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Each March, Brain Injury Awareness Month helps to increase public awareness of brain injuries and their consequences and to address the needs of individuals living with brain injury, their family members, and caregivers.
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Each year in this country, at least 1.4 million persons sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI). In addition, 5.3 million Americans, approximately 2 percent of the U.S. population, have a long-term or lifelong need for help to perform activities of daily living as a result of a TBI. In recognition of Brain Injury Awareness Month and in response to this important public health issue, the Brain Injury Association of America, with support from CDC, is offering educational kits that include: 1) a TBI fact sheet, 2) three booklets with information for people living with TBI, their family members and caregivers and 3) a guide on how to initiate brain injury awareness activities and events.
Each year, approximately 1.4 million Americans sustain a TBI; of these approximately 50,000 die; 235,000 are hospitalized and survive, and 80,000 to 90,000 experience the onset of a long-term disability.
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CDC is releasing 2002 surveillance data that studied traumatic brain injury (TBI) in 12 states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah). CDC researchers found that TBI rates varied significantly across the states that participated in this study (50.6 to 96.9 per 100,000 persons). The two leading causes of TBI were falls particularly among older persons; and motor vehicle accidents, mostly among persons in their late teens and early twenties. Overall, males were twice as likely to be hospitalized for TBI’s as females (105.3 vs. 53.4)
Children should never receive edetate disodium (Na2EDTA) as an intravenous chelating agent.
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This report describes 3 deaths–a child in Texas, a child in Pennsylvania, and an adult in Orgeon–associated with chelation therapy using EDTA administered intravenously. All deaths were due to cardiac arrest induced by hypocalcemia. The 2 children had received edetate disodium (Na2EDTA) instead of edetate calcium disodium (CaEDTA), the appropriate agent. It has not been determined which form of EDTA was administered in the adult death. Health practitioners considering chelation therapy should consult with an expert in the chemotherapy of lead and heavy metals. Children should never receive edetate disodium (Na2EDTA) as an intravenous chelating agent. Hospitals should evaluate whether edetate disodium should remain on hospital formuaries.
Recognizing the risk for rabies from direct exposure to bats and other wildlife is critical, and persons must seek prompt medical evaluation if an exposure occurs.
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This MMWR article reports the death of a Mississippi child from rabies encephalitis. The child had fever and headache on September 11, 2005, and was hospitalized 2 days later for suspected encephalitis. He died on September 27. The patient’s serum was submitted to CDC for additional diagnostic testing and on October 5, CDC diagnosed rabies. A public health investigation revealed that bats were commonly observed outside the family home, and on two occasions, dead bats were found inside the home and attached garage. The boy had removed a live bat from his bedroom and released it outdoors in the spring of 2005. Based on these findings, contact with a bat at the patient’s home was determined to be the likely source of rabies infection in this case.
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