Results tagged “health>”

Flu season might not have a theme song, but it's got a mascot and league officials and rally towels. And flu season is upon us. This year, it's just as confusing as the BCS to boot. There are now two shots (or sprays) to consider -- one for seasonal influenza and one for the dreaded H1N1 bug -- and you'll need to consult the strength-of-schedule rankings for your Ward to determine whether you're eligible to receive an H1N1 vaccination. What does that even mean? It means you need to ask yourself:

Both D.C. Wire and WJLA have updates on the health of former mayor and Ward 8 D.C. Council member Marion Barry, who was hospitalized early Tuesday morning to be treated for "dehydration," according to his spokesperson. Barry remained in Howard University Hospital's intensive care unit on Wednesday, according to both reports, and will likely not be discharged for at least a "few days." Seems kind of extreme for a case of dehydration, but considering Barry's age and health (he's 73, has diabetes and recently underwent kidney transplant surgery), we suppose it makes sense for his doctors to be overly cautious. Barry spokesperson Natalie Williams elaborated to WJLA that Barry's doctor also diagnosed the councilman with a mild infection.

Los Angeles quartet HEALTH is quite possibly one of the noisiest bands to have emerged from the underground and garnered some success. Their live shows could hardly be called controlled chaos, because the control is barely noticeable amid the leaping guitarists, primal shrieks and multiple percussionists. Their performance energy is more engaging than repulsive, and they have obvious talent, but there aren't exactly any "songs" easily picked out in a HEALTH set.

Last August, we wrote about Marissa, a 19-month-old baby girl living in Annandale, Virginia, who was diagnosed at two months with a rare pediatric condition called Infantile Spasms (IS). IS is a type of epilepsy experienced in infancy that causes clusters of seizures and can lead to development problems. Marissa's father, Mike, who spearheaded a global online effort for IS awareness, recently e-mailed us with the sad news that Marissa has "taken a turn for the worse." Mike wrote, "She was recently hospitalized, and we discovered that she had constant seizure activity in her brain. 24/7. Non-stop." According to Mike, Marissa has been placed on a treatment that costs around $5,000 per day, per shot. The folks over at deviantART, an online community for artists, have announced the Fairfax Art Drive, in which artists can donate a portion of their commissions to Marissa and her family. A list of commissions can be found here. You can find more information about Marissa and her bunny, Fairfax, at Marissa's Bunny.

Even when the news is bad, it's at least reassuring to read that what you've anecdotally observed is in fact part of a larger trend. The Post today says that hospitals are reporting a sharp rise in summer flu cases across the region, something we've certainly noticed seems to be true based on the number of friends and colleagues who have come down with nasty bugs in the last month. The main culprit does appear to be the H1N1 virus, aka Swine Flu, which explains why there are so many new flu cases at a time of year when there are typically zero. The really special part? "The federal authorities said it's too early to tell whether those who contract H1N1 now will be immune in fall when the flu season kicks into high gear." So those of you who've been sick for the last two weeks may get to do this all over again in December. Think about investing in Campbell's chicken noodle soup.

The swine flu scare is saying sayonara. The virus, while very infectious, proved not to be very deadly. With this new CDC directive, all closed Maryland schools will reopen Wednesday. As far as we know, Our Lady of Victory in the District has not yet decided to reopen.

Health officials have confirmed five cases of measles in the D.C. metro area, and released a list of potential exposure sites to the public. Measles is a highly contagious disease that has been technically eradicated in this country since 2000, so any reported cases at all are taken very seriously. WTOP has been all over this story today.

The Post's Nikita Stewart reports what members of the D.C. Council apparently already knew, but the public did not: Ward 3 D.C. Council member Mary Cheh was diagnosed with breast cancer last fall. Cheh has already undergone radiation treatment and a lumpectomy at Sibley Memorial Hospital, and told Stewart that her doctors have said her prognosis is good (she'll continue to be treated with drugs for the next five years). The Council member said she is disclosing her illness to draw attention to the need for women to be tested often. "I want to be a poster child for early detection," she told the Post.

This morning's Post expands on yesterday's Metro press release, which admitted that a MetroAccess driver tested positive for tuberculosis this fall. The driver in question was removed from his role in mid-October, but the more pressing concern is the 762 riders that could possibly have caught the airborne infection, which propitiously was not a more advanced, drug-resistant strain of the disease. Those who have tuberculosis can pass the infection by simply being in close contact with others -- the infection spreads through the mouth by coughing and sneezing -- but it can also be spread simply by speaking. The Post's report notes that local health departments believe that about 100 people have a "serious" risk of being infected.

• Tuesday, October 28, at Eastern Market and Farragut North
• Wednesday, October 29, at Franconia-Springfield and Braddock Road
• Thursday, October 30, at Forest Glen and New Carrollton

Good morning, Washington. We're getting off to a late start this holiday week morning, which is really just as well, since there's not too much local news to report anyway. But let's get the ball rolling with a few stories ...

>> Three students at a controversial Massachusetts clinic where D.C. special education students have been farmed out for years were mistakenly subjected to electric shock treatments as part of a prank. [Examiner]

Good morning, Washington. We'll be standing by for a good chunk of the day to see what the Metro Board decides to do about the proposed fare hike - the Board is meeting at 11 a.m. for a session that is expected to produce a final vote on the fare hikes, which could go into effect as soon as January. Board members have indicated they would likely pass a fare hike that is slightly less than the current proposal.

French pianist Alain Planès has made good (and sometimes great) recordings of everything he played on his Sunday recital (see my recent review of the conclusion of his complete Debussy set). The event was sponsored by the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, as the third concert of what is, regrettably, its last season of concerts presented off the campus of the National Institutes of Health. In an unforgettable juxtaposition, the early start time...

D.C. culture may have its faults, but laziness certainly isn’t one of them. We work hard here (and, according to a recent Men’s Health poll, we play hard, too). We work so hard that many organizations and companies, particularly those in D.C., try to recruit new employees by promising a “work-life balance” -- something that used to be called simply “time off” or “after 5 p.m.” only a few short years ago. In a culture...

>> D.C. police will spend $3 million in the 3rd Police District on an anti-gang initiative. [WaPo] >> Montgomery County Del. Jane Lawton, 63, died of an apparent heart attack this morning, collapsing after giving a speech in downtown Washington. Lawton also served as a four-term mayor of Chevy Chase. [Md. Moment] >> If you have an elderly relative living at either Carolyn Boone Lewis Health Care Center in D.C. or Ruxton Health of...

Mayor Adrian Fenty, Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso announced their plans to "right-size" D.C. public school system today that will include the simultaneous closure of 24 schools. School closures have been high on the to-do list for several years now as student enrollment has dropped from 55,000 to an estimated 49,600 students this school year. The new school closure plan differs from a previous one offered by former Superintendent...

In most any public or private sector job, losing $31 million on your watch is a surefire way to get yourself fired. CFO Natwar Gandhi's reputation for saving the city's finances has thus far protected him from what is to date the District's biggest corruption scandal. But his fortunes might be changing. Buried towards the end of an article from the Examiner today on an investigation into the tax refund scheme that milked the city...

>> D.C. Council members have rejected a plan to give a developer city-owned land worth $6 million on which to build a new Radio One headquarters. [WJLA] >> Five new restaurants are coming to Columbia Heights. [Prince of Petworth] >> Traffic was temporarily halted at Union Station this afternoon as Amtrak Police investigated a report of a suspicious package near Gate A in Union Station. Regular service had resumed by 4 p.m. [WaPo] >>...

>> The Senate might have to work all weekend, in advance of a possible vote on Sunday on whether to take up a $50 billion war funding bill that calls for a troop withdrawal from Iraq in 12 months, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) warned. Be prepared to hear all your Senate staffer friends complain about this at happy hour tonight. [The Hill] >> Foxhall Road will be closed to traffic between MacArthur Boulevard...

Good morning, Washington. Recent increases in gun-related crime in the city seems to be today's main topic of news, just as the Supreme Court may announce today whether it intends to take another look at D.C.'s handgun ban. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has scheduled a press conference this morning to address the District's position on its gun safety law, but in the meantime the Washington Post is questioning the law's effectiveness and just last...

>> Four D.C. firefighters were injured while battling a rowhouse fire at 619 4th St. NE this afternoon. [WTOP] >> A Jewish first-year GWU student and reporter for The Hatchet has found a series of swastikas drawn on her door. [The Hatchet] >> The leaders of a National Institutes of Health program recruiting minority D.C. high school students for science careers are disappointed that representatives of D.C. schools failed to show up for a...

As usual, you said a lot of funny and thought-provoking stuff last week. But like LeVar Burton, don't take our word for it, and read on for Georgetown protests, monkeyrotica running a museum, and GMU fraternities, among other things. ------ monkeyrotica would be an awesome director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine: The disorganized state of the Army Medical Museum is an example of vicious circle funding: hardly anybody visits the place because...

Written by Morgan Hargrave It is usually not a good sign when a museum’s first display details how popular it used to be. It seems the National Museum of Health and Medicine is decades removed from its glory days, when it was called the Army Medical Museum and resided in a series of more prestigious locations around D.C. It attracted between 450,000 and 765,000 visitors per year during the 1960s before being moved away from...

>> Ocean City: Making it harder to score hookers on your beach weekend since 2007. [WTOP] >> Metro is going to start distributing free bottles of hand sanitizer in stations beginning next week, in an effort to prevent the spread of flu germs. Except only 2,000 riders at each station will get them, on a first come, first served basis. We'd like to suggest they distribute them based on filthiness. You should have to...

The Washington Post has the news in the Friday afternoon dump that Mayor Adrian Fenty just fired D.C. Department of Health Director, Gregg A. Pane, along with two of Pane's deputies. We noted back in January that Fenty had major plans to streamline the department in his first 100 days, starting with a consolidation of its eleven agencies into the current seven. Fenty eliminated many of the agency heads appointed by former Mayor Anthony Williams...

The 40th season of the concert series sponsored by the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, which opened on Sunday afternoon with a recital by pianist Richard Goode in the relatively full Congregation Beth-El in Bethesda, will also be its final one. Dr. Giulio Cantoni, the founder of the series, passed away this summer, and Paola Saffiotti, the series' guiding light in many ways, was diagnosed with cancer around the same time. For financial...

Mark down an initial battle victory to the owners in the long and strained D.C. doggy wars. The Examiner reports on a change in the regulations governing the establishment of off-leash dog parks in the District that should make it easier to create fenced-in spaces for dogs to play. Dog owners in the city have long complained about a dearth of spaces where they could legally let dogs off their leashes to get exercise. Among...

Good morning, Washington. Feeling alright? We just thought we'd ask — there are two heart-trouble-related stories in the news today, and it's gotten us a little superstitious. First, Senator John Warner is in the hospital undergoing procedures to correct an atrial fibrillation that manifested itself yesterday morning (it sounds like he'll be fine). Second, Etan Thomas missed the first day of Wizards training camp due to a newly-detected cardiac irregularity. There's no word yet...

After FOX5 first broke the story last night, reports popped up all over today about how former mayor and Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry was the victim of a burglary at his home about a month ago, while he was traveling for a few days in China. That he was there addressing an association of Chinese mayors is humorous (presumably it was some sort of Scared Straight program), but that's not what's makes this...