Abortion Pill Maker Alerts Doctors To Five Deaths
Reuters
WASHINGTON -- Five women who took the abortion pill RU-486 have died from bacterial infections since its U.S. introduction nearly five years ago, the manufacturer reported on Monday. "No causal relationship between these events" has been established with the drug, also known as Mifeprex or mifepristone, maker Danco Laboratories LLC said. "Childbirth, menstruation and abortion, whether spontaneous, surgical or medical, all create conditions that can result in serious and sometimes fatal infection, and there is no evidence that Mifeprex and misoprostol present a special risk of infection," the company said in a statement. RU-486 is approved for terminating a pregnancy of 49 days or less. More than 460,000 U.S. women have taken Mifeprex since September 2000, Danco said.

Easing Nursing Shortage Means Curing Instructor Crisis
RedNova
It's a number that still gives Dr. Beth Mancini pause: 4,200 people applied to nursing programs statewide two years ago but were turned down. "We need every one of those nurses; they could be hired tomorrow," said Dr. Mancini, associate dean for undergraduate nursing at the University of Texas at Arlington, adding that last year's number was probably 5,000. The nationwide nursing shortage is reaching crisis proportions, yet prospective students are being turned away largely because of the increasingly lean corps of nursing faculty.

Immigrant Births Put Pressure on Hospitals
The Associated Press
UTICA, N.Y. -- With nearly one in four American births now to a foreign-born mother, pressure is growing on health care centers to not only deliver babies, but deliver in more languages than one. A report issued earlier this month by the Center for Immigration Studies says as of 2002, 23 percent of all births in the U.S. were to immigrant mothers. Births to Hispanic mothers accounted for 59 percent of those. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 says hospitals that get federal money must provide interpreter services. It just doesn't say how. Most hospitals reach out with phone-based interpretation services. But critics say the phone has limitations, especially during childbirth.

Newborns Possibly Exposed to TB
11 Alive-TV Atlanta GA
Labor and Delivery nurse at Northside Hospital may have exposed 30 newborn babies and their relatives to Tuberculosis, the hospital revealed Monday. All newborns cared for by the nurse may need to be treated for T.B. regardless of exposure, officials said. The registered nurse went to the emergency room on June 29 with symptoms of Tuberculosis and later tested positive for the disease. The employee primarily worked the night shift in the Labor and Delivery area of the hospital.

Guidant Warns on 28,000 Pacemakers
ABC News
INDIANAPOLIS -- Guidant Corp., already under fire for problems with its implantable defibrillators, on Monday warned physicians replacements might be needed for nine pacemaker models made between 1997 and 2000. The safety advisory, which affects 28,000 devices in use worldwide, heightened concerns among heart patients and raised new questions about the wisdom of a planned $25.4 billion acquisition of Guidant by New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson.

Ducks May Silently Pass Along Bird Flu - Study
Reuters
WASHINGTON -- The bird flu virus that experts fear will jump from birds to humans seems to be mutating yet again, and may be able to hide in healthy-looking ducks, thus putting both other birds and people at risk, experts said on Monday. They said the H5N1 virus could kill some ducks after causing only mild symptoms -- which means it could lurk, undetected, in flocks while spreading silently.

I-SaveRx to expand to Australia and New Zealand
Belleville News-Democrat
CHICAGO -- The multistate I-SaveRx drug importation program, which seeks out sources of cheaper prescription medicines, will add Australia and New Zealand to its list of suppliers, Illinois' governor said Monday. The expansion was announced just weeks after Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh - saying his country would no long be a cheap "drug store for the United States" - announced that new regulations would be set up regulating the export of prescription medicines. I-SaveRx already has partners in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Californians to Vote on Drug Measures
The Associated Press
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called a November special election last month to push several initiatives aimed at reshaping state government. But the fall ballot's costliest political skirmish so far has nothing to do with the governor's "year of reform" political agenda. Two competing prescription drug initiatives — one sponsored by consumer groups, the other by the pharmaceutical industry — already have attracted tens of millions of dollars.

Fewer People Seeking Treatment for Drugs
WJLA-TV Washington D.C.
Washington -- The number of people treated for addiction to alcohol or drugs dropped for the first time in six years during 2003, the federal government reported Monday. The drop occurred primarily because of a significant decline in admissions for alcohol abuse. The bad news highlighted within the report, which was released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, was a spike in admissions for methamphetamine use.

'Double Diabetes' Harder to Detect, Treat
New York Newsday
WASHINGTON -- Having one type of diabetes is bad enough, but two? Doctors are seeing a new phenomenon dubbed double diabetes that makes it harder to diagnose and treat patients -- especially children. The mix can strike at any age, and comes in various forms: Children who depend on insulin injections because of Type 1 diabetes gain weight and then get the Type 2 form in which their bodies become insulin resistant, for example.