Fungal infections post Joplin tornadoes spur disagreement between state and local health officials

In the aftermath of the devastating Joplin tornadoes, cases of a rare fungus that cause potentially deadly infections in humans began showing up in Southwestern Missouri.Local health officials in Green County contacted state health officials with the evidence and suggested sounding a statewide alert. However, Missouri officials declined citing the concern of causing public panic. Sarah Okeson of the Springfield News-Leaderreports that, “frustrated, county officials issued a limited alert themselves.”

“County officials ended up putting out the word to 43 health care contacts. Joplin health officials also alerted providers. The state did eventually issue a health advisory on June 10, a week after the county’s request and two days after the News-Leader wrote about the fungal infections.”

Of the 13 documented cases of the fungal infections, “known as mucormycosis,” five people died.

Brian McVicar from The Muskegon Chronicle investigates the thousands of food code violations that were reported from 2007-2010 in Muskegon County, Michigan (an area with the population size of about 174,000 according to Muskegon County’s website http://www.co.muskegon.mi.us/).

However, restaurants aren’t the only ones skirting the law,  “Schools, hospitals, and food stands found in places such as Michigan’s Adventure Amusement Park were cited for breaking the rules, too. ”

McVicar used Microsoft Access to slice and dice the data numerous ways, including what restaurants accumulated the most violations and how common some of the most serious violations are.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2011/07/food_code_violations_rampant_f.html

Fox 9 News in Minneapolis, MN went undercover to investigate the claim that some veterinary clinics are vaccinating pets too often.

Jeff Baillon reports on what can happen to your dog if you listen to your vet and vaccinate for rabies every two years, instead of the vaccine’s intended 1 or 3 year dose. The doctors claim they do this because of the pet owners inability to make appointments on time. However, the risk of vaccinating every two years could outweigh the risk of not vaccinating for, some say, up to five years.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/investigative/investigators-vet%2C-vaccines-and-vagaries-jul-27-2011

Pam Louwagie, of The Star-Tribune in Minneapolis, reports on the devastating results of “designer” drug use. These legal substances are marketed online as  “herbal incense” and “bath salts,” which seem like a safer alternative to street drugs. However, Louwagie points out that all over the country teens and adults alike are experiencing some terrifyingly dangerous side-effects.

“In an upscale suburb of New Orleans, a doctor’s son, high on bath salts, slit his throat in front of his family, then later took a shotgun to his head.

Outside Seattle, a 38-year-old man killed his wife, then himself, during a high-speed police chase in April. Police found their 5-year-old son dead at home. Both parents had bath salts in their systems.”

“In a state where nursing homes are rarely sanctioned, federal regulators did not penalize one of Hawaii’s premium institutions for its failure to protect defenseless elderly women from a sexually abusive caregiver. They also didn’t sanction a nursing home even after a nurse’s failure to follow physician orders resulted in the puncturing of a man’s abdominal organ, requiring surgery. The nurse inserted a feeding tube larger than what the doctor ordered. Those were among the cases Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Rob Perez cited to illustrate that Hawaii nursing homes often go unpenalized even when deficient care leads to resident harm. Over the past six years, the state had the second-lowest sanction rate in the country.”

“There’s a complete breakdown of oversight,” said Charlene Harrington, emeritus professor of sociology and nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. “There’s something really wrong.”

The story of tainted medical wipes and other disposable medical supplies in our hospitals first caught the media’s attention when a child from Houston, TX apparently died from the bacterium Bacillus cereus, a cousin to Bacillus antracis, or anthrax.  However, with deeper investigations done, it turns out the FDA was aware that the plant, owned by Triad Group and sister company H&P Industries (one of the nation's largest disposable medical supplies facility) has had numerous sanitary and safety violations dating back almost a decade.

Here are links to coverage from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and MSNBC.com:

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/124552053.html

http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/12/6452123-behind-fda-action-on-tainted-wipes-a-reporter-staying-on-the-story

Voice of San Diego reporter Keegan Kyle, reveals several cases of misconduct by members of the San Diego police department. Former San Diego police office, Anthony Arevalos currently faces 21 felony charges. Several women have filed complaints against Arevalos, accusing the officer of sexually assaulted them or of offering sexual bribes in lieu of an arrest. Police investigated he first complaint in February, 2010. The investigation resulted in a recommendation that "prosecutors with the District Attorney's Office bring charges against one of their own." Charges were never filed, and the officer continued to patrol. Arevalos was fired this year after an internal investigation into another sexual harassment complaint. Since October, "11 internal or criminal investigations" have been admitted by the SDPD, causing "Police Chief Bill Lansdowne to acknowledge an internal problem," and "publicly apologize for the conduct of his officers."

KHOU-TV’s Mark Greenblatt finds so much radiation in the water of Central Texas cities, that even the pipes that carry it set off Geiger counters, and citizens are afraid to drink it. Greenblatt also uncovered a 10-year old state scientific report calling the water serious health risk”,  but Texas officials all but ignored it.  The story is another in the reporter’s 6 month investigation into the region’s water radiation problem.

"Since 2002, Medtronic and a group of doctors with financial ties to the medical device company were aware that a new biological agent used in back surgery was linked to sterility in men.

But that crucial information was not revealed in medical journal articles written by those doctors, including surgeons who would receive millions of dollars in various royalties from Medtronic."

John Fauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/JS Online uncovers more unsettling truths about our nations tug-of-war with scientific evidence versus greed.

After PRI's Ike Sriskandarajah found lion meat on the shelf at his neighborhood butcher and followed the trail to a dark corner of the exotic meat trade. Follow his investigation from his local butcher shop, to the harsh realities of "exotic mean with transcripts and the use of Document Cloud. Find out how "no federal agency regulates raising or killing lions for food; that the exotic animal trade is murky and somewhat illegal; and how we can eat almost anything."