The need for identifying indoor allergens continues to grow, as evidenced by a report released this week by the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC says that the number of people diagnosed with asthma grew by 4.3 million between 2001 and 2009, when one in 12 Americans were told they had the lung disease. The proportion of people of all ages with asthma in the U.S. increased from 7.3% (20.3 million people) in 2001 to 8.2% (24.6 million people) in 2009.
Along with the asthma incident rates rising so are the costs, from $53 billion in 2002 to about $56 billion in 2007, for a 6% increase. .
NHS Lothian said they had four confirmed and another four suspected cases of the illness in Edinburgh.
Four men aged 39, 48, 60 and 63 have the disease while two 49-year-old women and two men aged 63 and 88 are also being monitored.
Five were being treated at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary, one was at the capital's Western General Hospital while two were in St John's in Livingston. All are in intensive care or high dependency units.
Two new cases of Legionnaires' disease have been linked to the same local hotel that was closed earlier this year for the same problem.
The Albany County Department of Health says two guests who stayed in the Best Western Sovereign Hotel on Western Avenue on May 16th and 17th were diagnosed with Legionnaires'.
We're told one of those people is still sick.
Now the Department of Health is notifying any guest who stayed at the hotel after May 15th, just to be safe.
HealthDay News by Robert Preidt (Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology | News Release)
Older adults who have asthma are at increased risk for poorly controlled asthma if they are obese, a new study says.
Researchers looked at 104 patients and found that those aged 65 and older who were obese were five times more likely to have poorly controlled asthma than those of average weight.
The study also found that older patients with asthma may be more susceptible to the effects of traffic air pollution. The reason is unclear, but may be due to potentially impaired responses to highly reactive molecules produced in their bodies as they breathe in the polluted air, the researchers said.
An Iowa City man has filed a lawsuit alleging that he developed a serious mold allergy after living in a property owned by the University of Iowa.
Cliff Missen filed the suit in Johnson County on May 3. Missen alleged that the state of Iowa, the Iowa state Board of Regents, the university and Heritage Property Management were negligent and engaged in egregious conduct.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen ( ) says Missen is seeking $375,000 in damages.
Missen says he complained to the property manager that water was coming into the basement walls, damaging his property and creating an unhealthy environment.
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