Thursday, February 2, 2012

Changes to Tdap, HPV, Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendations ...

'); //Add the fade layer to bottom of the body tag. jQuery('#fade').css({'filter' : 'alpha(opacity=50)'}).show(); //Fade in the fade layer - .css({'filter' : 'alpha(opacity=80)'}) is used to fix the IE Bug on fading transparencies jQuery(".processingprintemailbox1XX").hide(); return false; }); //Close Popups and Fade Layer jQuery('a.closeprintemailbox1XX, #fade').live('click', function() { //When clicking on the close or fade layer... closeAAFPShareThisprintemailbox1XX(); return false; }); jQuery('#sharethistextprintemailbox1XX').keyup(function(){ limitCharsprintemailbox1XX('sharethistextprintemailbox1XX', 200, 'charlimitinfoprintemailbox1XX'); }) jQuery('.sharethisbuttonprintemailbox1XX').live('click', function() { //When clicking on the close or fade layer... jQuery("#sharediverrorprintemailbox1XX").html(""); message1 = ""; message1 = jQuery('.sharethistextprintemailbox1XX').val(); message1 += " " + window.location; var AAFPID = getCookie("U"); //alert("AAFPID:" + AAFPID); if(AAFPID && AAFPID.length > 0){ jQuery.ajax({ url: "20120201immunrecs.ajaxpost.aafpconnection-updatestatus.html?uid="+AAFPID +"&message="+message1 , async: false , success: function(data){ //alert("The URL has been shared on AAFP Connection. " + data); dataPosted = true; try{ if(data.indexOf(" More than a dozen changes are reflected in the CDC's 2012 child (1-page PDF; About PDFs), adolescent (1-page PDF) and adult (5-page PDF) immunization schedules. Developed in conjunction with the AAFP and other groups, several of the 2012 changes are especially pertinent to family physicians, according to the AAFP's liaison to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Jamie Loehr, M.D., of Ithaca, N.Y.
"Some of the most important changes for family physicians in the 2012 immunization schedules involve the tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine for pregnant women and health care personnel, as well as the hepatitis B vaccine for patients with diabetes," Loehr told AAFP News Now. Also noteworthy is the ACIP's call for the addition of quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV4) to the schedule for boys and young men.

In June, the ACIP recommended that pregnant women who have never received the Tdap vaccine should be immunized during their second or third trimester rather than in the immediate postpartum period. The 2012 schedule also reflects the ACIP's call for health care personnel to receive a single dose of Tdap vaccine if they have not received it previously.

The ACIP also made a change to the 2012 catch-up immunization schedule (1-page PDF; About PDFs) with regard to Tdap, adding that, for children who received Tdap as a catch-up dose at age 7 through 10 years, "an adolescent dose should not be given."

In October, the ACIP voted to recommend routine hepatitis B immunization of unvaccinated adults with diabetes who are younger than age 60 and optional use of the vaccine in diabetic adults 60 and older. The recommendation was based on evidence that patients with diabetes are at increased risk for hepatitis B because of shared testing equipment.

story highlights

  • The CDC has released its 2012 recommended immunization schedules for children, adolescents and adults, as well as the new version of the catch-up schedule.
  • Some of the more significant changes concern tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis vaccine administration among health care personnel and pregnant women, administration of hepatitis B vaccine in people with diabetes, and the addition of the quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine for boys and young men.
Loehr said it is important to note patients 60 and older were relegated to a category B recommendation because the vaccine is more cost-effective in younger patients. A category B recommendation allows for individualized decision-making by the physician and patient about the appropriateness of the vaccine in this older age group. In general, the more robust a patient's health, the greater the likelihood that he or she will respond to the vaccine.

Perhaps some of the most complicated ACIP recommendations, according to Loehr are those specific to the administration of HPV4 vaccine for boys and young men.

"The ACIP now recommends routine HPV4 vaccination in boys 11 to 12 years of age, with catch-up vaccinations at age 13 to 21," Loehr said. "It is acceptable, however, to begin HPV4 vaccination in boys as young as 9 years of age.

"HPV4 vaccination is also recommended in previously unvaccinated men ages 22 to 26 who have human immuno?deficiency virus infection, those who are immunosupressed or men who have sex with men. For other men ages 22 to 26, the ACIP makes a category B recommendation for HPV4 vaccination."

Loehr said it also should be noted that the ACIP recommends that children 6 months to 8 years of age receive two doses of influenza vaccine during the current season if they did not receive at least one dose of the vaccine during the 2010-11 season.

Source: http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/health-of-the-public/20120201immunrecs.html

joe paterno school closings giants vs 49ers san francisco 49ers san francisco 49ers news channel 5 49ers news

Posted by at No comments:

Toothless Pa. bank robber says she needed dentures

In this photo made on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, Evelyn Marie Fuller, left, is led from her arraignment on bank robbery charges by Waynesburg police patrolman Tom Ankrom in Waynesburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Washington Observer Reporter, Bob Niedbala)

In this photo made on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, Evelyn Marie Fuller, left, is led from her arraignment on bank robbery charges by Waynesburg police patrolman Tom Ankrom in Waynesburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Washington Observer Reporter, Bob Niedbala)

WAYNESBURG, Pa. (AP) ? A woman who appeared to not have any teeth in surveillance photos from a bank robbery last month has confessed, apologized and told police she planned the heist because she needed the money for dentures.

Evelyn Marie Fuller, 49, remained in a jail Wednesday unable to post bond on bank robbery and other charges filed a day earlier by police in Waynesburg, in western Pennsylvania, where she's accused of robbing the First National Bank on Jan. 20.

Arresting Officer Tom Ankrom said Fuller, of Carmichaels, about 10 miles east, explained her motives when she confessed to the crime.

"During her confession, she stated she wanted to use the money to pay for dentures she was unable to get through welfare until next year," Ankrom said.

Police distributed a surveillance photo of the robber, who appeared to be toothless, and an unnamed witness went to police and told them he had loaned Fuller the coat the robber was seen wearing in the picture. The man told police Fuller returned the coat because the zipper didn't work, and police said it matched one the robber is wearing in the picture.

Fuller, at her arraignment Tuesday, told a district judge she has mental health problems and lives on disability benefits, the Observer-Reporter newspaper, of Washington, said Wednesday.

After her arraignment, she told a reporter, "I'm very sorry for what I did, and I know God is going to punish me for it," before explaining that her pastor told her to tell the truth about what she did.

___

Information from: Observer-Reporter, http://www.observer-reporter.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-02-01-Toothless%20Woman%20Robs%20Bank/id-a91d93642fd6422cbc305ee44ad8ef1f

coachella one life to live jeff fisher van der sloot heather locklear mlk memorial mlk memorial

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Dems: Fast & Furious just 1 of 4 misguided probes

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Democrats looking into Operation Fast and Furious say a yearlong investigation has turned up no evidence that the flawed gun smuggling probe was conceived or directed by high-level political appointees at Justice Department headquarters.

The probe, the Democrats say, was just one of four such operations that were part of a misguided five-year-long effort, during both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, in the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives against firearms trafficking along the Southwest border.

"Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office," the report from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says.

It is expected to differ sharply with the conclusions of Republicans, who will question Attorney General Eric Holder about Operation Fast and Furious at a hearing Thursday before the committee.

Beginning six years ago, according to the Democrats' report, ATF agents in Phoenix devised a strategy to forgo arrests against low-level straw purchasers of guns while attempting to build bigger cases against higher-level traffickers, a risky tactic known as gun-walking.

"The committee has obtained no evidence indicating that the attorney general authorized gun-walking or that he was aware of such allegations before they became public," said the Democrats' report, "Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gunwalking in Arizona." ''None of the 22 witnesses interviewed by the committee claims to have spoken with the attorney general about the specific tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious prior to the public controversy."

Rather than halting operations after flaws became evident, the ATF's Phoenix division "launched several similarly reckless operations over the course of several years, also with tragic results," the report said. "Each investigation involved various incarnations of the same activity: Agents were contemporaneously aware of illegal firearms purchases, they did not typically interdict weapons or arrest straw purchasers, and firearms ended up in the hands of criminals on both sides of the border."

Operation Fast and Furious came to light following the December 2010 slaying of U.S. border agent Brian Terry near Nogales, Ariz. Two guns connected to suspects in the Fast and Furious investigation were found at the Terry murder scene.

Operation Fast and Furious was the fourth such ATF gun-walking probe, according to the Democrats' report, which was based on documents collected by the committee.

The first gun-walking probe, said the report, was Operation Wide Receiver, in which ATF agents, for over a year starting in 2006, watched traffickers buying guns from a gun dealer and driving them across the border into Mexico. According to a memo by William Newell, who was in charge of the Phoenix division at the time, one of the suspects told the gun dealer that the "firearms are going to his boss in Tijuana, Mexico, where some are given out as gifts." ATF officials believed they had sufficient evidence to arrest and charge the suspects, but as one agent said at the time, "we want it all," according to an email between two ATF supervisors in Arizona.

A year after Wide Receiver began, ATF initiated attempts to coordinate with Mexican officials. Numerous attempts at cross-border interdiction failed, according to the Democrats' report, with ATF agents expressing concern over the operation.

In a 2007 case, ATF agents targeted Fidel Hernandez and several alleged co-conspirators who purchased over 200 firearms and were believed to be transporting them into Mexico.

William Hoover, then ATF's assistant director of field operations, temporarily halted operations after being informed of several attempts at coordinating with Mexican law enforcement authorities.

The defendants were brought to trial in 2009, but acquitted after prosecutors were unable to obtain the cooperation of the Mexican law enforcement officials who had recovered firearms purchased by Hernandez.

In a 2008 case, ATF agents in Phoenix focused for a year on a network of illicit gun buyers who were purchasing weapons from the same gun dealer who had cooperated in Operation Wide Receiver.

Members of the network, led by Alejandro Medrano, were eventually sentenced to multiyear prison terms for trafficking more than 100 firearms to a Mexican drug cartel.

In Operation Fast and Furious, ATF agents in Phoenix late in 2009 identified a network of more than 20 straw purchasers believed to be trafficking military-grade assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Agents tried to build a case with wiretaps. They made no arrests and made few intercepts of weapons.

ATF Deputy Director William Hoover became concerned about the number of firearms involved in the case and ordered a strategy for the investigation to be brought to an end. Newell in Phoenix expressed frustration with ATF headquarters in Washington and "the operation continued to grow and expand rather than wind down over the months to follow," the Democrats' report said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-31-Fast%20and%20Furious/id-ccbc10af176240088fc6b64ba1886ca3

shannon tweed shannon tweed don lapre aladdin weird al yankovic bling ring bling ring

Posted by at No comments:

On the Ground in Afghanistan, a Taliban Whose Momentum Seems Anything But Broken (Time.com)

The hundreds of bullets, mortar shells and rockets that slammed into the boulders behind which they were taking cover peppered the men of 1st Platoon with high velocity rock shards and jagged bits of shrapnel. Just below Outpost Shal, a newly constructed mountaintop aerie in Afghanistan's violent Kunar province on the Pakistani border, insurgent fighters were moaning and screaming from wounds suffered over eight days of heavy fighting. That scene, just three months ago, of the outnumbered American platoon fighting to maintain its foothold offered a sobering contrast TO President Barack Obama's statement, in last week's State of the Union address, that "The Taliban's momentum has been broken."

Like the battle scene witnessed by TIME, the recent National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan reportedly also casts doubt on the confidence expressed by President Obama on the state of the Taliban's war effort. The top-secret assessment "takes a dim view of possible futures in Afghanistan," Reuters was told last week by a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity. The report, which represents the consensus view of 16 US intelligence agencies, warns that the Taliban has not given up on its aim of retaking full control of Afghanistan, and concludes that the gains made by the troop surge ordered by President Obama two years ago may be unsustainable, according to McClatchy Newspapers. (Photo: Pakistan Militants Attack an Afghanistan-Bound Convoy)

The soldiers eventually won their battle at OP Shal, securing the Kunar River Valley from infiltration, eliminating insurgent roadblocks and opening it to civilian and military traffic. But the Taliban's week-long attack highlighted the many military problems facing Afghanistan, and made clear that the outcome of the conflict remains far from certain.

Throughout the intense fighting, the besieged defending force of 36 U.S. and Afghan army soldiers fought off multiple suicide bombers and at least four overrun attempts by between 400 and 500 heavily armed insurgents, who had been trucked in from Pakistan and who managed to advance to within five meters of U.S. positions. Afterwards, the soldiers confirmed 115 kills and estimated at least 200. "It was the most coordinated thing any of us had ever seen, but just the sheer number of forces they had massing on that position was ridiculous," Staff Sgt Everett Bracey of first platoon, Bravo Company, 2-27 Infantry Battalion, told TIME. (Video: Fighting Season in Afghanistan)

The attackers were reinforced and resupplied throughout the fight from bases and depots in the safe haven provided by Pakistan. "We saw 60 vehicles come out of Pakistan -- just drive in," said Staff Sgt. Anthony Fuentes looking at a topographical map a few days after the battle. "This whole route, it goes all the way up into Pakistan. It's a two-hour trafficable route from the border." Added company commander Captain Michael Kolton, "It was Pashtuns and Arabs and Chechens and Punjabis -- everyone and their sister joined in on this one."

The defenders of OP Shal also recognized that their attackers had been well trained. "They used the standard operating procedures that the U.S. army uses," explained Fuentes. "We expected contact, but we didn't expect that. Their fire was so heavy and precise that to get up and look at their near sector, the joes just had to say, 'Ok, I'm just going to eat one in the face just to get up and see if somebody is moving on me.' And every time they lifted their head up, there was somebody there."

Sitting in HIS squad bay at Combat Outpost Monti, Sgt. Brandon Goodell told TIME, "They are motivated, they are trained, and they are proficient." But what most surprised the Americans was the insurgents' determination to regain this strategic mountaintop commanding a six-kilometer section of road in the main Kunar River Valley. "They were relentless. They were all over us. I've never seen them come that hard at anybody," says Fuentes. The numbers, skill and determination of the insurgents repelled at OP Shal seems quite at odds with President Obama's suggestion that the Taliban's momentum has been broken. (Photo: Afghanistan Blueys: A Soldier's Polaroids)

"You'd kill 15 or 20 of them, and then five minutes later, there was another 15 or 20 of them trying to attack you again. I mean, we'd kill so many that we went black on ammo, pretty much, and we just had to stop and wait," says Goodell. "They're motivated. I tell my soldiers this exact same thing: If they were to come into our country, into the United States of America, and they were walking in your front yard, what would you do? Damn right I would fight you, and then I'd find all my friends and we'd fight you, and then I'd find their friends, and then we'd come and fight you. And after I died, my son, and their sons, and their friends' sons would all come fight you. Of course. We're in their back yard."

Magazine: Can Israel Stop Iran's Nuke Effort?

View this article on Time.com

Most Popular on Time.com:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20120130/wl_time/08599210570300

walter isaacson walter isaacson zodiac killer battlefield 3 review battlefield 3 review real housewives of new jersey coraline

Posted by at No comments:

Yoani Sanchez: Will Dilma Rousseff, Once Tortured by a Military Regime, Remain Silent About Human Rights In Cuba?

"I prefer a million critical voices
before the silence of the dictatorships."
Dilma Rousseff


Choosing the time for a presidential visit can be an exceedingly thankless task in this so unpredictable and changeable world. When the date of the visit of a head of state is placed on the agenda, announced, and reconciled with the hosts, life commonly offers up the unexpected. The government palaces don't control chance, nor anticipate the surprising events that strain the arrival of a dignitary. Dilma Rousseff knows this well. Her presence in Havana was coordinated for weeks and was even preceded by that of the foreign minister, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota. Everything seemed neatly tied up: a fast timeframe, efficient, protocol, focused on economic themes, ending with her boarding her flight to Haiti. But something complicated it.

Several days before the Brazilian economist and politician landed at Jose Marti Airport, a young Cuban died after a prolonged hunger strike. The official media threw itself into presenting him as a common criminal, although he had been arrested at an opposition march through the streets of Contramaestre. The radicalized discourse of power and the political temperature reached those levels where our rulers perform so well. In that context, the recently concluded Conference of the Cuban Communist Party became more an act of reaffirmation than of change, a statement of unity rather than an opening. Many who were waiting for an announcement of political transformations of great significance, realized that the event was, instead, the ultimate lost opportunity for the generation in power. One day after its closure, Raul Castro -- General Secretary of the only permitted party -- received Dilma Rousseff, the former guerrilla who today leads a country with diverse political forces and a highly critical press.

Dilma's Cuban agenda includes inspecting the construction work at the Port of Mariel and the possible granting of new bank credits. Brazil is our second largest trading partner in Latin America, but it's not just a question of resources. The Raul regime also has the urge, at this time, to be legitimized by other presidents in the region. So there will be smiles, handshakes, commitments to "eternal friendship" and photos, lots of photos. The civic activists, for their part, will attempt a meeting with the woman who was tortured and imprisoned during a military government, though there is little chance that she will receive them. Dilma Rousseff will converse with Raul Castro; she will be very close to him at exactly this delicate juncture in which chance has placed her. We hope she will not miss the opportunity and will comport herself consistent with the clamor for democracy, instead of opting for a complicit silence before a dictatorship.

----

Note: I will not know until Friday, Feb. 3, whether the Cuban authorities will finally allow me to travel for the presentation of the documentary "Cuba-Honduras Connection" in Jequie, Bahia, in Brazil. Thanks in advance to all who have done something so that I might make it to Brazil. Special thanks to Sen. Eduardo Suplicy, to the filmmaker Dado Galvao, to @xeniantunes, and to other Brazilian citizens.

Conex?o Cuba Honduras -- trailer


?

?

?

Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanifromcuba

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/president-rousseff-of-bra_b_1245849.html

nadal murray cyndi lauper 127 hours 127 hours true grit serena williams the falling man

Posted by at No comments:

For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day

Reporting from Dunkirk, N.Y.?

Sixteen years ago, Bob Will came home to find a basket outside his house. He peered inside and saw a groundhog with two broken legs.

Will was surprised, but not by what was in the basket. He's used to people leaving groundhogs at his door.

But there was no note explaining who had left the groundhog or how it might have been injured, and that shocked him. "There wasn't even a phone number, and nobody ever checked to see what happened to him," Will said, shaking his head.

How, he wonders to this day, could someone leave a wounded woodchuck on his doorstep without following up on the animal's fate?

Will's passion for groundhogs ? aka woodchucks ? amounts to what some consider an obsession but what he says is his calling. Each year about this time, in the run-up to Groundhog Day on Feb. 2, this calling turns a spotlight on Will and the multitude of sick, maimed or just plain helpless marmots sharing his home on the icy shores of Lake Erie.

If legend holds true, a groundhog dubbed Dunkirk Dave who's hibernating a few feet from Will's front door will poke his head from the earth on Feb. 2, the midway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox. If he sees his shadow, winter weather will endure another six weeks. If no shadow appears, spring temperatures are on their way.

By daybreak, TV trucks will be parked on Will's property to cover the event, which is far less manic than the Groundhog Day festivities starring Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania, but which has grown in popularity around here along with Dunkirk Dave's fame.

But in truth, Will says, every day is Groundhog Day at his house. It has been that way for decades, since as a child he brought a bloodied groundhog home, nursed it back to health, and released it to the safety of a friend's property a few months later.

"I've helped thousands and thousands of woodchucks," said Will, a slender man with white hair and bright blue eyes. "I didn't do it for the fame, because there wasn't any. I did it because I enjoyed it. I've probably disappointed my parents that I devoted so much of my life to animals, but I figure you've got one chance in life. You should do something you love, and you've got to feel like what you're doing is the right thing to do."

"Especially for her," said fellow groundhog whisperer Bill Verge, looking down at the floor where Sidewinder ? so named because a farmer's bullet left her unable to walk straight ? did circles on the carpet. "She'd be lost without someone to take care of her."

Outside, a fierce storm blew snow across the yard, and Lake Erie churned angry gray waves onto the shore. Squirrels dashed through the whiteout to pluck nuts from the feeders next to Dunkirk Dave' hibernation hole.

Inside, the house was warm and slightly musky smelling, and groundhogs in various states of disrepair snoozed, waddled around, or nibbled at treats as Will and Verge, who is Will's assistant, tended them and explained how this became groundhog central.

Will, 70, grew up amid these farms and country roads, where it wasn't unusual to see small animals dead or wounded ? victims of cars, larger beasts, hunters or farmers determined to keep rodents off their land. But while most animals had devoted advocates or hunting restrictions protecting them, nobody was watching the woodchucks.

"You'd see one walking down the road with a broken leg and other people would say, 'Oh, it's just a groundhog.' Just a groundhog?! It's one of God's creatures," said Will. Some see them as nuisance rodents whose holes trip up horses and whose vegetarian diets destroy crops, but he insists otherwise.

"They're very clean, they mind their own business, and they're the only animal to be honored with their own day on the calendar," said Will, who has confronted farmers targeting groundhogs and lectured them. "They're not trash just to be thrown away in a pond because a farmer doesn't like them because they ate his lettuce. I just love the darned things."

Will credits his parents with encouraging his interest in helping not just groundhogs, but every animal. Someone once left a turtle with no eyes outside his house with a note that read: "Help me." Over the years, he has taken in a pig, a monkey and a one-winged pigeon that lived with him 12 years.

"She was the happiest bird in the cage ? had lots of babies too!" Will said of the pigeon. He saved her life by having her broken wing amputated rather than letting a veterinarian wring her neck.

But it is the groundhogs that touch him the most.

Sometimes they are left at his door. Sometimes people call from hundreds of miles away with an ailing groundhog to be picked up. Some wash in from the lake, and some drop from the sky, literally. Birds of prey often pick up small groundhogs but lose them in flight.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/WzE9qoemdas/la-na-groundhog-man-20120130,0,2824978.story

beverly hills hotel tori spelling brian williams patrice o neal patrice o neal paulina gretzky paulina gretzky

Posted by at No comments:

If Gingrich loses in Fla., can he come back again? (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193632818?client_source=feed&format=rss

ron paul 2012 zynga stock zynga stock sam houston state university sam houston state university bradley manning whoopi goldberg

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)