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Today's Globe: flu shots, stored blood, melamine in eggs, aspirin-supplement pill

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Elizabeth Cooney October 29, 2008 06:55 AM

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With a bumper crop of flu vaccine expected this year - more than 140 million doses - and the clock ticking to get it into people before influenza strikes, disease fighters are no longer content to rely on doctors to dispense shots in their offices. So there's vaccine at schools and, come election day, vaccine at the polls and, at spots across the country, vaccine jabbed into the bare arms of drivers and passengers as they sit in their sedans, vans, and trucks.

Hospitalized patients who received blood that had been stored for more than four weeks were nearly three times as likely to develop infections as those who received fresher blood, researchers said yesterday.

Wal-Mart pulled a brand of eggs from all its stores in China yesterday after tests in Hong Kong found they were tainted with melamine, the same toxic chemical blamed for sickening tens of thousands of babies.

Pills made by Bayer AG that combine aspirin with dietary supplements to fight osteoporosis and high cholesterol are being sold illegally and could harm consumers, US regulators said (second item).

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About white coat notes

White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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