Cdc

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched an ad campaign to show the damage done from smoking to smokers and their families. The ads began March 19 on television, radio, online and billboards, as well as in theaters, magazines and newspapers nationwide. Called “Tips from Smokers,” the campaign will show former smokers living with diseases and disabilities. Specifically, the smokers suffer from lung and throat cancer, heart attacks, strokes and other diseases.

With some exceptions, any illness can strike anyone at any time. One of the more dangerous to emerge in recent decades is Lyme disease. Harford County, as many of us know either first-hand or because of someone we know, is not immune from the tick-borne disease. The revelation last week that Harford County Council President Billy Boniface has contracted the sickness is yet another reminder. Lyme disease is treatable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it can also be debilitating.

Women continue to mix cocktails and pregnancy despite the dangers it can pose to unborn babies. New government data found that 7.6 percent of women drank while pregnant and 1.4 percent of those moms binged on alcochol and beer. Binge drinking involves four or more drinks on one occasion. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventiion used data from a telephone survey of more than 345,000 women aged 18 to 44 to come up with its analysis. Of those, 13,880, or 4 percent, were pregnant.

One in 5 of teen births are from young moms who already have children, new CDC data shows. The Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday that although teen births have declined in the last two decades, one problem that remains is girls who get pregnant multiple times. There are about 183 "repeat teen births" each day, the CDC found. It is the second birth for 86 percent of the girls and the third birth for 13 percent of the moms. Teens with more than one child may find it difficult to finish school and get a good job. The babies are also often born premature.

The number of young children deemed at risk of lead poisoning in Maryland and nationwide expanded drastically Wednesday as a federal health agency declared it would effectively cut in half its threshold for diagnosing the environmental illness. Acknowledging mounting evidence that children can suffer lasting harm from ingesting even minute amounts of lead, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would reduce the level at which it recommends that doctors, families and health authorities act to lower a child's exposure to the toxic metal.

The current wave of pandemic H1N1 flu appears to have peaked, with four weeks of declines in several key indicators, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. Despite those declines, the outbreak is continuing to take a heavy toll of hospitalizations and deaths, especially among children. Widespread activity of swine flu was reported in 32 states in the week ending Nov. 21, down from 43 states in the week before and 48 a month ago. Between Aug. 30 and Nov. 21, there were 29,348 laboratory-confirmed swine flu hospitalizations and 1,224 deaths in the United States, although those numbers are generally assumed to be very low. New figures are expected in a couple of weeks, but two weeks ago the CDC estimated that at least 4,000 people had died from swine flu, 98,000 had been hospitalized and 22 million had contracted the virus.

LOS ANGELES -- Men undertaking risky homosexual activity are fueling a sharp increase in the incidence of syphilis and a smaller but concerning rise in gonorrhea resistant to commonly used antibiotics, federal researchers said yesterday. Those increases come at a time when venereal disease rates among historically important risk groups, especially women and minorities, have been declining, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. San Francisco, as in previous years, had the highest incidence of syphilis, with a rate of 45.9 cases per 100,000 people.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Infection-control techniques used by a Florida dentist did not measure up to national Centers for Disease Control standards and may have led to AIDS infections in three of his patients, according to the final draft of a CDC report to be published tomorrow.Genetic tests "strongly suggest" that Dr. David Acer somehow infected three of his patients, including Kimberly Bergalis, 22, who is suing her insurance provider for sending her to Dr. Acer, Ms. Bergalis' lawyers said.

MIAMI HEAT superstar Shaquille O'Neal has a legitimate gripe, and for once it's not about Kobe Bryant. Shaq is a big, big guy, but he was a little taken aback when he found out the other day that he was rated as "obese" in a weight analysis of NBA players that was based on a formula promoted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC uses something called the Body Mass Index (BMI) to assess the risk of weight-related diseases by placing individuals into one of four categories, which are determined by a calculation of height and weight.

The state medical society says it will move forward slowly to take on a leadership role to implement federal guidelines that yesterday urged doctors who perform "invasive" procedures and dentists who pull teeth and do root canals to quit if they become infected by the AIDS virus."

We've all heard that vaccines can lead to autism. But we've also heard that it's just a myth. And almost every health expert disputes the vaccine-autism link, as do numerous studies. But it's always in your mind: Am I doing the right thing? Some parents have tried to straddle those two schools of thought by having their infants vaccinated, but asking the pediatrician to space them out more than he or she normally would. A new study by the Centers for Disease Control says that spacing actually has no effect.

People across the political spectrum acknowledge that no one knows exactly what policies or programs would substantially reduce individual gun deaths and mass killings. Without well-conducted research, we will never find out. As a physician, I applaud President Barack Obama for his executive action restoring permission for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research on ways to reduce gun violence. This action removes legal barriers to systematic studies of the multiple contributors to gun-related deaths and injuries and the effects of violence in media including video games.

Maryland has received $250,000 in federal funds to explore the role of climate change on people's health. The funding was awarded by the Centers for Disease Control , which has a program aimed at preparing local communities to deal with the health affects of the changing environment. The program is attempting to identify vulnerable populations, such as children and senior citizens, and how to treat them. U.S. Congressman John Sarbanes announced the award from the CDC today.

Federal health officials declared this season's flu outbreak an epidemic Friday as Maryland hospitals and clinics continued to treat unusually high numbers of patients for the virus and manufacturers reported low supplies of the vaccine to treat the illness. The Centers for Disease Control said the virus is widespread in Maryland and 46 other states - the worst flu season in a decade. More than 15,000 Marylanders have visited emergency rooms and doctors' offices with flu-like symptoms this season, according to numbers updated Friday by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

  Cigarette consumption has gone down since 2008, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . But other tobacco use has gone up. That includes use of pipe tobacco for roll-you-own cigarettes and cigarette-like cigars, the agency says. And that is putting a crimp in a dramatic 11-year decline in smoking. Cigarette use dropped 2.5 percent from 2010 to 2011 alone, the CDC said. But pipe tobacco is up 482 percent in the same time frame and large cigars are up 233 percent.

Women continue to mix cocktails and pregnancy despite the dangers it can pose to unborn babies. New government data found that 7.6 percent of women drank while pregnant and 1.4 percent of those moms binged on alcochol and beer. Binge drinking involves four or more drinks on one occasion. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventiion used data from a telephone survey of more than 345,000 women aged 18 to 44 to come up with its analysis. Of those, 13,880, or 4 percent, were pregnant.

Just five weeks after launching an $800,000 campaign featuring explicit ads on condom use, the lead federal agency for AIDS prevention is backing away from TV and radio commercials and looking for additional ways of getting out the safe-sex message.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began exploratory discussions with communications experts yesterday about how to incorporate AIDS-prevention messages in prime-time television shows.Agreeing with an advisory panel, the CDC now acknowledges that public-service spots, no matter how frank, have minimal impact on sexual behavior.

ATLANTA - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is building a computerized network designed to provide an early warning of any bioterror attack by monitoring visits to doctors offices and emergency rooms and drugstore sales in major U.S. cities. Although the CDC has not disclosed the cost and location, the initial effort is expected to be concentrated in eight or 10 U.S. cities that also will have the Environmental Protection Agency's new Bio-Watch air quality monitors. The EPA monitors are designed to provide 24-hour notice of any release of anthrax, smallpox or other deadly germs.

The reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut its threshold for lead poisoning from 10 micrograms per deciliter to 5 micrograms were something of a simplification. What the CDC said, after years of study and discussion, was that no level of lead exposure for children is safe. The 5-microgram level was set somewhat arbitrarily as the point at which doctors and public health officials would recommend parents take action to reduce their children's risk, but there is ample evidence to show that levels of 3 or 4 micrograms - and perhaps even lower - are associated with learning and attention deficit disorders later in life.

A day after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut in half the threshold for determining lead exposure in the nation's children, pediatricians faced the task of identifying new cases from thousands of their old files. The recommendation from the CDC recognizes what doctors have long believed: that any amount of lead can be harmful. And they expressed satisfaction that the level was lowered. But the new guidance will likely pose new logistical and financial challenges for doctors and public health officials.