A majority of residents in Central Maryland don t perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation in medical emergencies because of possible health risks and legal entanglements, experts say. People not only lack the basic confidence to perform CPR but are worried about doing rescue breaths on a stranger because of the fear of c
Joshua Sabatini, The Examiner, jsabatini@examiner.com
San Francisco General Hospital earned good grades from a consultant despite operating at near-maximum capacity. SAN FRANCISCO - Half of The City s hospitals are considered overcrowded and in less than 25 years will suffer a shortage of hundreds of acute-care beds, according to a report that will be discussed today by t
SAN FRANCISCO - When it comes to the capacity of San Francisco hospitals to treat an onslaught of patients in any sort of local disaster, the diagnosis is bleak. Half of The City s hospitals are rated as overcrowded, exceeding the ideal occupancy level of 80 percent to 85 percent. And in less than 25 years, there will
WASHINGTON - Members of the D.C. State Board of Education today are expected to pass new standards guiding students lessons about health and sexuality, a step that proponents argue is long overdue and has the potential to correct historical deficiencies in the critical subjects of HIV and AIDS. The health standards, wh
BALTIMORE - Next year Baltimore will pit $25 million in federal AIDS funding against a growing national tide of ignorance and complacence about HIV and AIDS. It s a deadly mix. There was an expectation that the numbers in terms of new AIDS cases would be getting better by now, and I don t think that s panned out, said
BALTIMORE - Dr. Robert Gallo, director of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland Baltimore, co-discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) two decades ago and linked it to AIDS. Today, he leads a worldwide network of research on new drugs to fight HIV and the quest to develop an effective
BALTIMORE - While the Bryn Mawr Girl s Choir sang encouraging songs on the eve of World AIDS Day, the reality in Baltimore is anything but positive. Federal funding and support is faltering and local charities are try to pick up the pieces, Baltimore activists and officials said. It s good that we get some publicity on
Mount Airy - Tears welled in the president s eyes as Rebecca Mink, a missionary to African children orphaned by AIDS, told him how some of the children suffer. When he hugged her Friday at Calvary United Methodist Church in Mount Airy, Mink said, President Bush wiped more tears from his eyes. Then she cried. He s just
OAKLAND - A bankruptcy judge today approved the sale of the North Oakland property that used to be the headquarters of Your Black Muslim Bakery to a group acting on behalf of a nonprofit organization that serves people with AIDS and other critical illnesses. Eric Nyberg, the attorney for bankruptcy trustee Tevis Thomps
WASHINGTON - D.C. continues to have alarming numbers of HIV/AIDS cases, but new cases of HIV in D.C. have declined by 41 percent since 2002, a study released on Monday found. Six years ago, there were 687 new cases. In 2006, they were 403 new cases. Each year since 2002, the number has declined. Shannon Hader, senior d
WASHINGTON - Complaints ranged from inadequate counseling and custodial staffing to a lack of attention to music and other arts education during a packed hearing Thursday night on the D.C. public school system s next operating budget. Close to 70 community members testified during the rapid-fire session that Chancellor
Sections of a handmade quilt memorializing people who have died AIDS-related deaths will be on display in locations throughout Marin County beginning Nov. 26, according to the Marin AIDS Project. The 54-ton quilt made of 47,000 panels will tour the county until World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, when a ceremony honoring local l
WASHINGTON - D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton this weekend is hosting the final of a series of town hall meetings geared toward bringing awareness to the District s disproportionately large problem with HIV and AIDS - this time targeting teenagers. Previous town hall events drew hundreds and focused on black men and
Taxpayers may have paid twice for some AIDS prescriptions because the Maryland AIDS Administration has not adequately screened drug coverage claims, according to a state audit released Monday. The administration did not verify that claims were supported by valid physician prescriptions or that they had not also been pa
WASHINGTON - Maryland has the third-highest rate of infectious disease in the nation, according to a comprehensive national health report released Monday by the United Health Foundation. The study, which evaluated several key health indicators, including state health spending, clinical-care quality, and smoking, drinki
WASHINGTON - Midday on Saturday, local residents gathered at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X avenues in Southeast D.C. as a part of a march for HIV/AIDS awareness organized by the Metropolitan Public Health Association and the local advocacy group DC Fights Back. Bearing posters with red ribbon
BALTIMORE - Gov. Martin O Malley s plan threatening to slash hundreds of millions in health care funds if the legislature fails to pass his tax-increase package caught the ire of health care professionals imagining the worst and Republicans denouncing the strategy as fear tactics. I don t think this doomsday budget wil
WASHINGTON - Dr. Anthony Fauci directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda. The institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, researches infectious, immunologic and allergic diseases. Fauci, who has directed the institute since 1984, is a 1966 graduate of Cornell University Med
WASHINGTON - Mayor Adrian Fenty on Friday fired the director of the D.C. Department of Health in an effort to turn the $1.8 billion agency toward what he called a more aggressive public health strategy. Dr. Gregg Pane, health director since mid-2004, was replaced on an interim basis by Dr. Carlos Cano, who had served a
SAN FRANCISCO - Valerie Schwartz started shooting heroin just before her 14th birthday. Nobody twisted my arm, she said, holding an unlit, unfiltered cigarette outside the Women s Building in the Mission district Thursday. I was curious. Now 54, Schwartz has been clean for five months. It s not the first time - she has
WASHINGTON - The health of Maryland women is failing as more become uninsured, obesity increases and the wage gap widens, according to a checkup this week of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Maryland slipped into 25th place nationwide from 15th in 2004, in the report card from the National Women s Law Center
WASHINGTON - Thousands will flood to Freedom Plaza on Saturday for D.C. s 21st annual AIDS Walk. The event is run by the District s Whitman-Walker Clinic, and proceeds go back to the clinic. Chip Lewis has been the media relations manager at Whitman-Walker for the past eight years. What can we expect for this year s wa
SAN FRANCISCO - Perhaps the past is coming back to roost in the Haight as community residents are banding together to oppose a needle exchange program from moving a block and a half off the famous street and into a more residential area. The Homeless Youth Alliance wants to move from its cramped location at the interse
WASHINGTON - It s past time to take immediate and decisive action to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS among Latinos, said Hispanic leaders announcing a state of emergency this week on Capitol Hill. Most Hispanics with HIV are diagnosed long after they contract the disease, making treatment more difficult and increasin
BALTIMORE - The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene AIDS Administration received $2.7 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention boost HIV testing in the state, particularly among black communities. These funds will enable the Maryland AIDS Administration to nearly triple the number of free HIV tes
BALTIMORE - A new therapy for tuberculosis can cut treatment from six months to four. Tuberculosis experts at Johns Hopkins and in Brazil found evidence that substituting the antibiotic moxifloxacin for one of the drugs used to treat the highly contagious lung disease could dramatically improve treatment. This is
SAN FRANCISCO - Macy s Passport, one of San Francisco s most popular fashion-charity events, has - not surprisingly - reached a milestone. It s always the crown jewel, says Passport producer Larry Hashbarger. From day one, it was very successful. I didn t know I d be around for 25 years able to produce the 25th silver
BALTIMORE - Jarwei Fang, a new Johns Hopkins University student, learned that half of all new HIV-AIDS patients in Maryland come from Baltimore, his home for the next four years. Another Hopkins student, Marci Naranjo, heard that 4,000 people sleep on the streets every night. Engineering major Rishi Trivedi discovered
WASHINGTON - Small business may have a better chance of winning federal research and development dollars if newly proposed legislation makes it through Congress. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., introduced S.1932 this month to double the amount of funding for the Small Business Innovation Research program over the next five yea
WASHINGTON - The District s new HIV/AIDS czar said Thursday the nation s capital has a severe problem facing it, but by setting high expectations and thinking big there s no reason the city should not be successful tackling its highest-in-the-nation AIDS rate. Dr. Shannon Hader, a public health doctor with years of exp
BALTIMORE - Johns Hopkins University last week released information about an accidental infection of an employee with tuberculosis and a study revealing how little doctors know about this once vanquished infection. Dr. Michael Greger, a Rockville-based infectious disease expert and author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Ow
SAN FRANCISCO - Tony nominee Raul Esparza, Baywatch siren Susan Anton and American Idol finalist Kimberly Locke are just three among a lengthy list of performers appearing Sunday in the 13th edition of Help is on the Way, Northern California s largest annual AIDS fundraising concert. The event, named for a cabaret stan
BALTIMORE - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $15 million to Baltimore researchers to help move them closer to a vaccine that prevents AIDS. But Dr. Robert Gallo, who heads the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and who co-discovered the HIV virus that causes AI
WASHINGTON - For all their good qualities, Metro stations are not typically associated with poetic thoughts. But riders emerging from the Dupont Circle station may find themselves considering the work of Walt Whitman since Metro unveiled new artwork honoring caregivers of HIV and AIDS victims at the station earlier thi
SAN FRANCISCO - A group of sex workers will rally in front of the San Francisco Federal Building at noon today to protest the Bush Administration s controversial anti-prostitution loyalty oath, which they say requires non-governmental aid organizations to explicitly oppose prostitution as a condition of receiving U.S.
SAN FRANCISCO - 27,500 San Franciscans continue to live with HIV/AIDS, according to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. 83,000 Californians have died from the disease since the early 1980s. On Sunday, a throng of 25,000 looks to find a cure and change the course of the epidemic with AIDS Walk S.F., one of the largest wa
BALTIMORE - Viruses and bacteria once thought vanquished are giving doctors and researchers fits as new drug-resistant and multi drug-resistant strains crop up. Flu, staphylococcus aureus, tuberculosis and gonorrhea, to name a few, have rendered some of medical science s best antibiotics and anti-virals impotent, accor
SAN FRANCISCO - The City will not replace the director of its AIDS office when he retires at the end of this month and has already begun folding the office s functions into the larger Public Health Department - signaling a change in how The City is dealing with the disease since the onset of the epidemic in the 1980s.
SAN FRANCISCO - Of the many scenes on a huge altarpiece recently installed in Grace Cathedral, what stays with you is the harrowing embroidered image of an AIDS victim going from a hospital bed to a coffin in the over-filled cemetery. These pictures are relatively small compared with the rest of the Keiskamma Altarpiec
WASHINGTON - Take a hit of this political tale I m about to spin out. After reading it, your head will be spinning so fast you might think you have taken a hit of marijuana. Am I hallucinating, or has former Congressman Robert Bob Barr become the official lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, with the goal of lega
SAN FRANCISCO - It takes only a few minutes of talking with Vusi Mahlasela to understand where the special beauty of his voice originates. The South African freedom fighter s conviction is so deep, his commitment to human dignity so complete and unshakeable, that his music and lyrics cannot help but reflect the purity
SAN FRANCISCO - Songs have been written about it and people have lost their rational minds over it. Now, one San Francisco couple is cycling around the world to promote love. In what could be a post-modern resurgence of a Haight-Ashbury-esque love fest - with a twist of sports-minded brilliance - Bertrand and Risa Boud
WASHINGTON - Taking a new approach to quell the city s staggering HIV infection and AIDS rates, D.C. Health Department Director Gregg Pane announced Friday a plan to join forces with more than a dozen grassroots neighborhood groups. Under the new plan, which expands the health department s HIV/AIDS services, the agency
SAN FRANCISCO - After losing his best friend to AIDS in 1986, AIDS Memorial Quilt founder and longtime San Francisco resident Cleve Jones was desperate to put a face on the pandemic. I was standing at Castro and Market one day and I realized - thousands died of AIDS, and they all really lived within six blocks of where
WASHINGTON - The Rev. Jesse Jackson took an HIV test Wednesday at the D.C. Jail, as he urged inmates to do the same, and called for such tests to be mandatory in other prisons and jails. Today I m going to take the HIV test, he told the inmates. I want you to take it. Jackson said We must kill this disease before it ki
BALTIMORE - Knowledge prevents AIDS. With that in mind, local clergy, public leaders and AIDS researchers are teaming up to spread knowledge about the disease and the virus that causes it. [We are] testing, encouraging people to be tested in the community and spreading a message of hope that you can live with HIV, sai
BALTIMORE - The Institute of Human Virology will commemorate the seventh Annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day with an open house in the institute s Jacques Initiative - encouraging HIV positive individuals to follow their treatments and fight the disease. Several area clergy and elected officials will be public
BALTIMORE - Today Dr. Peter Beilenson comes in from the cold. The longtime high-profile Baltimore health commissioner ran for a seat in the U.S. Congress last summer, but didn t get it. Then political insiders assumed he d be named state health commissioner when Martin O Malley became governor. But it didn t happen. Th
BALTIMORE - Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, and that s exactly how this quasi-public agency came to be. The main reason we were established was because legislation was enacted in 1997 that required people receiving Medicaid benefits in the state of Maryland to enroll in a managed health care organizati
WASHINGTON - The District s health director has launched an aggressive drive to improve the government s response to HIV/AIDS, instructing his staff to develop disease response and prevention plans, distribute condoms and organize its HIV data - all within a three-month period. Dr. Gregg Pane, who took charge of the he
BALTIMORE - A Johns Hopkins study suggests HIV dementia rates challenge Alzheimer s and stroke dementia worldwide, but effects can be reversible. HIV-affected white blood cells can migrate from the blood stream into the brain and cause swelling and neural damage, said Ned Sacktor, M.D., a Johns Hopkins neurologist and
WASHINGTON - Critical functions will be consolidated and staff reallocated within the District s Department of Health in a renewed effort to improve accountability and performance in the $1.8 billion-a-year agency. The impending restructuring of the department, announced last week by Health Director Gregg Pane, will re
BALTIMORE - A revolutionary bedside HIV testing program offered at Johns Hopkins Hospital has gotten positive reviews from the community and increased the number of Baltimore residents screened, researchers said. Johns Hopkins is the only hospital in the country to make testing available in the emergency room, said Ric
BALTIMORE - After haggling with the administrations of two institutions for 10 years, the Institute of Human Virology aligned itself with the University of Maryland School of Medicine this week. One of the big problems the institute has faced is we were straddling between two universities, institute director Dr. Robert
WASHINGTON - Whitman-Walker Clinic, the region s primary nonprofit health care provider for those suffering from AIDS and HIV, has decided to cut ties with the company that organized its annual AIDS Marathon fundraiser after nine years. Walk-The-Talk Productions, a District-based for-profit company, stages fundraising
BALTIMORE - Like its namesake whose legendary devotion to the poor is celebrated across cultures and creeds, the Franciscan Center in Baltimore strives to serve area sick and indigent in all aspects of their circumstance - including their need to become self-sufficient. One of the things that we re real interested in i
SAN FRANCISCO - When Gabriel Rocha fell ill to an infection brought on by HIV, his days at San Francisco General Hospital, away from his family in Mexico , left him feeling isolated and depressed. The only thing that kept Rocha going, he says, were the regular phone calls from a friend participating in the AIDS Lifecyc
WASHINGTON - District Director of Health Gregg Pane will run the agency s HIV and AIDS programs on an interim basis following the resignation of program administrator Marsha Martin earlier this week, spokeswoman Leila Abrar said. Martin, who had been lauded as someone who could put the District s AIDS and HIV programs
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.