Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Today's Globe: Tufts-NEMC cuts, FBI warnings, autism test cases, China probe, young men's health

At a time when most Boston teaching hospitals are thriving, Tufts-New England Medical Center is
laying off about 35 employees, less than 1 percent of its staff, because it hasn't met targets for increasing the number of inpatients.

Federal agents are warning leaders at some of the region's top universities -- including MIT, Boston College and the University of Massachusetts -- to be on the lookout for foreign spies or potential terrorists trying to steal their research, Warren T. Bamford (left) special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said yesterday.

Lawyers began arguments yesterday in the first of several test cases that may help decide whether the government should pay millions of dollars to parents of children with autism. Nearly 5,000 parents say that vaccinations caused their children to develop autism and many of their claims have been pending for five years. The hearing was held at the "federal vaccine court" set up by Congress 20 years ago when a series of vaccine scares nearly crippled the industry.

China said yesterday that it was investigating the sale of fake blood protein, a potentially dangerous and widespread practice that underscores the country's problems with product safety. The report centered on an inquiry in the northeastern province of Jilin (above), where 59 hospitals and pharmacies were sold more than 2,000 bottles of counterfeit blood protein.

Young men are making real strides toward greater sexual responsibility, Laura Lindberg, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, writes in an opinion piece. But they're getting almost no credit for it, and, worse, a snapshot of current policies shows that we're actually making it more difficult for them to continue their progress as they make the transition toward adulthood and eventual fatherhood.

Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:29 AM

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