fufor's unregelmässige news

Vomiting virus closes hospital wards
riday January 4 2008
by David Batty

Dozens of hospital wards across the UK have been forced to close due to outbreaks of a winter vomiting virus.

The ward closures come amid the worst outbreak of the bug, which causes vomiting and diarrhoea, in five years.

More than two million people across the UK have contracted the norovirus this winter with around 100,000 people a week catching the bug, according to doctors.

Infections are predicted to peak this month, with the Royal College of GPs predicting up to 200,000 new cases per week as children return to school and pass on the bug to their parents.

Cases among hospital staff and patients have led to wards being closed across the NHS.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said it had decided to cancel all routine elective inpatient surgery at its three hospitals until at least January 9.

The trust's chief executive, John Rostill, said the Worcestershire Royal hospital, Redditch's Alexandra hospital and Kidderminster hospital were all under "unrelenting pressure".

Rostill said the high number of diarrhoea and vomiting cases being admitted had reduced the number of beds available and the trust's capacity to carry out non-emergency operations.

Trust officials are talking to the private sector about using beds and operating theatre capacity.

Mr Rostill said: "Our intention now is to concentrate all our resources in treating patients who come in as emergencies over the next few days.

"We realise that cancelling operations causes distress and disruption and we apologise in advance to the 45 patients affected.

"However, we are sure that this decision is correct and we must do all we can to maintain a safe environment for those patients already in our care."

Bath's Royal United hospital had been forced to close seven wards since mid-November, and is asking people not to visit patients unless it is absolutely necessary.

Carol De Halle, deputy director of nursing, said: "We strongly urge visitors with symptoms to please avoid visiting the hospitals until symptoms have settled for two days.

"If a visitor has recently had diarrhoea or vomiting, we ask that they phone ahead for advice."

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said six wards had been closed at Leeds General infirmary and St James's hospital, although three had now reopened.

A trust spokesman said the wards were only closed to new admissions and in some cases only parts of the wards had been closed. Operations at the hospitals were continuing as normal, he added.

Penine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said it had closed 26 beds across 11 wards at the 600-bed Royal Oldham hospital, where around 40 patients were admitted suffering from the vomiting bug yesterday.

A trust spokesman said 13 beds had also been shut at its other hospitals, Fairfield fospital and the North Manchester General hospital.

Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust has closed three wards to new admissions because of the norovirus. A spokeswoman said two wards at Llandough hospital and one at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, had been affected with 46 patients currently infected.

Both Musgrove Park hospital in Taunton, Somerset, and Delancey hospital in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, have been forced close wards after tests this morning confirmed norovirus outbreaks.

In Bristol, two wards have been shut at Southmead hospital, as well as one at the Bristol Royal infirmary.

The Queen Elizabeth hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk, said more than 100 patients and more than 150 staff had been infected in the past two months.

Wards have also been closed in Eastbourne, Ashford in Kent, York, Exeter, Portsmouth, Southampton, Aberystwyth and Edinburgh.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust said two wards were currently closed to new admissions.

A spokesman said the wards at West Cornwall hospital in Penzance had been shut for three days but anticipated they would be reopened "soon".

Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge said three wards had been closed to new admissions because of a norovirus outbreak.

The Royal College of GPs yesterday advised anyone affected by the bug to remain at home until 48 hours after they last suffered symptoms in a bid to halt the outbreak.

There is no specific treatment for the virus apart from letting the illness run its course. Symptoms usually begin 12 to 48 hours after becoming infected and last for 12 to 60 hours. Most people make a full recovery within one or two days.

The bug can be spread by contact with an infected person, though contaminated food or water, or by contact with contaminated surfaces or objects. Outbreaks are common in hospitals, care homes, schools and nurseries, as well as on cruise ships.
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Dangerous ecstasy-meth pills flooding into U.S. from Canada
January 03, 2008
Dave Battagello, CanWest News Service

WINDSOR, Ont. -- Canadian-made ecstasy pills laced with crystal meth are being dumped into the U.S., prompting the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to issue a warning Thursday.

"Certainly we are very concerned about this combo product coming south," said a top official from the Washington office who asked not to be named. "Since this product is popular among the young, it's out there near schools and neighbourhoods. We need people to know this (combined) drug is much more dangerous."

More than 55% of the ecstasy samples seized in the U.S. last year contained methamphetamine, according to the policy office.

Drug enforcement authorities in the U.S. have been working with the RCMP to learn of the origins of the ecstasy-meth combo pills, he said. Both countries have had labs analyze recent drug seizures of the pills.

"It is a significant and large-scale problem and something we are very worried about," the U.S. official said.

John Walters, director of the drug control policy office, called the "extreme ecstasy" a disturbing development.

"Historic progress against ecstasy availability and use is in jeopardy of being rolled back by Canadian criminal organizations," he said on Thursday. "Desperate to develop their client base, they are dangerously altering a product for which demand by youth and young adults had plummeted and are exploiting vulnerabilities along our shared border.

"This is alarming for the youth of both Canada and the United States."

The drug combination of methamphetamine and ecstasy can have severe health consequences, as both have toxic effects on the brain, according to policy office. Together the drugs can interfere with the body's ability to regulate temperature, leading to hyperthermia -- which can result in liver, kidney, cardiovascular system failure and death.

The potential for a life-threatening or fatal overdose is further increased when meth-laced ecstasy is combined with alcohol.

Despite the U.S. warning, the combination of ecstasy and meth on Windsor's streets has not yet been a noticeable problem, according to a Windsor police officer in the drugs, intelligence and guns unit.

Ecstasy has not been much of a problem in Windsor as it has become much more lucrative for traffickers to instead sell in the U.S. where a single pill fetches between $30 and $50 -- up to 10 times the rate on this side of the border, he said.

"It is easier to get the precursors to make the drug in Canada," the Windsor officer said. "It is used here, but when we seize it, there are usually five or 10 pills. The most was 10,000. It gets shipped to [the U.S.] because they can get so much more for it."

China and India have been identified as being nearly the exclusive producers of the chemicals needed to make the street pills, said the U.S. drug authority.

"The chemicals are smuggled into Canada we believe primarily by Asian organized groups," he said. "You have criminal groups with ties to those countries who get the raw ingredients across the border to Canada and that has caused problems for both [Canada and U.S.] populations."

The RCMP estimates that the current combined production capacity of Canadian ecstasy laboratories exceeds two million tablets per week.

Law enforcement agencies along the U.S.-Canada border report large increases in the flow of ecstasy from Canada into the U.S.

In 2003, 568,220 dosage units of ecstasy were seized federally in the northern border states; in 2006, over 5.4 million dosage units were seized.
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