Did You Know?

New York — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.

Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason why the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough, also known as pertussis, in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.

“It’s quite intriguing. It’s the first time we’ve seen this here,” said Dr. Tom Clark of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A nationwide shortage of a common anti-tuberculosis drug has public health officials in the central San Joaquin Valley limiting treatment.

Only people with active TB are assured of getting the drug by health departments in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties. Madera County has an ample supply.

Valley health officials said it could be April before supplies of the drug isoniazid return to normal. The federal Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday the shortage is being resolved.

New Year’s resolutions to reduce body weight and increase exercise could be achieved in increments of activity lasting less than 10 minutes, a study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise suggests. Current U.S. guidelines recommend Americans get 150 minutes of physical activity a week, with the activity accumulated in bouts of at least 10 minutes.

A 61-year-old Tustin woman has become the first Orange County resident to die of West Nile virus since 2008, the county Health Care Agency announced Monday.

Her death comes as the West Nile season appears to have ended for the year, with no new cases reported since early November, public health officials said.

“We know that, as the weather cools down, there are fewer mosquitoes, and the mosquitoes are less likely to carry the virus,” said Dr. Matt Zahn, medical director for epidemiology for the county.

Two Bay Area regions are among four in California with substantially higher than average rates of invasive breast cancer, researchers revealed Monday [November 26, 2012].

Breast cancer rates in the four regions were 10 to 20 percent higher than the state average from 2000 to 2008, according to a study that pinpoints the location of cancer cases with a new level of precision. What caused the higher rates remains a mystery.

The birthrate in California has dropped to what many believe is the lowest level ever. In 2010, the most recent data available from the California Department of Public Health, the state saw 63 births for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44.

California’s 1995 birthrate was 75.5 babies per 1,000 women, and the rate has declined most years since then. A sharper decline in the birthrate since 2008, many experts say, is a result of the recession.

In San Francisco, the number is considerably below state average, but other Bay Area counties are higher. Hans Johnson, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco, attributes San Francisco’s low birthrate to the fact that many people move out of the city and into the suburbs when they want to start families. Additionally, one-third of the county’s population is Asian, and Asians have the lowest birthrate among the state’s ethnic groups. In contrast, Latinos have the highest birthrate, but only 15 percent of San Francisco is Latino.

Here are the numbers:
4th

San Francisco County has the fourth lowest birthrate in the state, behind the Northern California counties of Sierra, Trinity and Calaveras.
47.6

The average number of babies born in San Francisco per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 in 2010.

The US Census Bureau is testing a new way to measure poverty – and the new measurement indicates that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation.

Almost a quarter of Californians now live in poverty, according to the new Supplemental Poverty Measure, released Wednesday [November 14, 2012].

An impostor who steals your medical information and uses your identity to get healthcare could pose more than one type of problem. Here are some precautions and strategies.

An identity thief who gains access to your credit card or bank account could harm you financially, but one who steals your medical information could also endanger your health.Here are key things to know about medical identity theft:

• When an impostor uses your identity to get hospital care, order prescription drugs or submit fraudulent insurance claims, false information may end up in your medical record. This could be “a different blood type, an inaccurate history of drug or alcohol abuse, test results that aren’t yours, or a diagnosis of an illness, allergy or condition you don’t have,” the Federal Trade Commission warned.
• Be wary of callers asking for medical information. “Medical identity thieves may pose as employees of insurance companies, doctors’

There is an ongoing debate about stretching as part of athletic activity and common misconceptions about the role of stretching in rehabilitation of injuries. However, most experts now agree that some form of stretching following athletic activity is probably beneficial.

When we suffer an injury or episode of pain, a reflex causes increased tension in certain muscles which become shortened and often painful. This is referred to as muscle guarding. If we stretch a guarded muscle, which is already more sensitive to stretch due to the reflex, it often fights us and becomes even more tight and painful.