NEW DELHI – Mahatma Gandhi, father of India and beacon of nonviolence, eschewed personal property. Yet a proposed auction of his goods in New York on Thursday sparked a furor in India and nearly caused an international incident.
People waiting for an organ transplant in the Inland Northwest would wait even longer under a plan proposed by the federal government, area transplant doctors say.
The plan announced Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services would eliminate the current organ-allocation system. That system divides the nation into regions and gives potential recipients priority for receiving organs donated in the same region.
Dr. Fred Shaw, who has studied hepatitis A since 1983, outlines the risk factors associated with reported cases of the virus in the United States during a meeting Wednesday at the Spokane Regional Health District. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review
A nationally recognized expert in hepatitis A and the state's chief epidemiologist will talk about the virus today at the Spokane Regional Health District.
"We're hoping we can put Spokane in the national perspective," Dr. Kim Thorburn, health officer for the district, said of the public meeting.
Nurses and management at Sacred Heart Medical Center reached a tentative contract agreement Thursday.
Hours earlier, nurses overwhelmingly had voted to reject a prior contract offer and authorize a strike.
If an agreement hadn't been reached Thursday, the nurses probably would have given the hospital a 10-day strike notice.
Tara Pool holds her 5-year-old son, Shea, while Spokane Regional Health District nurse Judy Miller delivers a shot of hepatitis A vaccine Thursday. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review
For the first time, the Spokane health district is publicly urging all 410,000 county residents to be vaccinated against hepatitis A. The countywide "call to action" was issued Wednesday afternoon because of the virus outbreak, which began last year.
More than 120 people have tested positive for hepatitis A so far this year, compared with 190 in all of 1997.
