October 10, 2013 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news each week that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Obamacare open enrollment begins: What you need to know Oct. 1 (CBS)
• Prescription drug abuse now more deadly than heroin, cocaine combined (CS Monitor)
• The Last Word On Hormone Therapy From the Women's Health Initiative (NPR)
• Vaccine Refusals Fueled California's Whooping Cough Epidemic (NPR)
• Antifungal Cream Discovered to Eradicate HIV (Reason)
• The Religious Alternative To Obamacare's Individual Mandate (NPR)
• Listeria arrests: Two Colorado farmers charged after outbreak (CS Monitor)

SCIENCE

• NASA preparing to launch 3-D printer into space (SacBee)
• Energy efficiency: How the Internet can lower your electric bill (CS Monitor)
• 10 heat secrets caught on camera
• Want To Read Others' Thoughts? Try Reading Literary Fiction (NPR)
• What have we learned from Fukushima? (BBC)
• Killer hornets rampage through China (CS Monitor)

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

By Miriam Raftery

September 26, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – Arizona officials are reporting the first two cases in the United States of addicts using Krokodil, a drug that rots the skin from the inside out  after first turning skin green and scaly.  It can cause gangrene and amputation of limbs.  A Time investigation of the drug overseas found the average user is dead within 2 or 3 years after first injecting the deadly mixture.

 Krokodil , or Desomorphone, is an opiate. It is cheaper and far more potent than heroin.  It’s been called the world’s most horrifying drug, also known as the zombie apocalypse drug. Illicit drug dealers make it by combining codeine with iodine, gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, lighter fluid and red phosphorous which addicts inject.  The drug ruptures blood vessels, causing  flesh to rot and even exposing bone.

September 26, 2013 (San Diego)-- County and local health officials will kick off the 2013 flu vaccination season and encourage everyone to get immunized. The San Diego Black Nurses Association will be offering 400 flu shots to adults 18 years or older for free on Friday, September 27 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation Center, 6401 Skyline Drive in San Diego.

September 18, 2013 (La Mesa) – The East County Magazine, distributed by the Heartland Coalition, has been named a media sponsor for the 12th annual Kids Care Fest, a free, family-oriented, community health fair event with free health care screenings for children. Kids Care Fest will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21 at Briercrest Park, 90001 Wakarusa St., La Mesa.

September 17, 2013 (Julian) – The County of San Diego, Department of Environmental Health (DEH) has issued a Boil Water Order and Public Notification for the Calvary Chapel Julian water system located at 3731 Wynola Rd., Julian, CA 92070 effective immediately.  The water system serves a camp that includes visitor cabins, staff housing, public restrooms, dining hall with kitchen, swimming pool and a chapel.

June 20, 2013 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news each week that could impact your health and our future.

• .Bacteria from slim people could help treat obesity, study finds (RawStory)
• Your Kitchen Spices Can Often Harbor Salmonella (NPR)
• How one scientist hacked another scientist's brain (CS Monitor)
• How To Disappear When Someone's Spying On You (NPR)
• The Case For Clearing More Arteries During Heart Attacks (NPR)
• VIDEO: Vietnam's 'children of Agent Orange' (BBC)

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

August 31, 2013 (El Cajon) – A free seminar on healthcare reform will be held at the East County Chamber of Commerce Office, 201 South Magnolia Ave., El Cajon on September 11 from 11:30 am. Until 1:00 p.m.  The seminar, presented by Erick Lundy, of Lundy Insurance Services, Inc., will address 2 critical issues affecting employers right now.

August 27, 2013 (San Diego) – A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) will join Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing (GRASP), the American Civil Liberties Union’s San Diego chapter, and other organizations in the U.S. and abroad in participation of the 13th annual International Overdose Awareness Day. The events honor and remember those who have lost their lives to an accidental overdose. According to A New PATH, it is also an opportunity to educate policymakers and the public about the growing overdose crisis in the United States and abroad – and to offer concrete solutions that save lives.

By Janis Mork

August  26, 2013 (San Diego) - “Bottom line - we’re all losers if we stay in the political advocacy. We need to get them on our side [and] come up with a political campaign that’s a winning campaign.” – Congressman Patrick Kennedy

Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy spoke in San Diego recently about a new project that began in 2012 called Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana).  

A background on San Diego marijuana issues was addressed followed by Project SAM at the offices of California for Alcohol and Drug Free Use. 

August 6, 2013 (La Mesa) – The Grossmont Healthcare District’s Dr. William C. Herrick Community Health Care Library, located at 9001 Wakarusa St. in La Mesa, will host a free senior discussion group presentation on “Emergency Preparedness” from 10 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, August 28.  The public is invited to attend, and an RSVP is not required. 

July 25, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) -- Two weeks after finding the first sign of West Nile virus this season — a dead infected crow — two more dead infected birds have been discovered.

Two dead American crows, one from Ramona and one from Carlsbad, were turned in by members of the public and have tested positive for the disease. The first bird, also an American crow, was found near Lakeside.

County vector control and environmental health officials said the discoveries are a reminder that people should protect themselves from West Nile virus, a potentially-deadly disease that is transmitted to people most often by mosquitoes that have fed on infected birds.

July 25, 2013 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news each week that could impact your health and our future.

• Why Skipping Breakfast Might Raise Risk Of Heart Disease (NPR)
• Two Danish cities put a moratorium on wind turbines (EPAW)
• Water birds turning up dead at solar projects in desert (Rewire)
• Paying women to take big risk (U-T San Diego)
• Scientists discover what’s killing the bees—and it’s worse than you thought  (Quartz)
• Study raises new concern about earthquakes and fracking fluids (Reuters)
• Enlisting Passers-By In Scientific Research (NPR)
• Leading Danish newspaper severely criticizes Vestas on noise issue(Jyllands-Posten)

Click "read more" and scroll down for excerpts and links to full stories.

Last year was one of the worst on record for West Nile virus across the United States, but not here, where the County of San Diego has taken aggressive steps to control mosquitoes that can spread the disease. Just two San Diegans have been diagnosed locally with West Nile virus in the last three years: one did not become ill, the other became infected while visiting Imperial County.

However, more than 5,000 people got sick and 286 died nationwide from the disease in 2012. County officials said local residents should remember to protect themselves.

July 1, 2013 (El Cajon) – Rancho San Diego resident Ann Durham, Director of the Health Workforce Initiative based at Grossmont College, has been named Deputy Sector Navigator (DSN) for Health for the San Diego/Imperial Region.

The appointment, announced this week by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office Division of Workforce & Economic Development, means that Durham will have expanded responsibilities and budget under the "Doing What Matters" program.