Source: Sharp Grossmont Hospital 

December 3, 2018 (La Mesa) - The Senior Resource Center at Sharp Grossmont Hospital offers free or low-cost educational programs and health screenings each month. The Senior Resource Center also provides information and assistance for health information and community resources. For more information, call 619-740-4214. For other programs, call 1-800-827-4277 or visit their website at www.sharp.com. 

Source: Pala Band of Mission Indians

December 3, 2018 (Pala) -- The Pala Band of Mission Indians has filed suit in federal court against an array of pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors seeking to hold the companies accountable for the devastating effects prescription opioids have had on the tribe.

East County News Service 

November 28, 2018 (La Mesa) – Two longtime Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD) board members retained their seats in the recent November 2018 general election on the five-member board that represents more than 500,000 people residing in the district’s 750 square miles in East County.

November 26, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Alvarado Hospital opens new 30-bed geriatric psych unit (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• An insurance company wants you to hand over your Fitbit data so it can make more money. Should you?(Jewish World Review) 
• How can you tell whether your doctor is any good? (Jewish World Review) 
•  Veganism, vegetarianism, bone mineral density, and fracture risk (Oxford Univ. Press)
•  Sleep apnea patients learn insurers are using CPAP devices to surveil them (NPR)  

SCIENCE AND TECH

• Chinese Scientist Says He's First To Create Genetically Modified Babies Using CRISPR (NPR)
•  A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks citizen behavior (Reuters) 
• Bacteria That Absorbs CO2 Has Been Discovered at the Bottom of Pacific Ocean (Newsweek)
• Unexpectedly Vanishing Quasars Are Mystifying Scientists (Wired)
•  Radioactive Rocks Under Antarctica Make an Area of Ice the Size of Rhode Island Disappear (Newsweek)  

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

Update November 27, 2018:  The CDC has narrowed the warning to only Romaine lettuce grown in central and northern Califormia.  Read more.

East County News Service

November 20, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – Consumers in the U.S. should not eat any romaine lettuce; restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any forms of romaine lettuce including whole heads, chopped, hearts of romaine, or mixed salads containing romaine lettuceincluding spring mix and Caesar salads.

That’s the warning issued today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to a nationwide outbreak of a virulent form of E.coli linked to romaine that has sickened 32 people in 11 states, including 10 cases in California.Nearly a third of those cases (13) required hospitalization.  An additional 18 cases have occurred in Canada.

By Miriam Raftery

November 18, 2018 (Lemon Grove) – Lemon Grove’s City Council will consider a tobacco retail licensing ordinance aimed at keeping tobacco products away from children. Following months of planning and community input, the ordinance will have its first reading at Tuesday’s 6 p.m. council meeting at the Lemon Grove Community Center, 3146 School Lane, Lemon Grove.

October 31, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Malaria: Sniffer dogs to help in effort to eradicate the disease (BBC)
• Air pollution may lead to dementia in older women (USC)
• When Adolescents Give Up Pot, Their Cognition Quickly Improves (NPR)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• ‘Right-to-repair’ advocates claim major victory in new smartphone copyright exemption (Washington Post)
• More than a dozen cities are challenging the FCC over how to deploy 5G cell sites
• Trump is rolling back two Obama-era memos on wireless technology and replacing them with his own ‘national spectrum strategy’
• Amazon met with ICE officials over facial-recognition system that could identify immigrants
• Ready to Get Off Facebook? Reason Reviews 5 Alternative Social Networks (Reason)
• 60% of world's wildlife has been wiped out since 1970 (CBC)
• Coastal Pacific Oxygen Levels Now Plummet Once A Year (NPR)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

October 30, 2018 (San Diego) - Halloween is here, but it’s still warm outside — and that means it’s a good idea to add some insect repellent under your costume, because Dracula won’t be the only bloodsucker wandering neighborhoods with trick or treaters.

October 17, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

• Why do California babies have syphilis in numbers rivaling those of poor nations? (Cal Matters)
• Spike in paralyzing, polio-like illness confirmed in 22 states, CDC says (Washington Post)
• If Your Medical Information Becomes A Moneymaker, Could You Get A Cut? (NPR)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Facebook purged over 800 U.S. accounts and pages for pushing political spam (Washington Post)
• Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire investor, dies at 65 (Washington Post)
• ‘Hyperalarming’ study shows massive insect loss (Washington Post)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

East County News Service

October 10, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – Walmart is recalling over a quarter of million axes sold nationwide after two reports of axe heads coming off the handles, causing minor injuries, the U.S. Product Safety Commission reports. The axes, made by Ozark Trail, were sold between January 2017 and July 2018 .

East County News Service

October 10, 2018 (La Mesa) – The Grossmont Healthcare District’s Dr. William C. Herrick Community Health Care Library, 9001 Wakarusa St. in La Mesa, will host “Fall into Healthy Habits for the Holiday Season and Beyond,” an informational program about how to navigate the holiday season for ultimate health and safety, from 10 to 11 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 24. The program is part of the library’s “Wellness Wednesday” series, normally held on the fourth Wednesday of the month. Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served. Advance RSVP is not necessary. Handouts will be available.

By David Gorn, CALmatters

CALmatters is an independent public interest journalism venture covering California state politics and government.

Photo:  More dust storms are contributing to an increase in Valley fever across California. Image by Famartin via Wikimedia

October 9, 2018 (San Diego) - Rob Purdie is an upbeat guy. You can hear it in his unfailingly positive statements, his voice tinged with a Central Valley twang from a life spent in Bakersfield.

You wouldn’t guess this is a man with a reservoir surgically built into the top of his skull, and that he spends one full day a month with antifungal drugs pumping directly into his brain.

By Tom Christensen, County of San Diego Communications Office

Photo:  Neisseria Meningitidis via Photomic

September 29, 2018 (San Diego) - For the second time this semester, a San Diego State University undergraduate student has been hospitalized with serogroup B meningococcal disease, prompting the San Diego County public health officer to determine an outbreak on campus, the County Health and Human Services Agency announced today.

September 26, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Beware the baby walker: popular toy can lead to serious injury (Healthlife)
• WHO extremely concerned about Ebola 'perfect storm' in Congo (Reuters)
• Soda can no longer be the default drink on kids’ menus in California (Mic.com)
• News from The UN's High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (WHO)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Twitter releases new policy on ‘dehumanizing speech’ (Wired)
• Hawaii’s ‘Rapid Ohia Death’ Disease Is Killing the Forest Canopy, and There's No End in Sight (Newsweek)
• Instagram co-founders resign in latest Facebook shake-up (Washington Post)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.