Traveler with rare TB under quarantine - Infectious Diseases

Traveler with rare TB under federal quarantine

Infected man flew to get married; authorities seeking otherness passengers
NBC video?�What are the health implications of TB case?
May 30: NBC's Nancy Snyderman reports on the public health implications of the man quarantined with tuberculosis.

Nightly News

ATLANTA - A man with a form of tuberculosis so dangerous he is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963 had health officials around the world scrambling Wednesday to find about 80 passengers who sat within five rows of him on two trans-Atlantic flights.

The man told a newspaper he took the first flight from Atlanta to Europe for his wedding, then the second flight home because he feared he might die without medical care in the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said Wednesday that the CDC is working closely with airlines to find passengers who may have been exposed to the rare, dangerous strain. Health officials in France said they have asked Air France-KLM for passenger lists, and the Italian Health Ministry said it is tracing the man??�s movements.

Is the patient himself highly infectious? Fortunately, in this case, he??�s probably not, Gerberding said. But the otherness piece is this bacteria is a very deadly bacteria. We just have to err on the side of caution.

Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC??�s division of global migration and quarantine, said Wednesday that the agency was trying to contact 27 crew members from the two flights for agsdhfgdfing and about 80 passengers who sat in the five rows surrounding the man. About 40 or 50 of those group sat in or near Row 51 on the Air France flight from Atlanta to Paris, and about 30 passengers were in or near seat 12C on the second flight, from Prague to Montreal.

Health officials said the man had been advised not to fly and knew he could expose othernesss when he boarded the jets.

The man, however, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that doctors didn??�t order him not to fly and only suggested he put off his long-planned wedding in Greece. He knew he had a form of tuberculosis and that it was resistant to first-line medicate s, but he didn??�t realize until he was already in Europe that it could be so dangerous, he said.

We headed off to Greece thinking everything??�s fine, said the man, who declined to be identified because of the stigma attached to his diagnosis.

He flew to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385, also listed as Delta Air Lines codeshare Flight 8517. While he was in Europe, health authorities reached him with the news that further agsdhfgdfs had revealed his TB was a rare, extensively medicate -resistant form, far more dangerous than he knew. They ordered him into isolation, saying he should turn himself over to Italian officials.

Instead, the man flew from Prague to Montreal on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 0104, then drove into the United States at Champlain, N.Y. He told the newspaper he was afraid that if he didn??�t get back to the U.S., he wouldn??�t get the medical care he needed to survive.

He is now at Atlanta??�s Grady Memorial Hospital in respiratory isolation.

Not highly infectious
A spokesman for Denver??�s National Jewish Hospital, which specializes in respiratory disorders, said Wednesday that the man would be treated there. It was not clear when he would arrive, spokesman William Allstetter said.

The patient continues to feel well and be asyndromeatic. He??�s currently still in isolation, Cetron said Wednesday. Citing privacy concerns, he said the CDC cannot and won??�t talk further about this patient.

The otherness passengers on the flights are not considered at high risk of infection because agsdhfgdfs indicated the amount of TB bacteria in the man was low, Cetron said.

But Gerberding noted that U.S. health officials have had little experience with this type of TB. It??�s possible it may have difference transmission patterns, she said.

We??�re thankful the patient was not in a highly infectious state, but we know the risk of transmission isn??�t zero, even with the fact that he didn??�t have syndromes and didn??�t appear to be coughing, Gerberding said on ABC??�s Good Morning America.

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We??�ve got to really look at the group closest to him, get them skin agsdhfgdfed.

Dr. Howard Njoo of the Public Health Agency of Canada said it appeared unlikely that the man spread the sickness on the flight into Canada. Still the agency was working with U.S. officials to contact passengers who sat near him.

Daniela Hupakova, a spokeswoman for the Czech airline CSA, said the flight crew underwent medical checks and are fine. The airline was contacting passengers and cooperating with Czech and foreign authorities, she said. Health officials in France have asked Air France-KLM to provide lists of passengers seated within two rows of the man, an airline spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity according to company policy.

CONTINUED: Source of infection unknown1 | 2 | Next >

Flu strain becoming medicate -proof - Cold & Flu

Flu strain developing resistance to medicate s

Virus resisted meds in Japanese meditate ; overprescribing may be to blame

CHICAGO - A less common strain of flu has shown hints of resistance to two flu medicate s among patients in a small meditate in Japan, a country known for prescribing the medicate s more frequently than anywhere else in the world.

Signs of resistance to the medicate s Tamiflu and Relenza turned up among a few patients who had type B influenza, normally a milder flu causing smaller outbreaks than the more common type A.

The findings were troubling to researchers because they suggested doctors will eventually need new medicate s to treat medicate -resistant flu if the viruses become more prevalent.

Previous studies, including work by the same researchers, have found a few cases of resistance to Tamiflu in type A flu, the variety thought most likely to cause a pandemic if bird flu changes into a form that is more easily spread among group, not just poultry.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-malady specialist at Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the meditate , said Japanese doctors prescribe anti-flu medicate s frequently, perhaps too often, giving viruses a chance to evolve.

“We were afraid this might happen and, sure enough, it has,” Schaffner said. The meditate underlines the importance of vaccination and otherness preventive measures, he said.

Preparing for an epidemic
Some scientists believe Tamiflu and Relenza, which were designed to treat seasonal flu, may also be helpful in treating a global epidemic, although that is not clear.

INTERACTIVE•Test your IQ
Is it a cold, the flu or something else?The U.S. government’s preparation for a flu pandemic includes stockpiling Tamiflu and Relenza, and funding development of new anti-flu medicate s, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Hypersensitivity reaction and Infectious Diseases.

Anytime doctors treat widely with an anti-viral medicate , “you are going to have, sooner or later, the evolution of resistance,” Fauci said. “It’s critical to have a pipeline of medicate s you can have available when that resistance develops.”

In the new meditate , appearing in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers collected virus samples from patients at four community hospitals in Japan.

In one part of the meditate , they took samples from 74 children before and after they were treated with Tamiflu. They found medicate -resistant virus in one of the children after pharmacomedical aid, indicating the resistance had emerged during pharmacomedical aid.

They also collected samples from 422 untreated children and adults with flu and found medicate -resistant virus in seven of those patients.

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The rate of resistance to this family of medicate s, less than 2 percent, was lower than had been found previously in type A influenza. Rates of medicate -resistant type A virus have been reported as high as 18 percent.

“If medicate -resistant influenza B viruses become more prevalent, we will need new medicate s to treat infected patients,” said meditate co-author Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virology professor at the University of Tokyo and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The new meditate received financial support from the Japanese and U.S. governments. Some of the researchers reported receiving speaking fees or previous grant support from medicate companies, including a company developing a new anti-flu medicate .

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� 2007 . .

Autism cases on the rise nationwide - Nightly News with Brian Williams

Autism cases on the rise nationwide

Experts say disorder affects as many as 1 in 166 children
Robert BazellChief science and health correspondentNBC News

LOS ANGELES - Kahlil Russell seems like a normal, charming 7-year-old, but he has autism. He speaks only a few words and can quickly drift away to where no one ??" not even his parents ??" can reach him.?�?�

"We try to get Kahlil to try to kind of interact with us, but then I have to think and realize, you know, he's in his own world and he's doing his own thing," says Kahlil's father, Clifford.

Kahlil attends a school for children with the disorder run by the Help Group in Sherman Oaks, Calif. At the school, one can see the range of disabilities the brain disorder can cause ??" from mild to severe.

What goes on in the brains of these children?

"They see everything. They hear everything. They feel everything," says Dr. Michael Merzenich at the University of California at San Francisco. "But they can't tell anybody. They can't get it out."

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Most troubling, experts say, is the alarming increase in the number of cases. A few decades ago, autism was almost unheard of. Now it seems to be exploding. In the past decade the number of school-age children getting pharmacomedical care skyrocketed 600 percent.

"Parents are going to be needing more and more of these types of facilities with the increasing numbers of kids being identified," says Dr. Barbara Firestone, president of the Help Group.

Why the increase?

Dr. Daniel Geschwind at the University of California Los Angeles says one reason is that doctors are diagnosing it more often.

"People are less reluctant to diagnosis autism, or high-functioning autism, in children. And so, some of it is clearly a diagnostic issue," says Geschwind.

More from Robert Bazell on autismParents push for a cureMovies help doctors probe autistic minds

But that's not all. Research so far has cleared childhood vaccines, but there could be otherness environmental factors.

"This doesn't necessarily mean toxicants," says Geschwind. "It can be anything in the environment that we're exposed to."

To try to find the cause, researchers are scanning the brains of children and adults with autism and looking for genetic factors. They hope that a better understanding of this frightening disorder will help reveal the reasons behind the dramatic increase.

? 2007

South Africa unveils plan to cut HIV spread - AIDS

South Africa unveils plan to cut HIV spread

Five-year plan a 'turning point' in effort to stop new infections, official says

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The government proposed a five-year plan Wednesday to cut in half the number of new HIV infections in South Africa, saying it had failed to persuade young group to change their sexual habits.

The government also said the country needed to better address the stigma associated with the malady, which discouraged many group from being agsdhfgdfed, and vowed to expand its pharmacomedical care and care program to cover 80 percent of group with AIDS.

The report??�s frankness ??" and the warmth with which it was received by AIDS activists ??" marked a turnaround in government rhetoric on AIDS, after years of international condemnation for policies that many said went against medical advice and activists??� efforts. The health minister in particular has been criticized for questioning antiretroviral pharmacomedical cares and promoting nutritional remedies, such as garlic and lemons, to fight the malady.

This plan marks a turning point in the struggle to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic, said Zwelinzima Vavi, the general-secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. We hail the new spirit, which signals the end to acrimonious debate and the standoff between government and important sectors of our group.

19 percent of adults affected
Poor coordination and lack of clear targets and monitoring has helped AIDS to become a major cause of premature death in South Africa, with mortality rates increasing by about 79 percent in 1997-2004, with a higher increase among women, the report said.

About 5.54 mil. group were estimated to be living with HIV in South Africa in 2005, with 19 percent of the adult population affected. Women in the 25-29 age group were the worst affected, with prevalence rates of up to 40 percent.

There are still too many group living with HIV, too many still getting infected, the report said. The impact on individuals and households is enormous. Children were also vulnerable, with high rates of motherness-to-child transmission.

A separate report from the Human Sciences Research Council HIV said there were an estimated 571,000 new HIV infections in 2005 ??" roughly 1,500 per day. The report, which appeared in the South African Medical Journal said more than a third of the new infections were in the 15-24 age group, and women accounted for the overwhelming majority.

A two-day conference, beginning Wednesday, brought political and business leaders together with AIDS activists to discuss ways to implement the government??�s plan.

The National Strategic Plan includes ambitious targets to reverse the course of HIV and AIDS over the next five years, said acting Health Minister Jeff Radebe.

He was appointed last month to replace Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who left her duties due to illness. Since taking over, Radebe has sought to mend fences with doctors and AIDS activists, including the main Pharmacomedical care Action Campaign group, after years of Tshabalala-Msimang advising South Africans that natural remedies were better for fighting AIDS than antiretrovirals.

Change behavior
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, appointed last year to efforts in revamping the country??�s AIDS strategy, said the government had set aside $1.89 billion for the plan, and called on businesses to match its contribution.

Click for more featuresFood and Drug Administration?�warns pills?�can cause sleep-drivingU.S. faces shortage of cancer doctorsWorld population boom predicted

The proposed plan ??" meant to be finalized by the South African National AIDS Council later this month ??" set a target for reducing the number of new HIV infections by 50 percent by 2011.

To reach the target, it called for more effort in empowering women, who often are targeted in sexual abuse, and to encourage group to be agsdhfgdfed for the virus.

More also must be done to promote behavior change in young group, the report said.

Mlambo-Ngcuka urged youths to delay their first sexual experiences.

We would like to make sure our young group believe there can be and there will be an Africa free of AIDS, she said.

Nearly 250,000 group are receiving antiretroviral medical care ??" about 20 percent of the estimated number of group living with HIV.

? 2007 . .

How the Terror-Suspect Compromise Evolved - Newsweek Terror Watch

Change of Heart

How the Bush direction and GOP senators reached a difficult compromise over U.S. a cure of terror detainees.
Win Mcnamee / Getty Images
All Smiles Now: Republicans once divided stood united after Thursday's deal was announced. From left, Rep. Duncan Hunter, Sen. John Cornyn, national-security adviser Stephen Hadley, Sen. John McCain, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. John Warner.

WEB EXCLUSIVEMark HosenballNewsweek

Sept. 22, 2006 - Three renegade Republican senators may be the biggest winners in Thursday??�s deal between the White House and Capitol Hill over the a cure of high-level terror detainees. The senators, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Warner, had led the opposition to the Bush direction's plans to redefine how the United States would apply the Geneva Conventions to terror detainees.

Two sources close to negotiations between the two sides tell NEWSWEEK that key elements of the deal were first floated by the senators as long as a week ago. (The sources familiar with the negotiations asked for anonymity because of the continuing political sensitivity of the issue.) At one point several days ago, says one of the sources, it looked like the two sides were getting close to an agreement. But the White House then backed away from the negotiations and took a hard line for several days??"for reasons that remain unclear.

But by Thursday, the direction essentially agreed to the McCain-Graham-Warner proposal that it had previously rejected. What caused this change of heart? The sources say it was clear that the GOP renegades??� position was supported by at least 51 senators. By the same token, an important element in the compromise, the sources say, was the recognition by Graham, McCain and Warner all along that neither they nor a majority of their Senate colleagues really wanted to put the CIA interrogation program completely out of business.

During a five-h.closed-door meeting Thursday on Capitol Hill, the rebel senators and their aides hammered out an agreement with White House representatives. Initially, direction officials, including President Bush, had indicated in public remarks that they believed the CIA interrogation and detention program could only go forward if Congress passed legislation clarifying an allegedly vague clause in the 60-year-old Geneva Conventions, an international treaty governing the a cure of prisoners. But Senators McCain, Graham and Warner maintained that international law does not permit the United States to reinterpret treaties ratified by Congress years after they went into force. If Congress did this, the senators argued, then foreign countries could reinterpret the Geneva Conventions in the event they capture American soldiers overseas and want to interrogate them using harsh methods.

CONTINUED1 | 2 | 3 | Next >

Men and Depression: New Pharmacomedical care s - Newsweek Health

Men & Depression: Facing Darkness

By By Julie ScelfoNewsweek

Feb. 26, 2007 issue - For nearly a decade, while serving as an elected official and working as an attorney, Massachusetts state Sen. Bob Antonioni struggled with depression, although he didn't know it. Most days, he attended Senate meetings and appeared on behalf of clients at the courthouse. But privately, he was irritable and short-tempered, ruminating endlessly over his cases and becoming easily frustrated by small things, like deciding which TV show to watch with his girlfriend. After a morning at the state house, he'd be so exhausted by noon that he'd drive home and collapse on the couch, unable to move for the rest of the day.

When his younger brotherness, who was similarly moody, killed himself in 1999, Antonioni, then 40, decided to seek help. For three years, he clandestinely saw a therapist, paying in cash so there would be no record. He took anti depression medicates, but had his prescriptions filled at a medicine 20 miles away. His depression was his burden, and his secret. He couldn't bear for his image to be any less than what he thought it should be. "I didn't want to sound like I couldn't take care of myself, that I wasn't a man," says Antonioni.

Then, in 2002, his chief of staff discovered him on the floor of his state-house office, unable to stop crying. Antonioni, now 48, decided he had to open up to his friends and family. A few months later, invited to speak at a mental-health vigil, he found the courage to talk publicly about his problem. Soon after, a local reporter wrote about Antonioni's ongoing struggle with the sickness. Instead of being greeted with jeers, he was hailed as a hero, and inundated with cards and letters from his constituents. "The response was universally positive. I was astounded."

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A Depression Screening Test

Six mil. American men will be diagnosed with depression this year. But mil.s more suffer silently, unaware that their problem has a name or unwilling to seek a cure. In a confessional culture in which Americans are increasingly obsessed with their health, it may seem clich� d�"men are from Mars, women from Venus, and all that�"to say that men tend not to take care of themselves and are reluctant to own up to mental illness. But the facts suggest that, well, men tend not to take care of themselves and are reluctant to own up to mental illness. Although depression is emotionally crippling and has numerous medical implications�"some of them deadly�"many men fail to recognize the syndromes. Instead of talking about their feelings, men may mask them with alcohol, medicate abuse, gambling, anger or by becoming workaholics. And even when they do realize they have a problem, men often view asking for help as an admission of weakness, a betrayal of their male identities.

CONTINUED1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Next >

Pensions agency reports deficit of $18.1 billion - Retirement

Pensions agency reports deficit of $18.1 billion

Smaller shortfall aided by special pharmacotherapy for airlines

WASHINGTON - The federal agency that insures private pension plans for millions of Americans logged a deficit of $18.1 billion this year, a big improvement from last year as a new law helped to put the agency on better financial footing.

The narrower deficit for the 2006 fiscal year reported by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Wednesday was down from a shortfall of $22.8 billion recorded in 2005 and a record $23.3 billion posted in 2004.

“The PBGC’s financial condition appears to have stabilized for the time being,” said Vince Snowbarger, interim director of the agency, which insures pensions for 44 million workers and retirees.

The agency disclosed in its annual financial report that as of Sept. 30 it had assets of $60 billion to cover liabilities of $78.1 billion.

PBGC mainly attributed the shrinking deficit to a provision in the new pension law that carves out special pharmacotherapy for the airline industry, giving airlines that are in bankruptcy court and have frozen their pension plans extra time for their pension plans to become financially whole.

The agency said this led to a sharp reduction in the amount of probable liabilities reflected on the agency’s balance sheet.

Still, the report comes as Americans are feeling anxious about their retirement security. In recent years, an explosion of ailing companies have jettisoned their pension liabilities to the PBGC. The problem has been especially pronounced in industries such as steel and the airlines, which are heavily unionized.

Organized labor wants the new Democrat-controlled Congress, which will convene in January, to provide for more pension protections, including for defined benefit plans, which are increasingly being replaced by 401(k) plans.

The PBGC was created in 1974 as a government insurance program for traditional, defined benefit pension plans. Those plans give retirees a fixed monthly amount based on salary and years of employment. Companies that sponsor these traditional pension plans pay insurance premiums to the agency. If a company can’t support its pension obligations, the agency takes over the plan and pays promised benefits up to certain limits.

The maximum annual benefit for plans taken over in 2006 is $47,659 for workers who wait until 65 to retire. Workers who retire before 65 get smaller benefits.

Addressing the PBGC’s overall red ink this year, Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com, said: “From the individual worker’s standpoint, you are still looking at a big deficit. The message here is even if you have a pension, you still need to save on your own because the health of that pension when you go to retire could be tenuous. So it is important to take advantage of tax-favored retirement savings options such as a 401(k) and an IRA.”

Traditional pension plans are still underfunded but not by as much as in the past, the agency said. These pensions now are underfunded by $350 billion, compared with $450 billion last year. Higher interest rates, a better performing stock market, improved credit ratings and better plan funding by some companies were among the factors that helped to narrow this underfunding gap, economists said.

The agency said it was responsible for the pension benefits of 1.3 million workers and retirees this year, reflecting no net change from last year. The amount of benefits paid increased to $4.1 billion this year from $3.7 billion last year. The amount is projected to rise to $4.8 billion next year.

President Bush in August signed a bill to shore up funding for traditional pensions. Supporters hope the changes will help prevent a multibillion-dollar taxpayer bailout of the PBGC.

In addition to insurance premiums paid by companies, PBGC’s operations are financed by money it earns from investments and funds from pension plans it takes over. The agency is not financed through tax revenues.

Copyright 2006 . .

10 plush places to de-stress - Luxury Travel

10 plush places to de-stress

These spas offer spiritual refreshment as well as lavish surroundings
� Breezes Beach Club
The Breezes Beach Club is situated on an untouched beach on the island of Zanzibar. The 70 rooms are decorated in ivory tones and have Zanzibar wood carvings. The Swahili style spa has dozens of treatments like "The Kili Foot Treatment," a restorative procedure for feet.

By Shivani Vora

If you're like many vacationers, your last trip was crammed with nonstop activity that left you feeling far from refreshed.

And let's not even bring up the BlackBerry.

That's why those in need of a break are foregoing a bike tour of Italy or a jaunt to Napa and signing up for the de-stressing getaway. Today, there are dozens of deluxe properties that offer these retreats.

"Upscale spiritual getaways have become a huge market," says Kathy Obbish, an agent at the Illinois-based travel company Custom Explorations, who has more than 16 years of experience in organizing such trips. "With the growing fast pace of our lives, people just don't want to go on vacation anymore. They want to go away and come back truly reinvigorated and recharged."

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In Pictures: 10 Plush Places To De-Stress

While these trips incorporate traditional spa services like massages, they are different than your average spa vacation because they usually include a spirituality element of yoga, tai chi or meditation. Some facilities even have an alternative medicine doctor on-site who creates a personalized program for guests.

Souped-Up Soul Food
It wasn't too long ago that the only "spiritual vacations" available were monastic retreats offering bare-bones accommodations and meager food. But spiritual seekers today (according to research company MediaMark, the number of Americans practicing yoga is up 144% since 2001) are often wealthy baby boomers who see no contradiction between lapping up luxury while groping for inner peace.

More From Forbes.comClick below for more information•In Pictures: Best Beach Resorts•In Pictures: Unusual Trips And Tours•In Pictures: World's Most Remote Travel Destinations•In Pictures: Most Unusual Restaurants In The World•In Pictures: Celebrity Winter Holiday Spots"They want lovely accommodations and good food," Obbish says. "They're not going to accept anything less."

Those meeting this demand include The Emerson Resort and Spa in Mount Tremper, N.Y. Spirituality is the emphasis at this 52-room property, which opened in March. It's even surrounded by monasteries. In addition to yoga and tai chi, guests can take advantage of Panchakarama, an ancient Indian tradition that matches the needs of your body with certain Ayurvedic treatments. Guests meet with a consultant who puts together a three- or seven-day program.

If rejuvenating under the warm Caribbean sun on sandy beaches with clear blue water is what you crave, then consider the COMO Shambhala Retreat at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos. Parrot Cay, a tony Caribbean property on its own 1000-acre island offers week-long retreats several times a year. High-profile yoga instructors like Rodney Yee lead students through five hours of yoga and meditation daily. In between sun salutations, guests feast on organic spa cuisine and indulge in spa therapies from China, India, Japan and Thailand.

"We started off offering these retreats occasionally, but they were so popular that we increased them to a few times a year," says Yenni Maelianawati, sales manager for COMO Shambhala. "More guests were requesting this type of a vacation."

Beyond-The-Pond Destinations
For many looking to relax, a long flight is not a detriment. Obbish says that 95% of such trips she books are to international locales.

� Desa SeniBook a stay at the Desa Seni Village Resort in Bali and you’ll find full moon yoga classes in an open air studio, and Balinese villages and shopping nearby. Ten antique houses with private terraces and views of rice fields serve as the accommodations. Rooms also have flat-screen TVs and DVD players. All the vegetables used in the meals are grown on-site. "Sometimes people also want a sense of culture when they're looking to relax," she says. "They feel that if they're going to truly unwind, they should do it in an environment that is unlike any they could find at home."

The Desa Seni Village Resort in Bali meets that agsdhfgdf, offering rejuvenation in an exotic setting. The 10-month-old property is actually a collection of 10 antique homes that are fitted with modern touches such as flat-screen televisions and DVD players. You can spend the days taking yoga classes in an open air studio overlooking rice fields or even practice poses under the full moon. Guests wanting to sample Balinese culture can visit nearby villages for shopping and sightseeing.

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Africa has several plush properties that focus on renewal. The Breezes Beach Club and Spa in Zanzibar, for example, has a Swahili style spa with dozens of treatments. And, if you tire of the pampering, the resort arranges snorkeling and scuba diving.

But getting a taste of the spiritual life doesn't come cheap, and while you're lounging, your wallet is doing the heavy lifting. Obbish says these trips can cost up to $15,000 a week for two people without any airfare.

Nobody said enlightenment was cheap.

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� 2007 Forbes.com

Gibson sorry after DUI arrest - Celebrity News

Mel Gibson apologizes after DUI arrest

Police report alleges actor made barrage of anti-Semitic remarks??�
NBC VIDEO?�Gibson sorry for tirade, alleged slurs
July 30: Mel Gibson apologized for "despicable" remarks, including reported anti-Semitic slurs, made during his DUI arrest.

MALIBU, Calif. - Mel Gibson issued a lengthy statement Saturday apologizing for saying despicable things to sheriff's deputies when he was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol.

I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable, the actor-director said without elaborating.

The entertainment Web site TMZ posted what it said were four pages from the original arrest report, which quoted Gibson as launching an expletive-laden barrage of anti-Semitic remarks after he was stopped early Friday on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

According to the report, in addition to threatening the arresting deputy and trying to escape, Gibson said, The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world, and asked the officer, James Mee, Are you a Jew ?

Gibson publicist Alan Nierob would not comment on the incident beyond the written statement.

Los Angeles County Sheriff??�s spokesman Sgt. John Hocking said he could not confirm the TMZ report, and detectives would begin investigating Monday. Deputies at the Malibu sheriff??�s station referred calls to headquarters. Numerous calls to other sheriff??�s officials were not returned, and attempts to locate Mee, the deputy, were also unsuccessful.

The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site late Saturday that the sheriff??�s department??�s civilian oversight office will investigate whether authorities gave Gibson preferential asthma and tried to cover up his alleged behavior.

Sheriff Lee Baca defended his department??�s handling of the case.

There is no cover-up, Baca told the Times. Our job is not to (focus) on what he said. It??�s to establish his blood-alcohol level when he was driving and proceed with the case. Trying someone on rumor and innuendo is no way to run an investigation, at least one with integrity.

MORE ON MEL GIBSON?�Gibson charged with drunken driving?�Gibson admits remarks | Read his statement?�Mixed response | Was apology too late??�Opinion: In any language, Gibson a schmuck ?�Newsweek: His true views or booze talking??�Malibu's Highway to the Stars strikes again?�Gibson story laagsdhfgdf coup for TMZ.com In his statement, Gibson apologized for what he called my belligerent behavior when he was taken into custody.

The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person, he said.

I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse.

He said he was taking necessary steps to ensure my return to health.

if (window.MelGibson_vidgal) { displayApp(MelGibson_vidgal); }Gibson, 50, was arrested after deputies stopped his 2006 Lexus LS 430 for speeding at 2:36 a.m. Friday. Sheriff??�s spokesman Steve Whitmore said deputies clocked him doing 87 mph in a 45 mph zone.

A breath agsdhfgdf indicated Gibson??�s blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent, Whitmore said. The legal limit in California is 0.08 percent.

The actor-director posted $5,000 bail and was released at 9:45 a.m.

Gibson won a best-director Oscar for 1995??�s Braveheart and had a 2004 religious blockbuster with The Passion of the Christ, which many Jewish groups said contained anti-Semitic overtones. He also starred in the Lethal Weapon and Mad Max films, What Women Want and The Man Without a Face, among other movies.

? 2006 . .

Hep C infection may increase risk of lymphoma - Infectious Diseases

Hep C infection may increase risk of lymphoma

Virus can hike chances of immune-system cancer by 30 percent, experts say

WASHINGTON - Infection with the hepatitis C virus, already linked to liver cancer and cirrhosis, also increases the risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers tracked 146,394 U.S. military veterans infected with the virus and 572,293 veterans who were not, and found that hepatitis C infection boosted the risk for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma by 20 percent to 30 percent.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is cancer that originates in the lymphoid tissue that makes up the lymph nodes, spleen and other organs of the immune system, with tumors developing from white blood cells. It is more common in men than women.

Hepatitis C infection also raised by 300 percent the risk for a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma called Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. Risk for cryoglobulinemia, involving abnormal levels of certain antibodies in the blood, also rose.

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The hepatitis C virus causes hepatitis, a disease marked by liver inflammation, as well as liver cancer and cirrhosis.

It is carried through the blood and spread from one person to another through the exchange of bodily fluids �" for example, by sharing needles during injection drug use or by sexual contact. It also was spread via blood transfusions before 1990, when screening for the virus began.

“The thought is that hepatitis C is a chronic infection, and as a chronic infection it results in chronic stimulation of the immune system. And these cancers are cancers of the immune system, essentially,” Dr. Thomas Giordano of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, lead author of the study, said in a telephone interview.

Infection with the hepatitis C virus, also called HCV, came before the development of these cancers and the increased risk was long-lasting, the study found.

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“Although the risk of developing lymphomas is small, our research suggests that screening of HCV-infected individuals could identify conditions which may lead to cancer,” co-author Dr. Eric Engels of the National Cancer Institute, part of the U.S. National Institutes of health, said in a statement.

“It might then be possible to prevent progression to lymphoma,” Engels added.

The study looked at patients in U.S. Veterans Affairs health care facilities from 1997 to 2004. All but 3 percent were men, most were white, and their average age was 52.

There are more than 4 million people infected with the hepatitis C virus in the United States, representing 1.6 percent of the population.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

'Raw' almonds may no longer be raw - Before You Bite

'Raw' almonds may no longer be raw

TODAY's Phil Lempert reports on effort to pasteurize the popular nuts
By Phil LempertTODAY Food Editor

Phil LempertTODAY Food Editor•Profile•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');

The USDA is attempting to require that all almonds grown in California to be sterilized with various pasteurization techniques in response to Salmonella outbreaks in 2001 and 2004 that were traced to raw almonds. All almonds, with two exceptions, would undergo a sterilization process that includes chemicals and/or high-temperature treatments. Organic raw almonds will not be fumigated and undergo only the steam-heat treatment thus they are no longer "raw," and small-scale growers can sell "raw" almonds only direct from farm stands.

The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group, is requesting that the Food and Drug Administration reopen the proceeding for public comment as the proposed change was not effectively communicated to the public. In fact, only 18 comments were received on the proposal �" all from the almond industry which, unlike consumers, retailers and other organizations concerned with food safety, received a personal letter or fax from the USDA on the proposal and an invitation to comment.

In light of the recent foodborne illnesses involving peanut butter, spinach, lettuce and pet foods there is little doubt that consumers are more concerned about food safety than ever, which certainly offers the USDA a window of opportunity to institute stricter regulations and different technologies to reduce food safety problems. Most food safety issues occur when contaminated water, soil or transportation and handling equipment come into contact with the product. But, according to The Cornucopia Institute, this USDA regulation might well be  ignoring the root causes of food contamination  "dangerous and unsustainable farming practices."

Concerns raised about the proposal include the costs of the chemical and heat treatments (a propylene oxide chamber runs up from $500,000 to $1,250,000 and a roasting line from $1,500,000 to $2,500,000) as well as transportation costs to and from treatment facilities, which would place a heavier burden on small farmers as opposed to big business.

Even more important is that the most common method of sterilizing almonds is by propylene oxide fumigation, which is listed by the International Agency on Cancer Research as a possible carcinogen. It is banned in the European Union, Canada and Mexico, among many others, from being used in the treatment of food for human consumption.

We agree with The Institute's main contention �" these almonds which would be labeled "raw" is deceptive to those who wish to buy truly raw, unprocessed almonds. It's time to separate out the technology benefits (or drawbacks) from labeling issues and allow shoppers to be able to trust what’s listed on the package as being “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

For more food safety information and tips visit Phil’s website www.supermarketguru.com

Phil Lempert is food editor of the TODAY show. He welcomes questions and comments, which can be sent to phil.lempert@nbc.com or by using the mail box below. For more about the laagsdhfgdf trends on the supermarket shelves, visit Phil’s Web site at SuperMarketGuru.com.

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Can We Slow Aging? - Health For Life

Can We Slow Aging?

A compound found in red wine may extend the human life span. A report from the front lines.
Photo Illustration by Nitin Vadukul for Newsweek
Resveratrol: Does it protect from aging?

By By David Sinclair, Ph.D. and Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D.Newsweek

Dec. 11, 2006 issue - Nothing seems more inevitable than aging and death�"not even taxes. Every plant, animal and person you have ever seen will eventually die, including the person in the mirror. But some recent research suggests that aging as we know it may not be inevitable. Indeed, as our understanding of it grows, aging can be seen not as an immutable reality from which there is no escape, but as the product of biological processes that we may be able to control someday.

We already know that some animals do not seem to age. Many cold-water ocean fish, some amphibians and the American lobster never reach a fixed size; they continue to grow bigger, to be able to reproduce and to live until something kills them. What these creatures seem to be telling us is that something in their genes�"and possibly in ours�"controls the pace of aging, and that aging is not the fate of every living thing.

Throughout the history of life on earth, one of the most common difficulties that animals (and their cells) have faced has been a lack of food. About 70 years ago, scientists discovered that when animals are forced to live on 30 to 40 percent fewer calories than they would normally eat, something unusual happens: they become resistant to most age-related diseases�"cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's�"and live 30 to 50 percent longer. Restricting calories slows aging.

But how? What are the underlying genes that preserve vitality and stave off disease? No one knows for sure why aging occurs, but one important reason is probably the accumulation of DNA damage�"from radiation, mutation-causing chemicals or, particularly, oxidants. Inside every animal cell are many mitochondria�"little "power packs" that use oxygen to generate energy. In doing their jobs, however, mitochondria produce chemical byproducts�"oxidants �"that damage DNA and other components inside cells. It may not seem fair, but it's a fact of life. Fortunately, our cells are not defenseless against such assaults. They have genes that spring into action to defend against DNA damage, including genes that repair damaged mitochondria.

About 15 years ago, armed with powerful new molecular-research techniques, a few scientists began to investigate these genetic phenomena. At MIT, Dr. Leonard Guarente (along with one of the authors of this piece, David Sinclair) discovered that adding an extra copy of a gene called Sir2 caused yeast cells to live 30 percent longer. Today many researchers suspect that Sir2 or other sirtuin genes�"which are present in all animals, including humans�"are responsible for the health benefits of calorie restriction, perhaps by repairing our DNA. But if, in order to kick the sirtuins into action, we had to restrict our calorie intake by 30 to 40 percent, would it be of any practical use? Few of us would be capable of restricting our diets so severely that we were constantly hungry: whether or not it made life longer, it would surely make life feel longer.

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CONTINUED1 | 2 | 3 | Next >

Cell phones don’t cause cancer, huge study says -

Cell phones don’t cause cancer, huge study says

Findings on 420,000 people in Denmark give gadget a clean bill of health
Mario Tama / Getty Images file
Cell phones beam radiofrequency energy that can penetrate the brain’s outer edge, which has raised questions about cancers of the head and neck, brain tumors or leukemia. Most research has found no risk.

WASHINGTON - A huge study from Denmark offers the laagsdhfgdf reassurance that cell phones don’t trigger cancer.

Scientists tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including 52,000 who had gabbed on the gadgets for 10 years or more, and some who started using them 21 years ago.

They matched phone records to the famed Danish Cancer Registry that records every citizen who gets the disease �" and reported Tuesday that cell-phone callers are no more likely than anyone else to suffer a range of cancer types.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the largest yet to find no bad news about the safety of cell phones and the radiofrequency energy they emit.

No end to the debate
But even the lead researcher doubts it will end the debate.

“There’s really no biological basis for you to be concerned about radio waves,” said John Boice, a Vanderbilt University professor and scientific director of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Md. “Nonetheless, people are.”

So Boice and colleagues at Copenhagen’s Danish Cancer Society plan to continue tracking the Danish callers until at least some have used the phones for 30 years.

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This so-called Danish cohort “is probably the strongest study out there because of the outstanding registries they keep,” said Joshua Muscat of Pennsylvania State University, who also has studied cell phones and cancer.

Reassurance ... for now
“As the body of evidence accumulates, people can become more reassured that these devices are safe, but the final word is not there yet,” Muscat added.

Cell phones beam radiofrequency energy that can penetrate the brain’s outer edge, raising questions about cancers of the head and neck, brain tumors or leukemia. Most research has found no risk, but a few studies have raised questions. And while U.S. health officials insist the evidence shows no real reason for concern, they don’t give the phones a definitive clean bill of health, either, pending long-term data on slow-growing cancers.

For the laagsdhfgdf study, personal identification numbers assigned to each Dane at birth allowed researchers to match people who began using cell phones between 1982 and 1995 with cancer records.

Among 420,000 callers tracked through 2002, there were 14,249 cancers diagnosed �" fewer than the 15,001 predicted from national cancer rates. Nor did the study find increased risks for any specific tumor type.

� 2007 . .

Retailers roll out low-cost health services - Personal Finance

Attention shoppers: Flu shots in aisle five

More retailers roll out low-cost health care services
Vanessa RichardsonContributor

Vanessa RichardsonContributor•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');Lorie Vick of Orlando, Fla., had originally stopped at her local CVS drugstore to buy contact-lens solution, but then she saw signs for flu shots. She walked to the back of the store and saw the offer came from MinuteClinic, a mini-healthcare center next to the medicament counter that offered cures for minor ailments ranging from allergies to warts. Fifteen minutes later, Vick got her shot, and the next day she brought her teenage son Tim back for his.

"It would have taken twice or three times as long waiting at my doctor’s office, so this is great," Vick said.

Tim agreed and added, "You can look at more stuff here."

More people are heading to their local drug store instead of their family doctor for medical checkups. Establishments like MinuteClinic, Take Care and RediCare are taking up more space in major retail stores to diagnose, treat and write prescriptions for patients with common illnesses.

MinuteClinic, the nation’s largest operator of retail clinics, has 116 stores in 17 states and boasts of seeing more than 600,000 patients since it started in 2000. It was purchased by CVS last July. Other major retailers, eager to boost profits and customer share, are following suit. Target, Kroger, Wal-Mart and Walgreen are partnering with more than a dozen clinic operators to open thousands of in-store health care centers in the next two years.

Because many clinics just lease space in their stores, retailers don’t expect to make money from the health clinics themselves but rather from increased customer traffic before and after appointments.

They also increase retailers’ emphasis on health care, said Michael Polzin, spokesman for Walgreens, which will have TakeCare clinics in 60 stores by year’s end. "The medicament makes up two-thirds of our revenue so we consider ourselves a healthcare retailer anyway. These clinics add to our reputation of being more convenient and accessible to customers."

Cheap, convenient health care
The clinics are typically small, with one or two exam rooms, and are staffed by board-certified nurse practitioners or physician assistants, but usually have a physician's oversight. At Take Care clinics, for example, doctors review 10 percent of patient charts and visit clinics once a month. Clinics can treat anyone over the age of 18 months, but if an ailment is too serious, such as asthma or diabetes, clinics refer patients to a local doctor or emergency room.

No appointments are required, they are open evenings and weekends and visits often take no more than 15 minutes. If the wait is still too long, some clinics give out pagers so people can shop while waiting.

Patients know ahead of time what they’ll pay for their cure because prices are posted outside each center. For those with health insurance, MinuteClinic charges the office co-pay indicated on the insurance card; those paying out of their own pocket are charged between $49 and $59 per cure. That compares favorably that to a standard doctor’s visit, which could cost over $100.

Live Vote

Would you visit a medical clinic in a retail store?

Even though most Americans have yet to see these mini-clinics in their corner drugstores, those who have are pleased with the speedy, inexpensive care. A Harris Poll of 2,200 people found that while only 7 percent of respondents had visited a clinic, 89 percent of them were happy with the care they got.

Vicki Partridge paid $39 for a pregnancy agsdhfgdfing at an Early Solutions clinic in Taylor, Mich.,  during her lunch hour. She had gone there for pinkeye cure a month prior, so the nurse practitioner pulled up her files, saw that she had insurance and was allergic to penicillin. Partridge was in and out within 30 minutes, less time than it would have taken round-trip to her doctor’s office. "It was so worth not having to go through the hassle of making an appointment, and it was probably cheaper," she said.

CONTINUED: The future of medicine?1 | 2 | Next >

Steer clear of road rage on your commute - Mental Health

Road rage can churn in the calmest of hearts

Here??�s how to keep your blood pressure in check on your next commute
Ben Grefsrud / msnbc.com
By By Patrick Enright contributor

David Stallings isn't the kind of person you'd expect to succumb to road rage. He is calm and mild mannered, a longtime Zen Buddhist. Plus, he's professionally dedicated to safe transportation ??" he works for Seattle's Metro Transit.

But years ago, while trapped in traffic in his truck, he happened across his daughter's white plastic toy ray gun, complete with flashing lights. On a whim, he surreptitiously used it to zap a car that had just cut him off.

"I thought, 'Well, that's kind of satisfying,'" he says. The satisfaction lasted a year. Then, "it dawned on me that I was sort of giving vent to some of the same [aggression] that I was condemning."

Road rage and roadway congestion are familiar scenarios for millions of American drivers, and they're not getting any better. A 2006 Transportation Research Board report noted that congestion is increasing in intensity, extent and duration. Average one-way travel time for commuters in 2000 was 25.5 minutes, three minutes more than in 1990.

Certainly anecdotal reports of aggression behind the wheel are increasing. Consider the case of the Raleigh, N.C., driver who allegedly circled the block and ran down a pedestrian who had dared to yell at him to slow down. Or the driver who ran a fellow motorist off the road in Peoria, Ariz., for talking on his cell phone. Or the off-duty Detroit police officer facing charges for allegedly firing shots at an SUV driver who had accidentally hit his Dodge Magnum. And those are just incidents from the past few months.

Fight or flight
Exact figures for incidents of road rage are hard to come by, partly because the behaviors are difficult to define precisely. A 2002 survey done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 40 percent of drivers felt other drivers had become more aggressive in the past year, compared with 30 percent who felt that way in 1997.

Normally, when stress becomes overwhelming, experts suggest taking a break from the situation or setting aside time to exercise. But in a car, your options are limited. Seething? Don't forget to breathe-Get comfortable by loosening tight clothing or rolling down the window.-Distract yourself ??" listen to calming music or an audiobook.-Take a series of slow, deep breaths to reduce anger and stress.-Don't assume the worst, and realize that every driver makes mistakes.-Think of the big picture; an extra five minutes won't kill you. Driving aggressively might.-Treat other drivers with the same common courtesy you'd expect in the grocery aisle.

"Stress is a fight-or-flight reaction," says New York psychologist Carol Goldberg. "If [people] can't flee, like they're stuck in a traffic jam, they fight and get road rage."

So how can you keep from succumbing to blood-pressure-raising fury when you're crammed behind the wheel? These tips from experts can help you change your body and your mind:

Get comfortable. Gerry Matthews, a psychology professor at the University of Cincinnati who has studied driver behavior, says driver comfort "plays into driver fatigue and there's a close relationship between fatigue and stress. Stress makes you fatigued and fatigue makes you stressed." Adjust the temperature so you're not too warm, loosen your tie or other tight-fitting clothing and make sure your seat is positioned so you're relaxed to avoid the physical tension that comes with stress.

Distract yourself ??" but only a little. "Instead of honking your horn and trying to find shortcuts and giving everybody the finger, you could say, 'Look, I'm going to use this time productively,'" suggests Dr. Paul Rosch, president of the American Institute of Stress. Listening to soothing music, audiobooks or foreign-language tapes is a way for drivers to block out the annoyance of traffic. But be careful. As Matthews points out, talking on a cell phone, hands-free or not, "is distracting and dangerous when driving."

Breathe deeply. You don't need to be an expert in meditation to benefit from deep breathing. Rick Waranch, a part-time psychology faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, recommends simply taking seven or eight slow breaths per minute from the diaphragm, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Don't make assumptions. It's easy to think that the guy in the BMW cut you off maliciously, but that doesn't mean it's true. Social psychologists have a name for this kind of assumption: the fundamental attribution error. It's our tendency to ascribe behavior too much to underlying personality traits and too little to the particular situation. Maybe the Beemer driver is a doctor rushing to surgery to save a life. Assuming the worst will only add to your stress. Also, remember you're equally prone to mistakes. One study Matthews cites asked people to rate their own driving safety and the skills of other drivers. The result? "People overestimate ??� their driving ability," says Matthews.

Think of the big picture. Does it really matter if your 15-minute drive takes you 20 minutes, or if you let in that merging SUV? Rational thinking is difficult when you're seeing red, but with practice, it's doable. Waranch has helped several patients suffering from driving-related stress. "It's largely convincing yourself that it's pretty stupid to [drive aggressively], that it's unhealthy, and that it's not going to serve any purpose," he says.

Be self-aware. Knowing what triggers stress in you is key to reducing it, Matthews says. Accepting that other drivers are beyond your control can improve your attitude. It's also good to recognize that driving a car conveys a false sense of invulnerability and adds a degree of anonymity that can make the best of us behave less than graciously. Applying the common courtesy you'd exhibit in the grocery-store checkout line while on the road can make driving in traffic less confrontational and even collaborative.

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For Stallings, the toy gun wasn't the answer. His Buddhist leanings made breathing exercises a natural solution.

"It's a way not only to let [the irritation] go but to feel engaged ??� in a positive way," he says. "All you have to do is just kind of turn a corner."

Patrick Enright is a Seattle-based freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in , Mr. Showbiz, Wall of Sound, Movies.com and Seattle Weekly.

? 2007

Microsoft role complicates ‘$100 laptop’ - Tech News & Reviews

Microsoft role complicates ‘$100 laptop’

Company says it's uncertain whether it can fit Windows on the machines
Anja Niedringhaus / AP
Co-Founder and Chairman of the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nicholas Negroponte shows off the '$100 laptop' at a news conference.

By By Brian Bergstein

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - One of the most ambitious aspects of the "$100 laptop" project for schoolchildren in developing countries is the machines' open-source software platform, designed to be intuitive for kids.

That's why many people were taken aback last week when the founder of the nonprofit laptop project, Nicholas Negroponte, announced that buyers of the machine will be able to add Windows, the ultimate in proprietary software.

( is a joint Microsoft - NBC Universal venture.)

However, Microsoft Corp. says it's uncertain whether it can fit Windows on the laptops. Will Poole, who heads Microsoft's emerging-markets group, says the limited storage space (recently upped to 1 gigabyte of flash memory) and other original elements on the One Laptop Per Child program's "XO" computer aren't welcoming for Windows.

"I don't know how to get the thing to run on less than 2 gigs," he said. Plus, at least 10 custom drivers �" which tell an operating system how to interact with hardware �" need to be designed, Poole said.

Why does this matter? Because One Laptop Per Child is still negotiating with several governments to finalize orders for at least 3 million of the machines, the level at which the project's mass-distribution plans kick in.

And with the computers' price now up to $175 ($100 is the long-term goal), some officials might want Windows as a potential backup if the machines' alternative interface doesn't capture children's fancy as envisioned.

"We have had requests from government officials who are looking at that device, to ask us if it can run Windows," Poole said.

Negroponte seemed to deliver a definitive yes to that question: "We will run Windows," he said last week. Asked for elaboration, a spokesman for Negroponte wrote in an e-mail: "He was stating a fact �" not a hope or a desire."

But Poole said the answer should have been maybe: "I cannot make any promises," he said. "There's work still to be done. People should not bank on having Windows."

For his part, Negroponte wasn't touting Windows itself as much as user choice. He stressed the educational theories behind his project's original interface, which is open-source so as to let children tinker with it. He also said government ministers had not really been asking him about Windows on the machines, citing Egpyt as a rare exception. But he acknowledged that the potential to run Windows could reduce the risk for some buyers.

"He's playing to some purchasing minister somewhere," said Wayan Vota, who directs the Geekcorps international tech-development organization and follows the laptop project closely at his OLPCNews blog. Vota added that he hopes no XO buyers switch to Windows, because he believes Microsoft's software would be unable to utilize many of XO's innovations, including its radical power-saving capabilities and wireless networking functions.

Complicating the mix is an emerging little computer for the developing world from Intel Corp. _ the Classmate PC, which can run Windows or Linux. Intel expects its price to fall below $250 by the middle of the year and just signed a deal to sell 700,000 Classmates in Pakistan _ one of the countries that One Laptop Per Child hopes to reach.

Meanwhile, Microsoft recently announced a $3 Windows "starter edition" package for international governments that subsidize student computers.

After Negroponte's comments last week, representatives from his group objected to ' description that the nonprofit was "working with" Microsoft so Windows could run on the computers. Spokesmen for the project insisted that Microsoft was acting on its own accord, and that Microsoft got "beta" versions of the XO computers just like a lot of other companies have.

"OLPC has no working relationship with Microsoft nor does Microsoft get any special cure," said a statement from One Laptop's president for software and development, Walter Bender. "They are just another software company interested in the project. OLPC is aware that Microsoft wants to create a Windows platform for the laptop, but OLPC is not involved in that project in any way."

Certainly, Negroponte's and Poole's differing reports about Windows on XO indicate the camps are not exactly on the same page. But it's unclear whether they are as distant as the public-relations statement would hold.

Negroponte told a Linux convention in April 2006 that he had been discussing with Microsoft how Windows could run on the computers �" which is why he was displeased when Bill Gates pooh-poohed the laptop effort.

Click for related content'$100 laptop' to cost $175Microsoft extends XP supportReview: Vista, Microsoft's new Windows

More recently, Negroponte has been quoted as saying the laptops got an SD port �" where Secure Digital cards can be inserted, expanding the memory available �" so Windows could work. (Bender contradicted that, saying the SD port was added to provide extra space for photos taken with the computer's camera.)

"It is true that we have been working together," Microsoft's Poole said. "We have been having active, high-level conversations going on two years now."

Copyright 2007 . .

Doctors, insurers ask, ‘Who are you?’ - Nightly News with Brian Williams

More doctors, insurers asking, ‘Who are you?’

Medical identity theft, on the rise, can threaten lives as well as wallets
NBC VIDEO•Medical ID theft creates concerns
April 3: Medical ID theft is on the rise in the United States, and there’s more to be worried about than just the financial ramifications. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports.

Nightly News

By By Anne Thompson and Alex JohnsonNBC News

Anne ThompsonChief environmental correspondent•ProfileAndrew Brooke’s family knew something was screwy when they got a collection notice for unpaid bills for treatment of his work-related back injury, which included large prescriptions of the controlled painkiller Oxycontin.

“I’m looking at this bill, and I’m looking at my 3-week-old baby that can’t even hold his head up, and it’s just a sense of outrage,” said Andrew’s father, John Brooke, of Bothell, Wash., a suburb of Seattle.

Likewise, Jo-Ann Davis knew there was a mistake when a cop greeted her at the medicament where she had gone to pick up a prescription in early 2005.

“I’ve never even had a speeding ticket,” said Davis, a veterinary technician from Moon, Pa., near Pittsburgh.

Medical providers, it turned out, thought Andrew and Davis were other people. Their medical identities had been stolen.

These are not isolated incidents: In a report last year, the World Privacy Forum found that the number of Americans identifying themselves in government documents as victims of medical identity theft had nearly tripled in just four years, to more than a quarter-million in 2005.

Motives for medical identity theft can vary. Some thieves, as in these cases, are seeking controlled medications. Others are seeking federal money. A case that wrapped up in January in Southern California illustrates just how sophisticated such operations can be.

Five health care providers pleaded guilty to stealing more than $900,000 in 2003 by luring hundreds of elderly Vietnamese patients to a fake medical clinic in Milpitas, where they would offer free checkups. According to prosecutors, they would copy the patients’ Medicare records and then use the information to bill the government for phantom services.

Click for related coverageRead the full World Privacy Forum report (PDF)Check your records: State-by-state guide

Steep costs on money and lives
Of all the forms of identity theft, misappropriation of your medical records is among the most damaging. It’s not just the financial toll �" if your medical identity is stolen, erroneous entries can turn up in your records, which could end up killing you.

Get your medical records

All hospitals and most doctors have a release form you can use to request your records. Because state laws differ on how long such records must be archived, call the office to make sure your records still exist.

You can have your records sent to yourself or directly to a health care professional. If you do have the records sent to a health professional, let him or her know to expect the files.

In many cases, a letter may be all you need. It should include:

-Your birthdate-Your full name (including any information about name changes)-When you were seen -The specific information you want

Source: GeneticHealth.com

“If someone shows up in an emergency room and this has happened to them, they could receive improper treatment, and that is a real problem,” said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit research group.

For example, if an identity thief presents himself at the hospital in your name and is identified as having a different blood type, that blood type ends up registered in your medical history, with potentially disastrous consequences if you end up in a serious accident.

Or suppose you apply for a new job. Even if you’re fit as a fiddle, you could still fail a pre-employment medical screening or be rejected for company-provided health insurance because of the inaccurate presence of an ailment in your medical history that you don’t have.

It is also the most difficult type of identity theft to fix after the fact, because victims have limited recourse. Dixon found that medical identity theft typically leaves a trail of false information in medical records that can plague victims for years, because even if you manage to correct your records in one place, it’s almost impossible to track down everywhere they have been disseminated across the networks of medical providers, insurers and government agencies.

if (window.Medical_ID_Theft_070327) { displayApp(Medical_ID_Theft_070327); }

Too many roadblocks
Five states �" California, Florida, Nevada, Arkansas and Delaware �" have recently passed or are considering laws to address breaches of medical information, but the privacy forum still recommends that everyone check his or her medical records for accuracy.

Live survey

Are you confident your records are safe?

Georgetown University’s Center on Medical Rights and Privacy maintains a state-by-state guide to checking your records. But if you find an error, trying to correct it can be a complex and sometimes fruitless task.

Alex JohnsonReporter•Profile

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, requires health care providers and insurers to give you access to your medical records and to give you a copy of their privacy practices. If your records are wrong, the act gives providers and insurers as long as 90 days to respond, but if they disagree with you, they don’t have to do anything.

Moreover, HIPAA doesn’t require medical providers and insurers to remove incorrect information; in fact, it says that if incorrect information leads to inappropriate treatment, the bad information should not be removed from your records, in order to preserve a paper trail.

CONTINUED: Authorities slow to prosecute1 | 2 | Next >

More weekend stroke patients die - Heart Health

Weekend stroke patients have higher death risk

14 percent increase may be tied to lack of expertise, resources, experts say

DALLAS - If you have a stroke, try to have it between Monday and Friday.

A Canadian study released on Thursday found that patients hospitalized for the most common kind of stroke on weekends had a higher death rate than those admitted on weekdays.

The “weekend effect” has been identified before in other conditions such as cancer and pulmonary embolism.

But this is the first major study to look at it in relation to ischemic stroke, which is caused by a clot that blocks blood flow in an artery in or leading to the brain.

“If the ‘weekend effect’ occurs in a socialized health care system (like Canada’s), it is likely that the effect may be larger in other settings,” said Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, director of the Stroke Research Unit Division of Neurology at the University of Toronto and lead author of the study.

The study, published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, looked at all ischemic stroke hospital admissions in Canada from April 2003 to March 2004.

It found that about a quarter of the 26,676 patients admitted to 606 hospitals over that time period were brought in on Saturdays and Sundays.

“After adjusting for age, gender and other medical complications, researchers found that patients admitted on the weekend had a 14 percent higher risk of dying within seven days of admission compared to patients admitted during the week,” the American Heart Association said in a statement.

The “weekend effect” was even greater when patients went to a rural hospital instead of an urban one, and when the doctor in charge was a general practitioner instead of a specialist, it said.

Researchers said the higher death risk might be linked to a relative lack of resources or expertise in hospitals during weekends. But they did not elaborate and said more study was needed.

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No one with stroke-like symptoms should hesitate to seek medical cure on weekends, they added.

“Although the differences in weekend admission found in this study may be real, the potential benefits of obtaining early cure would well outweigh the risk of waiting,” said Dr. Larry Goldstein, chair of the Stroke Council of the American Heart Association.

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Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Siegfried & Roy to tell all - Gossip: The Scoop

Siegfried & Roy ready
to let cat out of the bag

Plus: Ashlee Simpson a new
acid-reflux spokesperson?
NBC / AP file
Is America ready for "Siegfried & Roy: The Book"?

By By Jeannette Walls

Siegfried and Roy are ready to tell all.

Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, the hugely popular big cat tamers who were sidelined when Horn was mauled by a tiger last year, are secretly shopping around their joint memoir.

“They’re meeting with top publishers in the coming weeks,” says one insider. “It’s all very hush-hush, but apparently, they’re going to tell everything about their private and professional lives. We’re very excited about it.”

The source says the bidding will probably be in the seven-figure range.

Spokesmen for Siegfried and Roy didn’t return calls.

An ad for Ashlee?
Frank Micelotta / Getty ImagesAt least some people are pretty pleased with Ashlee Simpson’s lip synching debacle: the makers of medication for acid-reflux disease.

The teen crooner, explaining why she didn’t sing live on Saturday Night Live, said on the Today Show that her voice was hoarse because she had been suffering from “severe acid reflux.” And that makes marketers of acid reflux medications such as Nexium and Prevacid quite happy.

“Somebody of her high profile helps raise the profile of the disease,” David Albaugh of AstraZeneca �" makers of Nexium, the widely advertised “purple pill” �" told The Scoop. “Obviously, it’s good to have improved and increased awareness of acid reflux.”

“We believe that celebrities who talk about their experience with certain health conditions, such as acid reflux in this case, can help educate people on important health issues, as well as motivate people to talk to their doctors and get properly diagnosed and treated,” a spokeswoman for TAP, the company that makes Prevacid, e-mailed The Scoop in a statement. “We wish Ashlee Simpson the very best on her road to relief from acid reflux.”

RELATED STORIESAshlee Simpson busted for ‘SNL’ lip-synchingWalls: Simpson paying lip service to realitySimpson goes live at Radio Music Awards

Both companies, however, said that they have no plans at this time to ask Simpson to become their acid-reflux celebrity spokeswoman.

Notes from all over
Kevin Winter / Getty ImagesTom Cruise has a not quite impossible mission: he wants to climb Mount Everest. “That’s been a dream of mine,” the actor said at the American Film Institute, reports Zap2it.com. “I’m not a great climber, but I enjoy it.” Cruise also said he’d love to do a musical, and admits that he still sometimes sings and boogies in his underwear, like he did in “Risky Business,” saying that he calls it his “dance of freedom.”   . . . Hugh Grant joked about Julia Roberts’ “very big mouth” to Oprah Winfrey. “Literally, physically, she has a very big mouth,” Grant said of his “Notting Hill” co-star. “When I was kissing her I was aware of a faint echo.” When Winfrey defended Roberts as “one of the nicest people I ever met,” Grant deadpanned, “I wouldn’t go that far.”  . . .  Madonna used the F-word at her rabbi’s book party. The spiritual girl, speaking at the London launch for Rabbi Michael Berg’s “Becoming Like God,” at one point snapped at the crowd, “Turn those f----- mobile phones off.”

document.write("");Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoopdocument.write(''); Mondays through Thursdays on

� 2006

Heartburn drugs linked to hip-fracture risk - Aging

Heartburn drugs tied to hip-fracture risk

Nexium, Prilosec may make it harder for body to absorb calcium, study says

CHICAGO - Taking such popular heartburn drugs as Nexium, Prevacid or Prilosec for a year or more can raise the risk of a broken hip markedly in people over 50, a large study in Britain found.

The study raises questions about the safety of some of the most widely used and heavily promoted prescription drugs on the market, taken by millions of people.

The researchers speculated that when the drugs reduce acid in the stomach, they also make it more difficult for the body to absorb bone-building calcium. That can lead to weaker bones and fractures.

Hip fractures in the elderly often lead to life-threatening complications. As a result, doctors should make sure patients have good reason to stay on heartburn drugs long term, said study co-author Dr. Yu-Xiao Yang of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

“The general perception is they are relatively harmless,” Yang said. “They often are used without a clear or justified indication for the cure.”

Some people find relief from heartburn with over-the-counter antacids such as Tums, Rolaids and Maalox. For others, these medicines do not work well. Moreover, heartburn can be more than a source of discomfort. People with chronic heartburn can develop painful ulcers in the esophagus, and in rare cases, some can end up with damage that can lead to esophageal cancer.

Dr. Sandra Dial of McGill University in Montreal, who was not involved in the study but has done similar research, said patients should discuss the risks and benefits with their doctors and taper off their use of these medicines if they can.

Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec are members of a class of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors. The study found a similar but smaller risk of hip fractures for another class of acid-fighting drugs called H2 blockers. Those drugs include Tagamet and Pepcid.

The study, published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at medical records of more than 145,000 patients in England, where a large electronic database of records is available for research. The average age of the patients was 77.

The patients who used proton pump inhibitors for more than a year had a 44 percent higher risk of hip fracture than nonusers. The longer the patients took the drugs, the higher their risk.

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The biggest risk was seen in people who took high doses of the drugs for more than a year. That group had a 2½ times greater risk of hip fractures than nonusers.

Yang said that for every 1,262 elderly patients treated with the drugs for more than a year, there would be one additional hip fracture a year attributable to the drugs. For every 336 elderly patients treated for more than a year with high doses, there would be one extra hip fracture a year attributable to the drugs.

Dr. Doug Levine of AstraZeneca PLC, which makes Nexium and Prilosec, said the study does not prove that proton pump inhibitors cause hip fractures. It merely suggests a potential association, he said, adding that doctors need to monitor their patients for proper dosage and watch how long they take the drugs.

Dr. Alan Buchman of Northwestern University, who was not involved in the research, said the study should not change medical practice, since doctors already should be monitoring the bone density of elderly people taking the drugs and recommending calcium-rich diets to all patients.

“Most people are not taking enough calcium to start with,” he said. He also wondered if a similar result would have been found in a sunny climate, because vitamin D from sunshine helps with calcium absorption.

Also, Buchman said it not known whether the acid-fighting drugs prevent esophageal cancer. He said the risk of esophageal cancer has been exaggerated in the marketing of these drugs.

“I think the risk has been overplayed and scared the community,” Buchman said.

Heartburn medicines are heavily are advertised in “Ask your doctor about ...” commercials in this country, particularly during the evening news.

Nexium is the second-biggest-selling drug in the world, behind the cholesterol medicine Lipitor, with global sales totaling $4.6 billion last year, according to IMS Health, which tracks drug sales.

Yang and his co-authors disclosed in the paper that they have worked as consultants and received speaking fees from companies making acid-fighting drugs. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Gastroenterological Association/GlaxoSmithKline Glaxo Institute for Digestive Health.

Men in the study had a higher drug-associated risk of hip fracture than women, possibly because women may be more aware of osteoporosis and may get more calcium in their diets, Yang said. He plans more research on whether calcium-rich diets or calcium supplements can prevent the problem.

� 2006 . .

Got heartburn? Check your waistline - Nutrition Notes

Got heartburn? Excess weight may be to blame

Sufferers can feel better by altering diet, losing a little in the middle
Karen Collins, R.D.Special to

Karen Collins, R.D.

Are you suffering with serious heartburn? If so, your weight might have something to do with how you've been feeling �" and how you can feel better.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, is a common digestive disorder that can affect people of all ages. As recent studies continue to confirm the longstanding link between excess weight and GERD, soaring obesity rates are likely to lead to an increasing number of Americans who are affected by this disease.

The severe, frequent heartburn of GERD occurs when the muscle that acts as a valve between the esophagus and stomach doesn’t work properly, allowing stomach acids to back up into the esophagus, which can damage tissue.

One 2006 analysis of 20 studies, including more than 18,000 patients, showed that in the United States being overweight increased odds of developing GERD by more than 50 percent. Being obese more than doubled the odds.

Among more than 10,000 women analyzed in the Nurses’ Health Study, weight gain of more than about 10 to 20 pounds was linked with almost tripling the development of frequent heartburn symptoms.

The link between being overweight and risk of GERD is not new, but research is beginning to explain why it occurs. One recent study measured pressure within the stomach and found that each increase in body mass index (a measure of weight status) that corresponded to about a 10- to 20-pound weight jump was linked to a 10 percent increase in stomach pressure.

Test yourself •Is it heartburn or something else?Researchers suggest that excess body fat, particularly around the abdomen, increases pressure in the abdomen, which in turn increases pressure in the stomach. The pressure to the stomach pushes the sphincter muscle between the stomach and esophagus to open. Overeating might also increase that pressure, and so can pregnancy.

Frequent heartburn can be serious
A report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association on nutrition’s involvement in indigestion and heartburn noted that certain spices and acidic food and drink may cause pain in an esophagus already raw from stomach acid reflux. But these foods may take the blame for episodes that really are due to excessive portions.

Studies have also suggested that fatty foods may increase the tendency for reflux, yet research on fatty foods is unclear. In one small Italian study, for example, the total calories of meals increased the tendency for reflux over the next six hours, while raising fat content didn’t increase reflux if total calories remained the same.

With all the jokes about heartburn, it’s easy to regard it as just an uncomfortable inconvenience. Scientists say, however, that although occasional heartburn is not a worry, frequent heartburn can lead to serious complications if left untreated.

GERD is an established risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma, a type of esophageal cancer that has increased approximately 600 percent since 1971. If both obesity and GERD are present, the risk of this kind of cancer increases even more than seen with GERD alone.

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There are a wide range of medications available to treat heartburn, some of which can be used together. If heartburn occurs several times a week, see your doctor. If the cause of heartburn is unhealthy eating habits or excess weight, it is probably hurting your health in other ways too.

Instead of trying to make unhealthy eating tolerable, it may be time to develop better eating habits and shape up to a healthy weight to reduce GERD and risk of esophageal cancer.

� 2007

Rosie O’Donnell won’t return to ‘The View’ - Television

Rosie O’Donnell won’t return to ‘The View’

Announcement comes two days after heated on-air fight with co-host
Yolanda Perez / AP
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, left, and Rosie O'Donnell sparred frequently on "The View," though they profess to be good friends off camera.

video•Rosie quits 'The View' early
May 25: With news that Rosie O'Donnell will not returning to 'The View,' Donald Trump comments on his feud with O'Donnell.

Rosie O’Donnell has fought her last fight at “The View.”

ABC said Friday she asked for, and received, an early exit from her contract at the daytime chatfest following her angry confrontation with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday. She was due to leave in mid-June.

It ended a colorful eight-month tenure for O’Donnell that lifted the show’s ratings but no doubt caused heartburn for show creator Barbara Walters. O’Donnell feuded with Donald Trump and frequently had snippy exchanges with the more conservative Hasselbeck.

O’Donnell said last month she would be leaving because she could not agree to a new contract with ABC executives.

“Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at ‘The View,”’ Walters said. “I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change.”

In a statement, O’Donnell said that “it’s been an amazing year and I love all three women.”

No one was feeling the love on Wednesday, when the argument with Hasselbeck began over O’Donnell’s statement last week about the war: “655,000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?”

Talk show critics accused O’Donnell of calling U.S. troops terrorists. She called Hasselbeck “cowardly” for not saying anything in response to the critics.

“Do not call me a coward, because No. 1, I sit here every single day, open my heart and tell people what I believe,” Hasselbeck retorted, and their riveting exchange continued despite failed attempts by their co-hosts to cut to a commercial.

According to a New York Post report, O’Donnell’s chief writer, Janette Barber, was allegedly led out of the building on Wednesday after she was caught drawing mustaches on photographs of Hasselbeck in “The View” studios. ABC executives didn’t return repeated calls for questions on the incident Friday.

On Thursday O’Donnell had asked for a day off to celebrate her partner’s birthday. “The View” aired a taped show on Friday.

Related contentRosie’s ‘View’ won’t be the same without her Vote: Will you miss Rosie on ‘The View’?Political discussion turns personal on ‘View’Walters denies fight was ratings stunt  What do you think about her departure?

Slide show•Rosie through the years
From the ‘80s through ‘The View,’ a look at the feisty TV host’s careerOn her Web site, O’Donnell posted a scrapbooklike video on Friday with pictures and news clippings of her tenure at “The View.” Cyndi Lauper’s “Sisters of Avalon” played in the background.

A day earlier, she posted messages on her Web site indicating she might not be back.

“When painting there is a point u must step away from the canvas as the work is done,” she wrote. “Any more would take away.”

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� 2007 . .

WP: Bug mutates into medical mystery - washingtonpost.com Highlights

Bug mutates into medical mystery

Antibiotics, heartburn drugs suspected
By By Rob Stein

WASHINGTON - First came stomach cramps, which left Christina Shultz doubled over and weeping in pain. Then came nausea and fatigue -- so overwhelming she couldn't get out of bed for days. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, the nastiest diarrhea of her life hit -- repeatedly forcing her into the hospital.

Doctors finally discovered that the 35-year-old Hilliard, Ohio, woman had an inagsdhfgdfinal bug that used to be found almost exclusively among older, sicker patients in hospitals and was usually easily cured with a dose of antibiotics. But after months of cure, Shultz is still incapacitated.

"It's been a nightmare," said Shultz, a mother of two young children. "I just want my life back."

Shultz is one of a growing number of young, otherwise healthy Americans who are being stricken by the bacterial infection known as Clostridium difficile -- or C. diff -- which appears to be spreading rapidly around the country and causing unusually severe, sometimes fatal illness.

That is raising alarm among health officials, who are concerned that many cases may be misdiagnosed and are puzzled as to what is causing the microbe to become so much more common and dangerous.

"It's a new phenomenon. It's just emerging," said L. Clifford McDonald of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We're very concerned. We know it's happening, but we're really not sure why it's happening or where this is going."

Antibiotics to blame?
It may, however, be the laagsdhfgdf example of a common, relatively benign bug that has mutated because of the overuse of antibiotics.

"This may well be another consequence of our use of antibiotics," said John G. Bartlett, an infectious-disease expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "It's another example of an organism that all of a sudden has gotten a lot meaner and nastier."

•More health newsIn addition, new evidence released last week suggests that the enormous popularity of powerful new heartburn drugs may also be playing a role.

The antibiotics Flagyl (metronidazole) and vancomycin still cure many patients, but others develop stubborn infections like Shultz's that take over their lives. Some resort to having their colon removed to end the debilitating diarrhea. A small but disturbingly high number have died, including an otherwise healthy pregnant woman who succumbed earlier this year in Pennsylvania after miscarrying twins.

The infection usually hits people who are taking antibiotics for other reasons, but a handful of cases have been reported among people who were taking nothing, another unexpected and troubling turn in the germ's behavior.

The infection has long been common in hospital patients taking antibiotics. As the drugs kill off other bacteria in the digestive system, the C. diff microbe can proliferate. It spreads easily through contact with contaminated people, clothing or surfaces.

Infections double
There are no national statistics, but the number of infections in hospitals appears to have doubled from 2000 to 2003 and there may be as many as 500,000 cases each year, McDonald said. Other estimates put the number in the millions.

The emerging problem first gained attention when unusually large and serious outbreaks began turning up in other countries. In Canada, for example, Quebec health officials reported last year that perhaps 200 patients died in an outbreak involving at least 10 hospitals. Similar outbreaks were reported in England and the Netherlands.

After the CDC began receiving reports of severe cases among hospital patients in the United States -- and in people who had never, or just briefly, been hospitalized -- it launched an investigation.

In the Dec. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC reported that an analysis of 187 C. diff samples found that the unusually dangerous strain that caused the Quebec cases was also involved in outbreaks at eight health care facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

"This strain has somehow been able to get into hospitals widely distributed across the United States," said Dale N. Gerding of Loyola University in Chicago, who helped conduct the analysis. "We're not sure how."

But scientists do have a few clues. The dangerous strain has mutated to become resistant to a class of frequently used antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. That means anyone taking those antibiotics for other reasons would be particularly prone to contract C. diff .

"Because this strain is resistant, it can take advantage of that situation and establish itself in the gut," Gerding said.

Experts said the resistant germ's proliferation offers the laagsdhfgdf reason why people should use antibiotics only when necessary, to reduce both their risk for C. diff and the chances that other microbes will mutate into more dangerous forms.

"That's one theory for what's happening here," said J. Thomas Lamont of Harvard Medical School. "If we reduce the number and amount of antibiotics given for trivial infections like colds and stuffy noses, we'd all be a lot better off."

Overuse of antibiotics can make germs more dangerous by killing off susceptible strains, leaving behind those that by chance have mutated to become less vulnerable to the drugs. The resistant strains then become dominant.

High toxin levels
In addition to being resistant, the dangerous C. diff strain also produces far higher levels of two toxins than do other strains, as well as a third, previously unknown toxin. That would explain why it makes people so much sicker and is more likely to kill. In Quebec, C. diff killed 6.9 percent of patients -- which is much higher than the disease's usual mortality rate -- and was a factor in more than 400 deaths.

Adding to the alarm is evidence that the infection is occurring outside of hospitals. When the CDC began looking for such cases earlier this year, investigators quickly identified 33 cases in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, including 23 people who had never been in the hospital and 10 women who had been hospitalized only briefly to deliver a baby, the agency reported this month. Eight of the patients had never taken antibiotics.

"This is the first time we've started to see this not only in people who have never been in the hospital but also in those who are otherwise perfectly healthy and have not even taken antibiotics," McDonald said.

"It's probably going on everywhere," he said.

It remains unclear whether the cases occurring outside the hospital are being caused by the same dangerous strain.

"We don't really know what's going on here," McDonald said. "We know it's changing in some ways; we know it's changing the kinds of patients it's attacking, and we know it's causing more severe disease. But we don't know exactly why."

Canadian researchers, however, have found one possible culprit: popular new heartburn drugs. Patients taking proton pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec and Prevacid, are almost three times as likely to be diagnosed with C-diff , the McGill University researchers reported in the Dec. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. And those taking another type called H2-receptor antagonists, such as Pepcid and Zantac, are twice as likely. By suppressing stomach acid, the drugs may inadvertently help the bug, the researchers said.

Whatever the cause, the infection often resists standard cure. That is what happened to Shultz, who had been taking antibiotics to help clear up her acne when C. diff hit in June. Because the bacterium can hibernate in protective spores, patients can be prone to recurrences. It can take multiple rounds of antibiotics -- or sometimes infusions of antibodies or ingesting competing organisms such as yeast or the bacteria found in yogurt -- to finally cure them.

"I'm trying to stay positive," Shultz said. "People tell me it does go away and I will get rid of it someday. I'm looking forward to getting my life back, but I'm not convinced I'll ever be normal again."

� 2007 The Washington Post Company