The sight of plows and workers trenching to install a natural gas line at the Chaparral Mobile Home Park was a relief for residents. They have been waiting for 12 days for the gas to be turned on.

“We have no gas, we have no hot water, we can’t go wash because there’s no hot water and the dryers don’t work because there’s no gas,” said Mary Ruiz, a tenant.

As KFOX reported, the problem started with gas leaks at the trailer park, but now the underground installation needs to change to individual gas meters.

Texas Gas Service officials said they will introduce natural gas again as soon as the property owner gets a licensed plumber to run lines from each individual trailer. Read more » »

That’s something they believe you can change fairly easily by stocking an emergency kit and drafting an emergency plan. But maybe you haven’t done so yet — perhaps because you don’t feel the need, or because you’ve put it off. Either way, Hoosier health officials want you to get started.

That’s why the Indiana State Department of Health is publicizing National Public Health Week, which runs Monday through April 8. The department wants people to be better prepared for such public health threats as natural disasters, outbreaks of communicable diseases, terrorist attacks and pandemic flu, said Dr. Judith Monroe, state health commissioner.

So far, she said, too few people have heeded officials’ warnings about such things as pandemic flu Read more » »

SARS expert Aileen Plant, 52, died from natural causes while in the Jakarta International Airport on Tuesday, according to Australian media sources.

Plant is well-known in Vietnam for helping the Vietnamese Ministry of Health stop a 2003 out­break of Severe Acute Res­piratory Syndrome at the Viet Phap (Vietnam-France) Hospital in Hanoi.

The fatal chest infection had spread from patients to doctors and hospital staff before the virus could be contained.

The professor, leading a team from the World Health Organization, took over monitoring responsibilities when Dr Carlo Urbani con­tracted SARS and eventu­ally died.

The SARS outbreak killed five people and in­fected some 63 others in Viet Nam before spreading internationally to dozens of countries around Read more » »

Wilde Lake junior Josh Futter did not pitch much last year, as strained ligaments in his right elbow limited him to 19 innings. Whether the injury was the result of taking the mound too often as a freshman, problems with his mechanics or something else, he is unsure. But he is certain about one thing: Winning games takes the sting off last season’s 4-16 mark.

With Futter leading the way on the mound and first baseman Kevin Carlson starring at the plate, the host Wildecats pulled an early-season surprise, beating No. 4 Centennial, 4-3, yesterday in a Howard County game in Columbia. It was the Eagles’ first league loss since the 2005 season.

“This is probably one of the best feelings I can have,” Futter said a few minutes after hurling his glove into the air and being mobbed by teammates after a game-ending double play, the kind of celebration normally reserved for postseason victories. Read more » »

Philadelphia - The board of directors of Fox Chase Cancer Center has selected Michael V Seiden, MD, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center to become president and chief executive officer of Fox Chase effective June 1, board chairman William J. Avery announced.

A board-certified medical oncologist, Dr. Seiden, 48, currently leads the gynecologic cancer program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and is chief of the clinical research unit in Massachusetts General Hospital’s Division of Cancer Medicine.

“I am honored and excited to be joining Fox Chase Cancer Center and working with a committed team of individuals in improving the lives of people with cancer now and in the future,” Dr. Seiden said. Read more » »

HuntonBrady is the architect of record, while Ellenzweig Associates Inc. will serve as the design architect for the new building.

HuntonBrady Architects is a 60-year-old Central Florida architecture and interior design firm that provides award-winning design services to both public and private clients, including health care, education, commercial office and municipal projects.

The four-story, 100,000-square-foot building will house both the medical library and medical instructional spaces. The new medical school’s $33 million building is currently in the programming and conceptual design phase. It will open for students Read more » »

Society for Academic Emergency Medicine also provided educational support. Academic Emergency Medicine are pleased to present scientific abstracts that were presented at the First Inter-American Conference on Emergency Medicine held April 18–21, 2006, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This conference was organized by la Sociedad Argentina de Emergencias, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, and the American College of Emergency Physicians. Also sponsoring this conference were la Sociedad Venezolana de Emergencias y Desastres, la Asociación Colombiana de Medicina de Emergencias, la Sociedad Mexicana de Medicina de Emergencias, la Sociedad Peruana de Medicina de Emergencias y Desastres, and la Asociación Latino Americana de Catástrofes Emergencias y Desastres.

The goal of the conference was to discuss the specialty development of emergency medicine and its scientific development and publications, as well as allow discussion and comparison of the local practice of our specialty. The program drew 3,500 participants from America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Asia. Most were physicians but other professionals Read more » »