From Crain’s Chicago Business | Four Chicago-area hospitals were included in a Thomson Reuters study of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. The hospitals included were Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Edward Hospital in Naperville and Silver Cross Hospital in southwest suburban Joliet.
Inside these posts: Health
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Update: Illinois has enough anti-radiation drugs
If a nuclear reactor were to melt down in Illinois, the state has enough potassium iodide on hand to distribute to residents living within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency said Friday.
A top official with the agency had said earlier at a public forum hosted by U.S. Senators Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin that there weren’t enough tablets on hand.
An IEMA spokeswoman clarified Friday, saying that the agency has 90,000 tablets on hand for first responders and 175,000 tablets on-hand to distribute to the public. She said about 180,000 people total live within 10 miles of a nuclear reactor in Illinois. Joseph Klinger, the assistant director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency misspoke when he said 180,000 people on average live within 10 miles of each nuclear plant in Illinois. Get the full story »
Legionnaires’ bacteria found at Playboy Mansion
Los Angeles County public health officials have identified Legionella bacteria, which causes Legionnaires’ disease, at a water source at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in its investigation of the source of illness that sickened people after a fundraiser earlier this month.
Jimmy John’s pulls sprouts after salmonella probe
Jimmy John’s has asked its franchises to pull alfalfa sprouts believed to be tied to outbreaks of salmonella in Illinois and Wisconsin.
The sandwich chain says it is pulling them as a “good faith and good will gesture.”
Illinois health officials have confirmed that 43 Illinois residents and one Wisconsin resident have salmonella. Get the full story »
Illinois No. 2 in Thanksgiving-cooking claims
(State Farm photo)
Setting your house on fire is sure way for your Thanksgiving Day to end up a turkey. But it happens every year.
Bloomington-based State Farm alone says that during the past five years it has received more than 160 damage claims related to Thanksgiving cooking accidents. Of the 10 states with the most claims, Texas ranks first, with 33 claims in that time period, while Illinois and Ohio round out the top 3, with 22 and 18, respectively. Get the full story »
San Francisco bans most Happy Meals
San Francisco’s board of supervisors has voted, by a veto-proof margin, to ban most of McDonald’s Happy Meals as they are now served in the restaurants.
The measure will make San Francisco the first major city in the country to forbid restaurants from offering a free toy with meals that contain more than set levels of calories, sugar and fat. Get the full story »
Qiagen, Abbott sign contract over HIV, HPV tests
Qiagen NV said Tuesday it will receive kits for a molecular test for HIV-1 in a deal with Abbott Laboratories. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Abbott identifies recalled baby formula lots
Abbott Laboratories posted a list of lot numbers on Thursday for the millions of recalled containers of its Similac powdered infant formulas and expanded Internet and call center capacity to handle a deluge of requests for information from concerned parents.
The company announced a voluntary recall on Wednesday of about 5 million units of its top-selling powdered infant formula after beetles were found in the products and in a Michigan plant where they are made.
The Abbott Web site was so busy after the recall that it crashed Wednesday night, hampering efforts by parents to find out if they had been feeding their babies tainted formula. Get the full story »
Pepperidge Farm to cut sodium in breads
Pepperidge Farm Inc. says it will cut the sodium levels in the majority its breads, rolls and bagels by 2011, making it the latest of many food makers to respond to demands for healthier products. A number of food makers have announced recently that they are lowering sodium in their products based on consumer demand and increasing scrutiny by health groups, including Kraft Foods, Bumble Bee Foods, General Mills Inc., and PepsiCo Inc.
FDA may pull Abbott’s diet pill Meridia
Almost a year after studies showed the diet pill Meridia increases heart attack and stroke risk, U.S. health regulators announced they will consider pulling the Abbott Laboratories’ drug off the market.
Meridia has been sold since 1997, but data released in November showed patients with heart disease taking the drug had a more than 11 percent risk of cardiovascular risks compared with 10 percent of those taking a placebo. European regulators pulled the product off the market in January.
Aetna, Centene to put 40,000 in Medicaid HMO
The state of Illinois has awarded HMO operators Aetna Inc. and Centene Corp. contracts to provide medical care services to 40,000 seniors and adults with disabilities in suburban Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Lake and Will counties beginning next year. Get the full story »
Sep. 1, 2010 at 5:46 p.m.
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Filed under: Consumer news, Health care, Pharmaceuticals, Policy Abbott’s diet drug raises risk of heart attack, stroke
The prescription diet drug sibutramine, sold under the brand name Meridia, should be taken off the market because it raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes in some patients, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine said Wednesday.
Those risks, published in January on a government clinical-trials website and now in full in the journal, outweigh the modest benefits of the medication, said Dr. Gregory D. Curfman, the journal’s executive editor and lead author of an editorial that accompanied the study. Get the full story »
Construction strike skews Illinois jobless numbers
Illinois lost 20,200 jobs in July, but the numbers look worse than they are because of last month’s construction strike that shut down projects across the state.
The 19-day work stoppage ended around July 20 but not before the Illinois Department of Employment Security took its survey of the labor force. Get the full story »
McDonald’s CEO stands up for Happy Meals
Dylan Maki, 4, of Evanston, plays with his Happy Meal toy outside of the McDonald's at Navy Pier on July 7, 2010. (William DeShazer/Chicago Tribune)
McDonald’s defended its Happy Meals on Wednesday against claims by a consumer advocacy group, with McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner saying that “Happy Meals are a fun treat, with right-sized, quality food choices.”
Skinner’s letter addressing this issue comes a week after the Center for Science in the Public Interest sent a letter to McDonald’s threatening to sue if the company didn’t stop using toys to market Happy Meals to young children.
“By advertising that Happy Meals include toys, McDonald’s unfairly and deceptively markets directly to children,” the letter stated. Get the full story »
Kellogg recalls some cereals for odor, off flavor
Kellogg says it is voluntarily recalling some of its cereals in the U.S. due to an unusual flavor and a smell coming from package liners that the company says could cause nausea and diarrhea.
The company said Friday that it is recalling select packages of Corn Pops, Honey Smacks, Froot Loops and Apple Jacks. Get the full story »
