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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (255519)	10/15/2005 5:46:01 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1571405

I think the US is 27th in infant mortality. Some African countries do better. Under the chimpistration, the number is going UP. detnews.com Infant mortality rate rises in U.S. Nation's first increase since 1958 surprises federal health officials By Rob Stein / Washington Post WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. babies dying shortly after birth has crept up for the first time in more than four decades, federal health officials reported Wednesday. The cause of the small but disturbing rise remains unclear, but it may be a combination of the surge in older women having babies, the popularity of fertility treatments and, paradoxically, advancements in identifying and saving fetuses in distress, experts said. Nevertheless, the surprising increase has raised alarm because the infant mortality rate is considered a fundamental measure of a society’s well-being. “It’s always a matter of concern when an important measure of public health such as infant mortality increases,” said Joyce Martin of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the numbers. “It’s so basic. The saving of young lives is important to everyone.” The increase was particularly unexpected because it comes as a number of other important measures of the nation’s health continued long-term positive trends. The overall U.S. death rate has been dropping, as have the rates from the leading causes of mortality: heart disease, stroke, accidents and cancer. And U.S. life expectancy has reached a new high: 77.4 years. The United States has long had one of the highest infant mortality rates among developed countries, and the rate had either declined or remained steady every year since 1958. So government scientists were caught off guard when a preliminary analysis of the most recent data showed that the infant mortality rate had inched up 3 percent, climbing from 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 to 7.0 deaths in 2002. “I have to say, it was a surprise,” said Martin, lead statistician for the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC. “We weren’t expecting it.” A follow-up analysis confirmed that the increase would hold true in the final numbers. When researchers parsed the data, they found the increase was caused by a jump in deaths in the first week of life among babies who were born with birth defects, were unusually small, or were born to mothers who had complications during their pregnancies, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, Martin said. Because the number of babies who are being born early has increased in recent years, the findings suggest that trend could be driving the uptick in infant mortality, Martin said.

To: combjelly who wrote (255519)	10/15/2005 5:56:43 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571405

they're healthier than Americans by almost any metric:" To be fair, most of that mortality difference is because our poor can't afford decent health care. Yes, I realize that but isn't that one of the benefits of a national health care system?

To: combjelly who wrote (255519)	10/15/2005 6:02:33 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571405

Some commentary from a liberal web page re. a Bush involvement over Phlame. It was PM'd to me a while ago but I hadn't had a chance to open it. Its looking more and more like Stephanopoulos's source may be right: Source to Stephanopoulos: President Bush Directly Involved In Leak Scandal Near the end of a round table discussion on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos dropped this bomb: "Definitely a political problem but I wonder, George Will, do you think it’s a manageable one for the White House especially if we don’t know whether Fitzgerald is going to write a report or have indictments but if he is able to show as a source close to this told me this week, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these discussions." This would explain why Bush spent more than an hour answering questions from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It would also fundamentally change the dynamics of the scandal. President Bush could no longer claim he was merely a bystander who wants to “get to the bottom of it.” As Stephanopoulos notes, if Bush played a direct role it could make this scandal completely unmanageable. thinkprogress.org