TB case shows need for tighter laws
Sat, 09 Jun 2007 16:26:40 GMT
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - States should have the power to restrict the movement of patients with contagious diseases even before they have the chance to disobey doctors' orders, federal health officials say.
The need for such authority to order someone quarantined emerged as lesson No. 1 from the case of the Atlanta lawyer who went to Europe despite having a dangerous form of tuberculosis.
"If we believe the patient has a strong intent to put others at risk, we need to have confidence we can take action absent documentation of intent to cause harm," Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told lawmakers last week.
Gerberding also mentioned outfitting a
http://www.cdc.gov/tb/xdrtb/
CDC background on isolation and quarantine: http://tinyurl.com/33kohf
China cites problems with U.S. imports
Sat, 09 Jun 2007 15:29:33 GMT
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
BEIJING - China said Saturday it had rejected a shipment of pistachios from the United States because it contained ants, the latest indication the government may be retaliating as Chinese products are turned back from overseas because of safety concerns.
The state television report, which showed inspectors wearing face masks and sealing the shipping container that held the pistachios, indicated an increasing push to show that other countries also have food safety issues. On Friday, Chinese food safety watchdog announced that shipments of health supplements and raisins from the U.S. had been returned or destroyed because they did not meet quality control standards.
China's food- and drug-safety record has come under scrutiny in recent months following the deaths of cats and dogs in the United States and Canada blamed on tainted Chinese pet food ingredients. Since then, U.S. inspectors have banned or turned away a growing number of Chinese exports — from monkfish to juice to toothpaste — because they contained life-threatening levels of toxins or unsafe chemicals.
In the report Saturday, China Central Television said the ants found in the pistachio shipment could "cause a serious threat to trees and to the ecological environment." Part of the batch, which arrived by ship to the port of Zhongshan, will be destroyed and the rest will be returned, CCTV said, without giving any other details.
The report also showed U.S. safety certificates issued to Cal-Pure Pistachios Inc., based in Bakersfield, Calif.
Telephone calls to Guangdong quarantine officials rang unanswered on Saturday.
The Web site of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China's food safety agency, showed lists of products from 2006 and 2007 that had been turned away from countries including the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Italy because they did not meet Chinese standards.
France's Groupe Danone SA says China seized five containers of Evian water in February because of concern over high bacteria levels.
A U.S.
Food and Drug Administration official said Friday that the U.S. is seeking more information on the latest cases of American products being turned away.
"Whatever the motives are for this, if it's real, we want to know about it," said David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food protection at the FDA.
An international outcry about has China's safety record has the government worried that its goods could be banned from overseas markets. The country's dismal drug safety record was underscored this week by a Chinese court's decision to sentence to death the country's former top drug regulator.
"Is it tit-for-tat? We don't know and probably won't ever know," Acheson said. "If they found a legitimate problem with a product exported from the United States, we would want to know about it so we can look into it and fix it."
Chinese regulators have urged local authorities to step up inspections of imported food products and said Chinese importers should "clarify food safety demands in contracts when importing U.S. food products, so as to lower the trade risk."
Experts say many in Britain malnourished
Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:04:50 GMT
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
LONDON - It may be obvious that most Britons are overweight. What isn't so obvious is that at least 2 million of them are likely malnourished — and that includes some of the people who are too fat.
Experts say the poor state of the average British diet — often high in fat, salt and calories, but low on nutrition — means malnutrition is a problem even though food is plentiful.
"You can't always tell if a person is malnourished with your eyes," said Dr. Marinos Elia, a professor of clinical nutrition and metabolism at Southampton University. "People may be eating too much food, but they may not be eating enough fruits and vegetables."
Dr. Alastair McKinlay, a gastroenterologist and chairman of a British malnutrition action group, put it bluntly: "There's a widely held misconception that if you're fat, you can't be malnourished."
Some experts even contend that the food rationing system during World War II offered Britons more nutrition than what they're eating today. From 1939-45, Britons got books of coupons, which they traded in for limited amounts of items like flour, milk, eggs, meat and canned fruit.
"Rationing was a huge success because it ensured that if you got your allotted amounts, you got a nutritionally reasonable diet," said Dr. Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum. "I'm not advocating a return to rationing, but it was a more balanced diet back then."
Despite the unlimited food supply today, Waine said people don't always make the right choices.
Many nutrition experts believe the number of malnourished Britons is closer to 4 million, about 6 percent of the population, than the government's estimate of 2 million.
Most malnourished people have a chronic illness like
AIDS, cancer or tuberculosis. In the last five years, according to the Department of Health, the number of hospital-identified malnourished patients has risen by more than 40 percent, though experts say that is largely due to heightened surveillance rather than a dramatic jump in cases.
There are no statistics on how many obese people may be malnourished, but doctors say they are seeing patients who are both overweight and malnourished. According to government statistics, 75 percent of Britons are overweight; more than one-fifth are obese.
While malnourished fat people are hardly in danger of starvation, other health problems are possible along with obesity-related complications like diabetes and heart disease. Once they start losing weight, malnourished people may actually burn their own tissue, including muscle, rather than fat.
Usually, people with vitamin deficiencies have skin problems, a swollen thyroid or bleeding gums. In severe cases, malnourished people might also experience hair loss, muscle wasting, a swollen abdomen, anemia or rickets.
In a country like Britain, experts say, malnutrition is rarely noticed. "You've got to have pretty severe deficiencies before this is picked up," said Waine. "But I think a lot of people are on the borderline."
Part of the blame goes to the rise of processed and fast foods, most of which contain only small amounts of healthy nutrients. The national diet is in such trouble that earlier this month, the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency recommended that folic acid be added to the nation's flour; a lack of it in the diet of pregnant women has been linked to birth defects.
Recent surveys estimate that fewer than 20 percent of adults eat the recommended five daily portions of fruits and vegetables.
