State health regulators in California have uncovered what appears to be a hotbed of snooping at one of the premier medical institutes in the state — UCLA Medical Center. What started as one employee illegally viewing the personal medical records of patients including Farah Fawcett and Britney Spears has turned into a pool of 68 different employees all accused of the same sort of snooping. Snoopers include nurses, physicians, volunteers and administrators at the facility. If this type of thing is going on at one facility, just think of what is going on everywhere else.

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A study just published in the British Medical Journal indicates that the number of cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has increased dramatically in recent years in the UK. While we here in the US might not care much, we should. It is only recently that the UK has become a center of immigration; we have accepted immigrants for years and so disease trends are likely now to be similar. Rises in MDR-TB in the UK moreover, mirror rises seen elsewhere even in more insulated countries. The take home lesson: we are bound to be hit, meaning that you should start being concerned now about your future health.

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The US Senate has passed a bill that would make genetic discrimination illegal. The bill passed 95-0 (though one has to wonder where the other 5 senators were) and is on its way to the House where it is expected to pass as well. Bush has said he would sign the bill into law.

Well, how about that? Congress actually did something good for us.

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