·         MCH Section Thanks Policy Reviewers:  The MCH Section wishes to acknowledge Section members Grace B. Sullivan, Elizabeth Jensen, Natalie Mikat-Stevens, Melissa Romaire, Marissa Rouselle, Adriane Casalotti, and Debra Besser-Jackson and thank them for contributing their time and expertise to completing the Section review of APHA policies that were designated for archiving in 2010. Many thanks for your good work!

·         Wisner Speaks at ACOG Meeting:  Section member Katherine L. Wisner, MD, MS, was a featured speaker at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecololgy meeting on May 17, 2010.  President Gerald F. Joseph, MD, selected perinatal depression as his Presidential initiative. Dr. Wisner's lecture focused on treatment options for depression during pregnancy, with an overview of antidepressant treatment.  An interview with Dr. Wisner has been posted on the ACOG website and the ACOG YouTube Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ACOGNews#p/u/1/XvJZYOaAgD0.

·         In Memoriam:  Dr. Stanley Greenspan, Founding President of Zero to Three:  Stanley I. Greenspan, a child psychiatrist who was a pioneer in the field of early childhood development, died on April 27 in Bethesda, Md.  Dr. Greenspan developed “floor time,” now a widespread method for teaching children with autism and other developmental disorders. Suffering himself from learning disabilities, he said, “People have an enormous capacity to use their strengths to compensate for any areas of vulnerability.” 

·         Hypothyroidism on the increase, says CDC: The rate of primary congenital hypothyroidism (CH), a common but preventable cause of intellectual disability, has almost doubled in the United States during the past two decades to approximately one in 2,000 births.  To gain a comprehensive understanding of the potential causes for the rate increase, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration co-sponsored a meeting in 2008 on Prevalence of Congenital Hypothyroidism — Current Trends and Future Directions. A supplement to the May 2010 issue of the journal Pediatrics contains details about the meeting and can be read at http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/bd/future.htm.

·         New book about the CDC:  "Inside the Outbreaks" by Mark Pendergrast is a history of the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the CDC. Among other topics, the book covers the work of Section member Linda Bartlett, investigating high maternal mortality in Afghanistan. For more information or to purchase the book, go to Amazon.

·         Rifampin-dependent TB Identified in China:  The Spring Issue of the Johns Hopkins Magazine reports that researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a strain of tuberculosis that grows better when exposed to rifampin, one of the major drugs used to combat the disease. The study by lead author Ying Zhang, professor of molecular microbiology at the School, appeared in January in The International Journal of

 Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

·         Council of Europe Criticizes WHO Swine Flu Efforts:  The AP reported in June that a new publication by the Council of Europe claims that the World Health Organization, the UN health agency, and European governments greatly exaggerated the public health risks of swine flu while making decisions behind the scenes that enriched pharmaceutical producers, leading to a “waste of large sums of public money and unjustified scares and fears about the health risks faced by the European public.”  WHO has responded that it is irresponsible to claim that the swine flu pandemic was created for the benefit of the pharmaceutical companies.