THIS ISSUE AVAILABLE ONLINE WITH EXPANDED INFORMATION AND PHOTOS AT:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/newsletter/weekly

IN THIS ISSUE:
1) Nation's Four Docs Promote Medicare
2) Science in the News: Fast-Acting Ebola Vaccine Protects Monkeys
3) HHS Awards More than $30 Million to Strengthen Rural Health Networks
4) Personal Health
5) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's public schedule

Nation's Four Docs Promote Medicare

The country's four top doctors are set to visit five cities in three days to promote President Bush's Medicare modernization plan on the "Better Benefits Tour" this week. Julie Gerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Elias Zerhouni, Administrator of the National Institutes of Health, Mark McClellan, Administrator of the Food and Drug Administration and Richard Carmona, the U.S. Surgeon General will tour five health facilities across the country and speak with seniors about promoting more choices and better benefits under Medicare.

"The President is putting forth an innovative and balanced vision for giving seniors better benefits and more choices, and we want to continue encouraging Congress to pass bipartisan legislation bringing Medicare into the 21st century," Secretary Thompson said. "We need to finally get the job done and strengthen Medicare."

As the second tour of the four doctors this summer, each event will highlight the necessity of reforming the 38 year-old program.

Under both the House and Senate bills:

• Seniors would pay an estimated $35 monthly premium (about $1 a day) for prescription drug coverage delivered through a Medicare-approved private health care plan.
• The new and voluntary benefit provided in the House and Senate bills would reduce prescription drug spending for most seniors with no prescription drug coverage by half, according to an HHS analysis released last week.
• As part of President Bush's framework, seniors with low incomes would pay no premiums for their prescription drug coverage and would save even more on the cost of their drugs.
• Also, all seniors would see immediate savings through a Medicare drug discount card.

In addition to the prescription drug benefit:

• Medicare modernization would allow seniors to choose from a variety of health care plans to fit their individual health need, just as Members of Congress do.
• These plans would offer seniors more benefits including:
• Better preventive care for diseases like cancer, heart disease and obesity.
• Care coordination and disease management for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer's.
• Protection against high out of pocket costs.
• Choice of the doctor or hospital they want for treatment.

For more information on the Better Benefits Tour please contact the HHS press office at (202)690-6343.

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Science in the News: Fast-Acting Ebola Vaccine Protects Monkeys

A single shot of a fast-acting, experimental Ebola vaccine successfully protects monkeys from the deadly virus after only one month. If this vaccine proves similarly effective in humans, it may one day allow scientists to quickly contain Ebola outbreaks with ring vaccination -- the same strategy successfully used in the past against smallpox, according to a study published in this week's issue of "Nature.

This finding is the result of collaboration between scientists at the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center, part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, MD.

"This research has enormous public health implications not only because it might be used to limit the spread of Ebola virus, which continues to emerge in central Africa, but also because this vaccine strategy may be applied to other highly lethal viruses, such as the Marburg and Lassa fever viruses and the SARS coronavirus, that cause acute disease outbreaks and require a rapid response," NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D said.

"Ebola virus spreads easily from person to person, causes illness quickly and kills a significant number of the people it infects. There is no treatment for the disease, so preventing the spread of the virus is key to containing outbreaks. If the results of this animal study hold true for humans, the new vaccine may be just the Ebola-fighting tool that public health officials need during epidemic outbreaks," the director of the study Dr. Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., said.

For more information on this study please contact Jeff Minerd (301) 402-1663.

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HHS Awards More than $30 Million to Strengthen Rural Health Networks

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced more than $30 million in grants to states to improve health care for rural Americans by strengthening rural hospital networks, supporting State Offices of Rural Health and encouraging rural health care coalitions.

"These grants help maintain and upgrade small hospitals in remote areas and coordinate and improve health care delivery in rural parts of the country," Secretary Thompson said. "Both steps are vital elements of strategies to make high-quality health care more easily available to rural Americans."

The rural health care grants announced today include:

• 45 Rural Hospital Flexibility grants, totaling almost $22.6 million. The funds go mostly to states to help hospitals interested in being certified as Critical Access Hospitals upgrade quality of care and improve emergency medical services. Critical Access Hospitals have 25 beds or fewer and qualify for special Medicare funding, including cost-based reimbursement.

50 grants totaling more than $7.2 million to State Offices of Rural Health. The grants will help the state offices provide technical assistance to rural and frontier communities, coordinate statewide rural health activities and recruit and retain rural health care providers.

• Two Rural Health Outreach grants. The two grants -- $200,000 to the Nassau County Health Dept. in Fernandina Beach, Fla., and $189,475 to the Island Health Plan, Inc. in West Tisbury, Mass. -- will fund coalitions of at least three health-related organizations to stimulate innovative health care delivery in rural areas.

All of the grants are administered by HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration through its Office of Rural Health Policy (http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/).

For more information on these grants please visit http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/.

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Personal Health

Weight Training (weightbearing or non-weightbearing)

Weight training builds strong muscles and bones. You can weight train at home or at a fitness center.

You don't need benches or bars to begin weight training at home. You can use a pair of hand weights or even two soup cans.

Make sure you pay attention to your posture, and that your movements are slow and controlled.

Before you buy a home gym, check its weight rating (the number of pounds it can support) to make sure it is safe for your size. If you want to join a fitness center where you can use weights, shop around for one where you feel at ease.

Bicycling (non-weightbearing)

You can bicycle indoors on an exercise bike or outdoors on a road bike. Biking does not stress any one part of the body-your weight is spread between your arms, back, and hips.

You may want to use a recumbent bike. On this type of bike, you sit low to the ground with your legs reaching forward to the pedals. This may feel better than sitting upright. The seat on a recumbent bike is also wider than the seat on an upright bike.

For biking outdoors, you may want to try a mountain bike. These bikes have wider tires and are heavy. You can also buy a larger seat to put on your bike.

Make sure the bike you buy has a weight rating at least as high as your own weight.

Stretching (weightbearing or non-weightbearing)

Stretching helps:

• make you more flexible (to help keep you from getting hurt)
• make you feel relaxed
• improve your blood flow
• keep your muscles from getting tight after doing other exercises.

You don't have to set aside a special time or place to stretch. At home or at work, stand up, push your arms toward the ceiling, and stretch. Stretch slowly and only enough to feel tightness-not until you feel pain. Hold the stretch, without bouncing, for about 30 seconds. Don't stretch cold muscles

Yoga and tai chi are types of stretching. They help you breath deeply, relax, and get rid of stress.

Your local fitness center may offer yoga, tai chi, or other stretching classes. You may want to start with "gentle" classes, like those aimed at seniors.

Lifestyle Activities

Your activities do not have to be planned. You can make small day-to-day changes to improve your health. For example,

• Take 2- to 3-minute walking breaks at work a few times a day.
• Put away the TV remote control-get up to change the channel.
• March in place during TV commercials.
• Sit in a rocking chair and push off the floor with your feet.
• Walk the dog.
• Walk while you talk on a cordless phone.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Doing chores like lawn mowing, leaf raking, gardening, and housework can also improve your health.

Try these tips to exercise safely.

• Stop exercising right away if you:
• have pain or pressure in the left-chest or mid-chest area-or left neck, shoulder, or arm
• feel dizzy or sick
• break out in a cold sweat
• have muscle cramps
• feel pain in your joints, feet, ankles, or legs. You could hurt yourself if you ignore the pain.

(Ask your health care provider what to do if you have any of these symptoms.)

• Slow down if out of breath. You should be able to talk while exercising without gasping for breath.
• Drink lots of water before, during, and after exercise (even water workouts) to replace the water you lose by sweating.
• Do not do hard exercise for 2 hours after a big meal (but a 5- to 10-minute walk is OK). If you eat small meals, you can exercise more often.
• Wear the right clothes:
• Wear lightweight, loose-fitting tops so you can move easily.
• Women should wear a good support bra.
• Wear supportive athletic shoes for weight-bearing activities.
• Wear clothes made of fabrics that absorb sweat and remove it from your skin.
• Never wear rubber or plastic suits. These could hold the sweat on your skin and make your body overheat.
• Wear a knit hat to keep you warm when you exercise outdoors in cold weather. Wear a baseball cap in hot weather to help keep you cool.
• Wear sunscreen when you exercise outdoors. Cover all areas of exposed skin whenever outdoors.

Healthy, fit bodies come in all sizes. Whatever your size or shape, start exercising now and keep moving for a healthier life!

This information is provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web site.

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Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's public schedule:

• Secretary Thompson has no public schedule this week.

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Last updated August 8, 2003
United States Department of Health and Human Services
Contact the HHS Newsletter Team.