Current Events

Ford Motor Co. (F) is recalling 484,600 Escape and Maverick sport-utility vehicles because a cruise control defect may cause the throttle to stick, leading to unintended acceleration.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it was investigating the safety defect July 17, based on 99 complaints, including 13 involving crashes, one of which killed a 17-year-old Arizona girl.

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Exeter Hospital says about 3,400 former patients are being asked to get tested for hepatitis C following a recent outbreak, which is far fewer than state officials had indicated.

The state's public health director said Tuesday testing was being recommended for roughly 6,000 people who underwent surgery at the hospital or were admitted to its intensive care unit between April 1, 2011 and May, 25, 2012, when a man suspected of causing the outbreak in the cardiac catheterization lab was employed. But Exeter Hospital said the number is closer to 4,800, and once duplicates and patients who've already been tested are removed, the total is about 3,400.

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North suburban medical products supplier Medline Industries Inc. is facing 18 claims from patients stemming from a counterfeit batch of surgical mesh, a sign of the safety challenges faced by the health care industry.

Medline, with annual revenue of $4.7 billion, bought the mesh, typically used in surgeries like hernia repairs, in 2008-09 from Ram Medical Inc., which said it had been made by Murray Hill, N.J.-based C.R. Bard Inc., a well-known surgical device manufacturer, court records show.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of 223,000 popular strollers following the death of an infant eight years ago and the near strangulation of another in 2006.

The heads of the two infants became entangled between the tray and seat. But officials didn't link the cases to a specific brand and model of stroller until recently.

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A salmonella outbreak that has sickened 33 people in seven states appears to be linked to recalled ground beef produced by Cargill Meat Solutions, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The numbers of illnesses reported in each state are: Maine (1), Massachusetts (3), New Hampshire (2), New York (14), Rhode Island (1), Virginia (2) and Vermont (10). Eleven people have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.

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The multiple sclerosis drug dalfampridine (Ampyra) can cause seizures in patients who are starting the medicine at normal doses, the FDA warned Monday.

Postmarketing adverse event reporting indicated that most seizures happened in patients with no history of seizures and occurred within days or weeks of starting the drug at its recommended dosage.

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The bulldozer was clearing land outside a day care center in Hapeville, Ga., when it broke open a buried 1-inch pipeline. The escaping gas ignited into a fireball that killed nine people, including seven children settling down for their afternoon naps.

That was 1968. Since then, there have been at least 270 similar accidents across the country that could have been prevented or made less dangerous by a valve that cuts off leaking gas and costs as little as $10-$15 for homes and small businesses and $200-$300 for larger buildings, an Associated Press investigation found.

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Safety at chemical plants and refineries has not improved despite scores of fatalities over the last decade, and it won't until companies develop better systems for identifying red flags that point to potential disaster, panelists said at a Monday hearing in Houston.

The first day of a two-day hearing by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board focused on safety shortcomings that contributed to deadly incidents such as the 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery that killed 15 workers and injured scores. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill will be the main topic as the hearing continues today.
 

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A medical technician accused of infecting at least 30 patients at a New Hampshire hospital with hepatitis C also worked in the past five years at hospitals in New York, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, and Maryland, health officials in those states said Friday.

A day after federal prosecutors in Concord, N.H., charged David ­Matthew Kwiatkowski, state and federal investigators worked to ­determine whether the 32-year-old former Exeter Hospital employee, referred to by US Attorney John ­Kacavas as a “serial infector,” may have exposed other patients around the country to the virus, which can cause serious liver damage.

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What was once a no-man’s-land is about to become a pharmaceutical battleground.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a second new weight-loss drug on Tuesday, expanding the range of medical options for the one-third of American adults who are obese.

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Providers may be underreporting to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) as more physicians become hospital employees, Medscape reported.

Malpractice payments hit a record low in 2011, according to a report from consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. The number of malpractice payments on behalf of doctors (9,758 payments) was the lowest since 1991, the first full year of data after the NPDB started collecting information. The average size of medical malpractice payments (about $327,000) amounted to $3.2 billion, adjusted for inflation.

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