China points finger at foreign milk products

msnbc.msn.com — BEIJING - China, embroiled in a tainted milk scandal that has made thousands of infants sick, has published a list of foreign companies that failed to meet quality standards for imported products ranging from milk powder to rosewater. At least four children died and tens of thousands were made ill by drinking milk powder adulterated with melamine, prompting many worried parents to switch to foreign-made formula. Melamine, a compound used in making plastic chairs among other uses, is added to food to cheat nutrition tests and has since been found in other dairy products, eggs and animal feed, prompting recalls of Chinese-made products around the world. read more...

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Older Blood Used in Transfusions Raises Infection Risk

healthnews.com — Most of us don’t think about blood. We just want it to stay where it belongs and do its job. Blood is the body’s transportation system, carrying oxygen and nutrients to the organs in our body that need them, and carrying away the waste products to be eliminated. In an average lifetime most people will never need a blood transfusion. The business of blood, donations, storage, and transfusion, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Blood cannot be used for patients if it has been stored over 42 days but recent findings may indicate that is too long. According to Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey, after 29 days of storage, the risk of blood poisoning or pneumonia doubled in recipients. The possible reason is that after two weeks in storage the red blood cells in the blood start to undergo changes and begin to release chemicals call “cytokines.” The cytokines hinder immune function and high levels could make patients more susceptible to infection. read more...

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Hospitals ease ER crowding with ward beds in halls

news.yahoo.com — There's no phone and no television. Only a screen offers privacy. But heart patient Edward Gray understands why the hospital put him in a cardiac unit hallway. "They sent me up here to make room for other emergency patients," Gray, 78, said last week from his bed in the hall of a New York area hospital. "This is the way things are in hospitals." It may not sound like ideal health care, but hospital officials nationwide are being urged to consider hallway medicine as a way to ease emergency department crowding, and some are trying it. Leading the way is Stony Brook University Medical Center at Stony Brook, N.Y., where a study found that no harm was caused by moving emergency room patients to upper-floor hallways when they were ready for admission. read more...

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Report says Medicaid spending "unsustainable"

health.yahoo.com — Spending on the Medicaid health program for the poor is on a path to grow at a much higher rate than the overall U.S. economy in the next 10 years, officials said on Friday. Spending on Medicaid benefits will increase 7.3 percent from 2007 to 2008, reaching $339 billion, and will expand at an annual average of 7.9 percent over the next decade, hitting $674 billion by 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a report. Over that same time span, the projected rate of growth for the overall economy is 4.8 percent, the report stated. read more...

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Obama and Health-Care Equity

online.wsj.com — For someone running as the tribune of "change," Barack Obama showed again in last night's debate that he sure is comfortable with the status quo on health care. He continued his recent assaults on John McCain's health reform even though it is precisely the kind of plan that someone of Mr. Obama's professed convictions ought to support. The attacks include swing-state TV spots and Joe Biden's multiple distortions, though the most over-the-top come from the candidate himself. Over the weekend, Mr. Obama called the McCain plan "radical," "out of line with our basic values" and, in case he wasn't clear, "catastrophic for your health care." Since Mr. McCain offered only a once-over-lightly defense of his plan, allow us to give it a try. read more...

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Small Patients, Big Consequences in Medical Errors

nytimes.com — WHEN 6-year-old Chance Pendleton came out of surgery for a wandering eye, it was obvious that something was not right. “He was crying hysterically, vomiting and kept saying, ‘I wish I was dead,’ ” his mother, Grace Alexander, of Paris, Tex., recalled. The boy had been through surgery before and had never reacted this way. “The nurse was quite peeved and wanted me to calm him before he disturbed anyone,” said Ms. Alexander, who said Chance was denied more pain and anti-nausea medication. “She thought he was just throwing a tantrum.” After about 20 minutes, another nurse walked by, and Ms. Alexander beckoned her for help. The nurse checked the intravenous line in Chance’s ankle and saw that it wasn’t inserted correctly. He wasn’t receiving any medication. She immediately fixed it, bringing relief to Chance in a matter of seconds. read more...

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Health Net to reinstate 926 dropped policyholders in California

latimes.com — In a continuing state crackdown on health insurers, Health Net Inc. of Woodland Hills has agreed to offer new coverage -- no questions asked -- to 926 people whose policies it canceled after they got sick. One of the state's largest insurers, Health Net signed a first-of-its-kind agreement with the California Department of Insurance, agreeing to pay $3.6 million in penalties, plus as much as about $14 million in reimbursements for medical charges that the insurer had refused to pay. The company, however, did not admit to any wrongdoing. read more...

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CDC: Salmonella outbreak appears to be over

news.yahoo.com — The government said Thursday that the salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 1,440 people appears to be over, but its ultimate source may never be known, partly because of shortcomings in the nation's food safety system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said they found strong evidence to implicate jalapeno and serrano peppers, and a farm in Mexico, in the largest outbreak of foodborne illness in a decade. Investigators were unable to clear domestic and imported tomatoes, however, although the evidence against tomatoes is weaker. read more...

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