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Patient medical records found in a garbage bin in England. Good to know other countries have irresponsible people, too. [BBC]
health
Cheap Tattoos Come With Free Drug-Resistant Staph Infections
By 12.18.07
If you’re in the market for a cheap, illegal tattoo, you might want to make sure that you have good health insurance, because your new ink might come with a free drug-resistant staph infection.
A West Rutland [Vermont] couple is facing charges for allegedly giving tattoos that infected a number of people.
Restaurants Pretend To Not Know What's In Food
By 12.17.07
Here are the funny PR responses from when Men’s Health asked the PR people for several different restaurants for the nutritional information of their foods:
By 12.17.07
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Japan says their study of Tamiflu has proven inconclusive. They’re testing whether or not the flu medication is responsible for abnormal behavior in a percentage of patients. [Reuters]
By 12.13.07
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There are over 48 lawsuits out there against Advanced Medical Optics for selling Complete® MoisturePlus™ multipurpose contact lens solution that was recalled for giving people Acanthamoeba keratitis, aka, crazy fungus in your eye. Several of them are class actions. [PRWEB]
By 12.13.07
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Merck is recalling 1.2 million of its PedvaxHIB and Comvax vaccines after “quality-control checks found production equipment may not have been properly sterilized.” There have been no reports of problems—they’re just being extra careful. [Reuters]
By 12.11.07
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Sales of bagged salads are up, even though the FDA food safety czar says they are not safe to eat because of e. coli contamination. The most recent bagged salad recall was September of this year. People love bagged salad![Bizjournal]
By 12.11.07
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It’s good, it’s bad, it’s good and now, high consumption of red meat is correlated with increased risk of cancer. [Reuters]
Surgical Objects Accidentally Left Inside 1500 Patients A Year
By 12.11.07
“When there is significant bleeding and a sponge is placed in a patient, it can sometimes look indistinguishable from the tissue around it,” said Dr. Steven DeJong, vice chair, department of surgery, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Ill. “Unintentional retained sponges and instruments is a devastating complication for patients and is a national problem affecting every hospital in the country that performs invasive and surgical procedures.”
Loyola has developed a new way to track sponges. It uses a bar code reader and a unique bar code on each sponge.
Tips For Avoiding Medicare Sales Scams
By 12.11.07
The WSJ Health Blog alerts us to the existence of predatory sales scams involving private fee for service (PFFS) Medicare plans.
How Much Does It Cost To Lose 10 lbs?
By 12.10.07
The holidays are the time to pack on the pounds and then resolve to lose them, so it’s a perfect time to find out how much does it cost to lose 10 lbs in a month? WeightLossMadeEasy rounds up the numbers of some popular diet programs.
Cancer Fears Prompt Retailer To Pull Nalgene Bottles
By 12.8.07
Canada’s premier sporting goods store has pulled Nalgene bottles from their shelves over concerns that bottles are made with a cancer-causing chemical. The Vancouver-based Mountain Equipment Co-op is waiting for the outcome of a study from Health Canada on the health effects of bisphenol-a (B.P.A.) before returning the ubiquitous bottles to shelves.
By 12.7.07
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Junk food costs $1.76 per 1,000 kcal, while nutritious food costs $18.16 per 1,000 kcal, a new study finds. [NYT]
Toys Are Super Dangerous!
By 12.5.07
We can probably all agree that there haven’t been enough tainted-toy stories this year, so the Wall Street Journal is reporting that tests on about 1,200 toys by consumer and health organizations have revealed that about a third contain not just lead but “other potentially harmful chemicals, including mercury, cadmium and arsenic.” Oh, they must be talking about the new Bratz Heavy Metal dolls, R’senic and Mercurie.
40 Million Americans Cannot Afford Needed Heath Care Says CDC
By 12.4.07
The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention have issued a report saying that 1 in 5 U.S. adults, about 40 million people, cannot afford to get the health care they need.
9 Common Ailments And The Cheaper Generic Drugs To Treat Them
By 12.4.07
It’s not just for the cereal aisle anymore, generic over name brand saves behind the pharmacy counter too. Generic drugs work just as well as name-brands, often at a fraction of the cost. One-size does not fit all and only your doctor can tell you if switching to a cheaper option is right for you.
Honey Better Than Dextromethorphan At Treating Coughs
By 12.3.07
Score another win for folk treatments: a new study says that honey is more effective than over-the-counter dextromethorphan syrups at treating a child’s cough: “The results were so strong that we were able to say clearly that honey was better than no treatment and dextromethorphan was not.”
5 Confessions Of A Reference Lab Technician
By 12.3.07
He’s the guy whom pieces of your body get sent off to when you go to the doctor’s office, and he’s got some things he’d like to tell you. Like the secret manual covering which tests Medicare will and won’t cover, your rights under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and can you please, please, write legibly and use a standard version of your name when filling out forms…
