26 June 2015

DAILY MAIL: EGYPT HAEMOLYTIC URAEMIC SYNDROME

Nicola Collings was left critically ill following a holiday to Sharm el Sheikh
Hours after returning to UK she was diagnosed with a rare kidney infection
Has now hired lawyers to probe the five-star Siva Sharm Resort & Spa

Published: 17:44 GMT, 25 June 2015 | Updated: 22:24 GMT, 25 June 2015

A hotel manager was left battling for her life after contracting a rare kidney infection just hours after a 'dream holiday' at a luxury resort in Eqypt.

Nicola Collings was left critically ill and in need of emergency dialysis and blood transfusions following a summer trip to Sharm el Sheikh.

The 23-year-old was rushed to hospital just hours after returning to the UK from the five star Siva Sharm Resort & Spa in August last year.

Twenty three year old Nicola Collings was left critically ill and in need of emergency kidney dialysis following 'dream holiday' to five-star Egyptian resort

She had her appendix removed because medics wrongly suspected appendicitis but blood tests later revealed she had contracted e-coli.

Nicola was also suffering from HUS (Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome) and TTP (Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura) causing her blood to fail and her kidney function to plummet

Upon returning home to the UK last summer, blood tests revealed that she had contracted e-coli and was also suffering from a rare kidney infection

Nicola was in Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital for two weeks and needed to take two months off work to recover

Find out what E. coli is and how you can prevent it

Nicola was in Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital for two weeks and needed to take two months off from work to recover from her illness.

She has now instructed medical negligence lawyers to investigate the five-star hotel and travel company, Red Sea Holidays Ltd.

Nicola claims the pool area was dirty with murky water and that the food was served lukewarm and with dirty cutlery.

SOLIRIS (eculizumab) ALEXION weekly dose of 600mg concentrate for IV infusion costs GBP 7,300.

22 June 2015

UK DAILY MAIL 22 March FLORIDA death from VIBRIO VULNIFICUS in WeekiWachee River.

Cason Jager, 26, died Tuesday in Leesburg, Florida
Family believe he contracted Vibro vulnificus while swimming in the Weeki Wachee River
Florida Department of Health says nine cases have been reported

History

The pathogen was first isolated in 1976 from a series of blood culture samples submitted to the CDC in Atlanta.^[6] It was described as a "lactose-positive vibrio".^[6] It was subsequently given the name Beneckea vulnifica,^[1] and finally Vibrio vulnificus by Farmer in 1979.^[2]
Increasing seasonal temperatures and decreasing coastal salinity levels seem to favor a greater concentration of Vibrio within filter-feeding shellfish of the US Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico, especially oysters (Crassostrea virginica). Scientists have frequently demonstrated the presence of Vibrio vulnificus in the gut of oysters and other shellfish and in the intestines of fish that inhabit oyster reefs. The vast majority of people who develop sepsis from V. vulnificus became ill after they ate raw oysters, most of these cases have been men. ^[17]

21 June 2015

UK VASCULR NEWS ( BIBA pulishing) March 2015 .p.43 NICE DRAFT GUIDANCE RECOMMENDS APIXABAN (ELIQUIS) FOR TREATNG AND PREVENTING VENOUS THROMBOEMBOLISM

NICE= NATIONAL INST.OF HEALTH & CARE EXCELLENCE

INHIBITS FACTOR Xa.(necessary in formation of thrombin & fibrin)

16 June 2015

WORSHIPFUL SOCIETY OF APOTHECARIES OF LONDON(1617) to celebrate 150 anniversary of first woman doctor in England.Dr.Elizabeth Garrett Anderson LSA MD(Sorbonne) JP (1836-1917)

Dr Elizabeth GARRETT became` a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries on 28 Sept.,1865.. She married James ANDERSON IN 1871.(Family owned Orient Steamship Comp.). The London School of Medicine for Women opened in 1874.

15 June 2015

MEDICAL POST ONTARIO NURSE PRACTITIONERS can now determine fitness to drive.

Wendy McKay, president elect of the Nurse Practitioners' Association of Ontario (NP

The Sarnia-based president-elect of Ontario's nurse practitioner association is praising provincial changes being made to cut red tape.
Wendy McKay was referring to an item in the recently passed Making Ontario's Roads Safer Act that gives the province's 2,500 nurse practitioners the same power as doctors to restrict patients, deemed unfit to drive for medical reasons, from getting behind the wheel.
Previously, only physicians could fill out the forms, she said.
“Which puts nurse practitioners in a very difficult spot, because if I see somebody who's unsafe to drive, we talk to them, then they have to see the physician, then this physician has to see the form, send it to the Ministry of Transportation,” she said.
It's just the latest in a series of already-made and soon-expected changes to the rules governing nurse practitioners in Ontario, McKay said.
Another change that took effect last month has seen OHIP expanded to cover nurse-practitioner referrals to specialists.
In the past, nurse practitioners were handcuffed into getting doctors’ signatures, because specialists wouldn't get paid for referrals otherwise, McKay said.
“But the reports would come back to the physician instead of to the nurse practitioner, so it just created a lot of office chaos,” she said.
Now, she said, all that has been simplified and the patients she cares for have their information sent back to her instead of a doctor who's never seen them before.
“So I can do the appropriate followup and nothing gets missed or slips between the cracks with that,” McKay said.
Those two items are among several Premier Kathleen Wynne's government has pledged to act on in the “Better Care. Better Value.” Nurse Practitioners of Ontario policy paper published in advance of last year's provincial election, McKay said.
One of the more pressing outstanding issues is giving nurse practitioners in the community commensurate pay with those in hospital and community care access centre jobs, she said.
In some cases, she said, the gap is as much as 30%, noting the disparity has contributed to one in five nurse practitioner positions going unfilled across Ontario.
“We're excited that the (Health) Ministry, they've agreed they need to address it,” McKay said. “Especially when the emphasis of the moment is on primary care, moving people out of the hospital and caring for them in the community as soon as possible, which is better for the patient.”
Sarnia has about 20 nurse practitioners, she said, and is home to one of the province's 25 nurse practitioner-led clinics.

(OMA & CPSO silent)

14 June 2015

TORONTO Pres.Rep.Iceland HE Prof.Olafur Ragnar GRIMSSON BA (Econ & Pol.Sci. Manchester 1965) PhD (Pol.Sci.Manchester 1970)

THE ARCTIC & THE HIMALAYAS; NEW MODELS OF COOPERATION.
Fri 22.June ,2015 at U.Tor.Council Chamber, 27 King's College Circle. 10:30am-12
sponsored by PETER MONK (born Hungary 1927) SCHOOL of GLOBAL AFFAIRS. funded with $41.4-million donation by Barrick Gold.Corp.

Himalayan glaciers: in 20 years 30% of glaciers will melt.. 45% of Indian rivers depend on glacier water. 2 billion will be short of water. Conflict expected in South Asia.

Iceland making solar panels for China. Also advising worldwide on Geothermal plants.

11 June 2015

UK DAILY MAIL: Privacy laws killed 150

Germanwings pilot who killed 150 when he deliberately crashed plane into the Alps had seen more than 40 doctors in five years - and SEVEN in the month before the crash

Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, had seen more than 40 doctors in five years
Met with seven in month before crash including psychiatrist appointments
Doctors didn't report concerns to his employers because of privacy laws
French prosecutor upgraded the investigation to a manslaughter inquiry

By Jenny Stanton For Mailonline

Published: 18:58 GMT, 11 June 2015 | Updated: 19:08 GMT, 11 June 201

The Germanwings pilot who killed 150 people when he deliberately crashed a plane into the French Alps had seen 40 doctors in five years and seven in the month leading up to the disaster.

Some medical experts felt 27-year-old German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who feared he was losing his eyesight, was psychologically unstable and a number thought he was unfit to fly.

But doctors didn't report their concerns to Lubitz's employers because of German patient privacy laws, Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin said.

09 June 2015

ATHENA DIAGNOSTICS GENETIC STUDIES

Letters of Medical Necessity

Many insurance plans require prior authorization in order to perform genetic testing. When a request for prior authorization is made, it’s important to include a letter of medical necessity that explains why Athena’s testing services are needed. Below you will find letters for several of Athena’s commonly ordered tests.
Use the letter with your initial request for prior authorization. If the insurance company denies your request, include the appeal letter with your appeal of their denial.
Advanced Sequencing for Epilepsy
View Condition Page for Letters of Medical Necessity
Complete SCN1A Evaluation, #573
Letter
Autoimmune Epilepsy Evaluation, #5100
Letter
Complete Tuberous Sclerosis Evaluation, #556
Letter
Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMT) Advanced Evaluation—Initial Genetic Assessment, #4010
Letter
Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, Comprehensive Evaluation, #4001
Letter
Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes, Initial Assessment, #4500
Letter
Complete Ataxia Evaluation, #696
Letter
Complete Paraneoplastic Evaluation, #467
Letter
SensoriMotor Neuropathy Profile - Complete, #287
Letter
Monogenic Diabetes (MODY) Evaluation, #885
Letter

Neurome™ Neurological Exome
Letter

Complete PKD Evaluation, #761
Letter

Address
Athena Diagnostics Inc.
200 Forest Street, 2nd Floor
Marlborough, MA 01752

Departments
Customer Service
Phone: (800) 394-4493 option 2
Fax: 508-802-5912

02 June 2015

MERCK (UNIVADIS) June 2 TOHO UNIVERSITY, TOKYO.(Faculty of Nursing)

ASM: Nurses’ pierced earring holes facilitate transmission of pathogens, including MRSA

Staphylococcus aureus isolated from pierced earring holes of 24 of 128 nurses

as presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology

According to Japanese researchers, the pierced earring holes of some healthcare professionals (HCPs) facilitate the horizontal transmission of pathogens and are a potential source of healthcare-associated infections (HAI), including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). They presented their study at ASM, held in May-June in New Orleans.
To determine the risk of transmission when a HCP’s finger comes into contact with bacteria on the pierced hole of the ear lobe site, investigators compared bacteria recovered from the area of the pierced hole vs fingers of the HCP to determine the potential role of pierced holes as a source of HAIs.
Samples from the back of the ear lobe were taken with a sterile swab from a total of 200 university hospital nurses -- those with and without pierced earring holes. The swabs were inoculated on blood agar plates; the surface of the fingertips were also rubbed onto the surface of blood agar plates. Isolated colonies were identified and antimicrobial susceptibility performed.
Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the pierced earring holes of 24 (18%) of 128 HCPs compared to seven (10%) of the 72 non-pierced ear ring wearers, respectively. Six (25%) of the 24 S. aureus isolates from the pierced earring holes were MRSA. In 12 HCPs, S. aureus was isolated from both the pierced holes and fingers with three (25%) HPCs positive for MRSA. These MRSA isolates had the same pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern from both the pierced holes and fingers.
“This study demonstrated the isolation of the same MRSA strain in both the pierced earring holes and fingers of HCPs, which suggests the potential for horizontal HAI spread from the fingers of HCP who have pierced earring holes,” concluded the researchers, from the Toho University Faculty of Nursing in Tokyo.

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