Among the flood of questions raised by the recent uproar over mammography screening guidelines is this one: Are there other breast imaging methods that can do a better job of detecting cancers needing treatment in women under 50--and not detecting things that don't?
Dr. Carol Lee (Memorial Sloan-Kettering)
We asked Dr. Carol Lee of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She chairs the American College of Radiology's commission on breast imaging.
Here's an edited version of our conversation.
How can we distinguish cancers that are going to cause problems from the ones that aren't?
Clearly, clearly, we need somehow to figure out which cancers are potentially deadly and which ones aren't. This is a matter of tumor biology. But until we get that sorted out, we can't say we're going to stop looking for cancers.
The obesity epidemic has come to this, a Pennsylvania college is telling students to shape up--or else.
People who are obese are more susceptible to other diseases, one college is trying to make its students healthier. ( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Entering freshmen at Lincoln University have to get their body mass index, or BMI, measured. And if the result comes back above 30, the threshold for obesity, the students have to take a physical education class called "HPR 103 Fitness Walking/ Conditioning" or they can't graduate. Details here.
The requirement kicked in for students who enrolled at Lincoln in the fall of 2006. That class is now in its senior year, and most are looking forward to their graduation this spring. But for 80 seniors, graduation will hinge upon their taking phys ed or passing the required BMI test, according to minutes of a Nov. 3 faculty meeting at Lincoln.
Alcohol-laced energy drinks get you drunk and keep you awake at the same time. Today the Food and Drug Administration is asking manufacturers of the beverages for proof that they're safe.
MillerCoors removed caffeine from their product, Sparks, in 2008 when a lawsuit was threatened. (Reed Saxon/AP)
These combo drinks have been manufactured by companies big and small for the last couple years, and are increasingly a drink of choice among college students. A quarter of college drinkers are reaching for these alcohol and caffeine drinks when they party, according to research done by Dr. Mary Claire O'Brien, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Why? So they can stay up longer and drink more, leading to dangerous ends, she says.
Students who mix caffeine and alcohol put themselves at higher risk for injury and other alcohol-related consequences, compared to students who drink alcohol without the added caffeine, according to O'Brien's research.
Uh-oh. For the first time in 15 years, more Americans are smoking.
Some 20.6 percent of U.S. adults were smokers in 2008, up from 19.8 percent the year before, according to estimates by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
A higher proportion of American adults is smoking. (Owen Humphreys/AP)
Even that small uptick worries anti-smoking advocates. "Clearly, we've hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told the Associated Press.
Mandatory paid sick-leave might have gotten thrown out of the House health overhaul bill, but Congressional Democrats haven't given up yet. They still have a chance to get legislation passed -- by tying it to swine flu.
Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd announced he would introduce "emergency" sick-leave legislation in the Senate. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CN) said Tuesday he intended to introduce emergency sick-leave legislation tied to the new H1N1 virus outbreak.
It's similar to a bill introduced in the House last week by Democratic Rep. George Miller of California. The House bill would apply to businesses with 15 or more employees, and guarantee five paid sick days for workers ordered to stay home due to a contagious illness like swine flu. But where this bill significantly differs from other recent proposals is that it comes with an expiration date: two years from the day it's signed into law.
The bad news about the U.S. health system just keeps coming.
A premature baby, born at 28 weeks, lies in the neonatal intensive care unit of a New York hospital. The CDC says the large number of premature births is one factor behind the high infant mortality rate in the U.S. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Infant mortality in the U.S. is worse than in 29 other countries, including practically all of Europe, Canada and Australia, says a report just out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If there's any good news, it's that the situation in the U.S. hasn't gotten even worse. Based on 2005 data, the U.S. ranked 30th in the world in infant mortality, compared with 29th in 2004 and 23rd in 1990. Back in the good old days of 1960, the nation ranked 12th.
With all the attention on the danger malaria and HIV/AIDS pose for kids around the globe, you might be surprised to learn that pneumonia kills more than 2 million children worldwide each year--more than any other disease.
A woman holds her 8-month-old, sick with pneumonia, in Bangalore, India. (Aijaz Rahi/AP)
Pneumonia is a preventable and treatable. But antibiotics and immunizations that we take for granted in the US, just aren't available in parts of the world where pneumonia is a big problem.
Almost all the pneumonia deaths in kids--98 percent--occur in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where vaccines, antibiotics and basic medical care are often hard to come by. The death toll has prompted global health groups to mobilize in a fight against pneumonia in children. They're kicking off the effort today.
Courtesy of Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, we have a preview of Bill and Melinda Gates' big talk tonight in Washington, D.C., before lawmakers, administration officials and foreign policy experts. The Gateses are in town to drum up government support for global health initiatives, as well as promote their new Living Proof Project.
Bill and Melinda Gates at the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Courtesy Gates Foundation)
"Out of 6 billion people, there's about 2 billion that are still outside of that positive cycle of improvement and need the generosity of the U.S. government to get on it," Bill Gates told Inskeep.
A big problem with foreign aid, they told Inskeep, was that Americans don't know that aid does make a difference. "When we travel in places like Africa, we see incredible changes, and incredible signs of hope -- particularly in the area of AIDS or childhood vaccinations," said Melinda Gates. But most Americans, she said, have no idea that their money is having an impact at all. "We hear more the negative stories, and we want to make sure people understand, no, these have been incredible investments."
So where are we today on the question of screening for cancer?
The white arrow points out cancer in this mammogram. (NIH via Wikimedia Commons)
Well, the American Cancer Society is emphatically saying it's not changing its stance on the risks and benefits of screening, contrary to a front-page story in Wednesday's New York Times that said the group is "quietly working" on changes to its Web site that would emphasize "a real risk of overtreating" breast, prostate and some other cancers.
Putting a point on it, Dr. J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer at the group, wrote on his blog:
The American Cancer Society is not working on any stealth project to change commentary on our website to emphasize the shortcomings and risks of screening. If we are, I would know about it, and I haven't heard anything about such a plan. We don't have to. You see, we already discuss these issues right there in plain view, including on this blog.
To screen or not to screen is becoming a hot question in cancer again. Has the push for early detection of prostate and breast cancer, in particular, been oversold?
A blood test can detect a prostate cancer like this one, but can't necessarily tell whether the cancer is dangerous or not. (Visuals Unlimited/Corbis)
The American Cancer Society is rethinking its stance and working on a more nuanced message that would say screening for breast, prostate and some other cancers carries its own risks: overtreating small and fairly unthreatening cancers and overlooking some deadlier varieties, the New York Timesreports.
Take a listen to ACS's Chief Medical Officer Otis Brawley, whose job is to promote "cancer prevention, early detection, and quality treatment." He tells the Times, "people shouldn't panic over the change, " 'But I'm admitting that American medicine has overpromised when it comes to screening. The advantages to screening have been exaggerated.' "
The time has come for school meals to join the modern nutritional age.
This lunch tray features healthy choices that could become more common. (Peter Cosgrove/AP)
Pile on the fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains; cut the salt, saturated fat and trans fat, recommends the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine.
A report just put out by the IOM offers a roadmap for upgrading the nutritional standards for lunches and breakfasts served under the federal program that subsidizes meals for needy kids. Perhaps the most profound piece of advice is placing a limit on calories, which would be a first.
The appeal of those little pet turtles escaped us, even before we first heard about their role as carriers of disease. Give us a dirty rat any day.
Little pet turtles, like these being inspected at an Atlanta airport in 2006, pose a big salmonella risk--especially for kids. (Ric Feld/AP)
Now our low opinion is bolstered by an in-depth report on a 34-state outbreak of salmonella infections linked to those slimy little reptiles back in 2007 and 2008. Researchers talked with 78 patients or their parents to find out more about the role of turtles in the spread of the dangerous infections. Not a pretty picture.
Most of the folks who got sick--60 percent--were around turtles the week before they fell ill. Sixteen, or 34 percent, said the turtles came from a pet store.
When health questions crop up, the first resource for answers is often the family doctor. But if eating right is on your mind, how would you feel if the doctor's professional society is taking money from the soft-drink industry?
Should Coke pay your family doctor to tell you what to drink? (Justin Sullivan/Getty)
The American Academy of Family Physicians just inked a controversial deal with Coca-Cola to develop educational material for consumers on the beverages that have made the company a mint.
It's the first corporate alliance for AAFP. President Dr. Lori Heim wouldn't disclose the exact amount involved but said the medical group would receive an amount "in the strong six figures."
For the money, the doctors' group will provide info on how people can "incorporate sweetened, unsweetened and artificially sweetened beverages into a healthy lifestyle," Heim said.
Just because mom always taught you to wash up after doing your business doesn't mean you heed her sound advice. Now some British researchers have found the next best thing to mom looking over your shoulder in the bathroom may be prompting a stranger to do it for her.
What's it going to take to get you to wash with soap? ( iStockphoto.com)
The researchers found that provocative signs posted outside bathrooms to shame people into washing their hands with soap are much more effective than traditional gentle reminders. "The good old worthy health messages don't work anymore, no one's listening," says Val Curtis, a hygiene specialist at the London School of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine. "So we're trying to do things that are a little edgy, a little rude."
Indeed, "Is the person next to you washing with soap?" was the bathroom slogan that spurred the biggest bump in soap use, according to work done by Curtis and colleagues. For both men and women, the idea of someone watching and judging was the most powerful way to boost handwashing.
Almost four decades after the Surgeon General first suggested secondhand smoke causes heart attacks, the National Institute of Medicine says there's no doubt about it.
Snuff 'em out, if you've got 'em. (iStockphoto.com)
The experts rest their case on 11 studies that looked at heart attack rates after communities banned smoking in public. They all showed the same thing--a pretty quick drop in heart attacks, ranging from 6 to 47 percent, depending on the study.
The 11-member IOM panel was especially struck by two studies -- one from Monroe County, Indiana, the other from Scotland. They showed a clear benefit of public-smoking bans on nonsmokers.
Leafy greens, tomatoes and eggs, oh my! We were almost too scared to eat lunch today after reading a report that included those three favorites of ours among the 10 Riskiest Foods Regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
Should this salad scare you? (iStockphoto.com)
The Center for Science in the Public Interest compiled the list , which they called the "tip of the iceberg" on foods that can spread disease. As far as risky chow goes, the other baddies are tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, sprouts and berries. Gulp. Is nothing safe?
The fear of breast cancer is so strong for some women at risk for the disease that they choose to have their breasts removed to protect themselves.
But how often? A new study based on data from New York finds the surgical removal of both breasts in the absence of a cancer diagnosis is rare. But more women are having mastectomies of the noncancerous breast after surgery to remove the cancerous one, despite questions about the benefits of the approach.
Drawing on 11 years of data in New York, researchers from Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the state health department identified 6,275 women who had prophylactic mastectomies. Some 81 percent of them had a cancer diagnosis in one breast, while the rest had no personal history of breast cancer.
If swine flu takes a turn toward the truly terrible, hospitals will be swamped and there won't be enough ventilators to help the very sick breathe.
Short supplies of ventilators could force tough decisions, if swine flu gets ugly. (Michael Krinke/iStockphoto.com)
Right now, a doomsday scenario doesn't seem likely. The second wave of H1N1 looks a lot like the usual seasonal flu and not a reprise of the Spanish Flu, the 1918 pandemic that killed 50 million or more.
Still, public health officials are preparing for the worst and that means coming up with plans for who would get a ventilator and who wouldn't. Rationing of ventilators could pit the families of people with serious non-flu illnesses against those of acutely ill flu patients.
ProPublica's Sheri Fink writes about controversial guidelines in the works that could, for instance, allow hospitals to withhold ventilators from people with chronic, irreversible illnesses, such as cancer, so that flu patients would get breathing help instead.
The ultimate weapon against AIDS would be a vaccine to prevent infection with the HIV virus. Until now, though, every test of experimental vaccines has failed.
Thai Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai (R) talks with US Ambassador to Thailand Eric John (L) about promising HIV vaccine test results. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/Getty Images)
But results from the largest-ever vaccine trial gave new hope to scientists that, in principle, a vaccine could work someday.
In most states, kids aren't supposed to be able to be visit the local tanning salon without a parent's permission.
Tanning salons could do a better job on rules limiting teenagers' use of tanning beds. (iStockphoto.com)
And a creative study that used college students who sounded like 15-year-old girls to call salons for appointments found most of them--87 percent--wouldn't go ahead without a parental OK.
But, the sting, which targeted tanning salons in all 50 states, found they didn't do as good a job in following Food and Drug Administration recommendations that newcomers shouldn't go for tanning sessions more than three times in their first week. Only 11 percent of salons met that standard.
We'll admit it. We tried clove cigarettes. Once. In college.
There better not be any cloves in there. (iStockphoto.com)
It was a terrible experience, and sitting near somebody smoking them was even worse than the half-dozen numbing puffs we took ourselves.
So we imagine most kids, other than a few wannabe bohemians, are celebrating the federal ban of clove cigarettes, along with all other flavored cigarettes--except menthol
Let's take a break for one moment from the breathless coverage of the health care overhaul on Capitol Hill to consider something else listeners are concerned about, especially the pregnant ones: Whether to get vaccinated against the swine flu.
What to consider when pregnant. (istochphoto.com)
FDA recently approved four new swine flu vaccines, and a fifth is in the works.
But there has been some confusion about what the estimated 3 to 4 million women who are pregnant should do.
Health Correspondent Richard Knox, who has been closely following developments on the new H1N1 virus and vaccine development, weighs in on this issue:
With Senator Tom Harkin replacing the late Senator Edward Kennedy as lead dog on the key health committee in the Senate, you might be more interested than before in what the Iowa Democrat has on his agenda. High on the list: radiation hazards from cellphones.
Harkin, long chairman of an appropriations subcommittee, kicked off a hearing Monday to lay out what's known about cellphone risks--and what we should know. His remarks, according to a written statement, were a little contradictory.
The senator said he'd use his cellphone right after the testimony but made an ominous comparison between the state of knowledge about cellphone safety today and the first alarms about tobacco hazards:
If more people had heeded those early warnings, or if we could have established the link between tobacco and cancer more quickly, many lives would have been saved.
There are so many ways to make a living, but one of the most challenging may be working to reduce infant mortality in the inner city.
Take a look at a typical day for Lisa Uncles, a certified nurse-midwife who's the acting clinical director of the Family Health and Birth Center in Washington. She's one of three people profiled in an NPR multimedia feature called "The Way We Work" for Labor Day.
Nearly one in six kids in this country is obese, and it's high time for local governments to take action about the country's childhood weight problem, says a report just out from the Institute of Medicine.
Healthy choices can be hard. (iStockphoto.com)
Parents, it seems, can only do so much to promote their children's health. So community measures are needed, a panel of experts says. The list of options from the IOM includes some that nobody could question, such as making sure water fountains are available in public places and that parks are safe and attractive.
Others are a little more provocative, such as taxing junk food, including sugary soda, and banning advertising for those products in areas where kids hang out.
Here come a bunch of tobacco companies to the federal court house in Bowling Green, Ky., to snuff out a new law they claim would put the kibosh on their ability to market cigarettes in this country.
Get ready for more fine print. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The legal fight is likely to be waged all the way to the Supreme Court, as the companies seek to overturn a federal law banning the use of "color lettering, trademarks, logos, or any other imagery in most advertisements" among other things. The restrictions would also apply to displays in stores, direct-mail ads, and even hats and t-shirts.
Most galling to companies, as their complaint tells it, would be a government takeover of the top half of cigarette packs for anti-tobacco images and messages, leaving only the bottom for the companies "to communicate with adult consumers." Even that message would likely be obscured in stores, the companies say.
It's all a plot to do in the cigarette makers, the complaint charges. "The obvious purpose of this is to force Plaintiffs to stigmatize their own products through their own packaging," they say. Taken together, the restrictions would leave them unable to tell their story to adult consumers, the companies assert. That, they say, violates their rights to free speech, something they want an injunction to stop.
It's taken as self-evident that catching a disease early is always better than finding out about it late. But that dogma can be dead-wrong, according to an analysis of data on prostate cancer and the blood test used to screen for the disease.
A PSA test can detect a prostate cancer like this one, but it can't tell which form it is. As a result, physicians order treatment that's unneccessary, but with considerable side effects. (Visuals Unlimited/Corbis)
Widespread use of the PSA test in the U.S. began in 1986, and since then, it's led to the diagnosis of prostate cancer in 1.3 million men. The biggest jump in diagnosis occurred in men younger than 50, and more than 1 million were treated for the illness.
Problem is the "vast majority of these additional men did not benefit from early detection," according to the analysis published in the current Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
In other words, despite the 1.3 million diagnoses, only 56,000 deaths were averted.
Huh? The conundrum for screening is that so many prostate cancers detected by PSA never pose a health problem because they grow so slowly. A man dies of something else first. The most deadly forms of prostate cancer can progress so rapidly that even a positive PSA test doesn't necessarily help.
If you ask around, you'll probably find that most people you know have had an X-ray, CT scan or other test that exposed them to radiation in the last few years.
Some researchers crunched numbers from insurance claims during a three-year period ending in 2007 and determined more than two-thirds of people had at least one scan involving radiation, and they didn't even count dental X-rays.
That's a lot of scans and, potentially, a lot of radiation, which boosts the risk of cancer over time. Factor in the doses, and about 4 million people between 18 and 64 are exposed to "high" or "very high" levels of radiation each year, the authors of the study published in current New England Journal of Medicine conclude.
Make room, salt and cholesterol, sugar is now an official bad guy for your heart.
Skip soda to help your heart.(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The American Heart Association says it's time to say no to your sweet tooth and cut your sugar intake. For most women, no more than 100 calories a day should come from sugar added to food and drink, about six teaspoons. For men, the heart experts recommend no more than 150 calories a day, about nine teaspoons. Right now, the average American consumes a little over 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day.
The thinking behind the recommendations, published online Monday, boils down to simple arithmetic. Americans are taking in 150 to 300 more calories a day than they did 30 years ago. We're not doing more to burn those calories, so it's pretty likely that extra sugar is at least part of the reason Americans are so much fatter today, the AHA concludes.
Federal health officials are unsettled. They're losing sleep over what swine flu might do this fall. But most Americans wonder what all the fuss is about.
This little bug has federal officials worried. (CDC)
What keeps Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up at night? "Are we prepared if we have to surge up our ventilator capacity," he answered during a meeting with journalists at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta Monday.
Some of President Obama's top science advisers told him this month that half (or more) of the nation's mechanical ventilators may be needed by young flu victims. As many as 1.8 million Americans may be hospitalized because of the H1N1 virus. Some 300,000 patients may need intensive care, putting a strain on a limited hospital resource.
But ordinary Americans aren't staying up nights worrying about the pandemic.
Life expectancy in the United States has reached an all-time high: 77.9 years. But before you celebrate, consider this: People in more than two dozen countries claim a longer life expectancy than us.
The new statistics come from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Men now have a life expectancy of 75.3 years. For women, it's 80.4 years.
The numbers are for the year 2007, and are based on 90 percent of death certificates in the United States.
Sure, they're cute and clever. But, as if the risk of rabies weren't bad enough, some masked critters are loaded with raccoon roundworms that can find their way into humans -- most notably toddlers -- where the parasites can burrow into the eyes or brain, causing blindness, convulsions and even death.
So young. So cute. So chock-full of parasites. (iStockphoto.com)
A recent survey of 119 backyards in suburban Chicago turned up "raccoon latrines" in roughly half. Raccoons tend to choose elevated spots for doing their business -- decks, patios, woodpiles, flat roofs and playhouses.
Dental patients at a free health clinic at the Forum arena in Inglewood, Calif. (John Moore/Getty Images)
As the debate over the administration's plan to remake health care rages on, some folks are taking direct action to bring medical help to the uninsured.
Hundreds of people started lining up Monday for a chance to get their teeth fixed, eyes checked and various other maladies cared for at the clinic, which opened Tuesday.
All you grown-ups who tsk-tsk heedless teens and others for texting or gabbing on a cellphone while driving should know this:
Even blood pressure meds can impair driving. (iStockphoto.com)
A new survey of drivers 55 and older finds that nearly 70 percent are on a prescription drug that can interfere with driving. And ten percent are on five or more such drugs.
What does this coyote know that teen drug users don't? (iStockphoto.com)
Twenty percent of a diverse sampling of teens surveyed in a report in this month's Journal of Adolescent Health say they also bum antibiotics, antidepressants, serious acne meds, and ADHD drugs off each other, as a way of treating their own ailments.
Most don't see warning labels or any instructions that come with the shared pills. And about a third of the kids suffer side effects, says Chris Mayhorn, a North Carolina State University psychologist involved in the research.
Other researchers have studied people selling prescription drugs, but we looked at people with good intentions, trying for instance, to help a friend who lacked money or transportation for a doctor's visit.
The government estimates as many as 100,000 Americans die each year from preventable mistakes made during medical care.
The sobering figure, cited in an investigation just published by Hearst Newspapers, is even more worrisome when you realize it hasn't budged, despite a landmark report that called for national action a decade ago.
"We didn't show leadership and take charge and do what needed to be done," says Lucian Leape, a doctor, patient-safety advocate and an author of the report, called "To Err Is Human."
U.S. exercise docs were in a huff over the weekend, though it took a little digging to figure out why. Their opening salvo, in a Friday press release from the American College of Sports Medicine, began:
Are they dropping pounds or just revving their appetites? (iStockphoto.com)
"Leading experts in exercise and weight management have taken strong exception to assertions that exercise can inhibit weight loss by over-stimulating the appetite."
Huh? What assertions?
Though the press release never mentions any publication by name, apparently what had the fitness buffs hopping mad (stair-stepping mad?) was this week's Timecover story and ensuing blog buzz on the limits of exercise in curbing obesity.
Let's say you're sick and tired after weeks of traveling and find yourself with a worsening kidney infection, wandering the hospital halls looking for the nephrology clinic....in rural Uzbekistan. Or any place else where you don't speak the language, and can't puzzle out the words.
Hospital signs could be clearer. (Courtesy University of Cincinnati)
Or, let's just say that, like about half of all American adults -- 90 million -- you can't read well enough to navigate an American hospital with written signs.
Design students at the University of Cincinnati this week announced they have a few ideas. They've been noodling over how to best represent abstractions like "In-Patient Clinic." How do you best distinguish between the mental health clinic and neurology? (And is that a tube of acne medicine aimed at my eye, or are you just glad to see me?)
News stories have a way of firing up old debates. So maybe it was predictable that scarcely had the feds broken open the money-laundering-kidney-smuggling corruption ring in New Jersey last month, when some economists started clamoring once again to legalize the regulated sale of human organs for transplant. Their basic argument: Banning the legitimate sale of organs merely forces willing sellers and buyers into a dirty and dangerous black market.
Experts differ on whether dirty money leads to dirty kidneys. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Freakonomics guys weighed in early, with their observation in a New York Times column that "it is hard to find an economist who agrees with this policy" of banning kidney sales. (This follows a previous column last fall, where they noted that many organ donors in the U.S. don't have health insurance).
Meanwhile, the New Yorker and Mother Jones are weighing in with their own stories about the downside of organ sales. And the Jewish Daily Forward quotes ethicist Art Caplan's central argument against legalization:
The people who sell are almost always incredibly poor. They're usually up to their eyeballs in debt....past the point of desperation. They're not making a calculated decision.
It may be back to school for swine flu this fall. The Washington Postreports that the Obama administration is rethinking guidelines for handling swine flu at schools.
See you in September ( CDC )
The Post, citing people involved in the work, said the feds may recommend that schools remain open except when there are "extenuating circumstances." Those particulars might include a school that has lots of kids with existing health problems or many ill teachers, though an official told the paper the discussions continue and no final decision has been made.
Of course, the final call at each school will be made locally. But if the feds scale back advice on when to close, schools may stay open longer even in the face of an expected resurgence of swine flu this fall.
We're far from home free. As NPR's Richard Harris reports, the new census shows overfishing in some waters is still dangerously depleting some favorite seafood species, such as bluefin tuna in Europe. Harris notes,
The researchers find that 14 percent of the 170 species they studied are now at less than 10 percent of their original numbers. That's how they define a fishery 'collapse.'
(Read past the jump to find out if your favorite beach is clean)
You can eat too much of a good thing, and new research confirms that not only are many Americans doing just that, but the nation is running up a big health bill because of it. Medical complications from obesity added $147 billion to the nation's health care bill last year, a new study in Health Affairs shows.
That's compared to $78.5 million a decade ago -- primarily because so many more people (37 percent more) are now considered obese, the researchers say. "Normal weight individuals" incur about $700 in annual prescription drug costs, the Wall Street Journal points out, compared to an average of $1,300 by those who are obese.
WebMD notes that if America slimmed down, the nation would spend 9 percent less on health care. Easier said than done.
...more than a third of us are obese -- and another third of us are overweight. That's a scary statistic. Here's a scarier one: Seventeen percent of U.S. children and teens are so overweight they're in the top five percent of body size for their age on growth charts. A less nice way to put it: These kids are already obese.
Okay, enough numbers. Kids and their parents can't reverse this problem on their own, everybody agrees. On Friday the CDC published data on two dozen community-based strategies many experts think could help, from luring farmers markets to high-rise lobbies and poor neighborhoods, to pushing physical education and club sports in the schools and limiting screen time in childcare centers.
It's thrust and parry time for health care legislation, with all sides reaching for their sharpest weapons. This week's sword: Abortion. Meanwhile, some Australian nurses are wielding their own weapons in the southern hemisphere -- hypodermic syringes filled with the first swine flu vaccine to begin human tests.
First, from Capitol Hill: Conservative anti-abortion Republicans, with the support of Mike Huckabee and Focus on the Family's James Dobson, announced this week they'll host a "Stop the Abortion Mandate" webcast on Thursday.
They're hoping to rile passions against a provision in some health bills under consideration that would include abortion coverage in a public health care plan. As U.S. News reports, the language of the announcement wasn't subtle.
The political power grab...could lead to a massive abortion industry bailout -- something the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose, and certainly cannot afford in these tough economic times.
(For the Dem's parry, and more on swine flu shots in Oz, read past the jump)
Late last night, the New York Times posted on its website a 2002 report by the U.S. Department of Transportation that reviews the risks of using a hands-free phone while driving.
The review document, only now coming to light after a FOIA request by advocacy groups, reaches the same conclusion that the series on multi-tasking by NPR's Jon Hamilton hammered home last fall: Driving while on the phone -- even a hands-free phone -- can be as distracting as driving drunk, and probably causes a significant number of crashes. Don't do it.
According to the Times, the former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says he was pressured by higher ups in 2002 to
...withhold the research to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states.
Um, okay. Suppressing scientific data -- even preliminary data -- is a very bad thing, we agree.
But to go on to suggest, as one California state senator quoted by the Times does, that the delay in publishing this particular report "cost thousands of lives," seems far-fetched.
(Read past the jump to for more on why)
Swine-flu parties are still a bad idea /istockphotos.com
Some bad party themes (Everybody Trade Pants!) just won't go away.
The BBC says that some people in the United Kingdom are now deliberately exposing themselves to friends who have the new H1N1 flu. We first heard about "swine flu parties" in the U.S. in May, and apparently the notion is still making the rounds. The goal of these soirees: Try to catch the flu in its current, relatively mild form, effectively vaccinating yourself.
Don't do it. In the early days of the outbreak, officials from the CDC specifically warned against this practice. There was no telling then -- and there's no telling now -- if or when the virus will mutate into a form that's more frequently deadly. (And remember that some otherwise healthy children and adults are dying right now from the current "mild" version).
Plus, even if you get away with few symptoms you may inadvertently spread the nasty party favor to pregnant women or others with damaged immune systems who are especially vulnerable to flu complications.
One has to wonder what's on the menu at a swine flu party, besides a neighbor's germs.
As the new team at the FDA launches its mid-summer clean-up, where better to start than the kitchen?
At a press conference later today, the agency is expected to take aim at food poisoning -- salmonella and E.coli, in particular -- by tightening the rules that govern how manufacturers handle eggs and improving the food tracking system so that it's easier to quickly trace contaminated ingredients to their source.
We can also expect tighter rules on the handling of produce by the end of this month, and tighter poultry inspections and standards by the end of the year, according to FDA and industry sources quoted by AP and Reuters. Still no word on how E.coli got into Toll House cookie dough at that plant in Danville, Virginia.
Meanwhile, with yesterday's announcement that the Obama administration has rolled back some restrictions on the federal funding of stem cell research, several cash strapped states are hoping to lure some of that research money and new jobs.
The FDA and CDC strongly urge anyone who already has the stuff in the fridge not to eat it. Their investigations show that the pre-packaged dough seems the likely culprit behind the illnesses of 66 people in 28 states who've become sick over the last couple of months with cramping, vomiting and bloody diarrhea traced to the bacteria E.coli 0157:H7.
FDA's the new sheriff in town, and these are going down /istockphoto.com
A bill giving FDA the power to regulate tobacco just passed its last Congressional hurdle this afternoon, 45 years after the Surgeon General warned us that smoking is bad for us and 15 years after tobacco execs told Congress their products were not addictive.
The execs have since changed their tune.
Still, it never fails to shock when you hear a tobacco exec talk about the dangers of its products and why they still sell them, says NPR's Joanne Silberner, so we've got some bonus audio for you that didn't make it into her story earlier this week.
Philip Morris spokesman Bill Phelps tells Silberner smoking is addictive and causes disease:
After she asks him why the company doesn't just stop selling cigarettes, he says:
Too much skin for some flu-scared high schools /istockphoto.com
Grads at two high schools in Bloomington, MN will sit side by side at commencement ceremonies this week to hear speeches, toss mortarboards, and walk away with diplomas. But forget the photo-op handshake afterward from the principal or anybody else.
With two confirmed cases of swine flu in the district, school officials are taking a new approach to commencement, the district's Rick Kaufman told the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "We're just going to do sort of a head nod and a verbal 'congratulations' to students."
Most StarTrib readers weren't impressed. One scoffed in comments to the online story:
Just what kids these days need, less interaction. Are we going to "Tweet" them a congrats or Txt them "OMG Gr8 job!" Toughen up...
Mike Begier and Allen Gosser of USDA Wildlife Services pull feathers from jet engine for analysis. /National Transportation Safety Board
The flock of Canadian geese that knocked out two jet engines and forced a US Airways Airbus A320 into the Hudson River in January, were just passing through--not locals--according to a chemical analysis of their feathers by the Smithsonian Institution.
The analysis tracked the relative amounts of stable hydrogen isotopes, which turns out to be a telltale sign of what the birds ate, and where that food came from. Apparently, these geese were based in Newfoundland, not Queens.
That's an important distinction, and not just for chauvinistic New Yorkers, according to Peter Marra, a migratory bird specialist at the Smithsonian National Zoo.
Are more young adults these days eschewing dating for casual hook ups, which means anything goes, including sex, no strings attached? Seems so, reports NPR's Brenda Wilson on Morning Edition today, because they are focused on friends and careers, not marriage.
"Going out on a date to dinner and a move? It's so cliche -- isn't that funny?" 25-year-old Elizabeth Walsh of Boston, who graduated from college in 2005, tells Wilson.
Hear the story here, then take our quiz on your reaction. We'll get back to you with the results soon.
Health care moves to a tweet, tweet beat wonderferret/Flickr
Good Morning. The business of overhauling health care, or at least talking about it, moves up to warp speed. A European-touring President Obama gets an earful of tweets from the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
Sunday morning, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) let it be known, from his Blackberry in shorthand to the world via Twitter, that he was none too pleased with the President's tone in his weekly radio address:
Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a 'hammer' u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL
What's in your portfolio? Big Insurance has a lot of Big Tobacco /New England Journal of Medicine, 2009
Three Harvard doctors have done a little digging through the investment portfolios of several leading U.S. and British health and life insurance companies, and are crowing today about what they've learned.
"In case there is any doubt that insurers place profit above health, consider their investments in tobacco," the docs write in their letter published in the June 4 New England Journal of Medicine.
Poor Bones. Even with his fancy schmancy medical monitor, the tricorder," Star Trek's cranky doc spent so much time pronouncing patients dead throughout the 1960s TV series that "He's dead, Jim," became an iconic line in the show.
Maybe Dr. Leonard McCoy would have had better luck if he'd had a little tool the Department of Homeland Security is working on. The Standoff Patient Triage Tool or SPTT (couldn't they have just called it a Tricorder-Plus?) is sensitive enough to "capture" somebody's temperature, heart rate and respiration from up to 40 feet away.
We've heard a lot this week from doctors suggesting that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's Type 1 diabetes is no big deal.
But for patients, Type 1 diabetes requires constant blood sugar monitoring and frequent insulin shots -- a major life adjustment by any standard.
Noah Kernis, 17, of New York City, was diagnosed just a month ago and spoke with NPR's Rebecca Davis for a segment in the Health Podcast this week about the puzzling symptoms he experienced prior to his diagnosis:
House calls on flu live today from NYC's Dr.Susan Kansagra /NYC Health Department
Come on, 'fess up: Even if you feel swamped by all the media coverage of the H1N1 flu, don't you wish you could sit down with a doctor and ask a few nagging questions of your own? Here's your chance.
The New York City health department this morning deployed one its docs, internist Susan Kansagra, M.D., to take your questions and answer as many as possible today and tomorrow in their blog. The service is aimed at New Yorkers, but health department says everybody's welcome. So log on already, and let us know what you learn.
Tobacco's the big health risk, toxicologists say. Plastics not so much. iStockphoto.com
You say health hazard, I say overblown hysteria...at least in many cases. That's the word from the Society of Toxicology, the leading professional association for the folks who study chemical health risks for a living.
In a Harris poll conducted this spring, the scientists came down hard on environmental activists and media for muddying the message--overplaying relatively small health risks like certain chemical additives in food and baby bottles, while underplaying the relative risks of some pesticides and tobacco. Industry got plenty of blame, too, for generally underplaying the risk of their products.
Global Health Council President and CEO Jeff SturchioGlobal Health Council
Pharmaceutical execs don't often garner the praise of people who promote global health, but newly-named Global Health Council President and CEO Jeff Sturchio is the exception.
Dr.Jeff Sturchio, a long time executive at Merck, was tapped to lead the world's largest international membership organization of groups working in global health today. He takes over from Dr Nils Daulaire who led the Global Health Council for a decade.
Anybody who's spent time in global health circles in the past decades has grown accustomed to the quiet presence of Sturchio on the sidelines. His last job was to run Merck's philanthropic efforts, including its HIV/AIDS access programs.
One close observer says: "If it wasn't Jeff, I'd be worried."
The Council credits Sturchio with helping to build treatment programs for people with HIV/AIDS in Botswana and expects Sturchio to bring a much needed perspective to the job, including "creating partnerships among governments, private sector groups and NGOs, especially in Africa," the council says.
He may still need to win over some folks. Global AIDS Alliance Executive Director Paul Zeitz "welcomed Jeff to the advocacy community," but added that he hopes Sturchio "makes clear his independence from pharmaceutical corporate interests."
Up close and personal with the new H1N1 virus. CDC
Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization's director-general, has decided not to declare that the world has entered the first flu pandemic of this century.
But she's leaving open the question -- for now -- of changing the definition of a pandemic.
Chan declared on April 29 that a flu pandemic is "imminent." But she's been under increasing pressure from WHO's member-states to hold off declaring that a pandemic has arrived, based on the WHO's own definition.
Chan now says there's no doubt swine flu will continue to spread -- within the 42 countries already affected and beyond.
By saying that, Chan essentially acknowledges what many have been saying: This genie is out of the bottle.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson still has HIV, But nobody told 37 percent of African Americans surveyed recently by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
They either think he's been cured of HIV, or they're not sure he still has it, despite his activism on the issue.
How is this possible?
In 1991, the legendary basketball player announced that he had been diagnosed with HIV and then abruptly retired from basketball.
NPR Public Health Correspondent Brenda Wilson, did a commentary for All Things Considered when the story first broke, expressing confidence that he would approach his diagnosis in the same way he moved the basketball down the court:
There's the daily flu case count and then there's elusive reality.
The reality is much bigger, says Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The latest official count is about 2,600 laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu in 43 states plus the District of Columbia. Of those, 94 required hospitalizations and three people have died.
"The cases we're confirming are the tip of the iceberg now," Schuchat says.
That's because, as with any kind of flu or respiratory disease, most people who get sick don't get tested. The CDC has been urging state and local health officials to test mainly those who are sickest with flu-like symptoms. That leaves a lot of illness out.
Those illnesses are overwhelmingly likely to be mild cases of flu. But gauging the extent of those mild illnesses is important, Schuchat says. It sends an important signal about the capacity of the new H1N1 virus to spread efficiently. And even if it causes mainly mild illness now, that's not to say it won't get fiercer in the fall.
That's why the CDC is turning more attention to scanning for respiratory illnesses and deaths above the usual baseline. That could indicate how much of swine flu iceberg is below the surface.
One important new clue comes from the CDC's tracking site, called FluView.
Its most recent weekly posting shows that 20 percent of the 14,330 specimens tested were that new swine flu virus. And another 20 percent "could not be subtyped." That is, they could not be identified by lab tests for ordinary flu viruses. Most of those "un-typable" cases could well turn out to be the new flu too.
The world has been hovering on the apparent brink of the next flu pandemic for 12 days now. The only thing that would tip the World Health Organization into declaring it a pandemic is evidence that the new H1N1 virus is spreading throughout some community outside of North America.
Some think that's happening in Europe, where two dozen countries have so far confirmed cases of swine flu. Some involve clusters of infection, such as a school in south London where six students and an adult staff member have gotten the new flu.
So what's the WHO's threshold for deciding that the situation has gone from what it calls Phase Five (pre-pandemic) to Phase Six (actual pandemic)? I asked Dr. Keiji Fukuda at today's daily media briefing.
"When you begin to see people who are getting infected and it's just not clear where they're getting infected from," Fukuda says.
That's what's happening across the United States right now, he adds, where "many of the cases cannot be traced anywhere." It's like what happens during a regular flu outbreak, when you get sick by just being out and about and have no idea where you got the virus.
Dr. Lauro Halstead examines polio survivor Julie Lewis, who contracted the disease at age 9 in 1963, probably from the vaccine Jessica Goldstein/NPR
We don't hear a lot about polio anymore. It's one of those diseases that many people think has gone the way of the Model-T.
But there are an estimated half a million or more polio survivors still alive in the United States, and they've each got their own story.
NPR's Joe Shapiro reports today on polio survivor Dr. Lauro Halstead, who is also one of the last remaining doctors in the country specializing in treating people with the debilitating and often paralyzing disease.
Halstead's story begins when he contracted polio as an 18-year-old college student touring Europe.
In his own words, here's how he describes his early treatment, squeezing his 6-foot frame into a primitive child-sized wooden "iron lung" to help him breathe:
After two weeks of scary flu news, Americans are taking the threat of swine flu seriously. But they're also keeping their cool.
A new government-commissioned poll finds two out of three people are washing their hands more often. Over half of Americans are thinking about how they'd manage to stay home if someone in the family got the flu. Over a third have avoided someone with flu-like symptoms.
At the same time, most Americans say they're not worried about swine flu striking their household in the next 12 months. In fact, more people are unconcerned this week -- 61 percent -- than a week earlier, when a similar poll found 53 percent who doubted they'd get the new flu.
The names of University of Maryland's Robert Gallo and French scientist Luc Montagnier, who separately discovered the HIV virus 25 years ago, have become inextricably linked, whether they like it or not.
Also, Montagnier was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the discovery in 2008, Gallo was not. (Interesting explanation of their roles in the discovery here.)
While many of us have been focused on swine flu lately, the odd couple who came to Washington today to offer us a little perspective on what a real epidemic is.
While we can do better on swine flu, said University of Maryland researcher Robert Gallo, "It's not something you need to figure out as a mystery -- there are loads of experts on it," he said.
The pair appeared to share the stage at the National Press Club peacefully today, praising each other, even sharing a smile as Montagnier introduced Gallo as his "longtime friend" and urged us not to forget the continuing and devastating impact of HIV/AIDS.
"We are still facing a big epidemic," Montagnier said. The epidemic is not in the past. There is no cure, and the virus is spreading," he said.
Some sobering stats:
While just over 1,000 people have become infected with swine flu since it was discovered, and only a handful have died.
Meanwhile, 25 million deaths have been attributed to HIV/AIDS since its discovery at a rate of 2 million per year. Plus, there are 56,000 new cases in the U.S. diagnosed each year.
And there is still no cure.
Here's Gallo on why swine flu doesn't compare to AIDS in terms of research need:
Here's Montagnier on why AIDS is still a major problem:
Feed a cold, starve a fever and ... intentionally try to contract the swine flu? The new addition wouldn't quite have the same ring as the old adage but it's a discussion that has begun, thanks in large part to an article in today's New York Times.
The paper examines an emerging debate over the wisdom of deliberately trying to catch the swine flu in an attempt to give oneself protection against a more devastating strain of the virus down the road.
The thinking is this: If the current strain appears to be relatively mild at the moment and could become more severe somewhere down the road, is it better to be get it now and build up a natural immunization?
Cornell University flu specialist Dr. Anne Moscona tells the paper where she stands on the idea: "I think it's totally nuts. ... I can't believe people are really thinking of doing it. I understand the thinking, but I just fear we don't know enough about how this virus would react in every individual. This is like the Middle Ages, when people deliberately infected themselves with smallpox."
Why do outbreaks caused by flu and other viruses often seem worse initially than they turn out to be?
That's the question Jon Hamilton examines in a report on All Things Considered this afternoon.
As Hamilton explains, it all has to do with how many people are in the denominator and how sick they are. The relatively fewer there are and the sicker they are, the worse the situation looks. Hamilton talked with Dr. Rob Fowler, a critical care physician in Toronto, to understand what doctors there saw when SARS struck in 2003.
HAMILTON: At first, it appeared that SARS was killing nearly 50 percent of the people who got infected. But as the outbreak progressed it became clear the true death rate was closer to 5 percent.
Fowler says it took awhile before doctors started looking for SARS in people who weren't critically ill. And that made the disease look even more frightening than it turned out to be.
This community health centers explainer comes from our health blogging partners over at Kaiser Health News.
A masked child walks to a community health center in Wisconsin. Jeffrey Phelps/AP/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
by Andrew Villegas/KHN
Swine flu -- or the fear of it -- is filling waiting rooms of community health centers, and in many cases, testing is taking place in the parking lot.
Amy Simmons, spokeswoman for the National Association of Community Health Centers, said the threat of the new H1N1 virus has brought a surplus of people into the centers to seek care for what they think may be this illness.
Simmons said six people around the U.S. have been diagnosed and treated for swine flu at a CHC, and more are expected.
What makes CHCs so central in the current outbreak is that they are often the first line of care for the 18 million Americans who are uninsured or do not have enough insurance coverage. Even before swine flu, those numbers were growing due to the economic downturn.
As officials direct people who think they may have swine flu to avoid hospitals if the condition is not life-threatening, many are showing up at the centers.
This handy hospital infrastructure explainer comes from our health blogging partners over at Kaiser Health News.
Hospitals play a big role in responding to a pandemic, but are they ready? istockphoto.com
by Christopher Weaver, KHN
In the event the swine flu outbreak surges in this country, a little back-of-the-envelope arithmetic shows America's hospitals would struggle to respond.
Federal flu planners predict about 865,000 extra hospitalizations in even a moderate pandemic. The average flu patient who is admitted spends about 5 days in the hospital, according to one CDC estimate.
Meanwhile, the American Hospital Association estimates there are just over 800,000 "staffed" beds in the country, and hospitals say their capacity is already taxed.
"Things as far as I know are as they have been," said Richard Coorsh, a spokesman for the Federation of American Hospitals. Hospitals will still be required to treat patients as they arrive at emergency rooms, stockpile their own supplies of antiviral drugs, maintain their own health care workforce, and accept payment through the usual channels, such as private insurers and Medicare.
And, if the outbreak becomes a true pandemic, they'll be on their own for finding more empty beds -- "surge capacity" in emergency-speak -- for the extra patients.
Americans are up to their old tricks, hoarding medications to deal with their microbe-driven anxieties.
During the anthrax attacks in 2001, for instance, many people laid in supplies of the antibiotic Cipro in the unlikely chance that they would be exposed to the deadly spores.
Now Americans are evidently hoarding Tamiflu and Relenza, the two antivirals used to treat those who have been exposed to the flu virus or who are in the early stages of the illness itself.
The Associated Press reports:
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Americans frightened by swine flu are snapping up two antiviral medicines that treat the disease, whether they have it or not.
New data show more than a quarter-million prescriptions for Tamiflu pills alone were filled at retail U.S pharmacies in the week ending last Friday. That's 34 times higher than the week before and more than double the peak of last winter's flu season.
The HHS ops room has swung into action. Joanne Silberner/NPR
by April Fulton
Ever wanted to go behind the scenes in a war room? The federal government has been waiting for the new H1N1 virus, or any other new microbe to appear on the scene, for several years now so that they can use the room set up at HHS. And use it for swine flu, they are.
Tune in to Morning Edition tomorrow as NPR's Joanne Silberner takes us on the inside tour of the Secretary's Operations Center. She tells us what's happening there, including how planners are tracking cases and deciding when and how to send medical tools and supplies around the country.
What's the definition of a "probable" and "confirmed" case? Has a "probable" case been tested locally?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has very clear guidelines on what constitutes a probable case versus a confirmed case of swine flu aka 2009 H1N1 flu. (Well, it's clear if you're a public health doctor. Otherwise, it needs some translation.)
A suspected case requires only that a person show typical flu-like symptoms -- fever, achiness and the rest -- and that they have been exposed to the flu virus by either coming into contact in the past week with a person with a confirmed case of swine flu or traveled in the same time period to a place suffering an outbreak or live in such an area.
School closings continue to grow around the country. Today, 19 schools in the Detroit area have closed, adding to the nearly quarter of a million kids out of class in this country due to swine flu concerns.
But as NPR's Larry Abramson learns today, there are indications this tactic could wane as the new flu strain shows it is less lethal than fear.
In a piece he is developing for All Things Considered this afternoon, Abramson interviews Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Minnesota.
Osterholm says we may well see public health officials moving toward more traditional approaches in which sick children will be kept at home and schools will only be closed if there's evidence of high risk.
Osterholm defends the decisions to close schools early in the outbreak, as the virulence of the disease was unknown.
But as our understanding of the virus advances, it may be time to dial it down.
None of these pills can cure swine flu istockphoto.com
It was only a matter of time before charlatans and fakers would start selling swine flu "cures" on the Internet.
One such site features a pig's face spotted with graphic tattoos of skulls and ringed with fire and a screaming banner headline promising a "swine-flu cure-all medicine that is only $19.99 per dose or $99.99 for 6 doses!"
But as the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission remind us, there are no cures for swine flu, so don't be fooled.
Here's what Michael Chappell, acting FDA Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs, had to say:
Consumers who purchase products to treat the novel 2009 H1N1 virus that are not approved, cleared or authorized by the FDA for the treatment or prevention of influenza risk their health and the health of their families.
And FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz adds:
The last thing any consumer needs right now is to be conned by someone selling fraudulent flu remediesThe FTC will act swiftly against companies that resort to deceptive advertising.
For more information about protecting yourself when buying medicine online, go here.
For more information on what CDC recommends about the use of the two drugs currently approved to TREAT the new swine flu, go here.
CLARIFICATION: The swine flu cure website mentioned in this post is a parody. It does not actually sell swine flu cures.
The swine flu has apparently succeeded where millions of parents have failed: it has caused Americans to significantly increase the amount of time they spend washing and sanitizing their hands.
Meanwhile, 25 percent of respondents said they were avoiding public places like public transportation (aka the Biden Solution) to reduce their potential exposure to the swine flu virus.
The poll also appears to demonstrate the challenge the Obama Administration and public health officials may have in rebranding this particular virus as the "2009 H1N1 flu" in an effort to keep the pork industry sales from falling off a cliff and to erase the stigma a name like swine flu carries in some religious communities.
Fifty five percent of respondents had never heard of H1N1 while 21 percent had heard of it but didn't know what it meant. It seems like with a pandemic imminent, public-health officials might want to stick with the better-known term. The poll doesn't tell us how many respondents were familiar with the "swine flu" term though, presumably, it was greater than the 24 percent who knew what H1N1 was.
