Hepatitis Epidemic at Exeter Hospital

That's not what is making me ill:

"N.H. officials: Needle-swapping employee may have caused outbreak; 20 N.H. patients infected, likely from tainted syringes" by Helen Shen  |  Globe Correspondent, June 16, 2012

After weeks of investigation, New Hampshire public health officials now suspect a drug-abusing hospital employee spread hepatitis C to patients at Exeter Hospital by swapping sterile needles with contaminated ones. So far, 20 people have tested positive for the same strain of the harmful virus - including a hospital employee.

Investigators believe that an infected worker pilfered sterile syringes containing drugs intended for patients, then replaced them with used syringes filled with water or saline to conceal the theft.

If the suspicions prove true, the Exeter case would echo a smattering of other episodes around the country in recent years and highlight how the combination of privileged access and desperation can turn one health care worker’s personal addiction into a disease outbreak.

“People who are drug users - they are not necessarily the cleanest people in the world,’’ said New Hampshire’s public health director, Dr. José Montero....

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Related: Hepatitis C cases linked to hospital grow to 27

Also see: Different paths led to a deadly encounter

'Roid Raid in New Hampshire

'Roid Raid Wrap-Up

N.H. to get $4 million in GlaxoSmithKline settlement

N.H. post office open only 30 minutes a day

Two pedestrians, 2 in car hurt in Hampton, N.H., crash

9 hurt in fireworks explosion in N.H.

Romneys put tiny N.H. town in the spotlight

That last one makes me sick.  

"Campaigns battle for N.H.; Swing state seen as pivotal prize" by Brian MacQuarrie  |  Globe Staff, June 27, 2012

MANCHESTER, N.H. — President Obama won New Hampshire by nearly 10 percentage points in 2008, and even now, his advantage lingers. On a sweltering day last week, his phone bank volunteers outnumbered Romney’s backers by 3 to 1 at their respective state headquarters.

But the sense in both camps is that the fight for this state’s four electoral votes will be close and possibly pivotal in the presidential election.

“It’s going to be very competitive up here,” said Jim Merrill, who is overseeing the Romney campaign in the state.

That competition has prompted both candidates to have a strong presence in the Granite state....

Still, New Hampshire should be Obama’s to lose. Its 5 percent unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country, a long tradition of staunch Republican loyalty has been eroded by Massachusetts transplants, and the president could benefit from a backlash against Republican-led cuts to the state budget....

A poll of registered New Hampshire voters by American Research Group, released Monday, showed Obama leading Romney, 51 percent to 43 percent. The poll, however, indicated that registered voters, by 48 percent to 46 percent, disapprove of the president’s job performance.

“He hasn’t gotten it done,” Merrill said of Obama. “New Hampshire is a fiscal pocketbook state, and those are the issues that voters care about.”

They also are issues that voters will hear plenty about on television....

Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, said,  “Independent voters who had soured on George Bush by ’08, they’ve cooled toward Obama. Will those voters turn around? You’re fighting over those centrist voters — or more precisely, voters who don’t really pay much attention to politics and turn out every four years. Maybe Obama wants them to stay home.”  

Maybe I will.

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Update: 11 hurt in N.H. fireworks blast