Month: July 2013

Heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Secretary of State John Kerry, was in critical but stable condition in a hospital July 8. She had shown symptoms that appeared to be some sort of seizure, a person in contact with the family told the Associated Press. Symptoms occurred July 7. Heinz Kerry, 74, and her husband had been on vacation on Nantucket Island. She was taken first to a hospital on the island. Then she was transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Doctors have not released details of her condition. Heinz Kerry was treated for breast cancer in 2009. She is the widow of U.S. Sen. John Heinz, heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune. She is also chairman of the Heinz family philanthropies. Heinz died in 1991 in the collision of a helicopter and a small plane. His widow married Kerry, then a U.S. senator, in 1995.

More than 3 million patients a year acquire some sort of infection in Europe’s hospitals, a new report says. On any given day, about 1 out of 18 patients has such an infection, according to the report. The European Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control (ECDC) published the study. It was based on a survey of 1,000 hospitals. Intensive-care units had the highest rates of hospital-acquired infection. About 20% of ICU patients were affected. Infections of the lungs and bloodstream were the most common. There were also many infections of the urinary tract and at the site of surgery. Many infections were drug-resistant. That includes 40% of all infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. This type of Staph infection is often called MRSA. The ECDC urged hospitals to strengthen infection-control programs. Reuters Health news service wrote about the report.