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• Free Parkinson’s disease symposium Saturday in Richmond
• Hepatitis B outbreaks detailed at assisted living facilities in Virginia
• We don’t walk like we used to
• Twins doing well
• Speaking through images

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Space is still available for a free program on Parkinson’s disease Saturday, May 19, at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

The program, called the Victory Summit, is presented by the Davis Phinney Foundation with partners VCU, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the UVA Health System and the American Parkinson’s Disease Association. Support is also from drug company Abbott, medical device maker Medtronic and

The program goes 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., and registration is required.

Workshop titles/topics include:
•The PD You Don’t See: Cognitive and Non-Motor Symptoms
•Exercising for the Rest of My Life
•The State of Parkinson’s Research
•Speech Therapy
•Sleep
•Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) Surgery
•What’s Going on in My Gut?
•Nutrition

See a complete agenda here.

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Improper blood sugar monitoring resulted in multiple acute hepatitis B virus outbreaks among residents of assisted living facilities in Virginia, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
Staff at some assisted living centers used blood glucose monitoring equipment that should only be used on one person on multiple residents, resulting in virus transmission, according to the report, authored by Virginia Department of Health staff.

The outbreaks occurred between February 2009 and November 2011 in the Central Health Planning Region of Virginia and are detailed in the May 18, 2012 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

In all, 29 residents were infected in the outbreaks at the four assisted living facilities.

“These outbreaks lend support to an increasing body of evidence suggesting the need for a comprehensive strategy to ensure safe (assisted monitoring of blood glucose) at assisted living facilities,” the report’s authors write.

Blood glucose monitors use a device to prick the finger to get a drop of blood, which is collected on a strip inserted into a machine that reads the blood sugar level.

According to the CDC report, staff at the assisted living facilities used the pen-style fingerstick devices—which are intended for one patient—on more than one resident. The lancets that prick the skin are used once and thrown away, but the devices that hold the lancet are reusable—but should only be reused on the same person.

In some cases poor hand hygiene and failure to clean and disinfect meters led to disease transmission.

Hepatitis b is a virus that attacks the liver. It is spread through blood and body fluids such as semen and mucus. Infections can be acute and short term, or chronic and long-lasting. Not all acute cases turn into chronic infection. There is a vaccine to prevent hepatitis B.

The report suggests the need for more oversight of infection control practices at assisted living facilities, more training of staff and prompt investigation of acute hepatitis B virus infections.

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Here’s a link to a story in Slate on the decline in walking.

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Teresa and Maria Tapia, the twins born attached to each other and separated by doctors at VCU Medical Center last fall, are doing well, according to World Pediatric Project officials.

On a trip this week to the Dominican Republic, where the girls are from, these photos were snapped. The girls are hard to tell apart now. Before the surgery, one was bigger than the other because all the nutrition she was taking in was going to the other twin via their intertwined digestive systems.

Read more about the recent visit by World Pediatric Project officials to see the girls in an upcoming story in the RTD. Dr. David Lanning, who led the surgery team, was honored by the Dominican Republic.