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                        OF NOTE...
                        News to Use

Vol. III, Issue 57                              March 15, 1994
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                       CURE, Ltd.

                        ADAmantly

"I was crying and blushing from head to toe. I was so humiliated that
I couldn't face people for days." --Deborah Birdwell, a 360-pound, 5-
foot-4 woman, who is suing a Tennessee movie theater under the
Americans with Disabilities Act for refusing to allow her to use her
own folding chair. (Woman Files Suit Over Weight, Martinsburg Journal,
2/25/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note:  For the complete story, see ADA402.*
wherever ABLETEXT files are found.

                        Addictions

Researcher Dr. Gideon Koren reports chemical evidence that nicotine s
reaches the unborn babies of nonsmoking mothers routinely exposed to
secondhand smoke. Prior research suggests two to three hours a day of
such exposure might increase risks of subtle problems in speech,
language, intelligence, and attention span. (Secondhand Smoke Hits
Even Fetuses, Martinsburg Journal, 2/23/94)

"In the late 1960s, it certainly was a time of great social
revolution. Young people were experimenting with all sorts of things
in the '60s. It could be that young females began acting like their
young male counterparts at that time." --Karen Daragan, spokeswoman,
Philip Morris USA, maker of Virginia Slims, on study by the Cancer
Prevention and Control Program at the University of California, San
Diego, Cancer Center in La Jolla. (Study Finds Cigarette Ads Recruit
Kids, Martinsburg Journal, 2/23/94)

                        AIDS Addenda

"Randy Shilts, ...whose best-selling accounts of the AIDS epidemic...
broadened public awareness of the disease has died at age 42...The San
Francisco Chronicle, where Shilts worked for 13 years..., said he died
of AIDS...Shilts's 1987 best-seller, And the Band Played On: People,
Politics, and the AIDS Epidemic,...while critical of the Reagan
administration,...did not spare his own community, angering some gay
rights advocates by accusing them of endangering lives to protect
sexual freedom." (Journalist Shilts Is Dead at 42, MJ, 2/18/94)

                        Body Language

The Utah-based company that manufactures the thigh smoother Skinny Dip
and other cosmetics makes no claim that women who use the cream could
develop bigger breasts or even thinner thighs, says Collette
McCullough, of Neways Inc.'s communications department. "Until we can
back it up with our own research, we can't say that." Yet in a news
story Sunday, Jefferson County, WV distributor Terrence McPartland
said he knew of anecdotal evidence that using Skinny Dip had resulted
in larger breasts and smaller thighs for some customers. (Thigh Cream
No Miracle Worker, Company Official Says, Joe Saunders, MJ, 3/15/94)

                        Cancer Chronicles

"We're always reading about the overuse of technology and treatment. I
can't overemphasize enough that in cancer pain, undertreatment is the
problem." --Philip Lee, M.D., director, US Public Health Service.
"Unrelieved pain can produce unnecessary suffering, limit physical
activity, decrease the appetite, reduce the amount of sleep, and
increase the fear of cancer, all of which reduce the patient's ability
to fight the disease." --Ada Jacox, professor of nursing, John Hopkins
University. (More Aggressive Treatment Urged in Treatment of Cancer
Pain, Sandy Rovner, Washington Post, 3/3/94)

"After more than a decade of advances in pain relief, physicians and
nurses are generally poorly trained in pain management. As a result,
many cancer patients suffer unnecessarily, according to the panel that
produced the Guideline on the Management of Cancer Pain. The guideline
was issued last week by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research
(AHCPR), a unit of the Public Health Service, and follows a similar
report last year on pain after surgery." The panel found that the
elderly, minorities, and children are especially vulnerable to having
their pain undertreated. (Pain Relief During Cancer Treatment, Sandy
Rovner, Washington Post Health, 3/8/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: For a
free copy of the Cancer Pain Guideline, call 1-800-CANCER, or write:
Cancer Pain Guideline, PO Box 8547, Silver Spring, MD 20907.

"When push came to shove at the otherwise friendly Senate subcommittee
hearing yesterday on women's health reform issues, Sen. Barbara Boxer
(D-CA) had, if not the last, then at least the most dramatic word. It
occurred during an exchange between Boxer and Samuel Broder, director
of the National Cancer Institute...Broder was explaining why the
institute recommends that routine mammogram screening for breast
cancer begin at age 50, rather than 40...Broder said the institute's
goal was to 'empower' women...'We are women who are empowered,' Boxer,
said, opening her arms to include 4 other women Senators on the dias.
'And what we are saying to you is, we want to make sure' we have the
proper scientific evidence 'before you throw out a tool' like
mammograms." ("Empowered Sen. Boxer Takes on NCI Director, Dana
Priest, Washington Post, 3/10/94)

                        Dateline World

Although an estimated 1.6 million Indians are infected with the HIV
virus, scarcely any of the money budgeted in 1993 to control the
spread of AIDS in India has been expended, the country's health
minister concedes. B. Shankaranand advised Parliament on Wednesday
that only 13% of the funds had been spent. The following day the
newspaper Pioneer reported the discovery of HIV-positive blood in
three commercial blood banks in Punjab state. (India Not Spending AIDS
Budget Funds, Martinsburg Journal, 2/25/94)

"A few years ago Moscow's Maternity Hospital Number 20 buzzed with
screeching newborns, frazzled doctors, and round-the-clock commotion.
Up to 25 babies were delivered on a busy day, and...patients spilled
out from the wards, clogging the corridors with extra beds. These days
a disquieting calm envelops the hospital. Births there have been down
by two-thirds since 1988...On top of a plummeting national birthrate--
which stands among the lowest in the developing world--Russia is
facing other troubling trends that add up to demographic and public
health crises virtually unprecedented in peace time...The death rate
is soaring, and not only for adults. Children and newborns are dying
at twice and three times the rate of their counterparts in the West.
Women die in childbirth five to 10 times more often than they do in
the West. Deaths by injuries and poisonings...have increased by two-
thirds since 1991. Suicides have jumped by 50% in the past four years,
ranking Russia among the world's leaders." (State of Decay, Lee
Hockstader, Washington Post, 3/7/94)

                        Family Affair

"When her son Josh couldn't speak ar age 3 and was diagnosed by
specialists as learning disabled, Marcia Bartlett didn't want to
believe it was true. But now Bartlett has not only accepted the
disability--she's researched it, helped develop an educational plan
for her son and is studying sign language to communicate with him
better. Berkeley County (WV)'s Parent Resource Center in Martinsburg,
which provides resources and referrals for parents of learning
disabled children, helped Bartlett and her son Josh, who is now 6,
deal with his disability." (Center Helps Parents Deal with Children's
Disabilities,  Teresa Novellino, Martinsburg Journal, 2/17/94)

"Consider the modern American father: attending birthing classes,
changing diapers, baby-sitting while mom goes to the office. Could
child-rearing be any more egalitarian? Perhaps. Boston University
biologist Thomas H. Kunz and his colleagues report in last week's
Nature that male bats in the family Dyacopterus spadiceus can grow
breasts and secrete milk. Although male lactation has been seen
occasionally in domestic animals, presumably the result of severe
inbreeding, the discovery marks the first evidence of milk production
in wild male mammals. It hints at the tantalizing (to some)
possibility that with the right kind of hormonal manipulation men too
might someday be able to suckle their young." (On the Pulse, Rick
Weiss, Washington Post Health, 3/8/94)

The first few weeks of life can be a difficult challenge for one in
five of the half million premature babies born each year in the United
States. Weighing less than 4.4 pounds and hampered by immature lings,
they battle respiratory disease and other complications, including
gastrointestinal problems. But a recommendation by the National
Institutes of Health is expected to save thousands of babies' lives.
Little-used but long-studied in the United States, the use of steroids
in pregnancy may give preemies a head start, boosting maturation of
the heart, lungs, nervous, and gastrointestinal systems. The NIH
recommendations call for injecting corticosteroids in mothers 24- to
34-weeks pregnant and experiencing premature labor or whose water has
broken. According to Larry Gilstrap, MD, University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center, who chaired the 16-expert NIH panel,
using these injections to help all premature infants could save 7,000
babies a year and $157 million in hospital costs, and "That's a very
conservative estimate." (Steroids During Labor Aid Premature Infants,
Sally Squires, Washington Post Health, 3/8/94)

Kimberly Mays--who once declared in open court that she hated her
biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg and wished to divorce them
from her life--has moved in with the Twiggs, leaving Robert Mays, the
man who raised her from infancy, "all torn up." The Twiggs' and Mays'
babies had been switched at birth. (Kimberly Dumps 'Dad,' Deborah
Sharp, USA Today, 3/10/94)

                        Food for Thought

"If you can't please 'em, offend 'em. That's what Florida's State
Citrus Commission must have figured by hiring right-wing whiner Rush
Limbaugh to promote orange juice...The Florida chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People is threatening to
boycott the homegrown product as long as he is promoting it. The
National Organization of Women is mulling a national protest." (Orange
Juice Message Sour, editorial, Hartford Courant, in MJ, 3/4/94)

"The fat was in the fire when word leaked out last week that White
House chef Pierre Chambrin was leaving. But that's about the last fat
the White House kitchen is going to see for a while. A team of chefs
is coming to town at the end of the month to teach the White House
low-fat cookery...Dean Ornish, the best-selling low-fat-lifestyle
author, is bringing two celebrated San Francisco chefs and the chef
from his Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito,
California to demonstrate poaching and fat-free sauteeing, sauces
without butter, and soups without meat." (White House Gets Out of
Frying Pan, Phyllis Richman, Washington Post, 3/9/94)

"No one should go to bed hungry in this land of plenty. Yet more than
26 million Americans lined up at soup kitchens, food pantries,
homeless shelters, and other emergency distribution centers for
handouts last year. That's one of every 10 Americans in a bread line.
Almost half are children...So it's difficult to understand why the
Clinton administration wants to eliminate $80 million in free flour,
rice, and other food-bank basics in the 1995 budget." (Don't Slash US
Food Aid, editorial, USA Today, 3/10/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Only
if you buy the party line of Bill as the champion of the downtrodden.

"If prostitutes offered free sex to needy men, the number of males
claiming to be sex-starved would skyrocket overnight. If banks offered
to handout free $100 bills to struggling families, the number of
people claiming financial stress would quintuple. The fact that 26
million Americans allegedly receive free food from private pantries
and soup kitchens each month proves only that when free goods are
offered, demand will always exceed supply." --James Bovard, author,
Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty. (Slash Federal Food
Aid, Bovard, op-ed, USA Today, 3/10/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: A man
who equates subsidizing prostitution with feeding the hungry is as
much a libertine as a libertarian.

                        Forget the Vet?

"On behalf of all my fellow veterans and comrades who served and fell
in Vietnam, I would like to express my extreme astonishment once
again. The pressure of the almighty dollar has stomped out the power
of the human soul. The vets who served, the vets who gave their lives
in Vietnam have, once again, been (abused). Their experience has been
pushed aside, ignored, disregarded. They were refused benefits from
the Agent Orange scam. Benefits were delayed. Then it was a government
that refused to believe an enemy that not only captured and held our
boys in the most deplorable and inhumane fashion but captured, held,
and destroyed not only the lives in their physical sense, but changed
their spirit would not be honest...If Vietnam were being honest and
humane in returning our MIAs [missing-in-action], they would already
be accounted for and the veterans involved would be living in peace,
instead of pieces." --John Horay, Harper's Ferry, WV. (Vietnam
Veterans Still Treated Unfairly, Horay, letter-editor, MJ, 2/16/94)

                        Health Care Plans and Pans

"Voices quivering with emotion, three older Americans stood in the
middle of the Greenville (CT) Drug Store on Thursday and told
President Clinton of their struggles with drug bills. 'I'm loaded with
cancer in the stomach,' 72-year-old Joe Riley told the president. 'I
don't know what I'm going to do' when [my] drug coverage expires this
spring. Clinton, trying to boost support for his plan among senior
citizens, listened...'We're going to try to fix it,' he promised."
(Clinton: Plan Would Pay for Seniors' Drugs, MJ, 2/25/94)

"In a speech...to the United Auto Workers, Bill Clinton, stated 'Back
when I had a life, I had Astroturf in the back of my pickup--an El
Camino pickup. You don't want to know WHY I had that Astroturf in the
back--but I did.'...Balance this with yet another speech in which he
spoke against premarital sex...In his budgeting of his health  care
bill, he plans to finance this through taxes on cigarettes...His
surgeon general lambasted cigarette smoking as causing untold damage
to children...When confronted with the fact that [the Congressional
Budget Office's] analysis of his health care budget reveals his plan
would cost $134 billion more than proposed--he blithely stated--'No
one out here in the real world would pay any attention to that
office's report.'...None of us is endowed by our creator with two
mouths with which to speak simultaneously. However, this man comes
closer to this phenomenon than anyone I have ever known." --Martha
Hannah, Romney, WV. (Clinton Simultaneously Speaks With Two Mouths,
Hannah, letter-editor, Martinsburg Journal, 2/26/94)

"The liftoff of President Clinton's health plan suffered another
legislative delay yesterday as House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee
leaders gave up efforts to pass the bill in their subcommittee because
they lacked the votes. Committee leaders said the health plan will be
considered directly by the full committee...Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA),
who heads the subcommittee on health,...said 'it will be weeks before
we get the Congressional Budget Office analyses' of various other
proposals the members want to consider and of 'changes we would like
to see.'" (Clinton Plan Will Bypass Subcommittee, Spencer Rich and
Dana Priest, Washington Post, 3/3/94)

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, hospital
emergency rooms have become the "family doctors" for millions of
Americans. An HHS survey found that more than half (55%) of 90 million
visits to emergency rooms in 1992 were not urgent. While people over
75 had the highest rates of ER use, 67% of their visits were for
emergencies, but 60% of the visits of persons under 25 were for non-
emergencies. "Emergency rooms are not intended to deliver routine
medical care. Patients at an emergency room don't get...the regular
medical care. And the cost is three times higher than a visit to a
doctor's office." --Donna Shalala, Secretary, Health & Humans
Services. (Most Emergency Cases Aren't, Spencer Rich, WP, 3/3/94)

"President Clinton shrugged off waning public support for his health
care reform plan Wednesday as the inevitable result of millions of
dollars 'spent by interest groups to trash the plan.'...Senate
Minority Leader Bob Dole, waving copies of the latest polls, told the
Senate that Clinton's proposal was probably 'dead in its present form.
The more time this program is around, the lower it's going to sink in
the polls.'" (Clinton: Special Interest Groups Hurt Support for Health
Reform, Martinsburg Journal, 3/3/94)

"Republican senators asserted Friday that the Clinton health plan is
dead, but they fell short of closing the divide within their own ranks
over how to solve the health system's problems. 'We're halfway home,'
said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole after an overnight retreat that
drew 36 GOP senators, key House members, and three governors...Sen.
Phil Gramm of Texas, who is championing a conservative, market-based
approach,...said many Americans 'believe we have a crisis--but they
don't believe turning the problem over to the government is going to
solve it.'" (GOP Senators Insist Clinton's Health Plan Is Down for the
Count, Martinsburg Journal, 3/5/94)

"The letter from two Louisiana congressmen extended a 'special
invitation' to constituents for a conference on health care reform
that would provide an 'opportunity for public education and input.'
But the only thing public about the January meeting chaired by Reps.
W. J. 'Billy' Tauzin (D) and Bob Livingston (R) was the building that
housed it. The event was financed by industries with a large stake in
health care reform. Industry officials dominated the podium and panel.
And the $25 cover charge for a weekday conference all but assured an
audience composed of those with a special interest in the outcome."
(Health Care Forums Leave Public Aside, Michael Weisskopf, WP, 3/7/94)

"With its own hospitals, clinics, and emergency departments, Kaiser
Permanente demonstrates that managed care and managed competition work
with emergency services as well as other types of care...Nationally,
the transition to managed care will be difficult. Groups in
communities with little or no experience will have to learn how to
focus on the patient's health and well-being, not just on cost and
short-term intervention." --Patricia Salber, assistant chief.
emergency department, Kaiser Permanente Hospital, South San Francisco,
CA. (Can Emergency Care Be 'Managed' Well? Yes. Salber, WPH, 3/8/94)

"Experience raises healthy skepticism about whether managed care can
manage emergencies. When a 55-year-old man developed chest pains at 10
PM one Friday called his managed care plan, he had to wait 20 minutes
for a call back--and then was told not to call 911 but to call the
plan's private ambulance service. After waiting half an hour for the
private ambulance, he decided to drive himself. He never made it...A
32-year-old woman...suffering from lower abdominal pain...was told not
to go the emergency department but to come to the office the next
morning...She died before the appointment. The pain was a tubal
pregnancy that had ruptured." --Toni Mitchell, director, Adult
Emergency Care Center, Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, FL. (Can
Emergency Care Be 'Managed' Well? No. Mitchell, WPH, 3/8/94)

"Q. A friend in an HMO went out of town on business, fell down and
broke his leg. He went to the hospital to have it set. When he got out
he got bills for over a year, until the HMO decided to pay. His HMO
got upset that he didn't come back to Washington to have his leg set.
Another friend had an appendicitis attack, had it taken out in a
hospital on the West Coast...and then the HMO got upset that he didn't
come back to Washington to have his appendix removed. It seems that no
one is allowed 15 miles from his home and if he goes further he is
penalized. Are we going to be forced into HMOs in the Clinton plan? A.
You have raised concerns about health maintenance organizations
(HMOs)that many people share. And because the Clinton proposal, as
well as proposals by Rep. Jim Cooper [D-TN] and Sen. John Chafee [R-
RI} seek to encourage enrollment in HMOs..., these plans have met with
some opposition. Since HMOs began with the philosophy that there
should be some more oversight about how care is delivered and who
provides services, it is not surprising that there are problems of the
type you have described where patients face barriers to getting care
outside the HMO." (Health Reform and You, Marilyn Moon, WPH, 3/8/94)

"In defending the mandates of the Clinton health care reform proposal,
Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger C. Altman...fails to point out that
the reason for mandated employee participation in the plan is to force
young and healthy people to subsidize the insurance of older and less
healthy people, who are of higher risk and of higher cost to insure.
Without the mandate--which is easiest to enforce as a condition of
employment--the young and healthy have strong incentives to join pools
with each other, thereby paying lower premiums. At issue, therefore,
is whether it is fair to force one group of people to subsidize the
insurance of others?" --Tom Menzies, Washington, DC. CURE Comment:
Without endorsing the Clinton mandates, the answer to this question in
a civilized society is yes. It is no more unjust to tax the young to
help the old, the healthy to help the sick, than to tax the childless
to help children--to educate them, for example. Either we have a
civilization or a jungle. We opt for the former. (Why Hide the Taxes
That Must Pay for Health Care? Menzies, letter-editor, WP, 3/9/94)

"There's no reason for President Clinton and Mrs. Hillary to put all
of this on us. I'm concerned about my job and about the future of the
tobacco states in this country. Can you imagine all those people  in
an unemployment line. You know, I voted for Clinton, but if the
election were tomorrow, I guess I'd have to be a Republican." --Ronnie
Walker, 38, assembly-line worker, Philip Morris, Richmond, VA, one of
16,000 tobacco workers and farmers marching down Pennsylvania Avenue
protesting the president's proposed 75-cents-a-pack cigarette tax to
help finance his health care plan. (Cigarette Tax Lights Protest
Fires, Kent Jenkins, Jr., Washington Post, 3/10/94)

"The three greatest problems of health care reform are how to finance
universal coverage--everyone's for it if it can be paid for, how to
contain costs, and how to spread costs equitably so that the sick and
poor aren't stranded...Not surprisingly, those are precisely the
aspects of the administration plan that have met the greatest
resistance. Congress, not just in response to interest groups or for
political reasons but because of some serious substantive doubts as
well is resisting all three. But that means it has to come up with
alternatives of its own or abandon the goals. It's a hard task that at
this stage you can expect to produce a lot of false starts." (Congress
and Health Care, editorial, Washington Post, 3/10/94)

"House Republicans seem more interested in seeking unanimous agreement
with one another than in clearly challenging President Clinton, thanks
in no small part to a very surprising source: erstwhile GOP pit bull
Newt Gingrich. Gingrich, unopposed to be elected leader of his party
in the House next year, is seeking a health care bill...supported by
nearly every [one of the 176 House] Republican[s] and perhaps 60
Democrats. That is viewed by some of Gingrich's own Republicans and
nearly all Democrats as a preposterous scenario." (The New Newt,
Robert Novak, op-ed, Washington Post, 3/10/94)

                        Heart Stoppers

"William A. Roberts doesn't need a calendar to remind him of what
happened exactly one year ago today, when his sister was slain while
caring for a disabled boy on a respirator in Silver Spring (MD). 'The
symbolism of the innocence of a nurse taking care of a helpless child
being slain on the job is just mind-boggling to me,' said Roberts, a
psychiatric counselor...Roberts said the triple slaying his sister,
Janice Saunders; her 8-year-old charge, Trevor Horn; and his mother,
Mildred Horn haunts him daily...He is tormented by the painful memory
of his sister's only son crying at a Christmas gathering last
year...Saunders and Horn were shot on the face several times. Trevor
Horn, a quadriplegic, died of asphyxiation after his respirator was
disconnected...Police have identified Lawrence T. Horn, the boy's
father and former husband of Mildred Horn, as a suspect." (1 Year
After Triple Homicide, Nurse's Brother Still stunned, Veronica
Jennings, Washington Post, 3/3/94)

"The special prosecutor in the Whitewater case has decided to
reexamine the conclusion that White House deputy counsel Vincent
Foster committed suicide and will hire pathologists to review the
evidence. A government official familiar with the probe
said...[special counsel Robert] Fiske made the decision to reopen the
issue because "questions have been raised in the press nd elsewhere
about whether it was a suicide." (Prosecutor Says He'll Review Foster
Suicide, Martinsburg Journal, 3/3/94)

"Beachy Head, England--A hundred yards from the door of [James]
Cunningham's pub is a 500-foot sheer white chalk cliff that falls
from...Sussex Down to a rocky Atlantic beach. Since 1980, 200 people
have died on this cliff, all of them recorded as suicides or
unexplained sudden deaths...So popular is Beach Head among those who
have lost the will to live that some have come from as far as Germany
to leap from 'the Devil's chimney,' as a popular suicide perch on the
cliff face is called. Recent victims have included a talented concert
pianist and a mother who drove her car over the edge with her two
children in the back seat." (White Cliffs of Dover Become {Prime
Suicide Site, Steve Coll, Washington Post, 3/7/94)

"The father of a 13-year-old Kensington girl who died in a 1988
murder-suicide accused the Montgomery County (MD) school system
yesterday of negligence for not notifying him of his child's apparent
death pact with another girl...Police found the bodies of Nicole Eisel
and Marsha Urevich...on November 9, 1988, in a picnic area in...Rock
Creek Park. Investigators said Marsha shot Nicole in the head and then
shot herself with a .32-caliber pistol...Friends of the victims told
police that Nicole and Marsha were fascinated by the occult...[and]
school counselors that girls wanted to kill themselves and that they
referred to the devil as 'papa.'" (Bereaved Father Blames Montgomery
Schools, Veronica Jenning, Washington Post, 3/8/94)

                        HOSPITALity

"When Richard L. Scott was suffering from kidney stones, he studied
the possible treatments instead of relying entirely on the judgment of
doctors. 'It's real simple,' Scott said. 'I can just go to the library
and I can get all the information. I mean, what doctors do is not
rocket science.' With the recent merger of his Columbia Healthcare
Corporation and HCA-Hospital Corporation of America, Scott, 41, became
chief executive of the largest hospital company in the nation...
Scott's strategy is to build the biggest health care company he can.
That way he can...win large contracts with health insurers, and
overwhelm the competition--mainly the nonprofit hospitals that have
been the mainstay of medical care for many communities. 'We...have the
goal of owning 100% of the market.'" (Hospital Chain Adopts a Bigger-
Is-Better Strategy, David Hilzenrath, Washington Post, 3/7/94) CURE
Comment: CURE encourages patients and families to take a proactive
role in their health care, but to denigrate the role of a physician to
the equivalent of a library card is a cynicism that bodes ill for
patients trapped in a "market" dominated by Richard Scott and his ilk.

                        Medicine Chest

"We estimate that the proposed Medicare drug benefits would increase
the revenues of pharmaceutical manufacturers by approximately $24
billion between 1996 and the year 2000. It seems American
manufacturers, given the opportunity to compete in a market increasing
that much, will figure out how to continue to develop new products." -
-Helen Smits, deputy administrator, Health Care Finance
Administration. (Drug Benefits and What I Really Said, Smits, letter-
editor, Washington Post, 3/7/94)

                        Mental Health Memo

"I've been sick for 10 years. I've tried many doctors and many
medicines. I will just have to wait here until I am better." --
Mohammed Yer, 37-year-old father of five, chained to a tree on the
edge of a dusty graveyard in Diwan Sahib, Pakistan "waiting to be
relieved of his torment by a Moslem saint buried nearby." (Pakistani
Mental Cases Chained, Awaiting Saint, Martinsburg Journal, 2/1/94)
ABLEnews Editor's Note: For the complete story see MH402.* available
from ABLETEXT via the filebone and Planet Connect.

"Former First Ladies Betty Ford and Rosalyn Carter urged Congress to
abandon outmoded ideas as it attempts to reform the health care system
and to cover mental illness and substance abuse in the same way as
physical illnesses. 'I don't believe any health program will be
successful unless it addresses drug and alcohol dependency and mental
illness,' said Ford...Carter said that the American people are 'ahead
of Congress' in their views...She cited a poll released yesterday
saying that 62 percent of Americans support covering mental health and
substance abuse the same as physical illnesses...'If you're sick,
you're sick,' she said...If you're hurting, you're hurting. If you
need care, you should be able to get care.' (Coverage for Mental
Illness, Drug Abuse Urged, Washington Post, 3/8/94)

"One of the latest medical trends is research into the biochemical and
genetic characteristics of the brain that may explain untoward social
behavior such as violence. Yet the story of ascertaining the relation
of parts of the brain to human behavior is scarcely new. Nearly 200
years ago, the so-called science of phrenology--measuring the skull as
a means of identifying personality traits within the brain--captured
the fancy of both medical authorities and the public at large. The
scene was Vienna; the year was 1796; the protagonist Franz Joseph
Gall, a 38-year-old physician who had already devoted years to the
study of the brain, including its dissection...Gall's ideas
spread...reaching America in 1832, four years after his death...
Important Americans accepted phrenology, including Walt Whitman, Edgar
Allen Poe, Congressman Daniel Webster, and preacher Henry Ward
Breecher." --Thomas DiBacco, historian, American University. (The
Frenzy Over Phrenology, DiBacco, Washington Post Health, 3/8/94)

                        No Place Like Home

"The news stories...detailing the February 5 stabbing death of a
Fairfax County (VA) man 'of no fixed address' left unsaid that Gerry
Moore's death also highlights some problems in Fairfax County's social
service delivery system. Mr. Moore was one of the country's chronic
homeless--on the streets because of a serious alcohol-abuse problem. A
successful intervention by the community might have helped keep him
out of harm's way." --Mark Gardner, Salvation Army social worker,
Bailey's Crossroads Community Shelter. (A Preventable Death in Fairfax
County? Gardner, letter-editor, Washington Post, 3/10/94)

                        Public Health

"Like characters in a sci-fi thriller, doctors treated the autopsy as
if they were embarked on a mission into the unknown: airtight suits,
two-way radios, gas masks, oxygen tents, even a practice run.
Pathologists took extraordinary precautions Thursday as they tried to
figure out why a dying Gloria Ramirez [31] gave off ammonia-like fumes
potent enough to knock out the emergency room crew treating her.
(Doctors Ready for Anything, Martinsburg Journal, 2/25/94)

                        Research Review

"Survival almost doubled in some patients. That's just unheard of."
--Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein, John Hopkins University, on a French study of
riluzole, an experimental drug he described as "a big, big step" in
the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). (First Treatment
for Lou Gehrig's Disease Developed, Martinsburg Journal, 3/2/94)

"The National Institutes of Health took a giant step towards more
honest science and better health for all. It issued new guidelines
that will force researchers to include more women and minorities in
clinical trials and studies. Last year, the Food and Drug
Administration set up similar guidelines for pharmaceutical companies
to test new drugs...Such studies may raise costs, but...if a cost
crunch leads to fewer studies, that's just the price of doing things
right. Health care isn't for white males only; health research can't
be, either." (At Last, Women, Minorities Count in Medical Research,
editorial, USA Today, 3/11/94)

"So the diversity bug has hit our leading scientific institution, the
National Institutes of Health. That's not surprising since Congress
rules the NIH and Congress consists mainly of scientific ignoramuses
who follow every fad that promises the slightest political
advantage...Like so much congressional foolishness, this new diversity
takes a common-sense idea and pushes it to absurd extremes. Just as
typically, this unnecessary congressional order will make scientific
studies cost more, but Congress has no intention of paying the extra
costs. And if we have to spend more on each study, there will be less
scientific progress. It is, in short, a prime example of congressional
irresponsibility." (Medicine Should Come First, Harry Schwartz, op-ed,
USA Today, 3/11/94)

                        Sporting Chance

According to British eye doctors, writing in The Lancet, bungee
jumping can be dangerous...to the eyes. An 18-year-old girl jumped
from a 160-foot-high crane on an 50-foot braided bungee cord on behalf
of a charity. Six hours later the vision in both her eyes were
impaired, apparently from hemorrhaging within her eyeballs. While her
vision improved in time, 12 weeks later her right eye has not returned
to normal. "We feel," the doctors conclude, "that participants should
be aware of possible injuries before jumping." (Bungee Jumping May
Harm Leapers Eyes, Don Colburn, Washington Post Health, 3/8/94)

                        TB or Not to Be

"Across many populations and a long period of time. BCG [bacillus
Calmette-Guerin] is, on average, 50% effective in preventing
tuberculosis cases and 71% effective in preventing tuberculosis
deaths." --Timothy Brewer, clinical research fellow in medicine,
Harvard Medical School. The major disadvantage of the vaccine, which
is seldom used in the United States, is that once patients take BCG,
they almost always skin test positive for TB, thus losing one of the
best detection tools for the disease. (TB Vaccine Offers Selective
Protection, Washington Post Health, 3/8/94)

                        Under the Dome

"We've had the funeral. We just haven't put the body in the ground.
There may be a resurrection, but it doesn't look good right now." --
state Senate President Keith Burdette (D-Woods), on Gov. Gaston
Caperton (D-WV)'s bid to turn over the state's eight hospitals to
private companies or closing them. (Caperton's Plans for State
Hospitals Dead in Legislature, Martinsburg Journal, 2/18/94) CURE
Comment: This is one corpse that should have a stake driven through
its cold heart. For another critique, see Another Sell-Out? in the
upcoming March ABLEnews Review.

A bill introduced in West Virginia's House of Delegates would prohibit
the sale and rental of videos that are not captioned for the deaf and
hearing-impaired after October 1, 1995. (Bill Bans Rental of Videos
Not Captioned, Martinsburg Journal, 3/4/94)

                        Telling Headlines

Abused Kids Likelier to Have Decayed Teeth, WP Health, 3/8
Australia Seeks Ban on Genital Mutilation, Martinsburg Journal, 3/4
Budget Office Says Health Plan Would Hike Deficit, MJ, 2/9
Clinton Says He'll Bend on Some Health Items, Martinsburg Journal, 2/1
Corning Will Pay $2 Billion in Breast Implant Settlement, MJ, 2/15
Cow Hormone OK Raises Protests, Martinsburg Journal, 2/4
Diplomatic Relations Between US, Vietnam Edge Closer, MJ, 3/4
Ex-Panther Cleaver Recovering After Brain Hemorrhage, MJ, 3/4
First Lady Endures a Baptism of Fire, USA Today, 3/10
Global Attack on Substance Abuse, Washington Post Health, 3/8
Hillary on Health Campaign, Martinsburg Journal, 2/5
Hillary's Health Plan Is Not for Healing, letter-editor, MJ, 2/9
Patients Gaining Control Over Prostrate Treatment, MJ, 2/9
Perot Salutes Backers, Tells Them Battle Clinton's Health Plan, MJ 2/5
Poll Discovers Minorities Hate Whites, Each Other, MJ, 3/4
President's Pulpit Has an Ecumenical Echo, Washington Post, 3/10
The Dilemma of Menopause, Washington Post Health, 3/8
Vietnam Turning Over More Soldiers' Remains, Martinsburg Journal, 2/7
Wall Street Journal Demands Release of Foster Report, MJ, 2/1

                        Wish We'd Said That...

        Managed care jeopardizes the 911 system, with its designated
        trauma hospitals. It could be very discouraging if the
        system we took 20 years developing were dismantled in the
        name of coast containment...With managed care, will we be
        truly managing the care and not, as so often has been the
        case, just managing reimbursement--and mangling the care?
        (Toni Mitchell)

                        ...Glad We Didn't

        People will know that they are not being denied treatment
        for any reason other than it is not appropriate...will not
        enhance or save the quality of life. (Hillary Rodham
        Clinton)

                        We Did Say It...

        Quality of life used to mean making a person's life better.
        Today it means ending it. (Earl Appleby)

   Of Note is published biweekly by ABLEnews, a Fidonet-backbone echo
   featuring disability/medical news and information. ABLEnews is
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...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
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