By Gig Connaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

January 19, 2017 (Jamul) - Three wild deer mice caught in routine trapping in a rural area in Jamul have tested positive this week for hantavirus — the first to test positive for the potentially deadly virus in San Diego County in 2017.

East County News Service

January 16, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• A super cheap, generic alternative to the EpiPen just hit shelves in U.S. (Science Alert)
• Obamacare Plans Don't Always Include Top Cancer Centers (NPR)
• What An Obamacare Repeal Would Mean For Rural Hospitals (NPR)
• Investigators Link Insurer Cyber Breach To Foreign Nation (KPBS)
• Obesity-Linked Diagnoses On The Rise Among Kids And Teens (NPR)
• Cancer spread cut by 75% in tests (BBC)
• Hundreds of cats quarantined in New York City bird flu outbreak  (Reuters)
• Bug resistant to all antibiotics kills woman (BBC)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• Iceberg the size of Delaware to break off from Antarctica (CNN)
• Taxi-sharing could end traffic jams, suggests MIT study (BBC)
• Norway to switch off FM radio in risky, unpopular shift to digital (Reuters)
• Why is Uber giving away traffic data? (CS Monitor)
• Devices sprout ears: What do Alexa and Siri mean for privacy? (CS Monitor)
• Netflix users targeted by email scam seeking credit card, account information (Fox 5 San Diego)
• Amazon to add more than 100,000 jobs in U.S. hiring spree Reuters)
• EPA Accuses Fiat Chrysler Of Installing Emissions-Cheating Software (NPR)

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

East County News Service

January 10, 2017 (La Mesa) –  The Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD) recently elected its board officers for the 2017 calendar year.

Michael Emerson was elected as board president, Gloria Chadwick as vice president and Virginia Hall, GHD’s newest board member, as secretary. Board member Robert “Bob” Ayres, previous board president since July 2014, was selected by Emerson to serve as board treasurer. Also serving on the five-member board is Randy Lenac, who also recently joined the board of directors for the Association of California Healthcare Districts as a GHD representative.

East County News Service

January 9, 2017 (La Mesa) – The Grossmont Healthcare District’s Dr. William C. Herrick Community Health Care Library, 9001 Wakarusa St. in La Mesa, will host a free program on “Easy Ways to Eating Right for a Healthy Body and Mind” from 10 to 11 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 25. 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.

East County News Service

December 29, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – The Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced recalls on Polaris Sportsman 570 all-terrain vehicles due to fire hazard.  In addition Joyride children’s three-wheeled scooters have been recalled because of wheels that can detach, causing injury.  Below are full details. 

East County News Service

December 27, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Mumps Cases Rise in San Diego and Across the Nation (KPBS)
• New Ebola vaccine gives 100% protection (New York Times)
• Wins and Losses in Global Health in 2016 (NPR)
• Despite Pledges to Cut Back, Farms Are Still Using Antibiotics (NPR)
• Multiple sclerosis drug 'a landmark' (BBC)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Security risk on in-flight entertainment systems, say researchers (BBC)
• Privacy Advocates Claim Interactive Doll Spies On Children (NPR)
• Evernote opens satellite office in San Diego (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Facebook says government requests for account data rise 27 percent (Reuters)
• Pulse victims lawsuit: Did social media provide 'material support' for terrorism? (CS Monitor)
• No risk seen from Fukushima 'fingerprint' on US West Coast (CS Monitor)
• Cheetahs heading toward extinction as habitat crashes (BBC)
• Scientists amazed by iron 'jet stream' in Earth's molten core (CS Monitor)
• 'Klingon' newts and 'Ziggy Stardust' snakes among 150 new Mekong species (CS Monitor)
• Rumblings of Europe's supervolcano: Will the sleeping giant awaken? (CS Monitor)
• Long before Rudolph, these gigantic birds flew around the North Pole (CS Monitor)

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

By Cate Kortzeborn, Medicare’s acting regional administrator for Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Territories.

December 22, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Not long ago, I had dinner with a group of friends from college. One of the big topics of conversation was Medicare, for which we’ll all be eligible in the next several years. (Farewell, callow youth!) And one of the biggest questions about Medicare was, “How much is it going to cost me?”

East County News Service

December 19, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• U.S. life expectancy drops for first time in 22 years (CNN)
• Caesarian births ‘affecting human evolution’ (BBC)
• Brain tests predict children's futures (BBC)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Reindeer are shrinking: warming threatens Christmas icon (Yahoo news)
• Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it may vanish under Pres. Trump (Washington Post)
• What Silicon Valley executives plan to tell Trump this week (Washington Post)
• Exclusive: SWIFT confirms new cyber thefts, hacking tactics (Reuters)

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

Source: County of San Diego Communications Office

December 12, 2016 (San Diego) -- If you’re planning on attending your work holiday party or other gatherings with family and friends, the County urges that you make sure you don’t bring an uninvited guest: the flu.

East County News Service

December 6, 2016 (La Mesa) – The volunteer citizens group overseeing the spending of millions of dollars in taxpayer-approved bonds for new and improved patient care facilities at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa has elected its chairman and vice chairman to serve through June 2017.

By Richard Collins, San Diego

December 6, 2016 (San Diego) -- U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Representative Kevin Brady, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, and Representative Tom Price, Chairman, Budget Committee, who is President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, are among Republican leaders in the U.S. House who support legislation to privatize Medicare by converting it to a "premium support" system.  I urge your newspaper to editorialize against their efforts to change Medicare to a "voucher" plan that will raise the cost of health care for seniors.

Just because the Republican Party has majorities in the House and Senate and the President-elect, it is not a mandate to destroy Medicare with a "voucher" plan to pay outright subsidies to insurance companies who make big contributions to many members of Congress.

East County News Service

December 2, 2016 (Sacramento) – The Association of California Healthcare Districts (ACHD), a statewide trade association for California’s several healthcare districts, has announced that Randy Lenac has joined the ACHD Board of Directors. Lenac has served since July 2014 as a member of the Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD) board of directors in San Diego County. GHD represents more than 500,000 people residing in the district’s 750 square miles in San Diego’s East County region. GHD is one of 79 healthcare districts in the state, providing health and wellness services in their respective communities.

East County News Service

SDSU psychologists discover brain connections in people with autism show more symmetry between hemispheres.

December 1, 2016 (San Diego) — Divvying up tasks between the left and right hemisphere of the brain is one of the hallmarks of typical brain development. The left hemisphere, for instance, is involved in analyzing specific details of a situation, while the right hemisphere is involved in integrating all the various streams of information coming into the brain.

East County News Service

November 29, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Women veterans face mental health crisis (Huffington Post)
• Want To Prevent The Flu? Skip The Supplements, Eat Your Veggies(NPR)
• Bagged salad is Salmonella risk, study finds (BBC)
• How You Can Stop Antibiotic Resistance (And Still Eat Bacon) (NPR)
• Infants' brains attuned to baby talk and nursery rhymes (BBC)
• Heavy Screen Time Rewires Young Brains, For Better And Worse (NPR)

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• Alaska Airlines tests fuel partly made from trees: Is this a sustainable solution? (CS Monitor)
• SpaceX seeks U.S. approval for internet-via-satellite network (Reuters)
• Seawater's DNA secrets to life in the deep(BBC)
• New Zealand sea floor lifted by quake becomes cliff on a beach (CS Monitor)
• In one more bleached Pacific reef, some corals are 'back from the brink’ (CS Monitor)

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

East County News Service

November 25, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) — Gels derived from aloe vera plants are prized by consumers for use on skin conditions and minor burns. But testing of store brands at Wal-Mart, Target and CVS found that some contained no aloe vera at all.