►February 15, 2004 - Public health monitoring of developmental disabilities with a focus on the autism spectrum disorders. - journal article (Am J Med Genet) - "Developmental disabilities (DDs) are conditions characterized by physical, cognitive, psychological, sensory, adaptive, and/or communication impairments manifested during development. Approximately 17% of individuals in the United States 18 years and younger have a DD, and for most children the cause of their condition is unknown."

Comment:  Almost 20% of our children are thought to be developmentally disabled.  Isn't this kinda, sorta a crisis?

►February 8, 2004 - Doctors put on alert as tetanus hits drug users - Scotsman - "AN OUTBREAK of the potentially fatal wound disease tetanus has prompted a warning to doctors to be vigilant...Three people, all injecting drug users, have succumbed to the infection in Scotland and the cases are thought to be part of a UK-wide problem involving contaminated heroin."

►February 8, 2004 - Brunei Keeps Bird Flu At Bay - www.bruneidirect.com

►February 8, 2004 - Notice issued on bird flu prevention, control - China Daily

►February 5, 2004 - A Fayetteville woman fights mercury - News 14 Carolina - "Davis wants them all to unite in getting North Carolina to pass a law mandating mercury-free vaccines...'We don't want people to be afraid of vaccines,' said Davis. 'We want the vaccines to be safe.'...A safety she says will only come if people come together and speak out."

►February 8, 2004 - Avian Influenza: The risk and the need for government policy - The Daily Star - "In recent weeks we have all witnessed the destruction of millions of chickens in South-East Asia. This is an attempt to stamp out bird flu (avian influenza). As of 3 February, four people in Thailand and nine in Vietnam are confirmed as having died of bird flu, which is also spreading through Indonesia and China...The governments of some of these countries have come under heavy criticism for failing to take the correct measures in time to prevent human deaths. Concerned citizens should ask themselves: what would happen if there was a bird flu outbreak here? What measures should the government take to detect it and stop its spread?"

►February 7, 2004 - Milder bird flu strain hits USA - AP via The Statesman - "Delaware officials ordered the destruction of some 12,000 farm chickens yesterday after confirming that the flock was infected by avian influenza. But state agriculture secretary Mr Michael Scuse said the flu strain is different from the one that has devastated Asian poultry stocks and killed at least 16 people...Mr Scuse said the flu strain found in the USA posed no threat to human health."

►February 7, 2004 - WHO says no human tranmission of bird flu yet - www.ctv.ca - "U.S. officials scrambled to contain the first case of bird flu found in the United States Saturday while some good news came out of Asia...The World Health Organization ruled out human-to-human transmission of the virus there."

►February 7, 2004 - Nigeria wants proof polio vaccine is safe - AP via The Seattle Times

►February 7, 2004 - Pigs don't have bird flu: Vietnam - UN officials rule out human transmission of bird flu - AP via The Toronto Star

►February 8, 2004 - Gene fault increases leprosy risk - Scientists have discovered a gene fault which makes people more likely to develop leprosy. - BBC - "Although many perceive it as a "biblical disease", leprosy still affects up to a million people a year...Experts from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, found the genetic variation means a person has five times the normal risk of developing leprosy."

►February 8, 2004 - Weighing Obesity - The Manila Times - "Draft global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. The Director-General submits herewith for the consideration of the Executive Board the draft global strategy on diet, physical activity and health."

►February 6, 2004 - Kids TB vaccine fears - icSouthLondon.co.uk - "HEALTH officials have admitted there is a TB problem in South London because of a backlog in the vaccination programme...The innoculation of people "at risk" was halted in 2000 because of a shortage of the drug. The backlog has still not been cleared."

►January 30, 2004 - As Autism Cases Rise, Parents Run Frenzied Race to Get Help (requires subscription) - The New York Times

►February 8, 2004 - Editorial: Smallpox preparations warrant close scrutiny - MySanAntonio.com - "The Department of Homeland Security rolled out its plan for administering smallpox vaccinations to public health officials in January 2003, saying about 500,000 first responders would be inoculated within a month...A year later, only 39,213 civilians had been vaccinated, according to a report issued by Democratic members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security...The partisan aspects of the report must be acknowledged. In a letter to Rep. Jim Turner, D-Crockett, the committee's ranking Democrat, panel Chairman Chris Cox, R-Calif., called the report harshly political and partisan."

►February 7, 2004 - Human bird flu vaccine closer - Labs in Atlanta, Memphis pass major milestone - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis said their achievement — breaking the virus apart to remove its most virulent elements and reassembling it — is but one step of many on the road to a bird flu vaccine...If every remaining step goes as well as possible, they said, it will still take four to six months of lab work, testing and manufacturing before a safe, approved vaccine can be made and sold."

►February 8, 2004 - China Confirms 3 Outbreaks of Bird Flu (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times

►February 7, 2004 - Singapore suspends all poultry imports from US after avian influenza outbreak - www.channelnewsasia.com

►February 7, 2004 - Avian Influenza Found in Delaware; S. Korea Halts Imports of U.S. Chicken - www.agweb.com

►February 6, 2004 - 'The Challenge is to Stay Vigilant' - Can the nation deal with a bioterror attack?  A top health official says that 'substantial' progress has been made since 2001 -- but more work lies ahead. - Newsweek via MSNBC - "But one issue associated with the smallpox vaccine is the potential for toxicity. Because of that, we got involved rapidly in some contract arrangements to develop a second-generation smallpox vaccine. We already have it in phase one clinical trials and have pilot lots. Within a reasonable period of time, we’ll have a smallpox vaccine that is much less reactive, and therefore much more safe, than the current one."

►February 7, 2004 - Relative of mad cow disease leaves researchers befuddled - Chronic wasting disease attacks North American deer and elk, but no one is sure how it spreads or if it infects humans - The Oregonian

►February 7, 2004 - CSU studies method to breed out disease - www.coloradoan.com - "Colorado State University researchers are trying to breed a better elk herd, one that's resistant to chronic wasting disease...About 1 percent of elk in wild and captive populations have a variant gene believed to be resistant to wasting disease, a fatal brain and nervous-system infection. Researchers will try to increase the percentage of animals with the gene through an elk-breeding project near Durango."

►February 7, 2004 - Researchers team up to seek genetic roots in bowel disease cases - The Arizona Republic - "Researchers in Phoenix and Tucson are collaborating on a study to find the genetic roots of inflammatory bowel disease, which affects up to 1 in 500 people in developed countries such as the United States."

►February 6, 2004 - Coeliac Disease - the Tip of the Iceberg - University of Bristol via www.newswise.com  - "The full extent of a hidden condition which goes largely undetected among British children - and unnoticed until adulthood - has been identified by doctors in Bristol...Their research suggests that until now the scale of coeliac disease among UK children has been under-estimated. Currently, fewer than one in 2,500 children is treated for the disease, but the study of children in Bristol has shown that it probably affects one child in 100, although most have no overt symptoms."

►December 28, 1994 - Autism and coeliac disease. - Collected Net Articles of Kalle Reichelt, M.D.

►February 7, 2004 - SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Eight Shenendehowa school district students from around southern Saratoga County were recently diagnosed with whooping cough. - The Saratogian - "The cases, while not life threatening, worry public health officials because Saratoga County had only six cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, in all of 2003."

►February 7, 2004 - Pregnant women get new mercury warning - 1 in 7 newborns may be affected (requires registration) - Chicago Tribune

►February 6, 2004 - U.N. meeting touts vaccines as way to ward off bird flu - Chicago Sun-Times

►February 7, 2004 - Bird flu challenges the world's vaccine makers - Canada's main provider is 'ready to turn production on a dime' from regular flu to a pandemic vaccine, LEONARD ZEHR writes - The Globe and Mail

►February 7, 2004 - Future of FluMist vaccine in doubt after slow sales - Nasal spray, developed at U-M, didn't catch on - The Ann Arbor News

►February 7, 2004 - Flu vaccine restrictions lifted - The Honolulu Advertiser - "The state Health Department is again offering flu shots to anyone who wants one, ending two months of rationing prompted when Hawai'i's supply of vaccine ran low...Health Department immunization educator Judy Strait-Jones said the state lifted the restrictions on the shots after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released more vaccine."

►February 7, 2004 - Many students immunized against meningitis - AP via The Kansas City Star - "Kansas colleges have immunized hundreds of students against bacterial meningitis after two Pittsburg State University students contracted the disease and a Wichita State University student died."

►February 7, 2004 - Thailand expects to stamp out bird flu in days - PM - Reuters via Forbes

►February 7, 2004 - Avian Flu Imperils Livelihoods in Vietnam (requires registration) - The Los Angeles Times

►February 7, 2004 - Scientists probe deadly 1918 flu virus - www.channelnewsasia.com - "British scientists say they have solved the mystery of the world's deadliest flu epidemic in 1918 - how the virus was able to jump from birds to humans - in a breakthrough that could help efforts to control the current outbreak of bird flu in Asia."

►February 7, 2004 - Vietnam's capital orders all poultry culled over bird flu - Reuters via Forbes

►February 7, 2004 - Young Sentinels of Peril A decades-long study of Nordic children reveals the damaging effects of prenatal exposure to mercury from tainted seafood. (requires registration) - The Los Angeles Times - "The children of these remote North Atlantic islands, just below the Arctic Circle, have become sentinels for the rest of the world, warning of the dangers of mercury...The 7-year-olds most highly exposed in the womb lag behind their schoolmates in some skills — particularly short-term memory, vocabulary and attention spans — by as much as a school year, comparable to a decline of five or six IQ points. A physical change also has been detected: a slight slowing of the brain's responses to signals...The latest evidence, the results of tests on these children at 14 years published Friday, suggests that at least some of the neurological effects are long-lasting, perhaps permanent...Scientists are now investigating whether mercury in seafood, and a type of mercury called thimerosal formerly used in childhood vaccines, might also contribute to autism and other neurological disorders."

►February 7, 2004 - Nigeria fighting fears that polio vaccine is a plot - The Star Tribune - "With its polio outbreak spreading, Nigeria is sending a team of scientists, officials and Muslim leaders abroad Sunday to bring back proof that the vaccine is neither contaminated nor a Western plot to spread AIDS."

►February 7, 2004 - Autism cases — and costs — on the rise - San Mateo Daily Journal - "The number of autism cases is rising at a rapid rate around the world, and San Mateo County school officials are preparing to deal with the devastating impact it could have in coming years...'These are literally million dollar kids,' said Jim Cox, director of special education in the San Mateo-Foster City School District."

Comment:  If vaccines play any role in creating the epidemic of autism, might it not be prudent to question whether the benefits of vaccines outweigh their risks?

►February 6, 2004 - District creates program for autistic students - Carlsbad Current - "For years, there was only one, but now there are 12 students in the Carlsbad Municipal Schools who have been classified with autism spectrum disorders, including six pre-schoolers."

►February 2, 2004 - FDA Panel to Weigh Safety Of Mood Drugs for Children - Some Data Link Use of Antidepressants, Suicidal Thoughts - The Washington Post - "A government panel of doctors will meet today to weigh disturbing but ambiguous evidence that widely used antidepressants may make some children suicidal, concerns that peaked in December when British authorities warned doctors not to prescribe the drugs to children...Clinical trials conducted by the drug industry in recent years have produced a steady drumbeat of data suggesting that suicidal thoughts and behavior are slightly more likely to develop in depressed children who take antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft and Effexor than in children who get dummy pills, according to several scientists who have analyzed many of the studies."

►February 8, 2004 - A Mother's Ordeal Forces Britain to Review Crib Deaths (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Angela Cannings spent 20 months in prison, convicted of smothering two of her babies, before an appeals court declared it was all a grave mistake — the murder charges, her trial, her conviction and her life sentence...The court ruled that her conviction relied almost entirely on a tidy presumption of guilt, rather than on solid evidence...The appeals court ruling, along with similar decisions in two other cases last year, constitutes a watershed in Britain for parents who have lost children through crib death and who have been accused and convicted of murdering them on the basis of conflicting opinions, delivered by expert witnesses."

Comment:  One can only hope that the United States will not be far behind in re-examining the evidence against parents now incarcerated, even facing possible death, for the alleged murder of their children.  To learn more about this serious and highly charged issue, go to the Online SBS Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com and visit Alan Yurko's website, the Yurko Project.  (Alan Yurko is in prison for the highly questionable shaken baby death of his infant son.)