Health

Anchors away - KYW's Stephanie Stahl has another assignment. Stahl, 39, who's been coanchoring the 6 p.m. news on Channel 3 since April of '94, and is also a lead reporter on the 11 o'clock news, will become the station's health correspondent by the end of the year. She'll still be a regular presence on both the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts, says news director Paul Gluck. This is not a demotion, Gluck says, but something that both parties wanted. "It was mutual. She's a great reporter to do this stuff," Gluck said.

To Dan Turner, the distinction is a double-edged sword. Turner is one of the longest survivors of AIDS. He has lived nearly six years with a deadly disease that kills at least half of its victims within 18 months of diagnosis. Scientists claim success in boosting his immune system with drugs to fight AIDS. Turner credits the medical treatments as well as his own positive outlook for his survival. His story and other examples of lives threatened by weakened immune systems are examined in "The Fighting Edge," a Group W Lifequest health special tonight on Channel 3 at 8 p.m. "I believe you have to trust traditional doctors and alternative therapies.

SmithKline Beecham, Mercy Health Corp. and the City of Philadelphia plan to jointly bring medical services to city residents who might otherwise not receive them. The two health-care firms said they each would contribute $500,000 up front to pay for two large vans with exam rooms and medical staff. The primary-care services available will include immunizations, mammograms, health education and cancer screenings. The program is expected to start this summer. "The idea is to link people into primary care," said Lisa Borowski, a spokeswoman for Mercy Health Corp.

Save the cats. That was the rallying cry at the meeting of the Camden County freeholders last night. Seven members of a group called the Lakeland Cat Rescue Project asked the freeholders to abandon plans to remove 60 feral cats that live on the 600-acre Camden County health complex in Blackwood. Employees of the complex care for the cats. "We don't want to see them treated like rats, like they're put in a trap and killed," Cheryl Mojta, a social worker who works at the complex, said before the meeting.

Back after several years' absence, a health fair for the area's older population will be held today at the Phoenixville Senior Center. "There hasn't been one in some time . . . " said the center's director, Elaine Smith. "We thought we'd give it a try, and see if there is the possibility of doing it on an annual basis. " Free screenings will be offered for heart rate, blood pressure, skin and oral cancer and hearing. Representatives from the Aetna and Keystone health plans will be available to discuss health insurance claims and related problems.

For nearly half a century, vaccines have been the cornerstone of public health in America. They have eradicated smallpox, wiped out polio, and tamed such illnesses as measles, which used to kill 3,000 American children a year. Now, at a time when people are increasingly skeptical of government and the medical establishment, the safety of those vaccines - and the state laws that mandate them for children to attend school - have stirred controversy in Congress and state legislatures, and on the Internet.

Michael Burgess, 44, suffered from depression, was on medication, and had sought psychiatric counseling. George Karl Hahn, 24, thought his neighbors were spying on him through his television and was ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The fact that their histories did not prevent either man from buying a gun in Pennsylvania has ignited anew a tricky and controversial debate on what should be put first: the desire to protect the privacy of an individual, or the effort to ensure the safety of a community.

Citing family and health concerns, an embattled Darby Borough councilman with a felony record announced his resignation yesterday. "My wife's been dealing with me medically, and I don't feel that I can proceed forward and give Darby Borough 100 percent as a councilperson," Councilman Bruce Rogers, 53, said at a news conference at the Prospect Park office of his attorney, Joel S. Robbins. "I was transplanted in '88 and it's starting to take its toll on me," he said, referring to his kidney transplant.

The Rendell administration has moved a second time to terminate a health benefit - worth $858 a year to managerial employees - that a Commons Pleas Court judge had ordered the city to reinstate. Representatives for 1,100 nonunion, white-collar workers contended that the administration was breaking the law by continuing to deny benefits that Judge Norman A. Jenkins ordered restored earlier this month. Jenkins ruled Oct. 3 that Mayor Rendell, his chief of staff, David L. Cohen, and the city's personnel director, Linda L. Seyda, violated the City Charter in 1993 by terminating an $858-a-year health-care credit for members of the Association of City Management and Professional Employees.

The power lines that bring electricity for cooling homes and offices on these hot summer days bring fear to Janet and Joseph Engro of Collegeville. The couple say they believe that a 500,000-volt high-tension line, which is located less than 200 feet from their Trappe Road home, is harming their health. On Friday, the Engros sued Peco in Montgomery County Court, claiming that as a result of electromagnetic field (EMF) dispersions caused by the line, they and their 10-year-old son "have been assaulted, battered, and placed at substantial risk of serious, permanent, and fatal cancer, neurological and other diseases.