U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FDA Consumer magazine
January-February 2002
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As part of a heightened awareness of bioterrorism threats that began in October with the discovery of anthrax-tainted letters, the FDA has created a special Web site that links to background about bioterrorism and offers a quick study on the subject. The page, at www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/bioterrorism.html, links to FDA information on use of anthrax drugs by pregnant women, treating potential outbreaks, and the safety of the food supply. Links to information from other government sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Library of Medicine, and the Department of Defense also can be found at the site. For example, you can learn what to do if you find a suspicious letter, what the differences are between anthrax and the flu, and if you should buy anthrax-treating antibiotics such as Cipro through online vendors. If you still have questions, the page also has a special section with questions and answers on food contamination, vaccines, and various other bioterrorism topics.
Half of all U.S. high school students have had sexual intercourse. About 17 percent of all high school students carried a weapon in the last month. Nearly 19 percent of high school students seriously considered suicide in the last year. Seventy percent of all high school students have tried smoking at least once.
These sobering facts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underscore the importance of programs aimed at reducing potentially dangerous behavior among children of high school age. The CDC, through its Adolescent and School Health program, has created a Web site to further understanding of what's being done to cut down on these risky teen activities.
At www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/, the site reviews the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which gleans teen behavior data through periodic studies of students nationwide who describe their behaviors candidly in questionnaires. One section of the site compares statistics from all studies dating back to 1991 and offers a free CD-ROM with data from 1999, the most recent year in which study data have been compiled and analyzed. Also on the site is an overview of how school health programs are effectively shaping the health and social well-being of teen-age students.
Disease-causing microbes that have become resistant to drug therapy are an increasing public health problem. Many diseases--tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and childhood ear infections, for example--have become difficult to treat with antibiotic drugs. In fact, about 70 percent of bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one of the drugs most commonly used to treat infections. This is because bacteria and other infection-causing organisms can develop ways to survive drugs meant to kill or weaken them. This condition, called antibiotic resistance, is the subject of an FDA Web site that offers information from the FDA and other sources.
At www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/anti_resist.html, the site helps explain antibiotic resistance with a pair of informative articles from FDA Consumer magazine, a list of tips for preventing the problem, fact sheets, and frequently asked questions. Health professionals and industry users will find materials such as the conclusions of an FDA task force that reviewed the problem, as well as a government-wide public health plan that examines factors such as antibiotic resistance control, research, and product development. The site also links to pages that describe a national system for monitoring the antibiotic resistance problem.
Interested in giving something back to your community? Do you have a special skill that you could lend to help others? If so, dozens of opportunities are available through volunteer programs run by federal agencies and private organizations. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has created a gateway site that makes it easy to examine many of these programs. Whether your skills are in reading instruction, science education, the outdoors, or working with kids or seniors, there's an activity you can assist with. Helpers are needed for jobs such as monitoring water quality, land management, and leading tours of park areas. The HUD site also links to volunteer positions in organizations such as the American Cancer Society, the American Red Cross, and Habitat for Humanity (which builds homes for needy folks). Interested? Check out the opportunities at www.hud.gov/volunteering/index.cfm#Federal.
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2001-DEC-19.