PRO FOOTBALL; Expert Ties Ex-Player's Suicide To Brain Damage From Football

Since the former National Football League player Andre Waters killed himself in November, an explanation for his suicide has remained a mystery. But after examining remains of Mr. Waters's brain, a neuropathologist in Pittsburgh is claiming that Mr. Waters had sustained brain damage from playing football and he says that led to his depression and ultimate death.

The neuropathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu of the University of Pittsburgh, a leading expert in forensic pathology, determined that Mr. Waters's brain tissue had degenerated into that of an 85-year-old man with similar characteristics as those of early-stage Alzheimer's victims. Dr. Omalu said he believed that the damage was either caused or drastically expedited by successive concussions Mr. Waters, 44, had sustained playing football.

In a telephone interview, Dr. Omalu said that brain trauma ''is the significant contributory factor'' to Mr. Waters's brain damage, ''no matter how you look at it, distort it, bend it. It's the significant forensic factor given the global scenario.''

He added that although he planned further investigation, the depression that family members recalled Mr. Waters exhibiting in his final years was almost certainly exacerbated, if not caused, by the state of his brain -- and that if he had lived, within 10 or 15 years ''Andre Waters would have been fully incapacitated.''

Dr. Omalu's claims of Mr. Waters's brain deterioration -- which have not been corroborated or reviewed -- add to the mounting scientific debate over whether victims of multiple concussions, and specifically longtime N.F.L. players who may or may not know their full history of brain trauma, are at heightened risk of depression, dementia and suicide as early as midlife.

The N.F.L. declined to comment on Mr. Waters's case specifically. A member of the league's mild traumatic brain injury committee, Dr. Andrew Tucker, said that the N.F.L. was beginning a study of retired players later this year to examine the more general issue of football concussions and subsequent depression.

''The picture is not really complete until we have the opportunity to look at the same group of people over time,'' said Dr. Tucker, also team physician of the Baltimore Ravens.

The Waters discovery began solely on the hunch of Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard football player and professional wrestler whose repeated concussions ended his career, left him with severe migraines and depression, and compelled him to expose the effects of contact-sport brain trauma. After hearing of the suicide, Mr. Nowinski phoned Mr. Waters's sister Sandra Pinkney with a ghoulish request: to borrow the remains of her brother's brain.

The condition that Mr. Nowinski suspected might be found in Mr. Waters's brain cannot be revealed by a scan of a living person; brain tissue must be examined under a microscope. ''You don't usually get brains to examine of 44-year-old ex-football players who likely had depression and who have committed suicide,'' Mr. Nowinski said. ''It's extremely rare.''

As Ms. Pinkney listened to Mr. Nowinski explain his rationale, she realized that the request was less creepy than credible. Her family wondered why Mr. Waters, a hard-hitting N.F.L. safety from 1984 to 1995 known as a generally gregarious and giving man, spiraled down to the point of killing himself.

Ms. Pinkney signed the release forms in mid-December, allowing Mr. Nowinski to have four pieces of Mr. Waters's brain shipped overnight in formaldehyde from the Hillsborough County, Fla., medical examiner's office to Dr. Omalu in Pittsburgh for examination.

He chose Dr. Omalu both for his expertise in the field of neuropathology and for his rare experience in the football industry. Because he was coincidentally situated in Pittsburgh, he had examined the brains of two former Pittsburgh Steelers players who were discovered to have had postconcussive brain dysfunction: Mike Webster, who became homeless and cognitively impaired before dying of heart failure in 2002; and Terry Long, who committed suicide in 2005.

Framingham Study Shows Parents Who Live Long Pass On Lower Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

New evidence suggests that if you could choose your parents, you could reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. Researchers from the long-standing Framingham Heart Study (FHS), a program of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, report that people whose parents live longer were more likely to avoid developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease in middle age than their peers whose parents died younger. They also found that the risk factor advantages persisted over time.
According to the researchers, this is the first study to examine cardiovascular risk factors in the offspring of longer-lived individuals using independent and validated measurements of risk. The findings are consistent with other studies that have linked lower cardiovascular risk with parental longevity based on self-reports of family history.
"Characteristics of Framingham Offspring Participants with Long-Lived Parents,” appears in the March 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
In the study, researchers examined 1,697 offspring age 30 and older (average age 40) whose parents participated in the original FHS and had reached age 85 or died before January 1, 2005. They compared cardiovascular risk factors among the offspring based on whether both parents, one parent, or neither parent lived to 85 years or older. The risk factors included age, sex, education, cigarette smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, and body mass index (BMI). In addition, they compared the offsprings' Framingham Risk Scores, a summary score based on the combined contribution of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
In general, the group in which both parents survived to age 85 had significantly fewer participants with high blood pressure or who were current smokers, compared to those in which both parents or one parent had died. In addition, the middle-aged children of long-lived parents had significantly lower levels of blood pressure and blood cholesterol, and they had lower Framingham Risk Scores than those in which one or both parents had died. Overall, parental longevity did not significantly affect BMI. After 12 years of follow up, the offspring of longer-lived parents were also less likely to progress to high blood pressure and to generate higher risk scores, the researchers report.
NHLBI's Framingham Heart Study has studied the health of many of the Massachusetts town’s residents since 1948. The community-based research program has been the source of key research findings regarding the contributions of hypertension, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, and other risk factors to the development of cardiovascular disease. Now assessing a third generation of participants, Framingham Heart Study investigators are expanding their research into other areas such as the role of genetic factors in cardiovascular disease as well as the use of novel biomarkers and new diagnostic tests to identify individuals at high risk.

Sleep disruptions may increase heart disease risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Relatively healthy individuals who experience sleep disruptions at night appear to have an increased risk activity of factors associated with the development of a blood clot, also referred to as a thrombus.
"There is an extensive literature demonstrating that sleep disruption is associated with increased coronary artery disease risk, but the possible mechanism for that association has been unclear," lead author Dr. Joel E. Dimsdale, of the University of California San Diego, told Reuters Health.
"In previous work, we have found that sleep disruption was associated with pro-coagulant activity in patients with obstructive sleep apnea and in patients facing major life stress," he continued. "The current study reports similar findings even in a relatively healthy population."
Dimsdale and colleagues examined whether sleep disruptions, verified by polysomnography, were associated with increased levels of prothrombotic factors previously shown to predict the risk of coronary artery disease. The findings are published in the medical journal Chest.
A polysomnograph, conducted in a sleep laboratory, involves the measurement of brain waves to record sleep cycles and stages, plus monitoring muscle activity, eye movement, breathing rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels and heart rate. The patient is also directly observed during sleep.
A total of 135 unmedicated subjects, an average of 37 years old, without a history of sleep disorders underwent full-night polysomnography. The researchers also recorded blood levels of factors associated with blood clotting and oxygen saturation. In their analyses, they accounted for the effects of age, gender, ethnicity, body mass index, blood pressure, and smoking history.
The investigators found that a higher score on total arousal index and longer periods of wakefulness interrupting sleep were associated with higher levels of the von Willebrand Factor antigen and soluble tissue factor antigen, respectively, both of which are linked with blood coagulation.
An association was also observed between average oxygen saturation levels of less than 90 percent and the plasminogen activator inhibitor antigen, also involved in coagulation, although this relationship was not statistically significant.
"Our findings suggest that sleep disruptions, even in a relatively healthy population, are associated with a prothrombotic state that might contribute to coronary artery disease," the authors conclude.

Officials warn parents not to use cough medicine on infants

At least three babies have died after being given over-the-counter cough and cold medicines, and more than 1,500 children needed treatment in hospital emergency rooms during 2004 and 2005, federal health officials said in warning parents against using the products in very young children.
All three infants had high levels of pseudophedrine, a nasal decongestant, in their blood. Two also had detectable levels of dextromethorphan, a cough suppressant, and acetaminophen, a fever reliever, in their bodies, according to a report in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weekly publication MMWR.
The report said no safe dosage of the cough and cold concoctions has been established for babies, nor is there any evidence the medications work in children under the age of 2. The report did not speculate on how the medications caused the deaths, but said blood levels of pseudophedrine in the babies who died were 9 to 14 times higher than in children ages 2 to 12 who receive the recommended doses.
"The actual cause of death might have been overdose of one drug, interaction of different drugs, an underlying medical condition, or a combination of drugs and underlying medical conditions," the report said.
Parents were cautioned against using the medications without consulting a doctor, and they were urged to follow the doctor's recommendations precisely.
"One of the secrets is that none of these medicines work," said Dr. Gwen Wurm, director of community pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "I've never prescribed them for kids under the age of 2. But parents hear about them on commercials, and think 'What can it hurt?'"
Wurm said no studies have shown a benefit to giving the medications to babies, "and even in school-age kids, it's sketchy at best. This is a multibillion-dollar industry, and there is a lot of advertising out there. Unfortunately, the advertisers make their own market (for the drugs.)"
Dr. Douglas Barlow, chief of pediatrics at Boca Raton Community Hospital, said the products with multiple components that treat many symptoms are confusing even for doctors.
"The problem is you've got so many formulations for so many different products that are in so many medications," Barlow said.
Dr. Sara Connolly, a pediatrician who cares for children admitted to Broward General Medical Center, said she has treated children who had bad reactions to the drugs. The symptoms can include a racing heart rate, an altered mental state, sleepiness, or in some cases, the child is hyper, agitated and flushed, she said.
"Usually by the time a child arrives at the emergency room or doctor's office, the child has been sick for a couple of days, and unfortunately, during that time, the parents have been giving those over-the-counter medicines," Connolly said.
"They are unaware that they have multiple components in them, and they can be toxic in certain doses. Parents may be giving the child Tylenol, and it's also in the (cough and cold) medicine. They don't realize they're giving multiple doses of the same medication," Connolly said.
Connolly suggested that parents call the poison information center, at 800-222-1222, if their child is having a bad reaction to an over-the-counter medication and they haven't been able to reach their doctor.
Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, medical director of the Florida Poison Information Center, said his office often gets calls concerning over-the-counter cold products.
"There's a certain amount of toxicity that comes with all medications, but especially with these medications," Bernstein said. "We see a lot of adverse reactions to it, and we do see some deaths occasionally."
The bad reactions are not limited to infants, he said. Teenagers use some of the products as a way to get high.
Bernstein said the brand-name medication Coricidan Cough and Cold — which teens refer to as "triple C" — is very popular and commonly involved in calls to the center. The drug's maker, Schering-Plough, could not be reached for comment.
"Not a day goes by that we don't see a case or several cases of it," Bernstein said.
Symptoms can include rapid heartbeat, flushing, altered mental status, and at higher doses, seizures and even cardiac arrest, he said.
"It's been going on for awhile, but really it's almost epidemic at this point. We are in the Coricidan swamp right now."

Medicine sold illegally in market

A total of 238 bottles of kaolin and morphine were seizedHundreds of bottles of medicine which were being sold illegally at a market in Northumberland have been seized.
Kaolin and morphine mixture should only be available though a pharmacy, but was discovered on sale from a stall at Westmorland Retail Park in Cramlington.
Northumbria Police took a total of 238 bottles and investigations as to where it came from are said to be ongoing.
A 34-year-old man was arrested during the incident on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
The medicine, often used to treat upset stomachs, is not thought to be harmful or contaminated in any way.
However, police are advising anyone who bought a bottle from the market and have any concerns to contact their local pharmacist.

Dutch hope to invent foods that prevent obesity

WAGENINGEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - Scientists in the Netherlands are developing a new generation of foods that can help prevent obesity by making people eat less, a research institute said on Thursday.
The Top Institute Food and Nutrition (TIFN), funded by the Dutch government and food groups like CSM Anglo-Dutch Unilever, is also developing food ingredients which can stop an obese person from developing diabetes.
"We are working on certain food ingredients, which provoke more satiety than others do on the long run, so that our partners can use them in food manufacturing," said Professor Robert-Jan Brummer, programme director at TIFN.
"These products should trigger satiety and stop us eating more and more. They should also meet our dietary requirements, have a very good taste and be enjoyable to eat," he told Reuters.
Brummer declined to give details, saying it was a commercial secret, but added these nutrients could eventually be used in any kind of food from drinks to spreads and bread.
Several other research centres in the world are working to develop nutrients that could prevent obesity but Brummer said that none of them, including his own, had achieved big breakthroughs so far.
"My feeling is that we will see a breakthrough in the next five years or so," he added.
Obesity is on the rise in many countries, including the United States, where 60 percent of the population is overweight or obese, Britain and elsewhere in Europe.
It is clearly a matter of people eating more calories than they burn off, but experts argue over whether diet or exercise is more important.
The Dutch public health agency concluded in a research report last ear that poor diet was as deleterious to health as smoking. It said 25 percent of deaths and serious illness caused by overweight and obesity would be avoided if adults shed 3 kg.
Brummer said his institute was developing food ingredients that can raise insulin sensitivity and prevent an obese person from developing diabetes, as well as looking for novel dietary ingredients, which can lower high blood pressure.
The TIFN has invented ingredients that can keep bread crust crispy for longer and a technology that lowers the total fat content in foods without compromising the taste.
Brummer said his institute was one of the first in the world to prove that folic acid vitamins can improve brain function and hearing in elderly people.
The European food industry, faced with increasing demand for healthier foods and competition from lower cost regions, is investing more in R&D to meet the challenge.
"Twenty years ago, the industry was only interested to sell as much as possible. That has changed, the industry now feels responsibility to respond to the health situation," Brummer said.
"On the other hand, such innovative products have higher margins than those of selling a tomato or a bottle of milk."

Young, Black Women at Higher Risk of Aggressive Breast Cancer

These tumors lack hormone receptors that make ideal treatment targets, researchers say

U.S. breast cancer patients with a particularly deadly form of the disease are more likely to be poor, black or Hispanic, and under 40 years of age, new research shows.
Patients diagnosed with "triple-negative" breast cancer lack three key hormonal cancer markers that are present in most other forms of the disease, experts explain.
The absence of these cell receptors deprives doctors and patients of critical diagnostic information and prime targets for treatment, reducing a patient's therapeutic options and undercutting her expected survival.
"The paradox is that while African-American and Hispanic women have a lower overall risk for breast cancer, they have a higher mortality, which is probably due to the higher incidence of triple-negative [disease]," said study co-author Dr. Vincent Caggiano, research medical director of the Sutter Cancer Center at the Cancer Surveillance Program in Sacramento, Calif.
"So, in addition to the usual surgery that all women undergo, these triple-negative women are not eligible to receive any hormonal therapy," he added. "This leaves them with only chemotherapy to treat a very aggressive form of breast cancer. And although triple-negative patients respond well to chemotherapy, they relapse and their survival is shortened."
The findings are published in the May 1 issue of Cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women, after nonmelanoma skin cancer. Women living in North America are subject to the highest rate of breast cancer in the world, and nearly 180,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year alone.
In most cases of breast cancer, the presence of hormonal receptors in tumor tissue allows for the use of highly effective and narrowly targeted endocrine treatments --collectively known as "hormone adjuvant therapy" -- which have been developed in recent years as an alternative to systemic chemotherapy.
Hormone receptors are specialized protein molecules that can be located outside or inside either normal or cancerous cells. Such receptors attract and draw in particular hormones, such as estrogen or progesterone. As hormones "lock up" with hormone receptors, the effect is like flicking on a switch for certain cellular activities, including cancer cell growth.
Recognizing that no two cancers are alike, newer drugs -- including aromatase inhibitors and herceptin -- target hormone receptors specific to the patient's cancer cells.
But about 15 percent of patients have so-called "basal-like" breast cancer, which includes all triple-negative cases. In such instances the tumor lacks hormone receptors for either estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR), or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).
To identify those women at highest risk for basal-like breast cancer, Caggiono and his team analyzed the demographics of 6,370 California women diagnosed with a primary case of triple-negative breast cancer between 1999 and 2003. The women were identified through the California Cancer Registry.
They next compared outcomes for women with triple-negative disease against those of more than 44,700 patients with breast cancers that carried the hormonal markers.
Triple-negative patients were significantly younger at the time of their diagnosis than were other breast cancer patients, the researchers found. Whereas about 63 percent of triple-negative cases were uncovered before the age of 60, less than half of other breast cancers were diagnosed in women under 60.
Women 40 years of age or under were over one-and-a-half times more likely to have triple negative breast cancer than were patients between the ages of 60 and 69, the team found.
Race was also a major risk factor. While nearly 25 percent of the black patients had triple-negative malignancies, only about 11 percent of whites, 12 percent of Asians, and 17 percent of Hispanics were similarly diagnosed.
In terms of income, richer patients were less likely to be triple-negative than poorer breast cancer patients, although the very poorest did not appear to have a significantly greater risk, the team says.
Triple-negative patients were also more likely to be diagnosed with larger tumors and at a more advanced stage of disease, the study found.
As suspected, survival was worse for triple-negative patients than for other patients. Three out of four (77 percent) of patients with triple-negative cancers survived five years post-diagnosis compared with 93 percent of other breast cancer patients.
Non-Hispanic black patients with triple-negative disease fared worst of all, having just a 14 percent five-year survival rate. By comparison, patients with other forms of late stage disease had five-year survival rates 36 and 49 percent.
Why such disparities? Caggiano's team say biological differences probably play a big role. But they also suggested that other factors, such as lack of health-care access and resulting differences in treatment could pay a role in the higher incidence of triple-negative cases among non-white patients and the poor.
"What's important to note is that breast cancer is not a single disease and even young women can get it," said Caggiano. "Why African-American and Hispanic women get this very aggressive form more often we really don't know. It may be due to genetics, socioeconomic status, or in part due to barriers to treatment. It's probably an interaction of all of them. It's clearly an area for further research."
Emily White, a researcher with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, said that "studies like this are worthwhile, and help us understand risk factors more clearly. But it's also an issue of debate whether estrogen and progesterone receptors and HER2 are fundamental [unchanging] characteristics of a tumor, or whether their status actually changes and they lose their ability to respond over time."
The notion of cancer cell change could help explain the socioeconomic disparities uncovered in this study, she said.
"If you say some tumors are simply destined to be negative from the start then you have to point to some genetic predisposition to explain it," said White, who is also professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington. "But, if you think tumors can change with time then it could be that certain socioeconomic groups get diagnosed with a more aggressive type of cancer simply because of diagnosis delays, due to health-care barriers. Whether or not this is so is not yet really understood."

MRI Technique Could Predict Heart Attack Risk

It tracks cholesterol-like molecules to show points of artery weakness

An imaging technique based on the natural properties of "good" HDL cholesterol could someday help doctors spot patients at high risk of heart attack or stroke, researchers report.
HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is beneficial, because it travels to the plaques that build up in arteries and removes the "bad" LDL cholesterol.
Now, researchers have developed HDL-like molecules that travel to the plaques and show up on MRI, giving doctors clear pictures of which plaques are most likely to rupture.
"Today, clinical diagnosis is really very poor, because our techniques have no way to predict which plaques are bad and which you can live with all your life," said Dr. Zahi A. Fayad, professor of medicine and radiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. With the new MRI technology, "We can inject dye that goes to the spot of interest," he said.
The idea came from Dr. Edward A. Fisher of New York University, said David Cormode, a postdoctoral researcher at Mount Sinai who was slated to report on the work Tuesday at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in Chicago.
Efforts to get clear pictures of plaque buildup in arteries have been unsuccessful until now. That's because the contrast medium needed to produce images cannot pass through the lining of blood vessels. But Cormode -- who has a background in organic chemistry -- found a way to construct HDL-like molecules that carry the contrast medium through this lining.
In mouse studies, the team injected the animals with a modified HDL that carried gadolinium, a chemical long used in blood contrast agents. This method produced a 79 percent increase in plaque detection, Cormode reported. The effects of the injection also provided a viewing window of up to 48 hours.
The strength of the imaging signal correlated with the presence of inflammatory macrophage cells, which form centers of cholesterol accumulation.
"We target the inflammatory cells, macrophages," Fayad explained. By doing so, "we get a sense of macrophage density in plaque and can come up with a risk assessment," he said.
The researchers now are planning similar tests in larger animals such as rabbits. Some tinkering with the HDL molecules used in the mouse studies will be necessary, Cormode said.
The ultimate goal, of course, is a human test. Success would mean much better information about the exact degree of cardiovascular risk faced by an individual patient, Fayad said.
"We want to try to detect things much earlier than now and predict which patients require critical treatment," he said. "I'm not saying we would screen the whole population, but people at risk because of family history, age (age is very important), high blood pressure and other risk factors."
"For patients with a heavy plaque burden, we can start aggressive treatment to lower low-density lipoproteins and then do a repeat scan to see if the plaque is regressing," Fisher, who is professor of cardiovascular medicine at NYU, said in a statement.
The technique could also be used to used to follow patients who have heart attacks or strokes to see how well they respond to therapy, the researchers said. According to Fayad, if all goes well, the technique could be ready for use in humans in five years.

Who is Affected?

In the United States people are often surprised when they learn that a person who is not African American has sickle cell disease. The disease originated in at least 4 places in Africa and in the Indian/Saudi Arabian subcontinent. It exists in all countries of Africa and in areas where Africans have migrated.
It is most common in West and Central Africa where as many as 25% of the people have sickle cell trait and 1-2% of all babies are born with a form of the disease. In the United States with an estimated population of over 270 million, about 1,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease each year. In contrast, Nigeria, with an estimated 1997 population of 90 million, 45,000-90,000 babies with sickle cell disease are born each year.
The transatlantic slave trade was largely responsible for introducing the sickle cell gene into the Americas and the Caribbean. However, sickle cell disease had already spread from Africa to Southern Europe by the time of the slave trade, so it is present in Portuguese, Spaniards, French Corsicans, Sardinians, Sicilians, mainland Italians, Greeks, Turks and Cypriots. Sickle cell disease appears in most of the Near and Middle East countries including Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Yemen.
The condition has also been reported in India and Sri Lanka. Sickle cell disease is an international health problem and truly a global challenge.
All these countries must work together to solve the problem and find effective treatments and ultimately a cure. The knowledge and expertise in the management of sickle cell disease acquired in the technologically advanced countries must be shared with the less developed countries where patients die at alarming rates

Liver Diseases

Also called: Hepatic disease
Your liver is the largest organ inside your body. It is also one of the most important. The liver has many jobs, including changing food into energy and cleaning alcohol and poisons from the blood. Your liver also makes bile, a yellowish-green liquid that helps with digestion.
There are many kinds of liver diseases. Viruses cause some of them, like hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Others can be the result of drugs, poisons or drinking too much alcohol. If the liver forms scar tissue because of an illness, it’s called cirrhosis. Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, can be one sign of liver disease. Like other parts of your body, cancer can affect the liver. You could also inherit a liver disease such as hemochromatosis.

Is your skin aging faster than you are?

Not to worry…Thanks to new technologies, new techniques and the ever-expanding skills of dermasurgeons, you no longer have to live with the visible signs of aging and sun-damaged skin. In fact, recent advances enable dermasurgeons to treat a variety of childhood and adult skin conditions that previously could not be corrected or required invasive procedures and a long recovery period. And, while dermatologists can now prevent, maintain and even restore a youthful appearance to men and women of nearly all ages, it's important to remember that healthy skin and good skin care habits begin in childhood and can help in the development of positive self esteem and self confidence.
Join us as we review the stages of life, the most common skin conditions associated with each stage, and treatment solutions typically used to improve these concerns and reduce the visible signs of aging. Here's what to watch for:

Animal Diseases and Your Health

Also called: Zoonoses
Animal diseases that people can catch are called zoonoses. About 75 percent of the new diseases affecting humans in the past decade can be traced to animals or animal products. You can get a disease directly from an animal, or indirectly, through the environment.
Farm animals can carry diseases. If you touch them or things they have touched, like fencing or buckets, wash your hands thoroughly. Adults should make sure children who visit farms or petting zoos wash up as well.
Pets can also make you sick. Reptiles pose a particular risk. Turtles, snakes and iguanas can transmit Salmonella" />bacteria to their owners. You can get rabies from an infected dog or toxoplasmosis from handling kitty litter of an infected cat. The chance that your dog or cat will make you sick is small. You can reduce the risk by practicing good personal hygiene, keeping pet areas clean and keeping your pets' shots up-to-date.

Baby Chicks Linked to Salmonella

Baby Chicks Linked to SalmonellaParents should not give the birds to their children as pets, experts say
HealthDayThursday, March 29, 2007
THURSDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- With Easter just 10 days away, many parents are probably thinking about giving baby chicks to their children as pets. But doing so can put kids in harm's way, because the animals may carry a serious -- and potentially fatal -- germ called salmonella, U.S. health officials warn.
Federal researchers have traced 81 infections and three outbreaks of salmonella in 2006 to the handling of baby chicks.
"This is a long-standing issue," said Dr. Pascal James Imperato, chairman of the department of preventive medicine and community health at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, in New York City. "We know that chicks and ducklings are often carriers of salmonella."
When these animals are touched by young children, the risk of fecal oral contamination is very high, Imperato said. "For most people in the United States, it is inappropriate for parents to give children baby chicks," he said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are 1.5 million cases of salmonella poisoning each year in the United States from a variety of causes.
"In recent years, there have been more outbreaks associated with exposure to chicks," said Dr. Nicholas Gaffga, a CDC medical epidemiologist, adding this could be due to better reporting of cases.
Reporting in the March 30 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC researchers cited three outbreaks last year, including one in Kansas where 10 children who handled baby chicks at a day-care center were infected with salmonella.
A couple of months later, 46 people in Kansas came down with the same strain of the disease after buying chicks. Eight of these people were hospitalized. Many of the people who bought the chicks wanted them as pets for their children, according to the CDC report.
The other outbreaks occurred in Michigan and in Washington state.
"The CDC recommends that children under 5 years of age do not have contact with baby birds," Gaffga said. "If older children touch baby birds, they should wash their hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds."
In addition, clothes, tables, bathtubs, floors -- anything the bird touches -- should be considered contaminated until they are properly cleaned, Gaffga said.
Gaffga also noted that chicks that are dyed Easter colors are even less safe than un-dyed chicks. "Chicks are dyed to make them more attractive to children," he said. "Many states prohibit the sale of dyed chicks. This is to prevent them from being sold to children as pets."
Imperato said that while hand-washing can prevent the transmission of salmonella, it's not something easily monitored, especially among small children. "Parents should really avoid giving children baby chicks as pets," he said.
According to the CDC, salmonella is a bacteria that produces an infection called salmonellosis. Most persons infected with salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness typically lasts four to seven days, and most persons recover without treatment.
But for some, the diarrhea may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized. In these patients, the infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream, and then to other body sites, and can cause death unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics. The elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness, the CDC said.HealthDay