World News
Nader’s group attacks
medical professions
WASHINGTON AP-A study
group sponsored by Ralph Nader
said Sunday that the U S. medical
profession does not merit the
trust placed in it, primarily
because patients cannot be
reasonably sure of receiving
competent care.
The study group, composed of a
former federal health official and
students from law and medicine,
proposed that the federal
government take over the setting
of standards for medical care in
hospitals and doctors' offices.
“Although the world’s best
medical care has always been
practiced in the United States,
the almost complete lack of in
ternal quality control within the
medical profession has also
allowed a large measure of very
poor medicine to be practiced,”
the report said.
“Every citizen is at the mercy
of a system devoid of uniform,
enforced standard of quality and
must run the risks implied in the
statistics of uneven levels of care
Photos of Britisher
released by FLQ
MONTREAL AP-Canadian
newspapers published Sunday
four different photographs that
appeared to be of kidnaped
British Trade Commissioner
James Cross who is being held
hostage by terrorists, a cell of the
Quebec Liberation Front.
The pictures, sent out by the
Front, known as the FLQ for the
initials of its name in French,
apparently meant to show that
Cross, 59, who was kidnaped Oct.
5, is alive and well.
Quebec’s labor minister,
Pierre Laporte, was kidnaped by
FLQ terrorists Oct. 10 and
strangled a week later. A 19-year
old student, Bernard Lortie, was
arrested by police Friday and
told a coroner’s inquest that he
and three other FLQ members
abducted Laporte from his home.
Lortie said, however, that he had
left the hideout house in suburban
St. Hubert the day before the
labor minister was killed
One of the photos purportedly
of Cross was received along with
a note by the newspaper Journal
de Montreal. Contents of the note
were not revealed by either the
newspaper or authorities.
The Associatzd Press in New
York also received a photo and
communique through the mails
Saturday. The statement gave no
information about Cross but said
the FLQ was “determined to
carry out a revolution.” The two
other pictures were received
Wednesday and Saturday by the
weekly Quebec Presse.
Two of the pictures showed the
man believed to be Cross sitting
on a box playing cards, in a third
the subject is reading a
newspaper and in the fourth he is
looking directly at the camera. A
message on the back of one of the
photos said the box in which
Cross was sitting contained
dynamite.
among hospitals and
physicians.”
The report criticized the
federal government, state
medical societies and licensing
officials and national
organizations like the American
Medical Association and the Joint
Commission on Accreditation of
Hospitals. It accused them of
recognizing “a developing crisis
in our health care system” but
failing to take rapid action or
proposing ineffective measures.
The AMA issued a statement
defending its record, saying:
“We are working almost con
tinually with the Congress and
the executive branch of the
federal government to promote
quality and cost controls.”
“The report appears to be
comprehensive and deserving of
the objective consideration which
we will give it,” said the AMA.
“On a hasty perusal, some of its
recommendations appear
to have merit while others raise
questions.”
The study group was headed by
Dr. Robert McCleery, a
diplomate of the American Board
of Surgery and former deputy
director of the Food and Drug
Administration’s bureau of
medicine. McCleery, 57, has also
been in private practice and has
served on the staff of
congressional committees.
The report noted that medical
care is one area where people
cannot judge for themselves the
quality of the service they
receive. For this reason, the
medical profession has a unique
responsibility to make sure that
the system is monitored to weed
out poor quality care. Monitoring
is poor, if it exists at all, the
report concluded.
News Roundup
from AP reports
WASHINGTON—Sen. Edmund Muskie, D-Maine, said
Sunday that “in a tentative, limited way” he has started to
sound out Democratic leaders as to the chances of their
supporting him as the party’s 1962 presidential candidate.
But Muskie, who was re-elected last Tuesday to a third term
as Maine’s senator, said that “effort obviously has to be
expanded and escalated” if he does make up his mind to run
for president. Muskie declined to name the persons he has
contacted and said it has been “too limited” a list. “To reveal
it would misrepresent the nature of my interests and my
drive in this connection,” he said.
JERUSALEM—Israel’s Cabinet met in regular session
Sunday and reportedly discussed the possibilities of rejoining
United Nations peace talks with Egypt and Jordan.
Authoritative sources said Premier Golda Meir and her
ministers considered conditions under which Israel might
return to the talks, but no concrete proposals were raised.
DETROIT—The answer to whether the United Auto
Workers’ eight-week-old strike against General Motors will
end shortly or continue possibly beyond Christmas is likely to
come within the next 48 hours. GM Vice President Earl
Bramblett said Oct. 27 that unless settlement were reached
within two weeks it would be impossible for GM to return to
full production in November. That two weeks will be up
Tuesday.
MOSCOW—Communist China, in anniversary greetings
published here Sunday declared that “fundamental
questions” with the Soviet Union should not hinder the
growth of normal’ relations between the two governments.
A telegram printed in the Communist party newspaper
Pravda marking the 53rd anniversary of the Bolshevik
Revolution, reflected easing of tensions between the Com
munist neighbors.
CAIRO—Sudan accused the United States and Israel
Sunday of airlifting white mercenaries and heavy arms to the
southern Sudanese rebellion in a large-scale operation aimed
at forcing Sudan out of the Arab alliance against Israel. Maj.
Gen. Khaled Hassan Abbas, Sudan’s defense minister, told a
news conference in Khartoum reported by Egypt’s official
Middle East news agency that Sudanese forces recently
captured four important strongholds in Equatoria province,
including a fully equipped airstrip and large quantities of
arms and ammunition, thereby “breaking the back” of the
14-year-old rebellion.
Clinical proof
Speed cause of artery blocking disease
Editor's note: This is the concluding part of a story
reporting the results of medical research which
discovered methamphetamine to be the cause of a
disease which destroys arteries leading to major organs.
Part one was printed in Friday's Emerald.
l.OS ANGELES AP—Eight doctors reported
Thursday a newly discovered, sometimes fatal disease
among users of dangerous drugs—especially
Methamphetamine, known to drug users as "speed” or
“meth.”
By conservative estimate, 10 per cent of "speed"
users will get the disease, one of the doctors said.
"Meth" or “speed” comes in white or varicolored
tablets and also in a clear to yellow liquid.
“Deaths occurring in young people using a large
variety of drugs have often remained unexplained," the
report said
The disease destroys arteries leading to major
organs kidneys, stomach, small intestine, liver pan
creas and other organs, the doctors said.
The doctors said the disease resembles another
called periarteris nodosa, also a disease of the arteries.
Dr Philip Citron, a member of the medical team, was
asked if the 30 patients who apparently had necrotizing
angiitis -among the total of 50 studied—would die.
"If it's like periarteritis nodosa—and I think it is—
they probably will," he said. "With treatment we can
control many of the symptoms, but we think it probably
will be fatal to them
"With the classic form - periarteritis nodosa—about
half will live five years. It's too early to start speculating
about how long those people are going to live ". . ,
"Periarteritis nodosa has been known for over 100
years. It involves people in their 40s and 50s, four to one
males. It is a progressive disease with a high rate of
mortality: over 50 per cent in patients who are treated,
87 per cent in patients who are untreated. However, the
most recent article states it is a uniformly fatal disease.
“In drug-abuse patients we see they have identical
lesions—changes in arteries—on autopsy. The clinical
appearance is identical.
“The major difference is in the age group. Instead of
40- and 50-year-olds we're dealing with teen-agers and
20-year-olds.”
What do autopsies on victims of the newly found
disease show?
“The kidneys are usually small and heavily
scarred." said Citron. “There’s usually blockage of the
arteries, the blood vessels leading to or inside the organ.
“There's also an appearance like strings of sausages
in some vessels, on both X-ray and autopsy. The vessel
narrows so much as to occlude the passage of blood.”
Of the total of 50 patients now examined, ap
proximately 30 have evidence of changes in their ar
teries. Citron said.
Does that mean they have the disease1’ “Most likely,
yes That's 60 per cent incidence. But even with 50
patients it's difficult to say what the incidence of this
disease will be among drug users generally.
“In a thousand cases it might not run 60 per cent. We
hope it wouldn't run over 10 per cent. But we have little
to base that hope on."
Citron, who wrote the team's report continued:
"One of the most disquieting things about this whole
study is that in the original 14, five patients had no
symptoms related to this disease. They came to the
hospital with other problems. One had a broken thumb.
Several had taken overdoses of barbiturates.
"It’s disquieting because here we have patients
without any symptoms who do have severe disease.
They have gone on to develop symptoms.”
One additional death has occurred among the 50
cases. The victim was male.
Of the original 14 patients studied, six were female,
eight male. Of the first four who died, three were young
women, one a man.
But "no one so far has developed the disease from
taking what we consider normal doses,” Citron said.
He said the 50 patients were taking the preparation
“in a drug-abuse manner.”
“They get what they call ’the rush,' a heightened
feeling of awareness, and apparently lose the anxieties
associated with day-to-day living,” Citron said.
He said the drug, called “bennies” in one form, is
often used in competitive sports by athletes who think it
increases physical ability, and by students staying
awake to study for exams.
Citron said drug-abusers quickly build up a
tolerance to the drug and go on from normal to stronger
doses.
He said the researchers have little evidence as to
what causes the action on blood vessels.
He said the researchers have little evidence as to
what causes the action on blood vessels. “It could be due
to the drug itself," he said, “or the fact that metham
phetamine causes a release of norepinephrin, a sub
stance similar to adrenalin.”