Probe of heat wave deaths under way
Article Abstract:
Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control will use information provided by Cook County Medical Examiner Edmund Donoghue to help prevent future deaths during heat waves. Donoghue reported 550 deaths linked to the temperatures that climbed to 106 degrees F over a five-day period in Chicago in the summer of 1995. Heat was listed as the primary cause in 68 deaths and the secondary cause in 482 deaths. Mayor Daley criticized the criteria used to classify the deaths as heat-related, but many doctors believe the criteria are valid. It is difficult to determine death from hyperthermia because of the lack of anatomical clues. Between 60% and 70% of the Chicago deaths were among people older than 55 years and none of them had air conditioning. A heat emergency plan has been adopted in Chicago. Federal aid is being sent to help low-income people with energy bills and to buy air conditioners and fans.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1995
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Milwaukee deaths reignite critical issues in cervical cancer screening
Article Abstract:
Quality control measures may protect against the misreading of lab tests. Accuracy should take precedence over cost containment efforts. A case in point is Chem-Bio Corp. of Oak Creek, Wis. which was charged with reckless homicide relating to misread Pap tests of two women who later died of cervical cancer. The lab's one technologist read an average of 179 cytology slides a day in 1990, and was paid on a per-slide basis. Her work was not checked for quality. A law that went into effect in 1992 allows a maximum of 100 slides per 24-hour period. The Milwaukee case is considered unusual, although the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments were enacted because of reports that some labs were setting quotas and paying on a per-slide basis.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1995
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New strategies to fight oral cancer
Article Abstract:
Researchers at a 1996 conference discussed ways to reduce the incidence and mortality of oral cancer. Oral cancer will strike 30,000 Americans in 1996 and kill 8,000. Five-year survival rates are only about 50%. The most important risk factors are cigarette and alcohol use, but some scientists believe viruses such as herpesviruses and human papillomavirus may also contribute. Dentists would be the first to notice oral cancer but 40% of Americans do not visit a dentist regularly.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1996
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