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Thursday, October 1, 2009
The County Times
You Might Never Know Which Flu You Have
By Megan E. Gustafson Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS - If you come down with a nasty cough, a fever over 100 and other flu-like symptoms this fall, do you have the new 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus or the regular, get-it-every-year seasonal flu? Your doctor might take a culture, but, chances are, you might never know the results. If you’re not part of a group Governor’s Office photo that’s traditionally considered at Martin O’Malley had never gotten a flu shot - until Monday. high risk for flu complications, such Gov. In a bid to encourage Marylanders to do the same, the governor as those with chronic respiratory ill- stripped down to his undershirt and allowed a nurse to inject the ness or the immune-compromised, seasonal flu vaccine into his shoulder. it’s unlikely your doctor will need used antiviral drug Tamiflu, said Rene Najera, to determine which specific virus is making an epidemiologist and the flu surveillance coyou sick. Knowing what you have isn’t likely to ordinator for Maryland’s Department of Health make a difference in how you will be treated, and Mental Hygiene. anyway. For example, a particular strain of seaThe reason for this judicious use of diag- sonal flu, also an H1N1, is expected to circunostic testing is two-fold, said Andrew Pekosz, late this flu season and has for the last couple of associate professor of molecular microbiology seasons. This seasonal H1N1, distinct from the and immunology at The Johns Hopkins Uni- novel 2009 H1N1 commonly known as “swine versity Bloomberg School of Public Health. flu,” is resistant to Tamiflu, Najera said. One, obtaining a conclusive identification For the high risk or the hospitalized, testof 2009 H1N1 is labor-intensive and capabili- ing may help inform doctors about how best to ties for doing so are limited. And two, testing fight the virus. Besides Tamiflu, other antivipriority must be given to high-risk groups and ral drugs are available, said Najera, and some those who are seriously ill because in those physicians may choose to test patients in those cases a definitive diagnosis may help pinpoint circumstances to help make the best treatment the appropriate medication. choice. A “reasonable turnaround time” for test But most won’t need to know the exact results needs to be maintained for those with cause of their illness, and experts are in agreethe most serious cases, Pekosz said. ment that most infected people will recover Not every strain of the flu expected to from 2009 novel H1N1 within days, without circulate this fall is sensitive to the commonly medical treatment.
Foundering Small Businesses Running Out of Options David M. Johnson Capital News Service BEL AIR - For some struggling small businesses, all the Harford County Small Business Development Center has to offer these days, literally, is a box of tissues. At the center, counselors offer advice to clients who ask for help before their business hits rock bottom. For those who wait until it is too late, there is not much more than a shoulder to cry on. Monthly statistical increases in auto, gasoline and retail sales around the country have led Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to say the recession is technically over. However, many small businesses have used all their available resources to ride out the storm and are now flooding Small Business Development Centers around Maryland with calls for help. “We do have tissues in the office if we have to tell them, ‘There is no way you’re going to be able to survive,’” said the Harford Center’s director Russell Teter. “Unfortunately we are the last place they come in a lot of cases. Usually at that point it is too late.” The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in February created a $35,000 loan for small businesses facing immediate financial hardship, but only 14 businesses have been able to take advantage of it according to the Maryland Small Business Association.
“In my region, clients have received them but it’s a very small niche, because the banks get to determine whom they use the ARC loan for,” Teter said. “If there is the right person, right situation and right bank it will work.” Brad Watts, vice president of loans at Easton Bank and Trust said only one loan application has gone through his bank so far. According to him, many banks are not participating in the program because of the administrative work involved. “We’ve had a number of inquiries from people outside our market because their banks are not offering the program,” Watts said. “The application process is difficult -- it’s a small loan and the amount of paperwork is the same as if the loan were for $1.5 million.” Harford County is not the only Small Business Development Center to notice a blizzard of clients in need. Reports from around the country are similar, said Craig Panos, a counselor in the Towson office who just returned from the Association of Small Business Development Centers annual conference in Orlando, Fla. “Consensus is small businesses are in more trouble now because they have been holding on, exhausting resources, and run out of options,” Panos said. “The recession has lasted a bit too long for some of them.”
Attorney General Moves for Even More EdF Hearings ANNAPOLIS (AP) - Maryland’s attorney general requested more hearings on Constellation Energy’s proposed sale of nearly half of its nuclear energy business to France’s EdF. Attorney General Doug Gansler said Constellation and EdF waited until the close of evidentiary hearings that ended Monday before disclosing final terms of the transaction. Gansler wrote in a request to the state’s Public Service Commission that regulators essentially have been put in the position of making a final decision without a complete administrative record. Gansler, who is representing the state in the case, is asking the PSC to extend the schedule of the case by two weeks to allow for more hearings. Gansler wrote that the new transaction terms appear to be significant.
For example, he said the new terms appear to increase EdF’s power in the Constellation corporate structure. He also said the terms appear to insulate EdF from risks associated with a Constellation bankruptcy or other financial distress. It appears the transaction price has been lowered, which could lower the amount of taxes the state could collect, Gansler wrote. He said the purchase price of interests in Constellation’s nuclear power plants appear to have been reduced from $4.5 billion to $3.8 billion. Rob Gould, a spokesman for Constellation, disputed any change in the price, and he said Constellation “provided drafts of the documents to the parties during the discovery process.” “The value of the transaction has not changed,” Gould said.
Low Jobless Fund Could Mean Tax Hike For Employers
ANNAPOLIS (AP) - Maryland businesses could face much higher tax rates next year to help boost the state’s dwindling unemployment fund. State officials expect the annual calculation of the fund balance on Wednesday to show that the largest allowable increase is needed to replenish the fund. The fund’s balance fell from nearly $900 million a year ago to $341 million this month,
while the unemployment rate grew from 4.5 percent a year ago to 7.2 percent last month. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez says based on the current balance that employers will jump from the second-lowest rates to the highest. The increase varies depending on employers’ history, ranging from an additional $136 per worker for companies that haven’t laid off in recent years to an extra $383 per worker for employers with many layoffs.