Epidemic

We were saddened to read of the callous attack on a Frederick teenager who was waiting to be interviewed about school bullying ("Teenager charged after bullying caught on camera," Oct. 14). The fact that you published the victim's name, however, further weakens our trust in your news agency. What will happen now? You suggest the "authorities" (meaning the school system, the police?) believe this to be an isolated incident unrelated to previous incidents of bullying. But who are these authorities?

President Barack Obama announced today that he will send up to 3,000 health workers and military personnel to Liberia to help stem the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa that has paralyzed the health system there and threatened the lives of millions of people in the region. It's about time. The epidemic represents a crisis of global dimensions, and the fight against it requires the U.S. to take a leadership role if the effort is to succeed. We can only wonder how many lives could have been saved if the Obama administration had taken these steps - and more - weeks ago. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 20,000 people could be infected by the Ebola virus in the coming months, which would make it the largest outbreak in history.

America is witnessing an epidemic of hand held phone lust! We have become a nation of techno-addicts — and there is a trillion-dollar industry feeding the hunger! Those overnight lines for the new Apple device are a clear symptom. Why are we relentlessly tethered to instant communication? Today Americans suffer from isolation and loss of physical contact from one another. It's frightening to see folks crave the iPhone 4s ("Apple fans get early dose of iPhone fever," June 25)

The recent dramatic rise in heroin overdose deaths has reached near epidemic levels in Maryland ( "Overdose deaths are preventable," Aug. 29). The commentary by Deanna Wilson, Stephanie Sparrow and Jennifer Kirschner is an important follow up to the views expressed by Sun columnist Dan Rodricks , who questioned the accuracy of the reported number of heroin addicts in Baltimore ( "Heroin capital claim based on an old, bad number," Aug. 28). Regrettably, it appears that the rest of America has caught up with Baltimore's widespread substance abuse problem.

There is an incurable disease infecting this country, and its name is "violence" ( "Six people shot, three fatally, in city over holiday weekend," May 27). Yet the majority of the American public seems to have taken a protective vaccine for immunity called "business as usual. " This enables us to turn a deaf ear to the media and pursue our lives with a coat of armor. The horror of Newtown repeats itself daily. Now we are immune. Our mayors mouth answers for the public - "even one is too many," they say, and "there were fewer shootings this year than last" - but we have become immune to anger and immune to action.

Dr. Angela Wakhweya began her medical career in her native Uganda, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, where she saw many patients, friends and even some family members succumb to the deadly disease. The experience propelled her into the public health field, and eventually led her to Maryland, where she worked on infectious disease prevention at the state health department in Baltimore. Maryland ranks fourth in the nation in terms of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases.

A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the U.S. may have underestimated the number of new HIV infections occurring each year over the last decade by as much as 40 percent should send up red flags for Maryland health officials, particularly in Baltimore, which accounts for nearly half the state's AIDS cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nationally, 56,300 people were newly infected with HIV in 2006. Previous estimates had put the number at 40,000.

NEW YORK -- The United Nations AIDS organization has released disturbing estimates of the seemingly relentless expansion of the HIV pandemic.At a time when many Americans are optimistic that drug therapy might eliminate the virus, HIV is taking a heavy toll worldwide.According to the agency, every minute six people become infected with HIV: 7,500 adults per day and 1,000 children. About 30 million people have acquired the virus during the past 15 years; 6.4 million of them have died of AIDS.

BEIJING - In a live, televised news conference, the new acting mayor of Beijing called the SARS epidemic severe and uncontrolled yesterday as he sought to convince a panicky public that the battle against the disease had been effectively joined at last. "We are now facing up to this grave difficulty," said the acting mayor, Wang Qishan, a former banking chief and a protege of the no-nonsense former prime minister, Zhu Rongji. Wang was summoned to Beijing 10 days ago to replace the former mayor, Meng Xuenong, who was fired for his part in covering up the city's surging epidemic.

WASHINGTON -- Seventeen years after AIDS was first recognized among gay white men in New York and San Francisco, the disease in this country is becoming largely an epidemic among black people, quietly devastating families and neighborhoods, yet all but ignored by leading black institutions.Blacks make up 13 percent of the U.S. population. But they now account for about 57 percent of new infections with human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are endless metrics to gauge whether the United States is ahead or behind other countries. Finland does education better and cheaper. Russians and central Europeans beat Americans in alcohol consumption. But it takes only five minutes for the average American to earn enough money to buy a pint of beer -- far less time than in any other nation. And, when it comes to meat consumption, only the Australians come close to matching the amount of dead animal we eat in the land of the free and the home of the obese.

The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit that officially opened today in Washington is as notable for what isn't on the agenda as for what is. The meeting between President Barack Obama and more than 40 African heads of state has been billed as forum for talks on security issues, foreign investment and economic development on the continent. But so far, at least, the recent outbreak of deadly Ebola virus in three African nations has remained absent from the official agenda. Mr. Obama needs to take this opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the U.S. and its African partners in efforts to bring the epidemic under control and provide the resources needed to prevent its spread.

In Howard County, it's perfectly legal to consume the biggest, most gargantuan family-size bag of barbecue-flavored potato chips at one sitting and wash it down with a case of the most sugary soda ever made. Or, if that's not your taste, perhaps something more along the lines of the Homer Simpson diet with a thousand glazed doughnuts and a 64-ounce carton of chocolate syrup. County employees can partake of this artery-clogging, stomach-distending meal as often as they'd like. So can public school students.

As I watched HBO's new film "The Normal Heart" this weekend, sharp memories kept flashing through my mind of emaciated young people wracked with sores and dying before my eyes. They are memories I shouldn't have, memories most gay men my age thankfully lack. I was born in 1985 - the same year as the premier of Larry Kramer's Tony Award-winning play on the start of the AIDS epidemic in New York City's gay community, which "The Normal Heart" was adapted from. Thanks to a host of drugs now available to HIV-positive people in the United States, I count myself among a generation of American gay men who never had to watch thousands of our peers rapidly deteriorate from perfect health to death's doorstep because of a monstrous, unnamed disease.

There is an incurable disease infecting this country, and its name is "violence" ( "Six people shot, three fatally, in city over holiday weekend," May 27). Yet the majority of the American public seems to have taken a protective vaccine for immunity called "business as usual. " This enables us to turn a deaf ear to the media and pursue our lives with a coat of armor. The horror of Newtown repeats itself daily. Now we are immune. Our mayors mouth answers for the public - "even one is too many," they say, and "there were fewer shootings this year than last" - but we have become immune to anger and immune to action.

Reporter Meredith Cohn 's recent article about the World Health Organization's new sugar recommendations highlighted the concerns of medical and public health experts over the epidemic of childhood obesity ( "Officials urge consumers to cut back on sugar," March 21). Sugar in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages is in fact the leading contributor to the obesity epidemic. According to the Institute of Medicine's 2012 report, a full 20 percent of the nation's weight increase since 1977 can be directly attributed to sugary drinks like soda, sports drinks, energy drinks and sweetened juices and teas.

An American doctor advising Taiwan on fighting its SARS epidemic has come down with symptoms of the respiratory disease and will be flown home by air ambulance with three of his healthy colleagues, the governments of both countries said yesterday. It is not certain that the doctor, Chesley L. Richards Jr., an epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has SARS. But if he does, Richards, 42, will be the first American investigator to have contracted severe acute respiratory syndrome.

While just a teenager in the 1970s, she danced on The Block, where she snorted cocaine and heroin and sold sex in backrooms. Later, with her addictions firmly rooted, she set out on her own, offering her body on the streets of West Baltimore as a deadly virus was spreading. The years have worn away at Sharon Williams, whose deeply lined face, reddened eyes and pained expressions tell of poor health, nights in abandoned buildings and customers like the man who kicked her down a flight of stairs, breaking two ribs and puncturing a lung.

According to a recent White House report, one out of every five young women is victimized by a sexual assault during her college years. Yet nearly half those crimes are never reported to school officials or to police. Only about 12 percent of students formally report a sexual assault on campus, investigators found, with the result that such acts have become one of the most underreported crimes against college women. That is why Del. Jon S. Cardin, a Baltimore County Democrat and candidate for attorney general, has introduced legislation in this year's General Assembly that would require Maryland's colleges and universities to conduct anonymous surveys among women students in order to determine how commonly incidents of sexual assault actually occur on the state's campuses.

If Coca-Cola really wants to prevent obesity in kids, as they say ( "Coca-Cola has taken steps to help reduce obesity," Oct. 27), they need to respect reality. The beverage giant spends two-thirds of its marketing budget inflating sales of its most sugary drinks. The reason: Advertising works. That's why they get blamed in the obesity epidemic. Coca-Cola does offer other choices - no- or low-calorie options we eagerly promote on our Better Beverage Finder (www.betterbeveragefinder.org/)