Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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STATE BRIEFS Doctors say get a flu shot for U.S A COLUMBIA - Doctors say people need to roll up their sleeves for the U.S.A., but they aren’t extolling hard labor. Instead, they say get a flu . shot. “It’s your patriotic duty,” said Dr. Eric Brenner, an infectious disease specialist with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. The reason is simple. Not only can a flu shot prevent influenza, which killed 20,000 people in the United States last year, but also the fewer people who get the flu, the fewer likely to clog emergency rooms, clinics ana doctors’ offices wondering if their symptoms mean they have influenza or inhalable anthrax. Health officials said South Carolina can handle a larger demand for flu vaccines. There has been no reported shortage of vaccine for state clinics this year. Last year, flu vaccine was so sparse that clinics were asked to not give shots to otherwise healthy people until November. DHEC ordered 137,000 doses of flu vaccine this year, 17,000 more than in previous years. Greene expects DHEC’s health clinics in all 46 South Carolina counties will be able to keep up with demand. Last year, about 120,000 shots were administered at the clinics, mostly to high-risk patients, especially those older than 65. IT HAPPENED NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSEIX END TO PRIVATE CONTRIBUTIONS: The state Commerce Department won’t offer pay sweeteners to its employees through outside contributions from the private sector any longer. Commerce Secretary Charlie Way says he has changed the practice he used to gain extra money for Wayne Sterling, the economic development agency’s former chief of staff. DELIBERATION IN MURDER TRIAL BEGINS: Jurors in the capital murder trial of James Baughman will begin deliberating the case Tuesday morning. The Windsor man is accused of killing two people in Pea Ridge in October 1999. Prosecutors drew on testimony from a former co defendant, who said she watched Baughman kill Joanne Kneece and her former husband, James Suggs. Tri-County Jr.-Sr. High School, where a football player had the first confirmed case of the disease, played Wilber-Clatonia High School on Oct. 19. Wilber-Clatonia then played Lincoln Lutheran High School on Oct. 25. The latest known victim, 15-year-old Dan Ziegler of Lincoln Lutheran, became ill with what his father described as flu-like symptoms Nov. 1. Meningitis is a potentially fatal bacterial illness that attacks the brain and spinal - cord. Symptoms include the sudden onset of fever, intense headache, stitf neck and nausea. The spinal form of meningitis typically can only be spread through the exchange of saliva or other body fluids. IT HAPPENED NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED SEC WARNINGS ON TERRORISM-FIGHTING PRODUCTS: The Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors Tuesday to be wary of claims of valuable products useful in fighting terrorism, as it suspended trading in stock of a company claiming it is testing a disinfectant for anthrax. AIRLINES HELPING FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM: Five international airlines, including Egypt Air and Kuwait Airways, have agreed to voluntarily turn over to the U.S. Customs Service advance lists of passengers to screen for possible terrorists. Under the announcement made by the Customs Service on Tuesday, the five airlines would join a host of other carriers that voluntarily provide such information to the agency. WORLD BRIEFS German chancellor offers troops to U.S. BERLIN — Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder offered up to 3,900 German troops for the U.S. war on terrorism Tuesday, backing up Germany’s pledge of solidarity with the United States. The historic offer to ready -German troops could lead to the nation’s widest-ranging military engagement since World War II. But reflecting Germany’s reluctance to become embroiled in combat, Schroeder said there are no immediate plans to deploy ground troops. “This is an important, fundamental and - if you like - historic decision,” Schroeder said. Germany’s participation would include help combating nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; about 100 special forces; medical evacuation services; air transport; and naval forces to protect shipping lanes, Schroeder told a news conference. Britain has been Washington’s staunchest NATO ally in the anti-terror campaign, flying refueling and reconnaissance rpissions in support of U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan. It had also fired Tomahawk cruise missiles from a submarine in the Arabian Sea. Canada, another major contributor, has provided ships, aircraft, special forces and 2,000 other personnel. Italy has offered to supply an armored regiment, attack helicopters, fighter jets and specialists in nuclear, chemical and germ warfare for the coalition. IT HAPPENED NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED MORE CONFLICT, HOPE IN ISRAEL: Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli army outpost in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, and three Palestinians and one Israeli were killed in an incident that prompted Palestinian calls for an international investigation. The violence came as Israeli officials confirmed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were discussing a new peace initiative. CUBA TOTALING MICHELLE’S CASUALTIES, DAMAGES: Hurricane Michelle destroyed at least 2,000 homes and damaged another 8,000 in central Cuba, officials said Tuesday as they began totaling the damage from the weekend storm that killed five people nationwide. Postal workers line up outside DC General Hospital, Tuesday, October 24, 2001, to be tested for anthrax in the wake of contaminated letters, photo by chuck kennedy/krt campus Anthrax Three recover from inhalation anthrax CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 duced business in the eight weeks since Sept. 11. He said it is working to cope with the costs of medical care for postal workers, testing and cleanup of facilities, extra costs for mail handling while the airlines were ground ed and changes in postal facili ties to increase the security of the mail. Four people have died of in haled anthrax since the mail at tacks began, including Kathy Nguyen, a New York woman with no apparent connection to the mail or the media or govern^ ment, which have been the focus of the attacks. Her funeral was Monday. There was good news Monday for Norma Wallace of Willingboro, N.J., a postal worker who went home from the hospital after a three-week bout with inhaled an thrax. “I have an obligation to ex plain that even though we have been confronted with a deadly disease, there is hope,” she said. Wallace is the third inhaled anthrax victim to recover and leave the hospital; three others remain under hospital care. There have also been several cas es of the less-severe skin form of the disease. Medical center coming to MUSC ASSOCIATED CHESS CHARLESTON, S.C. - Architects soon will begin plan ning for a new medical center for the Medical University of South Carolina—a hospital that could cost $700 million and might be located off the Charleston peninsula. As designers work, univer sity officials will wrestle with how to pay for the building, which is not expected to open for at least six years. The new hospital would have 700 beds and a strategic plan for building it is expected to be completed in a year, said Stuart Smith, executive direc tor of the Medical University Hospital Authority, which runs the medical center. One of the most difficult questions is where to build. MUSC always has been on the peninsula, but some hospi tal officials don’t think it makes sense to build on cam pus with little space and build ing height restrictions in downtown Charleston. The population of the area also is moving east to Mount Pleasant and northwest to Summerville. The best location would be off the peninsula, Dr. Ray Greenberg, the university’s president, has said. School officials also said that a new hospital probably will be built in phases to spread its costs over a longer time. The new facility is being planned at a time when more hospital beds will be needed across South Carolina as baby boomers grow older. “As people age, they have a higher prevalence of using the health care system,” said Lynn Bailey, a Columbia health care consultant. “When you get them in the hospital, you’re dealing with sicker patients.” Bailey said the hospital probably will have to be built off the peninsula. The current facility and its location are un acceptable, she said. ♦ MUSC, SEE PAGE 6 ANTHRAX UPDATE ASSOCIATED PRESS Developments Tuesday relat ed to the anthrax cases: ♦ Eight days after the most re cent anthrax diagnosis, a top fed eral health official says the worst may be over. “For this episode, we’re out of the woods,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. ♦ Officials abandon plans to use chlorine dioxide gas to kill an thrax found in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s office amid fears it may not work. They say the building will not reopen be fore Nov. 21. ♦ The hospital that employed New York’s only anthrax fatality reopens. Authorities say they are using Kathy Nguyen’s subway card to try to reconstruct the last two weeks of her life, and that they believe it took many spores to kill her. ♦ Pentagon officials say there is no indication that spores found in two Pentagon postal boxes mi grated to other parts of the mili tary complex. Spot checks test negative for anthrax. ♦ Postal Service hires a sec ond company to cleanse mail by irradiation. The chief postal in spector says investigators are following up on more than 300 leads. ATTACKS UPDATE ASSOCIATED PRESS Developments Tuesday relat ed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: ♦ President Bush said Osama bin Laden seeks chemical, bio logical and nuclear weapons to pursue “mad global ambitions.” Bush said America needs action from its allies, not merely sym pathy, to stop bin Laden. ♦ After U.S. warplanes cleared the way with intensive bombing, Afghan opposition forces claimed the capture of several key towns on the road to Mazar-e-Sharif. It is their first reported significant advance against Taliban defens es. ♦ Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said American efforts to coordinate with rebel forces in Afghanistan to topple the Taliban are gradually expanding but face more pitfalls. ♦ Rumsfeld said the United States has more than doubled the number of its special forces troops on the ground in Afghanistan in the past week. Pentagon officials say the total remains below 100. ♦ German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pledged up to 3,900 German troops for the U.S. war on terrorism, pushing the nation toward its most far-reaching par ticipation in military action since World War II. ♦ Iran’s foreign minister criti cized Turkey for deciding to send special^forces to Afghanistan to fight in the U.S.-led campaign. NATION BRIEFS Football players get spinal meningitis LINCOLN, NEB.-An outbreak of spinal meningitis in southeast Nebraska might Have spread between football players at two recent high school games, health officials said. Four cases involved football players at three high schools. All had been hospitalized in the past two weeks; two remain in the hospital. ' “It looks like this could very easily have gone from one football player to another,” state epidemiologist Tom Safranek said Monday. You pick up a lot of important survival tools in ROTC. Starting with a tuition check. First things first. 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