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While Catholic clergy were perhaps the most vocal religious voices during the controversy over Terri Schiavos life and death, all major religions emphasize the preservation of life. Where standpoints vary, even within religions, is on the question of how long to prolong life.
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As a 26-year-old woman, Terri Schiavo likely never imagined she would abruptly fall into a vegetative state that would put decisions about her health care into the courts and the public eye for a decade. But simply assuming that an advance directive or living will would have prevented the family battles that raged over the decision to withdraw the artificial nutrition keeping her alive might be misguided, experts say.
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A report by the World Health Organization in Geneva presented these dire findings about avian influenza and the potential for a pandemic.
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It was 9 p.m. when housekeepers at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, WA, received a call about a spill of formalin, a fixative that is 10% formaldehyde. They wondered if there was some special precaution they should take, but when they called their manager, he told them just to clean it up.
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Gaps in the system are costing you money: the injury that isnt reported right away; the employee who doesnt keep a doctors appointment; and the supervisor who doesnt make an effort to find a position for an employee with temporary restrictions.
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If you want to raise the influenza vaccination rates of health care workers, make the vaccines free and convenient. Education helps, but a promotional campaign wont be enough.
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As avian influenza cases continue to emerge in Vietnam, the call for pandemic preparedness is gaining urgency. Between mid-December and mid-March, there have been 24 human infections of influenza A (H5N1) in Vietnam 13 of them fatal. Public health experts caution the virus could mutate and become transmissible among people the key to a pandemic.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued recommendations for infection control in health care facilities to prevent possible spread of avian influenza.
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In 2003, an urgent concern about bioterrorism drove the health care community to mobilize and deliver smallpox vaccine to health care workers across the country. The Department of Health and Human Services called for vaccination of 500,000 health care workers nationwide. Yet vaccination efforts waned as reports arose about adverse cardiac events. Within six months, the program was all but over. About 40,000 health care workers had been vaccinated.
