July 2-Experts say the nation’s nursing shortage-which already has prompted hospitals to recruit nursing staff from countries such as the Philippines and India-is now prompting a growing number of hospitals to recruit in Mexico. Although the recruitment of nurses from Mexico is still in its “early stages”-with only 58 Mexican nurses taking the U.S. nurse licensing exam in 2002-experts say the opportunity to multiply their salaries by as much as 10 times will likely lead others to pursue positions in…

WASHINGTON – Several Americans buying medication in Mexico have come back with counterfeit versions of the cholesterol drug Zocor and a generic painkiller, the Food and Drug Administration (news – web sites) warned Friday. The fake Zocor didn’t contain any of the actual cholesterol-lowering ingredient, and the counterfeit carisoprodol was far less potent than real versions of the painkiller, FDA (news – web sites) said. The agency warned that patients who use the counterfeit Zocor face serious health risks from…

A study released on Friday by the Kaiser Commission finds that nearly 145,000 poor children were “dropped” from the federal-state sponsored State Children’s Health Insurance Program in the second half of 2003, marking the first decline in enrollment since the program was launched in 1998, Reuters Health reports. Eleven states had some cuts, with Texas among those making “noteworthy” cuts and Maryland and New York each discontinuing coverage for 23,000 children. A spokesperson for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and…

In a study published in the most recent Annals of Epidemiology, researchers in China report that inactivity now contributes to more deaths annually in Hong Kong than tobacco consumption, the Agence France Presse reports. Among individuals ages 35 years and older, a lack of physical activity was associated with 6,450 deaths in Hong Kong in 1998, while smoking was responsible for 5,270 deaths. The AFP notes that physical inactivity increases the risk of cancer-related mortality by 45% in men and…

CRISTOBAL GARCIA, RUBEN VILLALPANDO ERNESTO MARTINEZ Y LA JORNADA MICHOACAN Unos mil 500 indocumentados mexicanos son deportados diariamente por los distintos puntos fronterizos terrestres entre Sonora y Arizona, mientras vía aérea, dentro del programa de repatriación voluntaria, han sido devueltos a México poco más de 2 mil 600 connacionales desde el pasado 12 de julio, fecha del arranque de este plan binacional. El delegado regional del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), Jorge Luis Mireles Navarro, indicó que estos mexicanos son…

The United Kingdom decided against signing an agreement among 22 European Commonwealth countries discouraging recruitment of nurses from developing countries. Instead, the U.K.’s health secretary pledged that the government would take measures “to avoid damaging” developing countries’ health care industries. The code agreed upon by the Commonwealth nations requests that countries receiving foreign workers compensate workers’ countries of origin by providing technological devices, training, and capital for the remaining workforce. The agreement was proposed after the Royal College of Nursing…

Federal officials have issued a one-year extension of the deadline for Canadian and Mexican health care workers to obtain more rigorous credentials before working in the United States, preventing what hospitals in border states such as Maine say would have resulted in crisis level staffing shortages, the Associated Press reports. The law, which requires non-physician health care workers from Canada and Mexico to pass proficiency and English-competency exams in order to earn U.S. licenses, was expected to result in a…

The CDC four months ago started to “quietly” send hospitals packages of various antidotes that can be used in the event of a chemical attack, the Associated Press reports. The chem-pack program—which cost the CDC $56 million last year and is expected to have a $34 million price tag for 2004—aims to have supplies in every state within the next two years. Although CDC officials will not disclose which locations already have received the chem-packs, they did say that Boston…

The nation’s nursing shortage is expected to worsen following implementation later this month of an immigration law that requires Canadian nurses to pass proficiency and English-competency exams in order to earn U.S. licenses, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. According to estimates by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the measure could result in the loss of as many as 15,000 nurses; the Journal-Constitution notes that Canadian nurses account for up to 40% of the nursing staffs in U.S. hospitals…

ARIZONA DAILY STAR Illegal entrants have been dying at the rate of one a day since June, making it likely Arizona will surpass last year’s record death rate, an Arizona Daily Star compilation of crosser deaths shows. The bodies of five illegal entrants have been found since Friday, driving the number of known border deaths to 121. That figure is based on information gathered from Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations and county medical examiners in Arizona. The Border Patrol tallies…