MC Kelly Kel on the mic: Check one two, wash your hands to protect from the swine flu. Sorry, that was awful. But I'm OK with that. I am not a rapper; I'm a reporter. I can play my position.

Doctors are not rappers either, and yet, some physicians unfortunately have turned to hip hop to spread the message of swine flu prevention. Take Dr. Mache Seibel, a.k.a. DocRock, who has teamed up with insurance carrier Cigna for a rap public service announcement to teach children how to ward of the H1N1 virus. No comment is necessary, I will let the video speak for itself:

Still cringing? Me too. Good intentions aside, it's hard for us old peeps to stay young and hip. So after watching DocRock, I said to myself, why bother risking such embarrassment?

But then I stumbled upon another rapping doc -- who has skills. Seriously. Check out Dr. John Clarke, a Long Island, NY doctor whose freestyle was so good he was named as one of 10 finalists in a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services search for a swine flu PSA. Then tell me which one you think is better.

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1
        

Our colleague Jill Rosen over a the Unleashed blog gives us the scoop on the Iowa cat who came down with, yes, you guessed it, the swine flu.

The cat recovered and officials believed the pet contracted the virus from someone in the household who was already sick from it. The H1N1 virus has been found in pigs, birds and ferrets too.

The American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Feline Practitioners are reminding pet owners that some viruses can pass from people to animals, so this wasn't unexpected. Note to cats and dogs: stay away from your sneezing owners. 

Looking for more info on protecting your pets against the virus? Check out this piece by the NYT.  

AP photo

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1
        

Hospital food. Yuck, right? Ranks right up there with bland school lunches and nuked airline "meals," goes the stereotype. Well, not all hospital food is lousy, according to the folks at Chowhound, a great site for restaurant reviews, recipes and good foodie tips.

There's an amusing post on a Chowhound message board asking about the quality of food in hospitals around the country. People have chimed in with tales of unclassifiable "meat covered in sauce" and "gummy oatmeal" to tasty Asian stir fry and enchiladas so scrumptious one patient didn't want to go home. The details are great. Hilarious stuff.

Some folks said the food was so bad they lost weight in the hospital and others said they were so hungry from their medical problems any old crumb was delicious. And still other raved about the selection of fresh veggies and inventive meals. Who knew?

Looking for hospital food that isn't crummy? There are quite a few corners of the Internet devoted to the search for tasty hospital cuisine. Hospital Food, encourages people to post photos of their meals and even includes a link to a popular Facebook group devoted to hospital eats.

Hospitals have been working to step it up lately with tastier, healthier meals, after enduring the  reputation of doling out processed foods with zero flavor. Organic produce, hormone-free meats and local ingredients have been making their way to hospital kitchens. Some hospital cafeterias have gotten downright glitzy, with low-fat high-flavor buffets. And local hospitals such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical Center even sponsor farmer's markets.

So, is it all bad? Tell us your hospital food experiences.

AP photo.

Continue reading "Good hospital food -- does it exist?" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: General Health
        

We know many people are having trouble finding swine flu vaccines. But perhaps relief is on the way. We're hearing reports of flu clinics opening up in unexpected places.

Baltimore's public library system is teaming up with the city health department to offer free seasonal and H1N1 vaccines. 

The clinics begin this Friday at the central library at 400 Cathedral Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for seasonal flu shots only. H1N1 vaccines will be available Friday Dec. 11 and Friday Jan. 8 at the same times and location. Flu experts will also be on hand to answer questions. For more info, visit the library's website at www.prattlibrary.org.

Additional H1N1 clinics are coming up this week at the city health department -- including by appointment for pregnant women. You can find out about those at the department's website: www.baltimorehealth.org.

In addition, our friends at the Consuming Interests blog tell us both seasonal and H1N1 vaccines will be available at the BWI airport. Check out the details here. Apparently, BWI has been providing flu shots for the last couple of years. It's called AeroClinic and the vaccines don't come cheap-- seasonal flu shots are $40 and the H1N1 vaccine - when it's available - will go for $22.

Hear of any other clinics? Let us know.

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1
        

University of Maryland School of Public Health is getting a boost from an old football playing alum to launch a center devoted to local and global health issues.

Madieu Williams, a 2003 Maryland grad and Minnesota Vikings free safety, made an endowment to the school of public health to launch the Center for Global Public Health Initiatives.

The center brings together efforts near and far -- from Williams' own Prince George's County to the Embassy of Sierra Leone. The center will focus on local, state and global public health initiatives in Prince George's County and Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: General Health
        

A new study finds that a range of common canned goods contain measurable levels of the chemical additive BPA -- even in products whose labels assured they were "organic" or "BPA- free."

The study by Consumer Union, the nonprofit that publishes Consumer Reports, included a wide range of canned goods and showed elevated levels of BPA, known as Bisphenol A. Top among the list included such products as Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans. You can read the full list of products tested here.

Children who eat numerous servings a day of the products with the highest BPA levels could ingest levels shown to cause adverse affects in animal studies, the report said.

BPA is a used to make the linings of food and beverage bottles and cans. Manufacturers use it because it's durable, makes plastics harder and can withstand high temperatures. 

Public health advocates have been pushing to get the FDA to ban BPAs in can linings and baby bottles, pointing to studies that link the chemical to reproductive problems and cancer. Consumer Union sent a letter to the FDA noting the latest research as further support for such a ban. Meanwhile, manufacturers and industry groups say their products don't expose people to unsafe levels of the chemical.

The FDA is studying data on the issue and is expected to make a decision later this month.

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: General Health
        

People can struggle for years to quit smoking and the magnitude of advice and remedies about how to do so effectively can be overwhelming. 

So, which method works best?

New research examining five treatments finds that the nicotine patch plus a nicotine lozenge does the trick.

The study, appearing in the November issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, enrolled 1,504 adult smokers -- all of whom were were motivated to quit -- to try one of six smoking cessation methods: nicotine lozenge alone, nicotine patch alone, bupropion (the drug Wellbutrin) alone, patch and nicotine lozenge, bupropion and nicotine lozenge or lastly, a placebo.

In addition to taking the specified treatment for eight to 12 weeks after quitting, participants got six one-on-one counseling sessions. People were evaluated after one week, eight weeks and six months after quitting. Nicotine patch plus a lozenge had the strongest support in helping folks take the first steps to quit, researchers found. These participants were more likely to have quit after seven days, and although some relapsed, they had longer periods between quitting and relapse than people in the other groups.

Previous studies have found the patch works well with other nicotine replacement methods from gum to nasal sprays, the authors said. Researchers think the key to making that first successful attempt to quit is using a patch with some other form of treatment.

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: General Health
        

The H1N1 vaccine is safe and effective in pregnant women and just one dose appears to offer adequate immunity against the virus, according to preliminary findings from NIH studies of the vaccine.

Pregnant women are among groups at greatest risk of complications from the swine flu and have been placed to the front of the line for vaccination against it. The virus has caused 28 deaths in pregnant women and least 100 hospitalizations, according to the CDC.  

The initial results come from trials that began in September with 120 healthy women ages 18 to 39 in their second and third trimesters. Of 25 women who received one standard 15-microgram dose of the vaccine, 92 percent of them showed an immune response, researchers found. Similar results were found for 25 women who received a 30-microgram dose of the vaccine -- 96 percent showed an immune response. 

Perhaps most important to women eyeing the results, the vaccine is being tolerated well by pregnant women and there have been no safety concerns, so far.

Continue reading "Swine flu vaccine: just one dose needed for pregnant women" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1
        

New York beef manufacturer Fairbanks Farms has issued a voluntary recall of a little more than half a million pounds of ground beef.

The recall, which affects states from Maine to North Carolina -- Maryland included -- comes after one person died in New Hampshire and people were sickened in other states after eating beef thought to be contaminated by the bacteria E.coli. 

The products, which include ground beef, meatloaf and meatball mix, carry sell-by dates from Sept. 19-28 and were sold under such brands as Trader Joe's Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats, Giant Meatloaf & Meatball Mix and BJ's Lean Ground Beef, Contains 7% Fat. Here are some details from Fairbanks Farms. And here's a list of the products from the USDA.

But the extent of affected meat could be much broader, the USDA warns. The products were distributed to stores in Maryland, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Virginia and the recall initially applied to just those states. But because chain stores often redistribute products, Fairbanks Farms has extended the recall to include all states throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. 

Also confusing matters, the affected meat may carry different labels and sell-by dates than are included in the USDA product list. So bottom line: check the meat in your freezer. If you're concerned, contact the store where the meat was purchased. Or, just toss it in the trash if you're really worried.

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: General Health
        

So far, swine flu has been linked to at least 114 child deaths nationwide, according to the CDC. It's a figure that has frustrated and puzzled researchers and infectious disease experts.

While most people -- children and adults alike -- recover from the virus after a week at home, often with no medication, researchers are struggling to make sense out of why this new flu can turn a healthy child severely ill.

My colleague Meredith Cohn offers this great explainer of how the virus behaves in children, particularly how it can attack their lungs, leaving them vulnerable to  pneumonia and other infections. 

Continue reading "Why is swine flu so severe in children?" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1
        

Well, it was only a matter of time. Last month, we told you about an iPhone application called Outbreaks Near Me, designed by researchers from the Children's Hospital of Boston, promising to help you track every move of the H1N1 virus.

There's also an application called Swine Flu Tracker from IntuApps which maps suspected cases and even informs you of the "threat level" of the virus. OK, this is just too Sci-Fi for me.

Well, of course, there's a new application designed to inform health geeks, iPhone addicts and hypochondriacs alike about all things H1N1. This one, however, carries the cache of Harvard Medical School and aims to educate more than entertain.

For $1.99 -- you didn't think it was free, did you? -- you get tools to help diagnose yourself, news feed from Harvard Medical School on the latest H1N1 updates from the CDC and local public health officials, and advice from Harvard Business School experts on how employers can best prepare their workers for a pandemic and even business guides for traveling employees.

It also offers phone hotlines for more flu information and guides for preparing for a pandemic emergency.

It's part of Harvard's overall strategy to promote public health through technology with its new venture called HMSMobile, where you can also check out a trailer of the new iPhone app.

What do you think? Any takers?

photo: AFP/Getty

Continue reading "Swine flu? Yes, there's an app for that" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1
        

We talk about it all the time here at Picture of Health -- diet and exercise can help ward off a host of diseases. Bear with me if you're tired of hearing it, but it's true. A new study based on 10 years worth of data drives home the point when it comes to a disease that affects some 24 million people nationwide: diabetes.

People who stuck to a healthy diet and consistent exercise over a decade cut their risk of diabetes by 34 percent, according to new research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and published in the latest issue of The Lancet. Diet and exercised lowered the diabetes risk even better than the diabetes drug metformin, which reduced the rate of developing the disease by 18 percent, according to the study.

About 11 percent of the nation's adult population has diabetes, the vast majority of them the type 2 variety, the kind that can be prevented. Being overweight, inactive and having a family history all contribute as risk factors. Another 57 million overweight have glucose levels higher than normal, but not yet in the diabetic range. Still, those levels keep them at high risk of developing diabetes down the road or having a heart attack or stroke.

Continue reading "Diet and exercise reduces diabetes risk" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: General Health
        

Children without insurance are 60 percent more likely to die than their insured peers, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins researchers that argues that health care reform must protect the nation's most vulnerable.  

The findings, published in the Oct. 30 issue of the Journal of Public Health, offer another sobering statistic: lack of insurance might have contributed nearly 17,000 deaths among children in the United States over the last two decades.

Researchers analyzed more than 23 million hospital records from 37 states between 1988 and 2005, comparing the risk of death in children with and without health coverage. When comparing death rates taking into account underlying disease, uninsured kids had a higher risk of dying regardless of their medical problems, researchers found.

The uninsured rate for children has been rising steadily for two decades causing some lawmakers to fight for expansion of the public insurance to low-income kids through the Children Health Insurance Program, which President Obama signed into law earlier this year. Last year, the rate and the number of uninsured children dipped to their lowest since 1987. Still, advocates are quick to point out, some 7.3 million children lack insurance nationwide.

Confronting the issue is a moral imperative, said researchers.

"Thousands of children die needlessly each year because we lack a health system that provides health insurance. This should not be," said Dr. Peter Provonost, director of Critical Care Medicine at Hopkins, in a statement. "In a country as wealthy as ours, the need to provide health insurance to the millions of children who lack it is a moral, not an economic issue."

Continue reading "Uninsured children and a rising death toll" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Pediatrics
        

Seems nearly everyone who wants a swine flu vaccine these days can't find one. Hospitals don't have enough to inoculate their at risk patients, pregnant women can't find the vaccine at their doctors offices and pediatricians have told parents of young children that they may only be able to get one dose of the vaccine, not the recommended two courses.

Manufacturing delays have caused unexpected shortages of the vaccine and huge lines like this one (right) are forming outside clinics nationwide.

While the government assures us that more vaccine is on the way, other public health experts think we may have the formula all wrong. The government would have more supply to go around if it took into account the immune response differences between men and women, argues a new op-ed in today's NYT by Sabra L. Klein, assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Phyllis Greenberger, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Society for Women’s Health Research.

Right now, men and women get the same doses of the vaccine. Yet, research shows that women tend to generate a stronger immune response than men, so they would likely need less vaccine to be protected, according to the piece. Accounting for such differences would allow health officials to stretch vaccine supply further.

Continue reading "Swine flu vaccine shortage: maybe women don't need such big doses after all" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1
        

Telecommuting is a way of life for most businesses, as the internet keeps us connected to the office, from near and far.

With the swine flu in full swing, businesses have adopted contingency plans to allow their employees to work from home if they are sick, or at least until they get well enough not to infect their colleagues upon their return.

But in the event of a severe pandemic flu emergency, sending millions of workers home, the sheer magnitude of people logging on from their home computers could create so much internet congestion, the entire system could be crippled, a new report from the Government Accountability Office warns. 

This is not merely a question of how would we all survive without Google for a few days. (Although that is a frightening prospect) Such an onslaught could imperil the financial markets and even threaten national security, the report states.

Continue reading "Flu pandemic fear: too many people home sick overwhelms internet" »

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1