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"WE DODGED A BULLET ON THIS ONE"

June 06, 2007 8:05 AM

If you like scary medical stories I have three congressional hearings designed just for you!

First up its TB and at 9:45am a senate appropriations subcommittee will hear from a number of witnesses including world wide TB traveler ANDREW SPEAKER.  The hearing is in Washington, Speaker will be in his Denver hospital room.  Congressional staffers were working on a video hookup yesterday but as of last night had only managed to arrange an audio path.

Nils Daulaire, MD, the president and ceo of the Global Health Council will tell senators he like them was caught off guard by last week's news of an individual, AN AMERICAN NO LESS, who traveled around the world and back with a highly dangerous form of TB.  "WE DODGED A BULLET ON THIS ONE...it proves that a global outbreak IS JUST ONE FLIGHT AWAY AND IT MAY AS OUR TRAVELER DID MAKE A PIT-STOP IN GREECE, PRAGUE, ITALY and CANADA."  Daulaire warns congress that it is impossible to solve the TB problem "over here" without resolving it "over there" the 22 COUNTRIES where nearly 9 MILLION get TB each year and 1.6 MILLION die of it.   

Julie Gerberding of the CDC says on BOTH MAY 22nd and 23rd, HHS/CDC officials spoke with the patient in ROME and told him about the XDR TB diagnosis.  "DESPITE ASSURANCES FROM THE PATIENT THAT HE WOULD NOT TRAVEL, IT WAS DISCOVERED, on MAY 24th that the PATIENT HAD CHECKED OUT OF HIS HOTEL."

Gerberding says as of JUNE 5th---HHS/CDC officials have had DIRECT CONTACT with 245 of the approximately 276 us citizens and residents on AIR FRANCE 385.  they have also spoken directly with 24 of the 26 HIGH PRIORITY PASSENGERS, those closest to him on the plane.  And in a missile pointed squarely at Speaker she says normally when a patient has TB, he or she VOLUNTARILY complies with recommendations to ensure that they don't put themselves in situations where they could endanger others.

in the U.S.  13,767 TB CASES last YEAR---from 1993 to 2006, 49 cases of XDR TB--each of those requiring 18-24 months of treatment at a cost of $500,000 per case.

at 10am the house homeland security committee will hold its TB hearing focusing more on the national security "cracks" exposed by Andrew speaker.

NOW on to TYPE 2 DIABETES and the DRUG AVANDIA---rep. Henry Waxman will be facing tough competition from the two TB hearings but his staffers have rounded up some good witnesses on yet another medical tale.

Bruce M. Psaty, MD will say GLAXOSMITHKLINE's most recent attempt to downplay the dangers of avandia with its release yesterday of preliminary results of an ongoing study indicate that "AVANDIA IS STILL ASSOCIATED WITH A SIGNIFICANT 33% INCREASE IN THE HEART-ATTACK RISK.  THE POSSIBILITY OF HEART-ATTACK BENEFIT REMAINS REMOTE, AND THERE IS STILL STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT EVIDENCE OF HARM."

It's a medical mystery kind of day on capitol hill!

June 6, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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