Galveston News

Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines Also Included In: Bio-terrorism / Terrorism Last week during the 'Vaccines for Biothreats and Emerging and Neglected Diseases Symposium' in Galveston TX, USA, the Elsevier journal Vaccine released a supplement dedicated to vaccines for biodefense.

A woman walking in the historic Strand district downtown was struck in the head with a hammer by a man attempting to steal her purse, police said.

Alida and Tom Duggan are fighting contractors, their insurance company and the bank in a struggle to rebuild their home in Bayou Vista, destroyed by Hurricane Ike.

Worried about your child's health? Get answers directly from the director of emergency services at the Children’s Emergency Centers at Memorial Hermann Memorial City. Dr. Michelle McKane has special knowledge and training in treatment and medications for infants, children and adolescents who are critically ill because of injury or disease.

Bariatric Medicine: Part 1 At 535 pounds, Rex Adams felt like a prisoner, not just because of his weight, but because he was taking as many as a dozen pills a day to help manage complications of obesity. “When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and had to go on oral medication, that’s when it really hit me,” Adams says. “I had done this to myself. I knew I had to do something to lose the weight and free myself from all the pills I was taking.” Adams sought a surgical solution – a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass – to control the weight and his blood sugar. He took one last pill the day before the surgery. Since then, he hasn’t required any medication to manage type 2 diabetes. He is no longer considered diabetic. “It was like a complete release,” Adams says. “I had the surgery, and I never looked back.” Weight-loss surgery, including gastric bypass and the lap band, can have a dramatic impact on morbidly obese patients with type 2 diabetes, a condition characterized by high levels of blood sugar as a result of defects in insulin production and resistance to insulin’s actions. Some are able to go off diabetes medications entirely. Others may be able to significantly reduce the amount of insulin or other medication they require to keep their blood sugar in check. Patients who are classified as “pre-diabetic” may be able to avoid the disease all together.

Bariatric Medicine: Part II When Abby Erias had gastric bypass surgery, she remembered the physicians telling her that one of the side effects to her rapid weight loss could be increased fertility. She already had two daughters and wasn’t planning to have any more children, so she went on birth control. She didn’t want to take any chances. “I couldn’t find the right birth control for me, so my plan was to go off birth control for 30 days and then go a different route with something new,” Erias says. “In less than 30 days, I didn’t think I could get pregnant, but I went a different route all right. I had a baby!” When bariatric surgeons at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston host informational sessions about gastric bypass and lap-band procedures, they emphasize that as the unwanted pounds come off, pregnancy may become a very real possibility. This discussion often produces some chuckles and a few “yeah, right” comments from women in the audience.

STORY BY Camille Webb Few patients look forward to going under the knife. For Ouida Gernentz, however, abdominal surgery turned out to be a much better experience than she ever could have imagined. Abdominal surgeries typically require large incisions that leave physical—and sometimes emotional marks—including scars at the wound site, pain, lengthy recoveries and a delayed return to normal, everyday activities. Gernentz did not experience the usual, postoperative pain, thanks to a pioneering surgical technique performed by The University of Texas Medical School at Houston’s Minimally Invasive Surgeons of Texas (MIST).

In late October Jay Dee Herrmann, 41, of Orangefield kissed his wife of 9 years, told her he loved her and would be back after he ran some errands, however, he was never heard from again.

Over 100,000 motorcyclists converged on the streets of Galveston, TX recently for the 8th Annual Lone Star Motorcycle Rally.

Authorities say a Texas woman lied about having breast cancer and spent $10,000 raised at a benefit to have her breasts enlarged.

In the months after Hurricane Ike, cleanup and rebuilding booms helped fill restaurants and hotels and put buyers in stores, shielding the island's economy from a population plunge and a national recession.

Hundreds of doses of the H1N1 vaccine will be available to high-risk residents in Galveston County on Monday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

The Galveston Alliance of Island Neighborhoods has released its own plan for rebuilding the city's public housing.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is planning to hold onto her Senate seat until after Texas' March gubernatorial primaries are over.Hutchison is challenging Gov.

Saturday, November 21, 2009 9 a.m. – Noon Cullen’s Upscale American Grille 11500 Space Center Blvd., Houston, TX 77059 Information, inspiration and insights for teen girls and their moms

Register using the link to chat at noon on Nov. 24 with Stacy Lewis and pediatric orthopedic surgeon Gary T. Brock, M.D., the physician who treated her when she was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11. Lewis went on to become the 2007 NCAA champion and the 2008 LPGA qualifying tournament winner. Earlier this year she became the celebrity spokesperson for the Scoliosis Research Society. Dr. Brock has special interest and training in the treatment of pediatric spinal disorders, including scoliosis, and in pediatric Sports Medicine.Dr. Brock is affiliated with Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, as well as other hospitals in the Houston area.

Residents living in privately owned trailers and recreational vehicles while their homes on Galveston Island, Texas, are repaired will have to find a new place to stay if the city council does not extend a deadline.

A bird is blamed for distracting the driver of a luxury sports car who then drove his Bugatti Veyron into the drink.

"We want criminals to be weary that if they get into a car with keys in it, that it's probably going to be a bait vehicle, and they're going to get caught and they're going to go to jail," said Sgt.

Planting trees in the city's right of way will be easier under a new ordinance. Under the previous ordinance, property owners had to request a special license to plant trees between the street curb and the sidewalk, an area known as the tree lawn.