Colo. town closer to drinkable tap water
Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:07:07 GMTBy P. SOLOMON BANDA, Associated Press Writer
DENVER - High concentrations of chlorine being used to purge salmonella from a southern Colorado town's water system were expected to drop far enough Saturday that residents could use the water for showering.
The disinfection process in Alamosa began Tuesday, five days after officials confirmed the presence of the bacteria in the water. The source is still unknown.
Nearly 300 people have become ill, with 73 cases of salmonella confirmed.
During the cleansing, the chlorine level in Alamosa's tap water is more than five times greater than what's needed to keep a swimming pool clean. Authorities say it could be April 7 before levels are low enough in the 50-mile network of pipes that residents can drink the water.
In the meantime, volunteers and the National Guard are passing out clean water at distribution points, and officials say the tap water is usable only for flushing toilets.
Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and stomach pain. Victims typically recover on their own, but the elderly, infants and people with impaired immune systems may require treatment.
Salmonella bacteria are usually food-borne, and contamination of public water systems is rare.
Officials have identified the strain of salmonella in the water system as one commonly found in the feces of birds, deer and other warm-blooded animals around the agricultural community of 8,500.
Alamosa's water is drawn from a deep well and had been the largest of about 100 water systems in the state that didn't require chlorination. City plans called for a new water plant, already being built, to include chlorination even before the salmonella outbreak.
Praying parents other 3 kids removed
Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:52:44 GMTBy ROBERT IMRIE, Associated Press Writer
WAUSAU, Wis. - The three siblings of a girl who died of diabetes that went untreated as her parents prayed instead of taking her to a doctor have been removed from the home during an investigation, police said Friday.
The parents and social services experts agreed the move would be best for everyone, Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said. The children are staying with other relatives, though they were not in danger, he said.
"There is no physical evidence of abuse or neglect," he said.
Madeline Neumann, 11, died Sunday the Weston home of an undiagnosed but treatable form of diabetes as her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, prayed for her to get better. Her mother said she never expected her daughter, whom she called Kara, to die.
The family believes in the Bible, which says healing comes from God, Leilani Neumann said.
The children removed from the home range in age from 13 to 16 and are expected to return to their parents once an investigation of the girl's death wraps up, Vergin said.
He would not specify where they are living, other than with another family member.
Vergin said his agency's final report will make no recommendations on possible charges against the parents, leaving that up to the district attorney.
"There is no intent. They didn't want their child to die. They thought what they were doing was the right thing," he said. "They believed up to the time she stopped breathing she was going to get better. They just thought it was a spiritual attack. They believed if they prayed enough she would get through it."
Patients rate local hospitals
Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:56:12 GMTBy KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - What do former patients think about the care they received at your local hospitals? The government wants to make it easier for you to find out.
Federal health officials in recent years have made strides to improve transparency in health care. But measuring how well hospitals do their job can be technical. New patient satisfaction scores, which went online Friday, cover basic premises that just about every hospital patient and their family members can understand.
For example:
_Did doctors treat patients with courtesy and respect?
_How often were the room and bathroom cleaned?
_Was the area around the room quiet?
_Did the patient get immediate help after pressing a call button?
Those questions were included in a survey used to evaluate more than 2,500 hospitals around the country.
"You don't have to be a technical expert to understand this information and its implications," said Joyce Dubow, senior adviser at the AARP, the senior advocacy group. "If you ask somebody whether they were cared for with respect, they get that."
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said consumers — and the Medicare program — pay for care whether it's good or not. Informing consumers about how well a hospital performs a particular task or how much it charges for a particular service will serve as incentives for health care providers to do better.
"The current sector is all about volume," Leavitt said. "The future is about value."
The government's Web site, http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, lets consumers compare up to three hospitals. Users will be able to see the scores for such things as how often nurses communicated well with their patients; hospitals nationwide averaged 73 percent on that particular question. Consumers will also be able to see how well the average hospital in their state fared on each question.
The data was collected by hospitals from a random sample of patients from October 2006 and June 2007. The government led development of the survey, which was administered 48 hours to six weeks after the patients were discharged.
Federal officials said they recognize that patients needing emergency care won't use the comparison Web site, nor should they. However, more than 60 percent of all patients go to a hospital for elective procedures.
The site will also help hospitals focus improvements where patients feel it is most needed, said Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association.
"Ultimately, this tool benefits everyone," Umbdenstock said.
Overall, federal officials said rural hospitals seemed to fare better than urban ones when it came several measures of patient satisfaction.
"I think that has to do with rural hospitals being more of a fabric of the community," said Herb Kuhn, acting deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Officials acknowledge that few consumers compare quality information about insurance plans, hospitals and other providers to make decisions about their care. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey estimated that fewer than one in five patients did. However, that's an increase from 12 percent in 2000.
Leavitt acknowledged that the government's efforts to evaluate the quality of health care are lacking. He likened the current situation to the earliest of video games, a table tennis game called Pong.
"We're not very good at this, but we're making a lot of progress," he said.
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On the Net:
Hospital Compare: http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov
FDA investigates Merck drugsuicide link
Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:19:11 GMTBy MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Business Writer
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it is investigating a possible link between Merck's best-selling Singulair and suicide.
FDA said it is reviewing a handful of reports involving mood changes, suicidal behavior and suicide in patients who have taken the popular allergy and asthma drug.
Merck has updated the drug's labeling four times in the past year to include information on a range of reported side effects: tremors, anxiousness, depression and suicidal behavior.
FDA said it asked the Whitehouse, N.J.-based company to dig deeper into its data on Singulair for evidence of possible links to suicide. The agency said it has not established a "causal relationship" between Merck's drug and suicidal behavior. An agency spokeswoman said the review was prompted by three to four suicide reports it received since last October.
It could take up to nine months before agency scientists can draw any conclusions, FDA said in a posting to its Web site.
The agency recently began notifying the public earlier about possible safety issues. The policy change came after the FDA was criticized for acting too slowly on information about the risks of Merck's painkiller Vioxx and, GlaxoSmithKline plc's diabetes pill Avandia.
Merck officials stressed that the FDA's inquiry is based on reports, not clinical studies — which are the standard tool for evaluating drug safety. The company said none of the 11,000 patients enrolled in 40 Singulair trials has committed suicide.
"We have no indication that anything about the mechanism of Singulair is consistent with these events," said George Philip, director of research and product development. "But because suicide is a life-threatening event we thought it was important to provide this information in the product label."
Merck said it recently added reports of suicide to Singulair's label, which already listed suicidal thinking and behavior as reported side effects.
In clinical trials of asthma patients, the most common side effects were headache, flu, abdominal pain and cough.
With sales of $4.3 billion last year, Singulair is used by millions of patients in the U.S, according to Merck. First approved in 1998, it's part of a class of asthma and allergy drugs that includes AstraZeneca's Accolate and Critical Therapeutics's Zyflo.
FDA said it is also reviewing reports of side effects with those drugs. Their labeling does not contain language about suicide.
"Patients should not stop taking Singulair before talking to their doctor," FDA said in its statement, adding that doctors should monitor patients for suicidal behavior and mood changes.
Shares of Merck & Co. Inc. rose 8 cents to close at $44.78.
