2 Pandemic Severity index for influenza, whether in the United States or Georgia.

The new law also allows pharmacists and registered nurses to order and dispense flu shots without a doctor's prescription. This was the case in the state until last fall, when the Composite Board of Medical Examiners classified the flu vaccine as a "dangerous drug." That classification made individual prescriptions a necessity.

Now pharmacists and nurses can enter into "protocol agreements" with physicians. This gives businesses, like small clinics in grocery stores and drug stores, the ability to offer flu shots without a prescription.

In a press release, Perdue says the new law gives more access to the vaccine and "allows the state to respond quickly and effectively to any flu outbreak.”

CDC Says Little Progress In U.S. Food Safety

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says Americans did not suffer more food poisoning in 2008, despite high-profile cases like the peanut butter salmonella outbreak linked to a south Georgia plant. But a new CDC study also warns that Georgia and a handful of other states have made little—if any-progress in food safety over the past four years.

The study’s key statement is this: The U.S. has "reached a plateau in the prevention of food-borne disease." It calls for new efforts to make food safer from the farm to the table.

The CDC’s study looked at 10 states, including Georgia. It showed the number of food-borne infections declining over the past decade. But, by 2004 they leveled-off. And Georgia in particular has the second-highest rate of salmonella among the 10 states.

That’s due in part to the latest salmonella outbreak at a peanut plant in Blakely, which sickened nearly 700 people nationwide.

State lawmakers answered that alarm in the just-completed legislative session by overwhelmingly passing a bill to toughen food safety rules and regulations. State Republican Senator John Bulloch says the bill he co-sponsored is a good start:

"The tools that we put in place for the Dept of Agriculture is a great improvement over what they had before. Do the things need to be changed?...we don’t know. It may be that next year we need to come back as we see how these new changes have been implemented and what results they have, and maybe there are some other things that need to be changed."

Bulloch says changes already made within the state’s Agriculture Department include an additional five food inspectors in the field, with three of those positions newly-created by the Legislature.

But Bulloch also points out that Georgia should not be taking all the blame for failures in the inspection pipeline:

"At what point does the Food and Drug Administration…where’s their responsibilities? Have they done and have been doing a good job? And I’d say no, they need to change their rules and regulations."

Federal food safety officials say they’re using new tools in an aggressive approach toward reducing food-contamination.

Here in Georgia, Bulloch believes things will get better:

"I would say that going forward, the consuming public should have a higher level of confidence that the products that go to the grocery shelf would be from a Georgia-facility would be by far safer than it could have been in the past."

Senate Bill-80 toughening Georgia’s food safety rules and regulations, awaits Governor Sonny Perdue’s signature.

Mildest Flu Season In Years

The flu season is turning out to be one of the mildest in a few years--that comes from data of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Officials say one reason may be the good-match of flu vaccine with the circulating flu viruses. Flu related deaths were down in both adults and children significantly this year, compared to the severity of the 2007-2008 season. A record 146-million doses of flu vaccine were given in this 2008-2009 winter season.

More Salmonella Deaths From Peanut Butter (Video)

The Ohio Department of Health announced Friday that four deaths have been reported among the 67 cases and 19 people have been hospitalized.

Sixty-seven cases of salmonella poisoning have been reported in Ohio, the most in any state during a nationwide outbreak linked to peanut butter products.

Ohio has now surpassed California in the number of cases reported.

There are six reported food poisoning cases in Georgia so far, but no deaths.

As the recall of salmonella-tainted peanut butter products widens, a Washington state lawyer is now calling on the Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America to pay funeral costs for several of those who died from food poisoning.

PCA officials say they’re laying off nearly all of the workers at the Blakely facility, and will only keep several managers on duty.

Local officials say 40 to 50 people are employed at the plant.

(Source: CDC)

"As of 9PM EDT, Wednesday, January 22, 2009, 491 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 43 states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arizona (10), Arkansas (4), California (62), Colorado (12), Connecticut (9), Georgia (6), Hawaii (3), Idaho (11), Illinois (6), Indiana (4), Iowa (2), Kansas (2), Kentucky (3), Maine (4), Maryland (8), Massachusetts (42), Michigan (25), Minnesota (35), Missouri (9), Mississippi (3), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (11), New Jersey (19), New York (18), Nevada (5), North Carolina (6), North Dakota (10), Ohio (67), Oklahoma (2), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (14), Rhode Island (4), South Dakota (2), Tennessee (9), Texas (6), Utah (5), Vermont (4), Virginia (20), Washington (13), West Virginia (2), Wisconsin (3), and Wyoming (2). Additionally, one ill person was reported from Canada."

(Source: CDC)

As the salmonella recall of products containing peanut butter continues to expand, a Washington state lawyer is calling on the company with Georgia operations to pay funeral costs for the six people believed to have died from the outbreak.

That comes as Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America announced it's laying off the majority of it's workforce.

Click here for more on this developing story.

(With John Sepulvado and the AP)

Peanut Butter-Salmonella Update from CDC

Federal health officials now say a national salmonella outbreak tied to a south Georgia peanut butter plant has grown to 485 cases across 43 states and Canada. The outbreak may have also contributed to six deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says the case-number has been climbing as lab tests confirm a similar salmonella strain. Officials urge consumers for the time being to avoid products such as cookies, cakes and other foods containing peanut butter. Peanut butter sold in jars is NOT included in the warning. Peanut Corporation of America owns the Blakely, Georgia plant in question. Its product is sold to institutions and food companies, not consumers directly.

Flu comes early to Georgia

The first cases of flu have arrived in Georgia. Clinics in east Georgia report a few positive flu tests on Friday and Monday. Experts say this is a little early, and that Christmas is usually when doctors start to see the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta call this National Influenza Vaccination week to urge people to get vaccinated.

(Augusta Chronicle)

'High-security' research labs' not so high security

Intruders could easily break into two U.S. laboratories where researchers handle some of the world's deadliest germs, according to congressional investigators. The Associated Press identified the vulnerable lab locations as Atlanta and San Antonio.

The serious security problems at the two labs were described by the Government Accountability Office in a report expected to be released publicly as early as Thursday. The GAO, Congress' investigative and auditing arm, did not identify the labs except to say they were classified as Biosafety Level 4 facilities, but the report included enough details for the AP — and others knowledgeable about such labs — to determine their locations. Biosafety Level 4 labs do research on deadly germs and toxins.

One lab described with weak security in the report is operated by Georgia State University in Atlanta. That lab lacked complete security barriers and any integrated security system, including any live monitoring by security cameras. During their review, investigators said they watched an unidentified pedestrian enter the building through an unguarded loading dock.

"Georgia State clearly wants its BSL-4 to be as safe as possible," said DeAnna Hines, assistant vice president for university relations. "We are already taking steps that will enhance the lab's safety and security standards." Hines did not confirm the school's research lab was the one mentioned in the congressional report as lacking proper security.

In Texas, the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research features an outside window that looks directly into the room where the deadly germs are handled. The lab, which is privately run, also lacks many security cameras, intrusion detection alarms or visible armed guards at its public entrances. Officials there said they will tighten security.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the Atlanta and San Antonio labs to handle the deadly organisms despite the security weaknesses. The three other BSL-4 labs in the U.S. feature impressive security, the report said. Those include the CDC's own facility, also in Atlanta; the Army's lab at Fort Detrick, Md.; and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

The viruses researched in the highest security labs include ebola, marburg, junin and lassa. All can cause incurable illnesses.

The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., urged the CDC to quickly identify all security weaknesses at the high-containment research labs and fix any problems. Dingell has been investigating security problems associated with such labs around the country. He said at least six additional high-containment labs are under construction.

A CDC spokesman, Von Roebuck, said each of the five labs described in the new report has its own security plan designed to fit the lab's particular security assessments.

The Associated Press reported in October 2007 that U.S. laboratories working with deadly organisms have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003 — and the number is increasing as more labs do the work.

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of containment concerns at biolabs dealing with hazardous materials.

Athens has lower ER wait times

If you head to an Emergency Room in Athens, you can expect to wait for a doctor less than most Americans. That’s according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. he Athens Banner-Herald reports the average patient wait time at Athens Regional Medical Center is 42 minutes. At St. Mary’s Hospital, it’s 47 minutes. The CDC says in the average American ER, people wait an hour.

Longer emergency room waits these days

The average emergency room patient in America waits nearly an hour on average to see a doctor, according to new federal statistics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that's up from 38 minutes a decade ago. CDC experts attribute the longer waiting time to the fact that more people are arriving at Emergency Rooms, but there are fewer Emergency Rooms to receive them. In 2006, ER's saw 119 million visits, up from 90 million in 1996. Since then, however, the nation has lost 300 emergency rooms.

CDC: gov't underestimating AIDS spread

The number of Americans infected by the AIDS virus each year is much higher than the government has been estimating, U.S. health officials reported, acknowledging that their numbers have understated the level of the epidemic.

Experts in the field, advocates and a former surgeon general called for more aggressive testing and other prevention efforts, noting that spending on preventing HIV has been flat for seven years.

Since AIDS surfaced in 1981, health officials have struggled to estimate how many people are infected each year. It can take a decade or more for an infection to cause symptoms and illness.

"This is the most reliable estimate we‘ve had since the beginning of the epidemic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC‘s director. She said other countries may adopt the agency‘s methodology.

The new infection estimate is based on a blood test that for the first time can tell how recently an HIV infection occurred.

The new estimate relies on blood tests from 22 states where health officials have been using a new HIV testing method that can distinguish infections that occurred within the past five months from those that were older.

Yearly estimates allow better recognition of trends in the U.S. epidemic. For example, the new report found that infections are falling among heterosexuals and injection drug users.

But they also lamented the CDC‘s finding that infections continue to increase in gay and bisexual men, who accounted for more than half of HIV infections in 2006. Also, more than a third of those with HIV are younger than 30.

Some advocates say that suggests a need for more prevention efforts, particularly targeting younger gay and bisexual men.

For years, AIDS was considered a terrifying death sentence, and since 1981, more than half a million Americans have died. But medicines that became available in the 1990s turned it into a manageable chronic condition for many Americans, and attention shifted to Africa and other parts of the world.

Last week, President Bush signed a $48 billion global AIDS bill to continue a program that he called "the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history."

But some advocates complain that CDC‘s annual spending on HIV prevention in the United States has been held to roughly $700 million since 2001, while costs have risen. (That‘s about 3 percent of what the federal government spends on AIDS; much of the rest is on medicines, health care and research.)

Whether more funding comes or not, the revised estimate clearly is a "wake-up call to scale things up," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, who oversees CDC‘s prevention efforts for HIV/AIDS.

Some said more attention needs to focus on prevention among blacks, who account for nearly half of annual HIV infections, according to the new CDC report.

A recent report by the Black AIDS Institute concluded that if black Americans were their own nation, they would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with HIV.

"We have been inadequately funding this epidemic all along. We need to step it up," said former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who is now an administrator at Atlanta‘s Morehouse School of Medicine.

The new estimate has been anticipated for a long time. The CDC began working on the new methods nearly seven years ago.

Late last year, advocates said they had heard the figure was about 55,000 and pressed the CDC to release it. Agency officials declined, saying they were submitting their research for medical journal review.

"These are extremely complicated statistical methods," and CDC officials wanted the work to be thoroughly reviewed by outside experts, Gerberding said. The CDC‘s findings are being published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Until 1992, the number of diagnosed AIDS cases was used to predict how many people were newly infected each year. That method produced an estimate of 40,000 to 80,000. More recently, the CDC focused on infections among men who have sex with men, who account for about half of new HIV diagnoses.
___

CDC HIV fact sheets: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/

JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the CDC.

CDC: South not scaling back obesity

The South tips the scales again as the nation's fattest region, according to a new government survey.

Overall, about 26 percent of the CDC's telephone survey were obese.

More than 30 percent of adults in each of the 10 states surveyed tipped the scales enough to ensure that the South remains the nation's fattest region.

Georgia ranks eighth out 10 states with the highest levels of adult obesity, according to a 2007 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Colorado was the least obese, with about 19 percent fitting that category in a random telephone survey last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Survey results:
1. Mississippi, 32.0 percent
2. Alabama, 30.3
3. Tennessee, 30.1
4. Louisiana, 29.8
5. West Virginia, 29.5
6. Arkansas, 28.7
7. South Carolina, 28.4
8. Georgia, 28.2
9. Oklahoma, 28.1
10. Texas, 28.1
Source: Associated Press

Dr. William Dietz, who heads CDC's nutrition, physical activity and obesity division says the traditional Southern diet -- high in fat and fried food -- may be part of the answer.

The South also has a large concentration of rural residents and black women -- two groups that tend to have higher obesity rates, he said.

Obesity is based on the body mass index, a calculation using height and weight. A 5-foot, 9-inch adult who weighs 203 pounds would have a BMI of 30, which is considered the threshold for obesity.

CDC officials believe the telephone survey of 350,000 adults offers conservative estimates of obesity rates, because it's based on what respondents said about their height and weight. Men commonly overstate their height and women often lowball their weight, health experts say.

"The heavier you are, the more you underestimate your weight, probably because you don't weigh yourself as often," Dietz said.

Overall, about 26 percent of the respondents were obese, according to the study, published this week in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

A different CDC survey -- a gold-standard project in which researchers actually weigh and measure survey respondents -- put the adult obesity rate at 34 percent in 2005 and 2006, the most recent years for which there are data.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of health issues in Georgia, and here for more coverage about the CDC.

(The Associated Press)

CDC: Moms pre-chewing food gave HIV to kids

For the first time, health officials report that the AIDS virus can be spread by a mother pre-chewing her infant's food, a practice mainly seen in poor, developing countries.

Three such cases were reported in the United States from 1993-2004, government scientists said Wednesday in a presentation in Boston at a scientific conference.

It's blood, not saliva, that carried the virus because in at least two of the cases the infected mothers had bleeding gums or mouth sores, according to investigators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC officials say more study is needed. But they are asking parents and caregivers with HIV not to pre-chew infants' food, and are trying to educate doctors about this kind of transmission.
Health officials believe chewed-food transmission is rare in the United States, where such behavior is considered unusual. In some countries, mothers do it because they have no access to baby food or a means of pulverizing food for toothless infants.

"But even one case is too many," said the CDC's Dr. Ken Dominguez, who helped investigate the U.S. cases.

The first involved a 15-month-old African-American boy in Miami, diagnosed in 1993. His great-aunt was infected with HIV and pre-chewed food for the boy when he was between the ages of 9 months and 14 months.

Then a 3-year-old Caribbean-American boy was diagnosed in 1995, also in Miami. His HIV-infected mother pre-chewed food for her son.

Still uncertain they had definitively connected the practice to the spread of HIV, the doctors wanted more evidence. It was years later before they could confirm a third case, which occurred in 2004. A 9-month-old African-American girl was diagnosed with HIV in Memphis. The mother began pre-chewing the girl's food when she was about four months old.

All three children were infected with HIV at a time they would have been teething and had inflamed gums. It may be that both a caregiver and a child must have wounds in their mouths for the virus to have a good chance of passing from one bloodstream to another, the investigators said.

Previous studies have linked pre-chewing to the spread of other infections including Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria that causes stomach ailments, and streptococcal pharyngitis, which triggers sore throat. That research, too, is preliminary and needs to be confirmed, CDC officials said.

In developing nations without other feeding options, any campaign against pre-chewing could be nutritionally harmful, said Kimberly Hagen at the Emory Center for AIDS Research in Atlanta.

"This would really take a lot of thinking before you could say, 'We've had three cases in 11 years, so you have to stop pre-chewing your child's food,'" Hagen said.

___
On the Net:
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections:
http://www.retroconference.org/2008/

The Associated Press)

Suicide rate up for middle-aged Americans

The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans has reached its highest point in at least 25 years, according to a government report released yesterday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reported that the suicide rate rose by about 20 percent in recent years for ages 45 through 54. That far outpaced increases among younger adults. Experts said they don't know why the suicide rates are rising so dramatically in that age group. Roughly 32,000 suicides occur each year in the U.S.

CDC head defends Senate testimony

The Director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is downplaying reports her Senate testimony on the impact of climate change on health was significantly edited by the White House. Julie Gerberding spoke yesterday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Today she told the Atlanta Press Club that it's what she said during the hearing that counts. The White House took out a paragraph that said quote “CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern."

Contaminated pot pies

A food company which closed a Georgia plant over a botulism outbreak has more contaminated food. ConAgra Foods says a salmonella outbreak across 30 states may be linked to its chicken and turkey pot pies. CDC officials are still investigating the cases. The company’s Sylvester, Georgia, plant was closed in February but has since reopened.

Report: Surge in teen suicide

The suicide rate among preteen and teenage girls has risen to its highest level in a decade, according to a CDC report out today. The report by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also says hanging has replaced firearms as the most common method. The report says there were 94 U.S. suicides among 10-14 year-olds in 2004, compared to 56 in 2003 – a jump of 76%.

Fed money for Georgia pandemic flu prep

Two million dollars in federal money is on the way to Georgia to help with pandemic flu preparedness. The money will reinforce continuing efforts to help hospitals and medical providers across the state better handle a flu outbreak. Projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that in a worst-case scenario, at least 2.7 million Georgians could become sick in a flu outbreak.

Survey: Few teens get meningitis vaccine

A new survey says only 12% of American teenagers are vaccinated against meningitis. While bacterial meningitis is rare, it can be deadly and is easily spread within schools and dormitories. In addition, only 11% have the shot against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend children get both shots when they are 11 or 12.