Health Highlights: Dec. 9, 2008
Dec. 10 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Cutbacks Affecting U.S. Health Preparedness:Report
Previous progress made in preparing to deal with disease outbreaks, natural disasters and bioterrorism in the United States is being threatened by the economic crisis and budget cuts, a new report contends.
The sixth annual "Ready or Not?" report, released Tuesday by Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, also found that major gaps remain in many critical areas of emergency preparedness, including food safety and rapid disease detection, MarketWatch reported.
Ten key indicators were used to score states on their health preparedness. More than half of the states and the District of Columbia achieved no more than seven out of the 10 indicators. Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin scored 10 out of 10, while Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Montana and Nebraska tied for lowest, 5 out of 10.
The United States' food safety system hasn't been fundamentally modernized in more than 100 years, the report said. Twenty states and D.C. didn't meet or exceed the national average rate for being able to identify pathogens responsible for food-borne disease outbreaks in their states, MarketWatch reported.
Twenty-four states and D.C. don't have the capacity to deliver and receive lab specimens, such as suspected bioterror agents or new disease outbreak samples, on a 24/7 basis, the report added.
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Recession Putting Burden on Emergency Departments
An increasing number of unemployed and uninsured Americans are seeking treatment in hospital emergency departments, causing overcrowding that could make it difficult for the centers to handle such medical emergencies as heart attacks and trauma injuries, according to an American College of Emergency Physicians report released Tuesday.
Even before the recession, overcrowding in many U.S. emergency departments meant long patient waits and the frequent need to redirect ambulances to other hospitals, The New York Times reported.
