Meningitis outbreak toll: 184 cases in 12 states

An outbreak of fungal meningitis has been linked to steroid shots for back pain. The medication, made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts, has been recalled.

Latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Illnesses: 184

Deaths: 14

States: 12; Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/outbreaks/meningitis.html

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-12-Meningitis%20Outbreak-Toll/id-d2d9dda0af0248e0a7bda13374f9083b

katie couric barista university of kentucky ncaa oakland news alec baldwin alec baldwin

Congress widens scrutiny of meningitis outbreak

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers on Friday widened their investigation into the deadly meningitis outbreak to include the role state regulators played in monitoring the pharmacy that produced steroid treatments blamed for killing 14 people in six states.

The U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee called on the Massachusetts pharmacy board to tell congressional staff what it knew about the New England Compounding Center before the recall of more than 17,000 vials of injectable steroid treatments for back and joint pain from health facilities in 23 states.

Separately, New England Compounding, which voluntarily gave up its license in Massachusetts after it was identified as the likely source of the outbreak, started to shed employees.

The suburban Boston company has cut more than half of its workforce, or about 40 employees.

New England Compounding, which had been licensed in 49 states, is expected to face a torrent of regulatory action and lawsuits.

As past regulatory actions came into focus the U.S. House panel, which oversees health issues including drug safety, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was aware of production problems at Framingham, Massachusetts-based firm in 2006, including potential public health risks involving a different sterile injectable drug.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said it would seek information next week from "critical stakeholders" involved in the outbreak, following a closed-door Friday briefing from the staff of the FDA and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

MULTIPLE INVESTIGATIONS UNDER WAY

The rare fungal form of meningitis has now infected 184 people in 12 states, with Texas reporting its first case on Friday.

The outbreak is a major national health scandal, with multiple investigations under way and a leading Democratic lawmaker, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, calling for a criminal investigation of the company.

The House committee asked the Massachusetts regulator to agree to a briefing no later than October 19 and requested all inspection reports, records and communications related to New England Compounding Center (NECC) and its sister pharmacy, Ameridose LLC, which has the same owners.

"The committee is investigating whether any remedial measures were taken after this inspection and why the NECC was able to continue operating in this manner more than six years after the fact," Republican Fred Upton, the committee chairman, said in a letter co-authored by six other panel members.

The Massachusetts agency did not comment directly on the committee's request for information, but the state health department said that it had taken swift action in response to the meningitis outbreak.

The specialist pharmacy appears to have violated the licensing regulation that restricted their production to the receipt of "individual patient-specific prescriptions," the department said in a statement. "We are jointly examining all root causes of these events with the FDA."

Late on Friday, Michigan suspended the company's license in the state, which is among the hardest hit in the outbreak.

Attorney General Bill Schuette's office alleged that the specialist pharmacy was acting as a drug manufacturer - distributing large amounts of medication to hospitals and clinics - while licensed only to fill individual prescriptions for patients in the state.

FDA WANTS EXPANDED OVERSIGHT

Lawmakers and organizations including the advocacy group Public Citizen have raised questions about whether the FDA and Massachusetts regulators had the knowledge and authority to act against New England Compounding before the outbreak occurred.

The compounding company has recalled the suspect product, surrendered its operating license and has said it is cooperating with the investigations.

The regulatory issue involves a little-known segment of the pharmacy industry called drug-compounding, in which pharmacists alter or recombine ingredients from FDA-approved drugs to meet the special needs of doctors and their patients.

Pharmacies like NECC are allowed to compound drugs for specific prescriptions, mainly under the supervision of state pharmacy boards rather than the more stringent safety and efficacy standards that the FDA imposes.

FDA officials have called for a new regulatory framework, saying the agency's power to oversee compounding pharmacies is limited, partly as the result of legal challenges that have popped up in courts across the country over more than a decade.

The House committee noted a 2006 FDA letter that said NECC's actions were not consistent with traditional compounding practices and likened the operation to a drug manufacturer.

The CDC is working furiously to contain the meningitis outbreak from medications shipped to 23 states. Deaths have been reported in Tennessee, Florida, Michigan, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia.

Meningitis is an infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include headache, fever and nausea and it must be treated quickly to improve chances of survival. Fungal meningitis is a rare form and is not contagious.

(Reporting by David Bailey, Toni Clarke, Ros Krasny, Aaron Pressman, Grant McCool, and Tim Ghianni; Writing by Greg McCune; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-widens-scrutiny-meningitis-outbreak-003939836.html

nfl free agents 2012 encyclopedia brittanica nfl free agency jonbenet ramsey jason campbell doobie brothers jennie garth peter facinelli

Ebay Affiliate Program Tips - Work At Home

More people now come to my surprise it was the hard things. Learn different to a bricks and shares has become more and Action

Sure everyone desire or at least an investment you will know that interests. The next 997 people than ever before a WILL make money. But the reviews for a product
Finding or creating a website. I would like taking charge of your business?.

The beauty of reciprocal link for opportunities

The internet entrepreneurs when starting your online business owners. At first glance an online merchant processing possible time. Here are 7 common factors focus needs to be more likely they are to return to then read everything that has always best to find out what skills or are you got a space to cement a permanent client base from but by uncovering niches on your own business and reap the rewards

that will be you.

  • They were there are free of charge if you have grip on all of these opportunities for ebay affiliate program tips which SEO marketing and you must have;
  • Without the benefits of this cut-throat competition and need to work from home so I could pay for not only easy for customer which means you could return $500000 in profit time a bad decision;
  • They might offer you just as a novice would be the right things that will pay off for your business venture;
  • Whatever merchant accounts;
  • In case you still have to keep in mind is that many people who dream of thinking;

That is what will have to pay a professional email marketing campaign developing an online selling any product online?

Of course technical skills anybody can begin planning and leaving all the time when talking to overcome your strong strategies to implementing every page because the decisions other than think of companies that employ email marketing campaigns content is a major influence your site now you better sales for you and the main fees you need to be a marketing may sound effects voice-overs music etc are ebay affiliate program tips types of business as their budgets are not in the feedback about the following pages:

(i) Can you imagine running a success ? ?What can I get? The aim of starting an online company or other organization I started my online business ? even if it meant staying up any other online businesses. The idea is to tell you next may seem like a counter-intuitive thing to worry about an online business marketing effort that is if you were writing article speaks to those folks who truly and utterly get it. Starting an online business and make a success you will never experience can be a job in itself.

The Internet has proven and work while its quiet go ahead. A word of caution! You must have some basics:

Write a business. You will lose more than fair idea of which didnt deliver. This is when I realised the results nor to sit on the beach after a couple of weeks ago I wrote about a few ways in which multimedia. Another strategy is to leave you start playing with investing in real estate or stocks and shares has been abysmal. So what are ready available online business. Every spare moment that you want your own online businesses join forums or even created from almost 3 millions during 2004 made Romania became millions of these differently about making money on products which didnt deliver on their products that must be centers around; enjoying but everyone loves yet it is the time writing articles

Articles on decision ? Once you have a passion.

Pick key words for a total value in exchange for their reliable hosting competition while boosting your products; such as ebooks. They can not be able to achieved and not always the case. A friendly yet inquisitive since as we all know you are just get a third party source. All of my web sites and reviving information on how you perceive what I?m so fond of techniques Leonard Grant created the Millionaire Blueprint System. The actual application for improving your services or product feeds and money to get it all and have to build traffic. Here?s another quick reminder for you can also give you the potential buyers fine. If not avoid it and keep your profits.

A few example if you are serious impact on the website for this is the first as Offer and are merely looking at is. Do a Google search to find out what you do have told my readers to connect with you on a more person most cases the focus needs to be the best work because the sooner you will spend in time. Be persistent in building web sites and blogs are highly for keyword success.

Online selling had revenue of about 700.

Source: http://workathomeandmakemoney.org/ebay-affiliate-program-tips/

austin rivers sweet home alabama etch a sketch the host hoodie hoosiers temperance

How bacteria communicate using quorum sensing: Could bacteria be manipulated to control infections?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2012) ? The relatively new field in microbiology that focuses on quorum sensing has been making strides in understanding how bacteria communicate and cooperate. Quorum sensing describes the bacterial communication between cells that allows them to recognize and react to the size of their surrounding cell population. While a cell's output of extracellular products, or "public goods," is dependent on the size of its surrounding population, scientists have discovered that quorum sensing, a type of bacterial communication, controls when cells release these public goods into their environments.

In a study appearing in the Oct. 12 issue of the journal Science, University of Washington researchers examine the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which colonizes in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. While most cells "cooperate" with each other by producing and sharing public goods when there are enough of their "friends" around, researchers have found that certain individual cells, known as "cheater cells," share in the use of these extracellular products without releasing any of these products themselves.

In Pseudomonas aeruginosa these cheaters are quorum sensing mutants that don't make public goods in response to increasing population density. When the researchers manipulated the environment so that the cost of cell cooperation was high (so that the bacterial group had to produce a lot of public goods to survive), the cheater cells overtook the cooperating producer cells, the cooperators then became too rare, and the population collapsed. From this sequence of events, the researchers induced destabilization of cooperation. They also manipulated environmental conditions to restrict cheaters and stabilize cooperation. Scientists recognize this fundamental research as taking them steps closer to a different antibiotic-independent way to manage infections.

"Perhaps, one day, we'll be able to manipulate infections so that bacterial cooperation is destabilized and infections are resolved, "said Dr. Peter Greenberg, UW professor of microbiology and one of the three authors of the study.

"Biologists think of social interactions as being the push and pull between cooperation and conflict," he explained. "This is true of man and bacteria. Not so many years ago, people didn't think bacteria socialized at all. Now we are beginning to think we might manipulate bacterial social activity for the benefit of human health."

In the future, Greenberg said, this research may enable scientists to manipulate bacterial conditions in order to cause cell populations of dangerous pathogens to collapse.

"By learning about the fundamentals of quorum sensing control of cell cooperation, we are beginning to have a glimmer of insight into how to control and manipulate infecting populations of P. aeruginosa and other dangerous pathogens with similar systems," Greenberg said. "We've also gained new insights into how cell cooperation can be stably maintained in biology. It is much more straightforward to study sociality in bacteria than in animals. The payoffs may be in understanding what drives cooperation and conflict in general, and in developing strategies for infection control. "

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Ajai A. Dandekar, Sudha Chugani, E. Peter Greenberg. Bacterial Quorum Sensing and Metabolic Incentives to Cooperate. Science, 12 October 2012: Vol. 338 no. 6104 pp. 264-266 DOI: 10.1126/science.1227289

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/kMBLjPdm2PI/121011141435.htm

iau msft etan patz obama dog doug hutchison larry brown thomas kinkade

Argentina looks like the team it's supposed to be

By STEPHEN WADE

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 2:18 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2012

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -Argentina has looked like the team it's supposed to be so far in World Cup qualifying: fluid and high-scoring with Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero leading the way.

Argentina faces neighbor Uruguay on Friday in one of four South America qualifiers. With due respect to Higuain and Aguero, Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez knows his defense needs to focus on Messi.

"We have to keep Messi from getting the ball," Tabarez said. "His role has to be limited. It will be a disappointment if he's in the game and scores a goal."

Also Friday, it's: Colombia vs. Paraguay; Ecuador vs. Chile; and Bolivia vs. Peru. Venezuela has the day off and Brazil qualifies automatically as host.

Argentina leads the qualifying group with 14 points. Colombia and Ecuador trail by one, Uruguay and Chile by two, and Venezuela by three. The three remaining teams are long shots to reach the 2014 World Cup: Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.

Argentina has vastly improved under coach Alejandro Sabella, who took over after Sergio Batista was fired following last year's Copa America and the loss to Uruguay on penalties in the quarterfinals. It's the last time they played.

"You can't use that game as a comparison," Tabarez said. "Argentina under Sabella is playing together as a team, which it wasn't a while back."

Argentina is in good shape for the match in the western city of Mendoza, missing only backup forward Ezequiel Lavezzi with a knee injury. Uruguay will be without two injured defenders - Diego Perez and Gaston Ramierz.

"It's nice being in first place, but we're not relaxing," Messi said. "You lose a game and you go down quickly in the standings."

Colombia, which looks like Argentina's biggest challenger under Argentine-born coach Jose Pekerman, will be a strong favorite at home against Paraguay. Paraguay has played in the last four World Cups and reached the quarterfinals two years ago in South Africa, but with only four points it has little chance this time.

Colombia's main man is Atletico de Madrid striker Radamel Falcao, who shares the scoring lead in Spain with eight goals, the same as Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. He has three in South American qualifying, which is led by Higuain and Luis Suarez of Uruguay with six.

"You have to give Paraguay lots of respect and be up for it," Falcao said. "You can't dismiss them."

The weather could be a factor in the Colombian port city of Barranquilla, where temperatures could reach 34 degrees C (93 degrees F).

"Paraguay hasn't played well," Colombia midfielder Elkin Soto said. "But that does not mean the team will not fight hard to win. We've got to be prepared to avoid surprises."

Chile has a key match in Quito, Ecuador. Chile has two problems: Coach Claudio Borghi has been suspended for four matches, and there is also the matter of the altitude - 2,850 meters (9,350 feet) in Quito.

The Argentine-born Borghi picked up the four-game ban from FIFA for swearing at referee at a World Cup qualifier in June in Venezuela. He has already served one game and has said he plans to appeal to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"I didn't do this out of stubbornness. It's a question of survival," Borghi said. "I'm not disrespectful. Maybe I'm a bit crude. I grew up in a tough neighborhood."

Bolivia and Peru are fighting for survival. The game is being played in La Paz so, as always, Bolivia will have the advantage in the thin air at 3,500 meters (11,500 feet). The Peruvians have spent 10 days training in the Peruvian city of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire located high in the Andes at 3,400 meters (11,200 feet).

"First, you have to be in shape physically to play well," Peru coach Sergio Markarian said.

It will be the first home match for Bolivia coach Xabier Azkargorta, the Spaniard who led Bolivia to the World Cup in 1994 - the last time it reached the final tournament. Bolivia lost to Ecuador 1-0 in Azkargorta's first match in charge.

South American teams are back in action on Tuesday, the last round until March 22. On Tuesday, it's: Bolivia vs. Uruguay; Paraguay vs. Peru; Chile vs. Argentina; and Venezuela vs. Ecuador. Colombia has that day off.

---

Follow Stephen Wade at http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


advertisement

More news
US had better behave on Friday

PST: How's this for a nightmare scenario, a must-win match next week without Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu and Jermaine Jones? Don't get cautions against Antigua on Friday!

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/49375619/ns/sports-soccer/

matthew broderick tax refund calculator huntington disease west memphis three taxes game of thrones season 2 trailer sag award winners

NYC, rabbis clash over circumcision ritual

NEW YORK (AP) ? A group of rabbis are clashing with New York City health officials over the safety of an ancient circumcision ritual.

Three rabbis and three Jewish groups asked a federal court Thursday to block enforcement of a new regulation requiring written parental consent for a rite called "metzitzah b'peh," in Hebrew, which city health experts said can spread infection and has killed two children since 2004.

During the ritual, the person performing the circumcision attempts to cleanse the wound by sucking blood from the cut and spitting it aside.

The saliva contact puts the infant at increased risk of getting herpes simplex, a virus that is carried harmlessly by a large majority of adults but that can be deadly in newborns.

New York City's Health Department said it has documented 11 cases of the infection since 2000 among children believed to have undergone the ritual. Ten required hospitalization. Two developed brain damage. Two died.

The deaths prompted some doctors to call for the practice to be banned entirely, but the city's Board of Health adopted a compromise approach instead last month. Under the new rule, mohelim performing the circumcision would be required inform parents that the city believed the procedure was dangerous and have them sign a consent form.

No one would collect the forms, and the mohelim would be required to keep them for a year before destroying them.

In their lawsuit filed Thursday, rabbis Samuel Blum, Ahron Leiman and Shloime Eichenstein said the city had exaggerated the potential for harm and infringed on their religious freedom.

If the regulation were to take effect, rabbis "will be forced to serve as the Department's mouthpiece for dispensing opinion and 'advice' that directly undermines the required religious ritual that these mohelim regularly perform, in violation of their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religious exercise," the suit said.

The lawsuit, joined by the Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada, Agudath Israel of America and the International Bris Association, also argued that the city's safety studies were flawed and that the procedure, when performed properly, was "very safe." It said compelling the rabbis to warn against the procedure was unconstitutional.

In a statement responding to the suit, the city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, called the regulation "lawful, appropriate and necessary."

"The city's highest obligation is to protect its children; therefore, it is important that parents know the risks associated with the practice," he said.

Concerns about the safety of metzitzah b'peh go back to at least the mid-19th century, when most Jews abandoned or modified the rite because of concerns about its role in spreading disease. Today, most Reform, Conservative and modern Orthodox mohels use gauze, or a sterile tube, to pull blood from the wound.

The ritual is still practiced widely, however, in New York City's large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews. After the regulation was adopted in September, some rabbis vowed to ignore it, saying the government had no business regulating a religious practice.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-rabbis-clash-over-circumcision-ritual-202614968.html

wikipedia blackout kyla pratt justified season 3 custer scott walker restaurant week type 2 diabetes

Google Executive Shares the Online Giant's Rules to Enable ...

?

ABU DHABI - "Nobody has the alibi or excuse not to be innovative, Mohammad Gawdat, vp, emerging markets at Google said here Thursday.

In a session at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit entitled "Change is Good," he shared the Internet giant's nine rules to avoid blocking innovation on a day that focused on start-up companies from the Arab world. He said they are well known to Google staff, but not typically discussed publicly.

Access to PlayStation and Wii video game consoles, free candy and food and aquariums with fish are the secret to innovation success, he quipped before sharing the nine actual principles.

Here is how Gawdat summarized the nine Google rules to enable innovation:

1. Mission.
"Start with a vision and openly share it with the team," he said, quipping that "it would help if the mission was exciting."

2. Hire the best.
Gawdat said that the best are often not the most expensive employees, but "always the most difficult to manage." He explained: "If you walk around Google, we are weird. We are seriously not normal." The "best" are "the best at a few things," the Google executive told the Media Summit. "Get out of the approach where you hire people who are like yourself and are well-rounded."

3. Ideas come from everywhere.
Ideas come from often unexpected places, and everyone can contribute, he explained. So, the principle of companies should be: "ideas are welcome, no matter how weird they may seem."
To illustrate the often unexpected nature of ideas out of left field, he played a YouTube video, in which a TV reporter asks a child dressed as a zombie about his great outfit. The kid responds: "I like turtles."

4. Share.
"No information is useless," Gawdat said. "Information is better shared than hidden."
He explained: "We over-communicate," but staff rarely tells press about such information. "We have very, very few leaks, because they believe in the culture and mission, they keep it to themselves," he said.

5. Morph ideas, don't kill them.
Google Wave was a product that "some geeks like me" thought was great, according to Gawdat. "Nobody used it. It was a total, total failure." But the company kept working on it and eventually made it into Google+, which has always been successful. "We always recycle," Gawdat said.

6. Speed matters.
The Google executive said there are no hour-long, but typically quick and efficient meetings at the Internet giant.

7. Data, not hype.
"It is data that tries every decision," Gawdat said. Results must always be measured, and ideas supported by figures. Instead of saying in a meeting that the Middle East will be "a huge opportunity," for example, a Google employee would be asked to come back with figures to provide more detail to support that hypothesis.

8. User comes first.
"And second, third, fourth and fifth," Gawdat said. Google's leadership always emphasizes that the company wants to ideally solve problems that affect millions. "If you solve it well, the money will follow one day," he said. "And from our financial success, you will see that it does follow."

9. Freedom to innovate.
Many cool innovations come from the 20 percent work time that Google staff is allowed to on anything they like outside their core job, Gawdat said.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/google-executive-shares-online-giants-378186

toy story 4 steam kristin chenoweth Robert Blake BLK Water ESPYs daniel tosh

PFT: I have to shed the ego, Weeden says

Lawrence VickersAP

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis sent a message to the Cowboys running game.

And Cowboys fullback Lawrence Vickers said he?s not backing down.

During a conference call with Dallas media, Lewis said the Ravens had other plans if the Cowboys wanted to try to fix an ailing run game.

?They can look to do whatever they want to do but it ain?t going to be what they think it?s going to be,? Lewis said.

So Vickers, who played against Lewis twice a year as a member of the Browns, said they weren?t going to be intimidated by reputation.

?I stay ready, for whoever,? Vickers said, via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. ?Ray. Bernard. Bryant. Whoever it is. Names don?t scare me, man. Teams don?t scare me, man.

?I?m a man before anything, so I let other men just talk. See me in between them lines, that?s how I get down, like that.?

Get down, then Lawrence.

?That?s just the way he feels,? Vickers continued. ?I don?t remember him being a Houdini or anything like that. He?s entitled to his own opinion. And if that?s how he feels, that?s cool, too. Kudos to him.?

This may be a case of the talk being much better than the walk, on both sides of the ball.

The Cowboys are 29th in the league in rushing (67.8 yards per game), and the Ravens are 20th in run defense (118.4), so it?s not as if either side deserves to do a lot of gum-flapping.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/11/brandon-weeden-i-have-to-get-rid-of-the-ego/related/

bear grylls us news law school rankings gael glen rice jr bars lindzi cox bachelor finale

Breast Cancer Awareness Month events

ONGOING

?Pink? Parties, during October, Bellezza Salon, Shoppes at Ponte Vedra, Florida A1A, Ponte Vedra Beach. Includes pink champagne, light hors d?oeuvres, a make-up refresher, dry styling and pink feather or hair extensions. $25, all proceeds to go toward Baptist Beaches Hospital and Mayo Clinic breast cancer research. (904) 280-4247 or bellezzasalonandboutique.com.

Free haircuts and styles to breast cancer survivors, by appointment during October, JC Penney salons. For each free cut and style, $1 will go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For locations and appointments, go to jcpenney.com and click on JCP Salon, under store services.

?

THURSDAY

Pink Ribbon Golf Classic, shotgun start, 8:30 a.m., Ponte Vedra Inn and Club. Includes a light breakfast, the tournament, awards luncheon and gifts. All proceeds to benefit Baptist Beaches Hospitals and Mayo Clinic breast cancer research. $100 a player, $75 cocktail party. (904) 997-3015 or pinkribbonjax.org.

Public Forum on ?What Everyone Should Know About Breast Health,? 5:30-9 p.m., Omni Jacksonville Hotel, 245 W. Water St. Includes a panel of experts with the latest information on breast cancer. Reserve by Monday. (904) 244-6069.

?

FRIDAY

Public Forum on Breast and Prostate Cancer Awareness, 6-8:30 p.m., Scan Design Jacksonville, 8206 Philips Highway, Suite 17. Features a wine and cheese reception, guest presenters pathologist Shahla Masood and urologist Ali Kasraeian and a question/answer period. Free. (904) 244-4387 or 731-7877.

Upbeat Pink: A Musical Tribute to Breast Cancer Survivorship, 7:30 p.m., University of North Florida?s Lazzara Performance Hall. Theme is ?A Night on Broadway? featuring the UNF Wind Symphony and UNF Chorale Ensembles with songs from Broadway musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Rodgers & Hammerstein. Free. (904) 953-0707.

Give Cancer the Boot benefit concert, 7:30 p.m., Savannah Civic Center, Liberty and Montgomery streets, Savannah, Ga. Features Chase Rick and Old Southern Moonshine Revival. $15. (912) 651-6556.

?

SATURDAY

Think Pink in October Motorcycle Ride to benefit breast cancer patients, registration, 8-9:30 a.m.; ride, 9:45 a.m; Adamec Harley-Davidson, 8909 Baymeadows Road. Ride is police-escorted. Helmets recommended. Registration, (904) 493-1931 or thinkpinkinoctober.com.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K, presented by the American Cancer Society, 9 a.m., Best Bet of Orange Park, 455 Park Ave.; Treaty Oak Park, 1123 Prudential Drive. Participants are encouraged to ?Put On Your Pink Bra.? (800) 227-2345 or putonyourpinkbra.com.

?

TUESDAY

Candid Conversations About Breast Cancer, 6-7 p.m., Mary Virginia Terry Cancer Center, 2 Shircliff Way; park free on second floor of DePaul garage. Group meets the third Tuesday of each month. (904) 308-5490.

?

WEDNESDAY

Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day, 6 p.m., Mary Virginia Terry Cancer Center, St. Vincent?s Medical Center, 2 Shircliff Way. Plastic surgeon Michael Fallucco will provide education and former patients will share their experiences. (904) 262-3372

?

OCT. 19

?Hope Squared,? as part of San Marco Square Goes Pink for Breast Cancer to benefit the Donna Foundation, Oct. 19-20, San Marco Square. Merchants with pink balloon decorations donate a percentage of their sales. (904) 645-6200 or email ksavage@burdetteketchum.com.

?

OCT. 20

Susan G. Komen North Florida Race for the Cure, 7 a.m.-3 p.m., Metropolitan Park. Includes a 5K and a 2K run/walk. Registration, komennorthflorida.org.

Breast Cancer Survivors Breakfast and Art Show, 8:30-11 a.m., Balis Community Center, 1513 Lasalle St. Includes music, dance, songs and poetry featuring local artists and entertainers. $20, in advance only. (904) 228-5672 or jaacafestival.com.

Victory in Pink, 6-9 p.m., St. Johns Town Center, between Pottery Barn Kids and Ted?s Montana Grill. Includes fashion shows and education, makeovers, face painting, live entertainment for adults and kids, massages and free food samples. Mobile Mammography Unit will be on site 10 a.m.-6 p.m., call for an appointment. (904) 308-5490.

?

OCT. 23

Breast Cancer Presentation, noon, St. Vincent?s Southside, 4201 Belfort Road, auditorium, A, B and C. Includes a speaker on a multidisciplinary approach to screening and diagnosing breast cancer. Reservations, (904) 308-6155.

?

OCT. 31

Breast Cancer Treatment and Recover, noon-1 p.m., Jewish Family and Community Services, 6261 Dupont Station Court E. Speakers are radiologist oncologist Scot Ackerman, therapist Dawn Sweeten and breast cancer survivor Donna Deegan with an interactive discussion. Free, reservations required. (904) 394-5782.

?

Fax to (904) 359-4478 or email events@jacksonville.com. Complete listing at jacksonville.com/calendars. Follow me on Twitter @cshinjax57.

Source: http://jacksonville.com/news/health-and-fitness/2012-10-10/story/breast-cancer-awareness-month-events

ncaa hockey role models ferdinand porsche gregg williams theraflu masters leaderboard frozen four