Health Law and Legislation

About 40,000 patients of the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas are being urged to get tested for bloodborne diseases like hepatitis and HIV. It is reported that anesthesiologists exposed patients to infection by using multiple-dose vials of medications and re-using syringes between individuals.

Patients were exposed to these unsafe injections between March 2004 and January 2008. So far, doctors have found six acute cases of hepatitis C in patients from the center.

The New England of Journal recently published a scathing report on the adverse cardiovascular effects of Avandia. Avandia has been used since 1999 to treat diabetes II, and was approved by the FDA with the knowledge that minimal cardiovascular effects existed, but not more than with any other diabetic drug which existed. However, the risk for people with congestive heart failure was slightly higher.

This past September, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published the report Clearing the Smoke: Assessing the Science Base for Tobacco Harm Reduction.,1 The report's leading conclusion is that tobacco products of reduced risk, and especially less hazardous cigarettes, are within technical reach and should be officially endorsed and regulated. The report speaks of unparalleled public health opportunities in tobacco harm reduction and in the abatement of the awesome morbidity and premature mortality of more than 1 billion smokers worldwide.1(p23)

Gardisil was approved in August 2006 as a vaccine to protect against cervical cancer caused by HPV. The virus causes 70% of cervical cancers; therefore, the announcement of a vaccine to prevent this disease was applauded by many. Ten women a year die of cervical cancer, and one in four women in America are exposed to the HPV virus. Men can be carriers of the virus.

However, the religious right saw this vaccine as an approval for pre-marriage sexual activity, and has lobbied heavily against it. Therefore, although 23 states have laws pending a mandated vaccination, only one state has approved it: Virginia. Texas' Governor initially executed an order, but the Legislators, under pressure from the Religious lobbiest, enacted a law to forbid a mandate.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is pushing for legislation that would force restaurants to list nutritional information on menus.

Without this information, restaurant patrons have no idea what they are eating. The oversized portions served at many U.S. restaurants (which can exceed daily recommended calorie and fat intake) prompt over-eating, helping to fuel obesity and heart disease.

Long Term Care in America can be improved through looking at the processes used in other countries, and determining how effective those processes are in relation to established outcomes. Four countries were chosen for comparison: England, Germany, Japan and Australia.

• England: England is very similar to the United States, as it relies on regulation to impose national standards on nursing homes. Localities may or may not provide additional regulations.

In 2006, Senator Kennedy was cited for reckless driving. Officers at the arrest cite stated Kennedy appeared disoriented. Kennedy reported that he had taken a sleeping pill the night before, didn't realize he was even driving, and checked himself into a rehab facility.

Smoking cigarettes is never good. Most of us know that fact; however, from time to time it's healthy to review what the Federal Government has to say.

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and has negative impacts on people at all stages of life. It harms unborn babies, infants, children, adolescents, adults, and seniors. The list of diseases caused by smoking has been expanded to include abdominal aortic aneurysm, acute myeloid leukemia, cataract, cervical cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, pneumonia, periodontitis, and stomach cancer. These are in addition to diseases previously known to be caused by smoking, including bladder, esophageal, laryngeal, lung, oral, and throat cancers, chronic lung diseases, coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases, as well as reproductive effects and sudden infant death syndrome.

Should House Republicans be pushing new legislation that could wipe out the ability of states to ban or strictly limit the use of pesticides and toxic industrial chemicals that can jeopardize human health?

Although the first report by the Institute for Health was released in 1999, stating that medical errors were responsible for as many as 98,000 deaths each year, when you read the statistics from the 2006 report, you will be shocked to learn that hospital patients should still expect to suffer one adverse drug event (due to human error) every day they remain hospitalized. Not very comforting... Perhaps legislation is needed to ensure (at the very least) that prescriptions are PRINTED legibly.