Posts Tagged ‘posts’
A study says more than a third of malaria-fighting drugs tested over the past decade in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were either fake or bad quality.
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Robin Pierre
Nearly 1,000 dogs sick from jerky treats now
Nearly 1,000 dogs reportedly have been sickened by chicken jerky pet treats from China, according to a new tally of complaints from worried owners submitted to federal veterinary health officials.
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No routine PSA tests for men, panel rules
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JPMorgan exec’s Lyme infection shows need for quick care
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Stress turns guys into social butterflies
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Toxic mushrooms: Drug promises new cure
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The study by global health experts published Tuesday says bogus and badly made drugs are threatening to upend a decade of progress fighting the mosquito-transmitted disease.
Fake drugs can lead to deaths because they contain no malaria-fighting agents. Pills without enough of the active ingredient to kill all malaria parasites are problematic because they increase drug resistance. That means malaria eventually will outsmart medicines and render them useless.
The study found around 36 percent of anti-malarial drugs analysed in southeast Asia were fake, while a third of samples in sub-Saharan Africa failed chemical testing because they contained either too much or not enough active ingredient.
The researchers said the problem might be even bigger.
The emergence of resistance to artemisinin drugs – currently the most effective treatment for malaria – along the Thailand-Cambodia border – has already been documented.
“Despite a dramatic rise in reports of poor-quality anti- malarial drugs over the past decade, the issue is much greater than it seems,” Gaurvika Nayyar, of the Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, wrote in a study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
“Most cases are probably unreported, reported to the wrong agencies, or kept confidential by pharmaceutical companies.”
More than 3 billion people worldwide are at risk of malaria, a mosquito-borne parasitic disease which kills around 650,000 people a year, most of them babies and children in Africa.
Nayyar said many of the deaths caused by the disease could be avoided “if drugs available to patients were efficacious, high quality, and used correctly.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that while less than 1 percent of medicines available in developed countries are likely to be counterfeit, globally, the figure is around 10 percent.
The United Nations agency estimates that as much as a third of all medicines in some developing countries is fake.
As well as putting patients at risk, counterfeit drugs are a constant bane for companies like GlaxoSmithkline, Sanofi and other international drugmakers.
Nayyar’s team analysed data from both published and unpublished studies that looked at chemical analyses and the packaging of malaria medicines in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia where the malaria risk is highest.
Data from seven countries in southeast Asia – including from analysis of 1,437 samples of seven different malaria drugs – showed that more than a third of them failed chemical testing, nearly half were wrongly packaged, and about a third were bogus.
Analysis of data from 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa including more than 2,500 drug samples, showed similar results, with more than a third failing chemical testing and around one fifth turning out to be fake.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47523872/ns/health-infectious_diseases/
A study says more than a third of malaria-fighting drugs tested over the past decade in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were either fake or bad quality.
-
-
Robin Pierre
Nearly 1,000 dogs sick from jerky treats now
Nearly 1,000 dogs reportedly have been sickened by chicken jerky pet treats from China, according to a new tally of complaints from worried owners submitted to federal veterinary health officials.
-
No routine PSA tests for men, panel rules
-
JPMorgan exec’s Lyme infection shows need for quick care
-
Stress turns guys into social butterflies
-
Toxic mushrooms: Drug promises new cure
-
The study by global health experts published Tuesday says bogus and badly made drugs are threatening to upend a decade of progress fighting the mosquito-transmitted disease.
Fake drugs can lead to deaths because they contain no malaria-fighting agents. Pills without enough of the active ingredient to kill all malaria parasites are problematic because they increase drug resistance. That means malaria eventually will outsmart medicines and render them useless.
The study found around 36 percent of anti-malarial drugs analysed in southeast Asia were fake, while a third of samples in sub-Saharan Africa failed chemical testing because they contained either too much or not enough active ingredient.
The researchers said the problem might be even bigger.
The emergence of resistance to artemisinin drugs – currently the most effective treatment for malaria – along the Thailand-Cambodia border – has already been documented.
“Despite a dramatic rise in reports of poor-quality anti- malarial drugs over the past decade, the issue is much greater than it seems,” Gaurvika Nayyar, of the Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, wrote in a study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
“Most cases are probably unreported, reported to the wrong agencies, or kept confidential by pharmaceutical companies.”
More than 3 billion people worldwide are at risk of malaria, a mosquito-borne parasitic disease which kills around 650,000 people a year, most of them babies and children in Africa.
Nayyar said many of the deaths caused by the disease could be avoided “if drugs available to patients were efficacious, high quality, and used correctly.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that while less than 1 percent of medicines available in developed countries are likely to be counterfeit, globally, the figure is around 10 percent.
The United Nations agency estimates that as much as a third of all medicines in some developing countries is fake.
As well as putting patients at risk, counterfeit drugs are a constant bane for companies like GlaxoSmithkline, Sanofi and other international drugmakers.
Nayyar’s team analysed data from both published and unpublished studies that looked at chemical analyses and the packaging of malaria medicines in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia where the malaria risk is highest.
Data from seven countries in southeast Asia – including from analysis of 1,437 samples of seven different malaria drugs – showed that more than a third of them failed chemical testing, nearly half were wrongly packaged, and about a third were bogus.
Analysis of data from 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa including more than 2,500 drug samples, showed similar results, with more than a third failing chemical testing and around one fifth turning out to be fake.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47523872/ns/health-infectious_diseases/
Santa Monica Police Department / Reuters
A mountain lion cornered in an small courtyard in Santa Monica, California on Tuesday. The young male adult, presumed to be from the Santa Monica mountains ventured The Promenade outdoor mall where he was spotted by maintenance staff early in the morning. Police shot and killed the animal after failing to subdue it with tranquilizers.
A mountain lion that scientists believe to be one of perhaps just a dozen left in the Santa Monica mountains was shot and killed by authorities after it appeared in a high-end shopping mall in Santa Monica on Tuesday morning, an official with the California Department of Fish and Game told msnbc.com.
Authorities initially tried but failed to subdue the cat, a 3-year old male weighing about 80 pounds that apparently wandered into the city overnight.
Follow Kari Huus on Twitter and Facebook.
“This was an unprecedented event,” Fish and Game Department spokesman Andrew Hughan said of the lion’s appearance in central Santa Monica. “We do have lion in urban areas, but they are usually small towns. Never anything like this that anyone can recall.”
A maintenance worker at The Promenade spotted the large cat around 6:00 a.m. PT as cleaners were preparing the outdoor mall for opening and reported it to police, who in turn informed Fish and Game wardens.
A warden and first responders from the police and fire departments converged on the mall and found the animal in a u-shaped courtyard,” said Hughan.
“It was trapped in a little enclosed area,” he said. ”What wildlife will do is lie down like they do in the woods, trying to hide.”
After setting up a perimeter, police shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart, with the intent of removing it and returning it to its natural habitat, Hughan said. Before the tranquilizer could take effect, they tried to keep the agitated animal trapped using “pepper balls” and fire hoses.
A news release from the Santa Monica Police Department said: “The mountain lion made several attempts to escape the courtyard and enter the public area. Regrettably, police were forced to use lethal force to prevent that animal from escaping the courtyard and endangering the public.”
An officer killed the mountain lion with a single shot, a move that had the full support of Fish and Game, said Hughan.
Watch the Top Videos on msnbc.com
“This was an absolute last resort. No one at Fish and Game wants to destroy an animal, especially a mountain lion,” he said.
The far-ranging mountain lion population is under severe stress due to habitat loss and poaching, scientists say.
For a decade, the National Park Service has been tracking mountain lions in southern California, including the 275-square miles of the Santa Monica range, which is hemmed in by highways, urban areas, the ocean and agricultural land.
Wanted: Poacher who cut off cougar’s paws
That island of habitat is large enough to support 10 to 15 mountain lions, according to Jeff Sikich, a biologist with the project.
Young adult males are forced to set out to establish their own territory, or reckon with a dominant male in the area, he said.
“Most young adult males we have followed in the Santa Monica mountains have ended up getting killed on a freeway or by an adult male in that territory,” Sikich said.
The park service is conducting genetic tests to determine whether the mountain lion killed on Tuesday is a part of the tiny Santa Monica population, which Sikich says is likely.
“This is regrettable,” said Tim Dunbar, executive director of the nonprofit conservation group Mountain Lion Foundation. “By having this poor lion die now … that will put even more pressure on the survivability of the species down there.”
Dunbar said the Sacramento-based foundation had dispatched staff to Santa Monica to investigate the animal’s death, but did not yet have an opinion about the decision to use lethal force.
“Part of the problem is that the tranquilizers for the animals act a little slower if the animal is agitated,” said Dunbar. “From reports I’ve heard, this animal was highly agitated.”
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- ‘Lucky’ teen plucked from waterfall credits rescuers, Pendragon book
- Motorcycle deaths stay at same level despite overall safer roads
- Video: 911 dispatcher caught snoring as woman pleads for help
- Grandmother allegedly shoots grandson eight times
- Could you be sued for texting with a driver? Experts say, ‘maybe’
Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook
Article source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11816964-mountain-lion-shot-killed-after-prowling-santa-monica-shopping-mall?lite
Santa Monica Police Department / Reuters
A mountain lion cornered in an small courtyard in Santa Monica, California on Tuesday. The young male adult, presumed to be from the Santa Monica mountains ventured The Promenade outdoor mall where he was spotted by maintenance staff early in the morning. Police shot and killed the animal after failing to subdue it with tranquilizers.
A mountain lion that scientists believe to be one of perhaps just a dozen left in the Santa Monica mountains was shot and killed by authorities after it appeared in a high-end shopping mall in Santa Monica on Tuesday morning, an official with the California Department of Fish and Game told msnbc.com.
Authorities initially tried but failed to subdue the cat, a 3-year old male weighing about 80 pounds that apparently wandered into the city overnight.
Follow Kari Huus on Twitter and Facebook.
“This was an unprecedented event,” Fish and Game Department spokesman Andrew Hughan said of the lion’s appearance in central Santa Monica. “We do have lion in urban areas, but they are usually small towns. Never anything like this that anyone can recall.”
A maintenance worker at The Promenade spotted the large cat around 6:00 a.m. PT as cleaners were preparing the outdoor mall for opening and reported it to police, who in turn informed Fish and Game wardens.
A warden and first responders from the police and fire departments converged on the mall and found the animal in a u-shaped courtyard,” said Hughan.
“It was trapped in a little enclosed area,” he said. ”What wildlife will do is lie down like they do in the woods, trying to hide.”
After setting up a perimeter, police shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart, with the intent of removing it and returning it to its natural habitat, Hughan said. Before the tranquilizer could take effect, they tried to keep the agitated animal trapped using “pepper balls” and fire hoses.
A news release from the Santa Monica Police Department said: “The mountain lion made several attempts to escape the courtyard and enter the public area. Regrettably, police were forced to use lethal force to prevent that animal from escaping the courtyard and endangering the public.”
An officer killed the mountain lion with a single shot, a move that had the full support of Fish and Game, said Hughan.
Watch the Top Videos on msnbc.com
“This was an absolute last resort. No one at Fish and Game wants to destroy an animal, especially a mountain lion,” he said.
The far-ranging mountain lion population is under severe stress due to habitat loss and poaching, scientists say.
For a decade, the National Park Service has been tracking mountain lions in southern California, including the 275-square miles of the Santa Monica range, which is hemmed in by highways, urban areas, the ocean and agricultural land.
Wanted: Poacher who cut off cougar’s paws
That island of habitat is large enough to support 10 to 15 mountain lions, according to Jeff Sikich, a biologist with the project.
Young adult males are forced to set out to establish their own territory, or reckon with a dominant male in the area, he said.
“Most young adult males we have followed in the Santa Monica mountains have ended up getting killed on a freeway or by an adult male in that territory,” Sikich said.
The park service is conducting genetic tests to determine whether the mountain lion killed on Tuesday is a part of the tiny Santa Monica population, which Sikich says is likely.
“This is regrettable,” said Tim Dunbar, executive director of the nonprofit conservation group Mountain Lion Foundation. “By having this poor lion die now … that will put even more pressure on the survivability of the species down there.”
Dunbar said the Sacramento-based foundation had dispatched staff to Santa Monica to investigate the animal’s death, but did not yet have an opinion about the decision to use lethal force.
“Part of the problem is that the tranquilizers for the animals act a little slower if the animal is agitated,” said Dunbar. “From reports I’ve heard, this animal was highly agitated.”
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- ‘Lucky’ teen plucked from waterfall credits rescuers, Pendragon book
- Motorcycle deaths stay at same level despite overall safer roads
- Video: 911 dispatcher caught snoring as woman pleads for help
- Grandmother allegedly shoots grandson eight times
- Could you be sued for texting with a driver? Experts say, ‘maybe’
Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook
Article source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11816964-mountain-lion-shot-killed-after-prowling-santa-monica-shopping-mall?lite
Sometimes the terror strikes Daniel Hibbard, a 29-year-old Army veteran of the Afghanistan war, when he’s driving and a song comes on the radio that he used to listen to while on patrol.
“I’ll be thinking and thinking and visualizing being back in combat and I’ll break down and cry,” he said.
Sometimes Hibbard is spooked at a bar or restaurant, where there are too many people and his back must be up against a wall. “I can feel something’s not right,” he said. “I’m always looking around.”
Hibbard served as a sergeant in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2006. While there, he shot and killed people, saw dead bodies and survived IED explosions and rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire.
These traumatic experiences have transformed the father of two. “When I joined, I was 20 years old and there weren’t a damn thing wrong with me,” Hibbard said. He joined in August 2003 and served for six years.
Hibbard, who lives in Louisville, Ky., has been twice diagnosed at Veterans Affairs facilities with post-traumatic stress disorder since 2010. But something unexpected happened last month: Hibbard received a letter reversing his PTSD diagnosis. His new diagnosis, which was assigned without an in-person examination or assessment, is personality disorder.
“It makes me feel like I’m being called a fraud, a fake,” Hibbard said of the diagnosis. “You might as well and go ahead and burn my record and say I was never in the military.”
Hibbard is contesting the decision, which will provide him with mental health care but strip him of PTSD-related financial benefits, with assistance from AMVETS, a nonprofit veterans’ organization that helps service members trying to secure claims, benefits and medical diagnoses.
Gene Brainer, the Louisville-based AMVETS national service officer who is handling Hibbard’s appeal, declined to discuss the specifics of the case, citing medical privacy regulations. He did say, however, that in the last several months VA doctors who review claims appear to be scrutinizing established medical findings more closely than in years past.
In particular, Brainer has noticed that the regional VA office has requested reviews for cases in which a veteran has already been evaluated by a board-certified doctor and given a diagnosis, which is used to determine monthly disability benefits. During a review, another board-certified doctor can issue a new diagnosis without seeing the veteran, thereby overturning the original doctor’s finding.
“They are putting their opinions, exam results and diagnosis above the findings of their counterparts and rationalizing that they were more thorough and probing in their review and examination than the attending psychological counselors,” he said of the reviewing doctors. Brainer, who has 20 years experience in the field, said he’s seen this happen with as many as six veterans in the Louisville area recently. Many of the reversals, he said, were for veterans awarded disability benefits at 100 percent of the entitlement rate.
The Department of Veterans Affairs does not track diagnosis reversals, but maintains that reviews are rare and conducted when it is not clear from the clinician’s examination or opinion that the diagnosis is correct.
“VA carefully considers the potential repercussions of any change in a previously assigned diagnosis,” Josh Taylor, a spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs, told msnbc.com in a statement. “When any change in an evaluation is to be made, particularly where a mental disorder is involved, VA strives to reconcile the evidence and continue the previous diagnosis. Only where the prior diagnosis is shown to be clearly erroneous, will VA make a correction.”
Taylor could not comment on Hibbard’s case because of medical privacy regulations, but said that one’s disability benefits can fluctuate as a mental illness worsens or improves over time.
Taylor also noted that in 2010 the VA simplified its PTSD diagnosis process and relaxed its standards for proving service-related PTSD. Since then, more veterans have been awarded PTSD-related mental health care and disability benefits. Of the 476,515 veterans who were receiving mental health services for PTSD in 2011, about 100,000 served in Iraq or Afghanistan, a 35 percent increase since 2008.
Jay Agg, a spokesman for AMVETS, told msnbc.com that the organization is concerned Hibbard’s reversal may not be isolated. Another AMVETS service officer in Cleveland, Ohio, reported several unusual reversals as well. Agg said, however, that the small number of reports don’t indicate a widespread practice in the context of the organization’s overall caseload; AMVETS handled 93,000 claims on behalf of veterans in 2011.
David Autry, a spokesman for Disabled American Veterans, which has 250 service officers nationwide filing claims on behalf of former service members, said the organization has noted recent anecdotal instances in which cases were re-evaluated and some veterans received a new diagnosis or different disability rating. “It certainly does concern us,” he said. “If it looks like it’s becoming more widespread, we’ll certainly have to take a hard look at it.” Veterans of Foreign Wars, which has 1,200-plus service officers around the country, has yet to see such cases.
AMVETS’ concern comes in the wake of the Army’s announcement last week that it will conduct a comprehensive, independent review of how it evaluates soldiers with possible PTSD. The latest reviews were triggered by revelations that the forensic psychiatry unit at Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state may have reversed more than 290 PTSD diagnoses based on the expense of providing care and benefits to members of the military.
In addition to the review, the Army announced in April new guidelines for diagnosing and treating PTSD, advising clinicians that fraudulent or exaggerated claims are “rare” and “unlikely.” The guidelines also cautioned against attributing current symptoms associated with PTSD to certain diagnoses like personality disorder and adjustment disorder.
When Hibbard was first diagnosed with PTSD in early 2010 at a Veterans Affairs clinic in El Paso, Texas, he was awarded a 30 percent disability entitlement. After relocating to Louisville, he received a second PTSD diagnosis in December 2011, which led to an increased rate of 50 percent, or $969 a month.
Surprised by the VA’s decision to overturn the previous two diagnoses, Hibbard called the VA and says he was told that his case was sent for review for a medical opinion. The letter, Hibbard said, described his PTSD as in remission, but he does not feel that is the case.
“I don’t know what a good day is like,” Hibbard said. “I guess a good day would be where I’m not hyper-vigilant, where I’m not trying to protect myself where there’s not a reason to. I’ve never really had a so-called good day.”
Hibbard’s treatment has included counseling, anger-management courses and anti-depressant medication. Hibbard currently works as a dispatch manager for a national moving and storage company. When he has difficulty dealing with the PTSD symptoms, he takes a long drive with his 13-month-old chocolate lab, Sam.
Since receiving the letter from the VA, Hibbard said his “stress has been through the roof.” The case will have a hearing, which he expects to be held in about a year.
What most upsets Hibbard is the idea of recounting his story yet again. “I’ve already had to talk about that stuff in detail twice,” he said. “It’s the stress of having to go back and relive all that stuff over again.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Are you a veteran whose PTSD diagnosis has been recently changed or reversed? Tell us your story at firstperson@msnbc.com.
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com and a 2011-2012 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow. Follow her on Twitter here.
More from msnbc.com:
- US veterans to return war medals in protest
- Video: ‘Got Your Six’ campaign takes up veteran issues
- Son defies odds to walk into returning soldier’s arms
- Facebook campaign remembers a fallen soldier
- Navy family starts unique deployment ritual
- Army program aims to predict soldiers’ resiliency
Article source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11744723-veteran-fights-va-to-keep-ptsd-diagnosis?lite
Three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents are under investigation after a Secret Service agent said the trio had hired prostitutes in Colombia, Justice Department officials confirmed to NBC News.
But the allegation of their activity was said to be separate from the incident involving Secret Service personnel, who also were in Cartagena, Colombia, for President Barack Obama’s visit in mid-April and hired prostitutes, according to NBC News.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration was provided information from the Secret Service unrelated to the Cartagena hotel Secret Service incident, which DEA immediately followed up on, making DEA employees available to be interviewed by the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General,” a DEA spokesman said. ”DEA takes allegations of misconduct very seriously and will take appropriate personnel action, if warranted, upon the conclusion of the OIG investigation.”
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement that she had been briefed about the involvement of two or more DEA agents on May 4 but was asked to withhold public comment until the agents could be taken out of Colombia and questioned.
“It’s disturbing that we may be uncovering a troubling culture that spans more than one law enforcement agency,” Collins said.
Rep. King says he won’t meet with Colombian prostitute at center of Secret Service scandal
According to CBS, the Justice Department is working with the DEA, the U.S. Secret Service, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service on the investigation.
Unlike the Secret Service, the DEA has permanent offices in Colombia.
Prostitution is legal in Colombia.
The Associated Press and NBC’s Pete Williams contributed to this report.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- UN nuclear chief: Deal reached with Iran over suspected weapons program
- Death of Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi ‘doesn’t close the book’
- ‘Massacre’: At least 90 killed as bomber targets military parade rehearsal in Yemen
- Pakistan blocks Twitter — but fails to stop tweets
- US student dies after going swimming at Scottish beach
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Article source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11809951-dea-agents-investigated-for-hiring-prostitutes-in-colombia?lite
Sometimes the terror strikes Daniel Hibbard, a 29-year-old Army veteran of the Afghanistan war, when he’s driving and a song comes on the radio that he used to listen to while on patrol.
“I’ll be thinking and thinking and visualizing being back in combat and I’ll break down and cry,” he said.
Sometimes Hibbard is spooked at a bar or restaurant, where there are too many people and his back must be up against a wall. “I can feel something’s not right,” he said. “I’m always looking around.”
Hibbard served as a sergeant in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2006. While there, he shot and killed people, saw dead bodies and survived IED explosions and rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire.
These traumatic experiences have transformed the father of two. “When I joined, I was 20 years old and there weren’t a damn thing wrong with me,” Hibbard said. He joined in August 2003 and served for six years.
Hibbard, who lives in Louisville, Ky., has been twice diagnosed at Veterans Affairs facilities with post-traumatic stress disorder since 2010. But something unexpected happened last month: Hibbard received a letter reversing his PTSD diagnosis. His new diagnosis, which was assigned without an in-person examination or assessment, is personality disorder.
“It makes me feel like I’m being called a fraud, a fake,” Hibbard said of the diagnosis. “You might as well and go ahead and burn my record and say I was never in the military.”
Hibbard is contesting the decision, which will provide him with mental health care but strip him of PTSD-related financial benefits, with assistance from AMVETS, a nonprofit veterans’ organization that helps service members trying to secure claims, benefits and medical diagnoses.
Gene Brainer, the Louisville-based AMVETS national service officer who is handling Hibbard’s appeal, declined to discuss the specifics of the case, citing medical privacy regulations. He did say, however, that in the last several months VA doctors who review claims appear to be scrutinizing established medical findings more closely than in years past.
In particular, Brainer has noticed that the regional VA office has requested reviews for cases in which a veteran has already been evaluated by a board-certified doctor and given a diagnosis, which is used to determine monthly disability benefits. During a review, another board-certified doctor can issue a new diagnosis without seeing the veteran, thereby overturning the original doctor’s finding.
“They are putting their opinions, exam results and diagnosis above the findings of their counterparts and rationalizing that they were more thorough and probing in their review and examination than the attending psychological counselors,” he said of the reviewing doctors. Brainer, who has 20 years experience in the field, said he’s seen this happen with as many as six veterans in the Louisville area recently. Many of the reversals, he said, were for veterans awarded disability benefits at 100 percent of the entitlement rate.
The Department of Veterans Affairs does not track diagnosis reversals, but maintains that reviews are rare and conducted when it is not clear from the clinician’s examination or opinion that the diagnosis is correct.
“VA carefully considers the potential repercussions of any change in a previously assigned diagnosis,” Josh Taylor, a spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs, told msnbc.com in a statement. “When any change in an evaluation is to be made, particularly where a mental disorder is involved, VA strives to reconcile the evidence and continue the previous diagnosis. Only where the prior diagnosis is shown to be clearly erroneous, will VA make a correction.”
Taylor could not comment on Hibbard’s case because of medical privacy regulations, but said that one’s disability benefits can fluctuate as a mental illness worsens or improves over time.
Taylor also noted that in 2010 the VA simplified its PTSD diagnosis process and relaxed its standards for proving service-related PTSD. Since then, more veterans have been awarded PTSD-related mental health care and disability benefits. Of the 476,515 veterans who were receiving mental health services for PTSD in 2011, about 100,000 served in Iraq or Afghanistan, a 35 percent increase since 2008.
Jay Agg, a spokesman for AMVETS, told msnbc.com that the organization is concerned Hibbard’s reversal may not be isolated. Another AMVETS service officer in Cleveland, Ohio, reported several unusual reversals as well. Agg said, however, that the small number of reports don’t indicate a widespread practice in the context of the organization’s overall caseload; AMVETS handled 93,000 claims on behalf of veterans in 2011.
David Autry, a spokesman for Disabled American Veterans, which has 250 service officers nationwide filing claims on behalf of former service members, said the organization has noted recent anecdotal instances in which cases were re-evaluated and some veterans received a new diagnosis or different disability rating. “It certainly does concern us,” he said. “If it looks like it’s becoming more widespread, we’ll certainly have to take a hard look at it.” Veterans of Foreign Wars, which has 1,200-plus service officers around the country, has yet to see such cases.
AMVETS’ concern comes in the wake of the Army’s announcement last week that it will conduct a comprehensive, independent review of how it evaluates soldiers with possible PTSD. The latest reviews were triggered by revelations that the forensic psychiatry unit at Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state may have reversed more than 290 PTSD diagnoses based on the expense of providing care and benefits to members of the military.
In addition to the review, the Army announced in April new guidelines for diagnosing and treating PTSD, advising clinicians that fraudulent or exaggerated claims are “rare” and “unlikely.” The guidelines also cautioned against attributing current symptoms associated with PTSD to certain diagnoses like personality disorder and adjustment disorder.
When Hibbard was first diagnosed with PTSD in early 2010 at a Veterans Affairs clinic in El Paso, Texas, he was awarded a 30 percent disability entitlement. After relocating to Louisville, he received a second PTSD diagnosis in December 2011, which led to an increased rate of 50 percent, or $969 a month.
Surprised by the VA’s decision to overturn the previous two diagnoses, Hibbard called the VA and says he was told that his case was sent for review for a medical opinion. The letter, Hibbard said, described his PTSD as in remission, but he does not feel that is the case.
“I don’t know what a good day is like,” Hibbard said. “I guess a good day would be where I’m not hyper-vigilant, where I’m not trying to protect myself where there’s not a reason to. I’ve never really had a so-called good day.”
Hibbard’s treatment has included counseling, anger-management courses and anti-depressant medication. Hibbard currently works as a dispatch manager for a national moving and storage company. When he has difficulty dealing with the PTSD symptoms, he takes a long drive with his 13-month-old chocolate lab, Sam.
Since receiving the letter from the VA, Hibbard said his “stress has been through the roof.” The case will have a hearing, which he expects to be held in about a year.
What most upsets Hibbard is the idea of recounting his story yet again. “I’ve already had to talk about that stuff in detail twice,” he said. “It’s the stress of having to go back and relive all that stuff over again.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Are you a veteran whose PTSD diagnosis has been recently changed or reversed? Tell us your story at firstperson@msnbc.com.
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com and a 2011-2012 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow. Follow her on Twitter here.
More from msnbc.com:
- US veterans to return war medals in protest
- Video: ‘Got Your Six’ campaign takes up veteran issues
- Son defies odds to walk into returning soldier’s arms
- Facebook campaign remembers a fallen soldier
- Navy family starts unique deployment ritual
- Army program aims to predict soldiers’ resiliency
Article source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11744723-veteran-fights-va-to-keep-ptsd-diagnosis?lite
Three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents are under investigation after a Secret Service agent said the trio had hired prostitutes in Colombia, Justice Department officials confirmed to NBC News.
But the allegation of their activity was said to be separate from the incident involving Secret Service personnel, who also were in Cartagena, Colombia, for President Barack Obama’s visit in mid-April and hired prostitutes, according to NBC News.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration was provided information from the Secret Service unrelated to the Cartagena hotel Secret Service incident, which DEA immediately followed up on, making DEA employees available to be interviewed by the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General,” a DEA spokesman said. ”DEA takes allegations of misconduct very seriously and will take appropriate personnel action, if warranted, upon the conclusion of the OIG investigation.”
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement that she had been briefed about the involvement of two or more DEA agents on May 4 but was asked to withhold public comment until the agents could be taken out of Colombia and questioned.
“It’s disturbing that we may be uncovering a troubling culture that spans more than one law enforcement agency,” Collins said.
Rep. King says he won’t meet with Colombian prostitute at center of Secret Service scandal
According to CBS, the Justice Department is working with the DEA, the U.S. Secret Service, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service on the investigation.
Unlike the Secret Service, the DEA has permanent offices in Colombia.
Prostitution is legal in Colombia.
The Associated Press and NBC’s Pete Williams contributed to this report.
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Article source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11809951-dea-agents-investigated-for-hiring-prostitutes-in-colombia?lite
Updated 9:45 p.m. — Mitt Romney won the Kentucky and Arkansas Republican primaries on Tuesday, moving him closer to winning the delegates necessarily to formally secure the GOP presidential nomination.
The Associated Press projected Romney as the winner in Kentucky earlier in the evening on Tuesday. The AP also called the Arkansas primary for Romney.
A total of 75 delegates were up for grabs in the two contests. Romney had won 1,055 of the 1,144 delegates he needed to secure the nomination with his wins in Arkansas and Kentucky.
Article source: http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11817733-romney-wins-kentucky-gop-primary?lite
Updated 9:45 p.m. — Mitt Romney won the Kentucky and Arkansas Republican primaries on Tuesday, moving him closer to winning the delegates necessarily to formally secure the GOP presidential nomination.
The Associated Press projected Romney as the winner in Kentucky earlier in the evening on Tuesday. The AP also called the Arkansas primary for Romney.
A total of 75 delegates were up for grabs in the two contests. Romney had won 1,055 of the 1,144 delegates he needed to secure the nomination with his wins in Arkansas and Kentucky.
Article source: http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11817733-romney-wins-kentucky-gop-primary?lite