Health Officials

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.

A 120,000-gallon sewage spill has made Weems Creek in Annapolis unsafe for swimming, Anne Arundel County health officials said Wednesday evening. A sewage force main along Jennifer Road broke Wednesday afternoon, causing the spill. Weems Creek is off-limits to swimming and other direct water contact between the headwaters and Rowe Boulevard until further notice. Anyone who does come into contact with the water should wash well with warm, soapy water. Warning signs have been posted in the area and the land around the creek has been cleaned of sewage, health officials said.

The “stomach flu” appears to be going around and state health officials are warning residents to take some precautions. The officials say these cases in recent weeks are not really the flu. They are cases of viral gastroenteritis, which gives sufferers inflammation of the stomach and intestines. The inflammation causes diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain among other symptoms. Norovirus, which many people associate with mass illnesses on cruise ships, is the most common cause, according to the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The consent forms teenagers must get signed by their parents before using a tanning bed could soon change. The State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is recommending that the form include a clearer and more focused warning about the dangers of tanning beds, including the risk of cancer. Parents will also have to show a government-issued ID when signing the consent form for their children. The form will expire six months after being signed.   The health department was trying to better inform parents as they make the decision whether to allow their children to tan, said Dr. Clifford Mitchell, director of the state's Environmental Health Bureau.

As Memorial Day approaches and the temperatures rise, some state health officials are reminding residents to take care of themselves and their children and neighbors. The state is activating its heat emergency website, dhmh.maryland.gov/extremeheat , which has information about preventing death and illness. Heat advisories will be issued when it feels like it's at least 105 degrees after heat and humidity are factored. Health officials say at this heat level heat stroke and exhaustion are common.

State health officials have issued an alert about Baczol, an unapproved medicine found in many Latino convenience stores. Concerns about the drug came to light after a clinician at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore found that some patients were giving it to their children as cold medicine. She contacted the Baltimore City Public Health Department which investigated and found the drug sold in three Latino convenience stores. Further investigation found the drug is also for sale in other stores in Maryland.

Health officials have confirmed a case of rabies in a 6-week-old Jersey calf at an educational center in Prince George's County where elementary and middle school students learned about farming and natural resources in the Potomac River watershed. Officials with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have made it a priority to assess about 70 children who recently visited the Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek. In particular, they are investigating whether any children participated in bottle feeding the calf whose mother died in an accident, said Katherine Feldman, a state public health veterinarian.

Maryland health officials may ask state lawmakers for permission to oversee plastic surgery centers, a move inspired in part by the death of a Lochearn woman after liposuction. The state health department had already been considering whether to ask for a change to the legal definition of free-standing surgery centers to align regulations with medical risk instead of insurance billing practices, Secretary Joshua Sharfstein said. Surgical centers currently are subject to state inspection only if they meet certain criteria in how they bill insurance companies, he said.

State health officials in an article in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association criticized the oversight of compounding pharmacies and said the facilities need to take more responsibility in protecting patients from tainted drugs. The article, which appeared first in Friday's online edition of the medical journal, comes as the country still reels from a national meningitis outbreak linked to tainted steroids from the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts.

State health officials are warning fans who were at Friday's Ravens game of a possible exposure to rabies via a bat. A bat landed on a person sitting in section 500 of M&T Bank Stadium as the Ravens played the Detroit Lions in a preseason game, officials said. It isn't known whether the bat had rabies because the person brushed it off and the bat flew away. But health officials said it's possible other people seated in the area could have touched the bat. But health officials are cautioning those who may have touched the bat during the game to contact their local health department.

Maryland health officials may ask state lawmakers for permission to oversee plastic surgery centers, a move inspired in part by the death of a Lochearn woman after liposuction. The state health department had already been considering whether to ask for a change to the legal definition of free-standing surgery centers to align regulations with medical risk instead of insurance billing practices, Secretary Joshua Sharfstein said. Surgical centers currently are subject to state inspection only if they meet certain criteria in how they bill insurance companies, he said.

Baltimore County health officials found a rabid cat in the Milford Mill area and are looking for anyone who may have been exposed to the animal. The feral cat was gray, tan and white and lived among a group of other cats near Rhonda Court. The animal has since died of rabies. Health officials are seeking anyone who may have had exposure to the cat between March 28 and April 12. They are also encouraging neighbors to keep pets - particularly cats - indoors as they attempt to capture the other feral cats in the neighborhood.

More than 240,000 gallons of sewage has spilled in Gunpowder Falls State Park as of Monday afternoon after someone vandalized a manhole, Baltimore County public works officials say. Officials said the sewer overflow was discovered Sunday afternoon near Jennifer Branch - a tributary to the Gunpowder Falls - in a heavily wooded area of the park that is east of Harford Road and south of Gunpowder Falls. A resident alerted the county to the problem, officials said. Crews have been working to contain the overflow, but the waste is being discharged at a rate of about 10,000 gallons per hour, according to the public works department.

A bill to give health regulators more oversight of facilities like the now-closed Monarch Medspa in Timonium is making a late surge in the General Assembly after weeks of discussions among state and industry officials. The House of Delegates unanimously passed the legislation Monday afternoon. It needs to clear the Senate, including an extra procedural step, within the next week. The legislative session draws to a close April 8. If passed, the law would close a regulatory gap that does not allow state health officials to proactively inspect and oversee plastic surgery centers.

A Baltimore abortion clinic whose license was suspended last week disputes that a patient suffered cardiac arrest at its facility, as the state contends. The administrator for the clinic, Associates in Ob/Gyn Care LLC on North Calvert Street, said in a letter dated March 8 to state health officials that the patient began having trouble breathing while recovering from an abortion and was taken to a local hospital, where she eventually died. The patient suffered from a fatal heart condition, may have had defective heart valves and was probably in heart failure, the administrator, Melissa Shachnovitz, wrote in the letter, which the clinic provided to The Baltimore Sun. The letter to Health Secretary Joshua M. Sharfstein came in response to the license suspension, which prohibits the clinic from performing surgical abortions.

A Marylander has died of rabies for the first time since 1976, state health officials said Tuesday. It is not yet known how the person contracted the virus, which is found in animals across the state. Officials are exploring how and where the person was exposed to the virus and assessing the risk of rabies exposure to those who had direct contact with the individual. That risk is thought to be minor, as rabies is usually passed through a bite from an infected animal. Health officials are not releasing any further details on the individual, citing privacy reasons.

Maryland health officials confirmed on Tuesday four more heat-related deaths, raising the toll to 38 deaths so far in 2012, a number that already surpasses last year's total. All four occurred earlier this summer but were not found to be heat-related until recently. The victims included an elderly man and woman from Kent County, a man from Baltimore and a man fromSt. Mary's County. There were 34 heat-related deaths statewide in 2011. This year's total, which keeps climbing, could surpass the highest since 2006, when 39 heat-related deaths were confirmed, according to a state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene document.

Supporters of home births are trying to convince legislators to create a pilot program that could  eventually lead to the licensing of midwives without nursing degrees. The three-year pilot would allow certified professional midwives to deliver babies in a home setting without worry of arrest or prosecution. Certified professional midwives are trained in midwifery and meet standards set by the North American Registry of Midwives. Under the pilot progam, midwives would share their birth outcomes with the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Health officials continue to investigate how contaminated hot water sickened nearly two dozen people at the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex Monday, but the case is similar to previous ones involving faulty water-heating systems that let chemicals mix into drinking water. Twenty-three people at the Hopkins facility - home to about 600 health system and university administrative workers - fell ill with headaches, breathing difficulty and dizziness. The investigation confirmed that chemicals known as nitrates and nitrites in the water supply were responsible for the illnesses, but officials still are exploring their origin.