Nordstrom Cafe Food Handler Diagnosed With Typhoid Fever

Categories: Food, Health

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Not exactly how you want to spend your Saturday
San Francisco public health officials are warning anyone who might have eaten at Nordstrom Cafe last month that they could have come in contact with typhoid fever.

In other words, if you have been feeling sick, accompanied by fever, weakness, stomach pains, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or loss of appetite, then you should see a doctor ASAP.

According to the Health Department, a worker at the cafe, located in Stonestown Galleria, was diagnosed with typhoid fever that he may have contracted during a trip outside the United States.

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Nevada Sends S.F. Trove of Public Records Related to "Patient Dumping"

Categories: Health, Politics

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City Attorney Dennis Herrera
To many Californians, perhaps the only thing more outrageous than the idea of Nevada dumping hundreds of mentally ill patients into the Golden State is the idea that Nevada's Governor would have the audacity to deny it.

But last week, Gov. Brian Sandoval did just that, acknowledging no more than one instance of the state-run Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital improperly discharging a patient. City Attorney Dennis Herrera, though, is not buying it -- his office launched an investigation into the matter.

And now he may have some of the documents necessary to prove his case.

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Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval Denies Dumping More Than One Patient From Psych Hospital

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said no more than one patient was dumped
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval says indeed his state did improperly discharge one mentally ill patient from a state-run hospital, but no more than that -- and it was accidental.

According to Reuters
, the republican governor defended his state, and denied accusations that Nevada had been busing hundreds of mentally ill patients to California, including San Francisco, a practice known as "patient dumping."

Sandoval admitted that the state-run Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital "improperly discharged" at least one mentally ill man, but said that a new discharge policy was enacted recently to prevent these kinds of missteps.

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Pollution Report: San Francisco Can Breathe Easy. No, Really, It Can!

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Golden Fog/Flickr via creative commons
That's fog, not smog
If walking the hills of San Francisco to get to your parked car leaves you totally breathless, well, sadly, it's you, not the city.

The American Lung Association this morning released its latest air report, showing that San Francisco has some pretty damn clean air. Not only did we "pass" our annual particle pollution test, but we got an "A" on our ozone grade. That means San Francisco had no days of violations of the federal air quality standard for ozone between 2009 and 2011. The current standard is 75 parts per million measured over 8 hours.

That's good news for everyone, and great news for the 59,153 adults living with asthma.

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City Attorney Says "Patient Dumping" Is a Problem for San Francisco

Categories: Health

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We're sure Greyhound appreciates this kind of advertising
This morning, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera launched an investigation into Nevada's nefarious practice of "patient dumping." The Sacramento Bee reported earlier this month that the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services has been busing mentally ill patients to other cities, including San Francisco, where they're abandoning them without food, shelter, or proper medical care.

The Bee revealed that a single state psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas had paid for the transportation of more than 1,500 patients in the past five years. One patient, James Flavy Coy Brown, told The Bee that he was given a one-way Greyhound ticket to Sacramento, as well as snacks and only three days of medication. His doctor advised him to call 911 when he landed in Sacramento where he would receive "excellent health care and more benefits than you could ever get in Nevada."

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Are You Tired of Being Tired? S.F. Sleep Movement Might Help You Snooze

Categories: Health, Only in SF

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Don't you wish you could?
Are you that person who hops BART after a long day of work, headed for downtown Oakland, but winds up in Fremont because your so damn tired that you fell asleep on the train?

If just reading that last paragraph makes you cranky and irritable, then you could probably use an extra few hours of sleep. Sadly, you can't do anything about that now, except read on.

Other folks who are cranky and irritable about their ongoing sleep deprivation have started a pajama-wearing movement that is meant to help you add a few extra ZZZZZs to your night.

See Also: Here's How Cuddling Can Save Your Life.

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Planned Parenthood Finally Returns to Oakland After Long Hiatus

Categories: Health

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Hello, Oakland
For the last two years, Oakland has been without its own Planned Parenthood, which meant patients had to trek to Walnut Creek, El Cerrito, or San Francisco in order to receive care. But trek no more -- Planned Parenthood has opened its doors in Oakland again.

Planned Parenthood clinics vanished from the East Bay city in late 2010, when Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, one of the regional affiliates of the nationwide service provider, mismanaged funding and eventually filed for bankruptcy. The PPGG-operated Tenderloin clinic was also shut down, and two other affiliates -- Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte -- decided to absorb the territory.


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City Attorney Dennis Herrera Calls for Stricter Federal Regulations on Energy Drinks

Categories: Health

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Looks like a lot of reading there. Perhaps an energy drink to liven up?
There is less waiting these days. Cross the country in six hours. Exchange correspondence within seconds. Buy the new Jordan's with a click from the couch.

The few stretches of waiting -- 20 seconds on the elevator, three minutes at the taco truck, an hour at the DMV -- turn into stretches, via smartphone, of news consuming or email responding or game playing.

Unfortunately, that great evolutionary hiccup, sleep, keeps getting in the way of our endlessly doing things. Nature's way of holding our species hostage for several hours each day. But, just as we've circumvented the problem of waiting, we've engineered solutions to the problem of sleeping. The energy drink!

Of course, conquering nature is never as easy as it initially seems. Perhaps man was not meant to shotgun 250-plus milligrams of caffeine in a single sitting. Energy drinks may have played a role in over a dozen deaths in the last few years, and City Attorney Dennis Herrera thinks the Food and Drug Administration needs to start tightening regulations around the energy drink industry.

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Here's How Cuddling Can Save Your Life

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Jlhopgood via Flickr
Two tigers lowering their blood pressure
Screw exercise, researchers have found a lazy way to improve your health: Cuddling.

That's right, nestling up next to someone -- anyone -- will not only make you feel loved, but will lower your blood pressure, your heart rate, and generally do away with all that yucky stress, according to researchers at the Metropolitan University in England.

Sadly, those same nuzzle scientists reportedly found a third of the population receive no hugs on a daily basis, yet 75 percent would like fill their week with more caressing and cradling.

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Warning: Don't Eat the Shellfish From Marin County

Categories: Food, Health

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Remember, if they're sick, you're sick
Hey pescatarians, take note. The California Department of Public Health is warning hungry people not to eat harvested mussels, clams, or whole scallops that come from Marin County where dangerous levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins have been detected in this region.

Specifically, the toxins were detected in the mussels, but clams and scallops may also pose a health risk, officials said. And what happens if you do eat fish that hosts the poisonous toxins?

You can can get sick, or worse die, according to the California Department of Health.

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