Health Care Workers

An article yesterday about the governor's AIDS Advisory council misstated Mr. Schaefer's reference to opposition to legislation that would require many health care workers and patients to undergo testing for the AIDS virus. Actually, he said he realized that some members objected to testing and that it was generally controversial among the council.+ The Sun regrets the errors.Gov. William Donald Schaefer told his new AIDS Advisory Council yesterday that he intends to propose legislation requiring many health-care workers and patients to get tested for the AIDS virus -- even though he realizes that most of the council members disagree.

In response to health care workers' worries about HIV, Maryland might follow the lead of California and require hospitals to use syringes designed to reduce the risk of accidental needle-pricks.The General Assembly will hold a hearing this week on a proposal to direct the state Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board to develop rules by 2001 requiring safer needles.The legislation, drafted by Del. Dan K. Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat who is also an emergency room doctor, is part of a national trend.

Shirley Ware, 57, a nurse who later became a health-care union leader, died Friday of cancer in Oakland, Calif. In 1971, Ms. Ware joined Health Care Workers Union/SEIU Local 250 as the first black woman representative since the union formed in 1934 at San Francisco General Hospital. It is now the nation's second-largest health-care union.Harold E. Samuel, 75, a former music librarian and professor at the Yale University School of Music, died Tuesday in Hamden, Conn.

In its most comprehensive move yet to squash spiking heroin use in Maryland's suburbs and rural areas, the state plans for the first time to test arrested juveniles to see if they are on drugs.The plan, expected to be announced this evening by Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, is the latest effort to contain a problem that recently has spread far beyond its historical roots, the inner-city neighborhoods of Baltimore.More people in virtually every part of Maryland are overdosing on heroin -- and at a younger age -- than ever before, according to data from law enforcement and health care workers.

THE PEOPLE of El Salvador "want people to pray and to walk with them in their struggles," reported Jane Collins, who returned to her Longfellow home last month after a 10-day trip to the Central American nation.The Salvadorans are rebuilding their country after the 12-year civil war that ended in 1992, but, Collins said, the struggle for human rights continues. "They really want the people of the United States to remember them," she said.Collins is a choir member and youth leader at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, which has had a sister parish in San Roque, San Salvador, since the mid-1980s.

Johns Hopkins Hospital temporarily shut down an AIDS outpatient clinic and barred visitors from an HIV ward after the second outbreak in three months of scabies, an itchy skin infection that spread from a patient to two dozen doctors and nurses.The outbreak was so severe Hopkins turned to an outside supplier for a cream to treat scabies, which is caused by a burrowing mite and characterized by severe itching and a red bumpy rash. The infection usually is spread by human contact.Hopkins is contacting 150 patients who have been through the ward during the past three months to check their symptoms and offer free treatment.

A shortage of health care staff, delayed medication and changes in the way patients are seen at eight Baltimore prisons are putting inmates' health at risk and wasting taxpayers' money, medical workers and officials say.An attorney for inmates and several current and former health care workers say the most critical problem now is an inadequate and ever-changing medical staff, which keeps inmates from receiving timely medication and delays emergency response....

Tourists will shun Maryland -- and bars, restaurants and hotels will lose money -- if the state's landmark workplace smoking ban takes effect as written, several business managers told state legislators yesterday.The managers asked the House Environmental Matters Committee to pass a bill exempting "the hospitality industry" from the ban, scheduled to begin March 27.Health advocates and government officials argued that the anti-smoking regulation should remain unchanged because people's health is at stake.

Opponents of the ban on smoking in the workplace argue that the new law will discourage tourism and hurt the hospitality industry. But Del. George B. Owings this week voiced a different concern. At a hearing of the House Environmental Matters Committee, Mr. Owings wondered "how many health care workers would lose their jobs" if smoking stopped and cancer were eradicated.It is not surprising that Mr. Owings, who represents a district that straddles southern Anne Arundel and Calvert counties, worries for the future of his tobacco-growing constituents.

Three more unions have made endorsements in Baltimore's mayoral election. The city firefighters and fire officers are backing City Council President Mary Pat Clarke, and private health care workers are supporting Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.The endorsement of Mrs. Clarke by Baltimore Fire Fighters Local 734 and Fire Officers Local 964 gives the two-term council president a sweep of the city's public safety unions. Last week, the police union announced its support of Mrs. Clarke, who is challenging Mr. Schmoke's bid for a third term in the Sept.

In the battle against swine flu, the first line of defense for Maryland's vaccine czar is a blue highlighter pen. That's what Greg K. Reed used this week to mark orders for vaccine against the H1N1 virus that he planned to fill. But with limited supplies, there were tough choices for the man at the center of the state's logistical effort to stem a pandemic. Reed, 42, who runs Maryland's Center for Immunization on behalf of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been hunkered down with state health department officials in their Preston Street offices, combing their lists for places that could administer vaccine the fastest to those considered most vulnerable to swine flu - children, health care workers, pregnant women and adults with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.

Local public health and political leaders gathered at Maryland General Hospital on Monday to emphasize the need for Marylanders to get the H1N1 flu vaccine that is expected to be available in limited quantities beginning this week. The officials were seeking to counter reports that some of the most vulnerable people fear that the vaccine is not well tested or safe. But they said the vaccine is especially important for children, who are disproportionately affected by this virus, as well as pregnant women, health care workers and adults with other health conditions.

The first shipments of swine flu vaccine should start arriving in Maryland by Tuesday, but the initial batch will be so limited that the doses will be offered mainly to health care workers in hospitals and clinics, state health officials say. The state is getting just 31,600 doses of vaccine to start, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - only about 1 percent of what's needed to vaccinate all the children and vulnerable adults that...

On Labor Day, workers are struggling As we celebrate Labor Day, we must also recognize that a large segment of Baltimore's workforce is struggling to provide for themselves and their families. One in five workers in Baltimore is employed in health care. But health care workers make up a large percentage of Baltimore's uninsured working poor. They earn some of the lowest wages for urban health care workers in the country, and many struggle to pay for health care coverage for themselves and their families, or just go without.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new "right of conscience" rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care workers to refuse to participate in any way in morally "objectionable procedures" such as abortion and possibly including birth control and artificial insemination. For more than 30 years, federal law has dictated that doctors and nurses may refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further by making clear that health care workers may also refuse to provide information or advice about abortion to patients.

If you think the Bush administration has done all the damage it can to the rules that protect our health, environment and personal rights, think again. In coming weeks, the lame-duck team is expected to issue last-minute rules that could gut the legal protections of the Endangered Species Act, give the FBI greatly expanded powers to spy on ordinary Americans and limit access to care for women seeking abortions, among dozens of other controversial new interpretations of federal law that are being rushed through required administrative reviews with extraordinary haste.

Dr. Justin Maxhimer tried to be careful as he drew blood from an obese patient lying in a hospital bed. The man was HIV-positive, and Maxhimer, a surgical resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, didn't want to stick a nurse or himself with the contaminated needle. But as he removed the hollow needle from the vein, the man's belly shifted and bumped Maxhimer's hand. "The needle poked my free hand and drew blood," the 31-year-old doctor recalled. Known as needle sticks, these injuries are occupational hazards at hospitals and medical clinics.

Labor Day marks the beginning of the school year, a time for students to reconnect with friends and teachers, to reflect back on the summer that was and to look toward the future and dream of possible careers. While students can and should be imagining a wide array of possible career choices, responsible adults should be using this time to help make good job opportunities a reality - especially in health care, where the need for skilled workers is so great. Maryland, like the rest of the country, faces a health care crisis.

BOSTON -- Some years ago, Rolling Stone magazine published a survey on the attitudes of baby boomer parents. The gist of it was that the people who had gone through the sexual revolution did everything, regretted nothing, and wanted their children to do none of it. This didn't surprise me. Nothing changes your perspective as much as becoming a parent, and the first order of child-raising is protection. I remember Hillary Rodham Clinton's wry sexual advice back when she was first lady and the mother of a teenager: "My theory is don't do it before you're 21, and then don't tell me about it."

After weeks of campaigning to limit flu vaccinations to the people most in need, the nation's top public health agency announced a new problem yesterday: Not enough of those urged to receive the vaccine are even trying to find it. "We want people in the high-priority group to seek vaccination," Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said during an afternoon conference call. "Many people believe that no vaccine is available and ... that is just not the case."