Hepatitis

As the first day of school approaches, parents are checking to make sure their children are up to date on their vaccines. By the time Maryland children enter kindergarten, they are required to have been vaccinated against 11 diseases -- diphtheria, pertussis, Hib (haemophilus influenza), pneumococcus, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis and chicken pox. And, this year, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics are recommending that children receive four new vaccines: a booster for chicken pox, rotavirus, hepatitis A and the human papillomavirus, says Julie Yeh, assistant chair of pediatrics at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

An article in yesterday's Maryland section about a hepatitis warning in Carroll County gave the wrong first name for Dr. David Blythe of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygeine.The Sun regrets the error.As many as 3,000 people who ate at a Wendy's Restaurant in Eldersburg this month may have been exposed to hepatitis, and more than 100 people were stricken with food poisoning after eating at an Ellicott City conference center Saturday, health officials said.The Carroll County incident was linked to a former Wendy's food handler who tested positive for hepatitis, while the cause of the Ellicott City incident was being investigated yesterday.

About 2,000 people flooded the Carroll County Health Department with calls yesterday after learning they might have been exposed to hepatitis A, a virus that attacks the liver, at a busy Wendy's restaurant in Eldersburg."

The Baltimore County Council last night voted to enlist the help of Mickey Mouse to help ensure that youngsters receive their immunizations on time.The council gave its approval for a contest in which parents who have their children fully immunized by 18 months can be eligible to win a trip to Walt Disney World and other Florida attractions.Officials hope publicity about the prize will increase immunizations for hepatitis, diphtheria and other childhood diseases from from 62 percent to more than 80 percent for children younger than age 2.State officials say the immunization rate for school-age children is nearly 100 percent.

Wendy O. Williams, 48, whose stage theatrics as lead singer of the punk band The Plasmatics included blowing up equipment and chain-sawing guitars, has committed suicide.Her former manager and longtime companion Rod Swenson said he discovered her body Monday in a wooded area near their home in Storrs, Conn. The state medical examiner said she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mr. Swenson said Miss Williams had been despondent for some time.Miss Williams, dubbed the "queen of shock rock," sported a trademark Mohawk haircut and was nominated in 1985 for a Grammy in the best Female Rock Vocal category during the height of the band's popularity.

An article in yesterday's Maryland section about a hepatitis warning in Carroll County gave the wrong first name for Dr. David Blythe of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygeine.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 9/24/98

Overwhelmed by public response to a case of hepatitis A at an Eldersburg fast-food restaurant, Carroll County health officials have ordered additional doses of an antibody that helps prevent the liver disease.About 300 people lined up during the first two hours of an impromptu clinic yesterday to receive free shots of immune globulin (IG). On Thursday, 1,118 people received shots at Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville, health officials said."We had to order more vaccine as a margin of safety," said Dr. Janet Neslen, the county's deputy health officer.

A middle school pupil who has hepatitis A doesn't pose a significant threat to other pupils and teachers, Carroll County's health officer said yesterday.The infected pupil has two siblings who also have shown symptoms of the virus, but they have not been officially diagnosed with the illness, said Larry L. Leitch, Carroll's health officer."This is not really any kind of a public health problem," said Leitch. "Even if the kids are in school in classes now, there's only a very, very, very slight chance that anyone is going to contract hepatitis A."

Baltimore County had 19 cases of hepatitis A in January -- one more than the 18 cases reported by the county for all of 1997 -- and Maryland health officials said yesterday they have issued a statewide alert while they investigate the sudden spread of the illness.The January outbreak was clustered along the York Road corridor from the city line into northeastern Baltimore County, according to state health officials. But the cause, and why it is concentrated in that area, remains unexplained.

State and local health officials are working to contain an outbreak of hepatitis A at the Baltimore County Detention Center and authorities said yesterday they suspect the virus was spread by an infected food service worker."

No matter the destination, travelers often come home with more than pictures and T-shirts. They pick up a malady - a cold or a stomach ailment, or worse. But as the summer travel season gets under way, those in the business of keeping people healthy say good planning and some vigilance can increase the odds of keeping illness at bay. They say that for most people traveling domestically by car, train or plane, the most important steps to staying healthy - or at least reducing the severity of a cold - are simple.

Shares in Human Genome Sciences Inc., a 15-year-old Rockville biotech company that has yet to get a drug on the market, plummeted to their lowest level since 1995 yesterday after disclosing that serious side effects emerged during a clinical trial of a potentially lucrative hepatitis treatment when patients received high doses. The share price dropped nearly $4.40 to $5.62, or almost 44 percent. Human Genome Sciences officials said they were still optimistic that Albuferon would win approval - and have market success - at a lower dose.

As the first day of school approaches, parents are checking to make sure their children are up to date on their vaccines. By the time Maryland children enter kindergarten, they are required to have been vaccinated against 11 diseases -- diphtheria, pertussis, Hib (haemophilus influenza), pneumococcus, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis and chicken pox. And, this year, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics are recommending that children receive four new vaccines: a booster for chicken pox, rotavirus, hepatitis A and the human papillomavirus, says Julie Yeh, assistant chair of pediatrics at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

Children entering grades five through nine this fall may need to get extra shots this summer to comply with new statewide immunization requirements. If students don't have documentation that they have received vaccinations for chicken pox and hepatitis B by the first day of school, they will be turned away, said Rhonda Gill, the school system's director of student services. "They won't be able to attend school. That's what makes it a very serious matter," Gill said. School system officials are sending letters to parents, and information about the shots needed is available on the county schools' Web site and from the Anne Arundel County Department of Health.

State and federal health officials are still investigating a suspicious cluster of hepatitis C infections in the Baltimore area and have temporarily shut down a specialized Timonium pharmacy that might be linked to the outbreak. Officials at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would disclose few details yesterday, including the location and number of victims infected with the virus, which kills as many as 10,000 people in the United States each year. "It's still evolving," said Dr. Diane Matuszak, acting deputy secretary for public health services, who is leading the investigation.

Maryland General Hospital's laboratory, under scrutiny for months after workers there sent out hundreds of possibly inaccurate lab test results, has corrected major problems, federal regulators have found, and is again in compliance with conditions for participating in Medicare. Regulators who inspected the hospital as a whole last month found that it, too, met the standards for participation in Medicare, despite some violations: a dirty kitchen floor, failure to keep a current nursing care plan for three of 51 patients sampled and a "very messy, disorganized and dirty" pharmacy that was largely cleaned up by the next day. But overall, the Baltimore hospital considers the compliance findings good news.

State health department inspectors will conduct a complete review of operations at the troubled Maryland General Hospital, looking beyond the laboratory problems that have been the recent focus of investigation. Federal officials requested the state take this unusual step after concluding that the hospital has serious deficiencies in three areas, according to an April 5 letter made public yesterday: quality assessment, laboratory services and oversight by the hospital's governing body.

Officials at Maryland General Hospital said yesterday that they will offer free retesting to any patients who were tested for HIV or hepatitis C at the hospital during a 14-month period ending in August of last year. Lee Kennedy, a spokesman for the hospital, said the offer was made to address concerns about the reliability of tests that were performed on an analyzer known as a Labotech. The equipment is no longer being used, and state and hospital officials have determined that about 460 HIV and hepatitis C test results obtained from the machine never should have been sent out. Though Kennedy said he did not know how many additional patients would be eligible for the free tests, the numbers are likely to be in the thousands.

Anne Arundel County health officials are suggesting that recent patrons of Jillian's Sports Cafe in Arundel Mills mall contact the Health Department because a restaurant worker tested positive this month for hepatitis A. Customers who drank beverages with ice or freshly cut lemons at the restaurant between Dec. 4 and Dec. 15 are advised to consider receiving a shot of immune globulin, which confers protection against hepatitis infection if administered within...

Baltimore-based Passport Health, which specializes in giving immunization shots through its clinics nationwide, has to bear part of the cost of re-administering thousands of hepatitis A vaccinations to patients after the second-largest U.S. drug maker recalled batches of the vaccine worldwide. Merck & Co. Inc. ordered the recall of its Vaqta vaccine and has offered to credit its customers, including Passport, for returned vaccines and supply free replacement doses. Merck will also pay for blood tests of patients who received the vaccine.