CDC

ATLANTA -- Public health authorities were confronted with one patient - just one - with a deadly infectious disease, but they failed to control his movements. They weren't dealing with a plague affecting thousands of patients. They weren't confronted with the chaos of a pandemic. Yet they dithered over court orders and rules and regulations, unable to make a quick decision that would have kept the patient, 31-year-old Andrew Speaker, from leaving the country. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was left desperately trying to track down passengers who sat near him on two trans-Atlantic flights last month.

AS THE gun battles continue to rage in the schools, on the streets and in the fractious House of Representatives, something is missing.Amid all the emotional rancor, something has gotten lost in the controversy.In a bygone era, they used to call it horse sense. Today, in the absence of any sense whatsoever, all that's left is the artful dodge.Throughout the debate so far, reason has been trumped by strident hyperbole. But it need not be this way.It would be helpful to approach the issue of gun mortality from a more clinical perspective, taking a cue from the medical community, which deals with death and morbidity all the time.

The number of deaths traced to contaminated meat from a Sara Lee Corp. processing plant in Michigan has climbed to nine, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday. In addition, three women have suffered miscarriages.The outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes has been identified in 62 people in 12 states since August, with five new cases confirmed in Arizona, health officials said.Nine adults have died and three women suffered miscarriages after eating hot dogs and possibly delicatessen meats containing Listeria bacteria, the federal health agency said.

Two hundred city welfare recipients and noncustodial parents will participate in job training, placement and retention programs under a federal grant of about $1.2 million awarded recently to the Enterprise Foundation's "Ready, Work, Grow" program.Participants must live in Cherry Hill, Druid Heights, Sandtown-Winchester, Washington Village/Pigtown or East Baltimore-Midway; be registered with the Department of Social Services; or be the father of a child whose mother receives welfare.For participation in the program, Enterprise Baltimore has targeted three community development corporations -- Tri-Churches Housing Inc., Cherry Hill New Creations and Druid Heights CDC -- and six employment service providers -- EDEN Jobs, Genesis Jobs, Washington Village/Pigtown Family Support and Career Center, Damascus Career Center, Payne Memorial Outreach Inc. and Sylvan Learning Systems.

After years of substantial declines, the number of abortions performed in the United States increased very slightly in 1996, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.There were 1,221,585 abortions reported to the CDC in 1996, a 0.9 percent increase from the 1,210,883 reported in 1995 -- but still 15 percent below the 1,429,577 peak reported in 1990.The abortion ratio also rose slightly, to 314 from 311 for every 1,000 live births, in part because the number of live births was a little lower.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland will receive more than $1 million this year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the study of Pfiesteria, the microscopic organism that was blamed last summer for the deaths of tens of thousands of fish and for hundreds of ailments among people who work along the state's waterways.The money is part of an overall $7 million CDC package earmarked for Pfiesteria in a House appropriations bill in September by Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, a Democrat from Southern Maryland.

Couples stood roughly a 1-in-5 chance in 1995 of taking home a baby each time they attempted in-vitro fertilization and other high-tech methods of overcoming infertility, according to a federal report released yesterday.The report is the first giving consumers a way to evaluate a clinic's track record. It was prepared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and two organizations representing fertility doctors and consumers."For many couples, the dream of having a child is not easily realized," said Dr. Lynn Wilcox, director of the CDC's Division of Reproductive Health.

Care-Givers Not Eyeing HandoutsIn Dick Buczek's letter ("Child Care Subsidy," May 29), it is obvious that once again, the major point of financially supporting early childhood education has been missed.I suspect that you visualize child care as a "change diapers, feed and play a little" type of involvement. It is much more than that. A large number of early-care providers are well-educated, with college degrees, and could be making considerably larger salaries (not to mention benefits) in other professions.

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.

WASHINGTON -- Saying that evidence shows black Americans have a much tougher time giving up cigarettes permanently than whites and Latinos, federal health officials announced a new anti-smoking campaign yesterday designed to help them kick the habit for good."

A fifth person has died of swine flu in Maryland, state health officials said Friday. The person was an adult from the Washington suburbs who had an underlying medical condition, officials said. As with other deaths from the H1N1 virus, officials would not release the person's name, gender or hometown. Since the outbreak this spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 436 deaths and 6,506 hospitalizations nationwide stemming from the virus. The agency has stopped keeping track of cases that don't result in deaths or hospital stays as the pandemic continues to spread.

Six Maryland schools were scheduled to reopen Wednesday morning after state health officials, relying on advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, decided the severity of the swine flu outbreak did not warrant keeping students at home. The decision to reopen the sites reflects a deeper understanding of the virus and its potential to spread quickly beyond schools. "It is no longer necessary to keep schools closed," said John M. Colmers, state secretary of health and mental hygiene.

Faced with the highest number of measles cases in a dozen years, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning parents to vaccinate their children to ward off further outbreaks. From January through July, 131 measles cases have been identified in 15 states and the District of Columbia - the most since 1996, the CDC announced yesterday. About half of the cases involve children whose parents refused to vaccinate them for religious or philosophical reasons. No cases have been detected in Maryland.

Federal health officials warned yesterday that the U.S. could be on the verge of a major outbreak of measles, a viral disease that had been declared wiped out in this country in 2000. The official tally of measles cases between Jan. 1 and April 25 totaled 64, the highest number in six years, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Another eight were reported earlier this week among members of a single family who attended a religious conference in Washington state, the CDC said.

Vapotherm Inc. is waging a comeback after revenue at the Stevensville respiratory device maker disappeared two years ago. The company's only product, an innovative machine that heats and moistens air to help patients breathe better, was still gaining market share during the summer of 2005 when disaster struck. Its device was in more than 900 hospitals and the eight-year-old company was about to reach the break-even point. That's when Kevin Thibodeau, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, was calling on a hospital in California and a message from a Vapotherm distributor flashed on his BlackBerry: One Pennsylvania hospital had reported that a Vapotherm machine had become contaminated with a bacterium called Ralstonia.

Almost all children under 18 should get annual flu vaccinations, a federal advisory panel recommended yesterday - the first time the vaccine is being suggested for groups who do not have the highest risk of death from the disease. The recommendation to vaccinate 30 million additional school-age children is based on more than a desire to keep youngsters healthy and in class. Doctors hope it will protect their parents and grandparents, too. "Kids are not just transmitters, they're amplifiers," said Dr. James King, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Children as young as 6, looking for a free and "dreamy" high, are engaging in a potentially deadly practice many call "the choking game," a new report says. A federal study of news reports has identified 82 deaths in 31 states from 1995 to October 2007. Fifty-seven children died in 2005 and 2006 alone. But even if they survive, say experts at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the "game" might leave them with permanent brain damage, seizure disorders or other disabilities.

After 14 years of steady decline, the rate of teen births rose 3 percent last year, according to a federal study released last week. Bill Albert, deputy director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a nonprofit and nonpartisan research group, said that after years of declining teen birthrates, "perhaps complacency has become the enemy of progress here." The new numbers were compiled by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using 2006 birth records covering 99.9 percent of the United States.

We have two grown sons, ages 27 and 24. Both are gainfully employed, live in respectable apartments and have cell phones. Although both can afford one, neither has seen any reason to install a landline. This has its advantages. For example, we don't have to think about whether they're at home before we call. And at home is someplace they're usually not. On the other hand, a call answered doesn't necessarily mean a call completed. "Sorry Dad, I'm just headed down into the subway and GRRcHH*3!

DENVER -- The Atlanta tuberculosis patient whose trans-Atlantic voyage in May sparked an international public health incident has a less severe form of the disease than was initially diagnosed, health officials said yesterday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in late May that Andrew Speaker had the most dangerous form of the illness, known as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, and had left the U.S. against the advice of medical authorities. The CDC asked the Department of Homeland Security to bar him from flying back into the U.S. and, for the first time in 44 years, used its quarantine power to order him into isolation should he return.