High Risk

Eating fish is good for your heart, but taking fish-oil capsules does not help people at high risk of heart problems who are already taking medicines to prevent them, a large study in Italy found. The work makes clearer who does and does not benefit from taking supplements of the good oils found in fish such as salmon, tuna, and sardines. Previous studies have suggested that fish-oil capsules could lower heart risks in people with heart failure or who have already suffered a heart attack.

An Assembly panel yesterday approved a bill that would allow satellite tracking of high-risk sex offenders, but a parole official testified that the effectiveness of the program would not be as dramatic as some lawmakers had suggested. Meanwhile, the mother of Megan Kanka - the 7-year-old Mercer County girl whose 1994 rape and murder inspired the creation of sex-offender registries across the country - testified that the measure "doesn't go far enough" in the number of sex offenders it would cover.

With record-breaking temperatures predicted in Philadelphia tomorrow, it might seem strange to start worrying about influenza. But some experts suggest it's time to think about flu shots - particularly for those at high risk for complications. Those at high risk who should be vaccinated include people over 65 and those with immune-system disorders, heart and lung diseases such as asthma and chronic bronchitis, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and anemia, including sickle cell disease.

Allow me, as vice president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, to provide background on my comment quoted in the Feb. 3 article on obstetricians leaving or limiting their practices. In Pennsylvania a physician spends an average of only 3.5 percent of his or her gross income (less than, for example, the Philadelphia city wage tax) for malpractice insurance, a tax-deductible business expense. The average net income of physicians in the United States is, according to the American Medical Association, nearly $100,000, with the average gross income being reported in the Nov. 12, 1984, issue of Medical Economics to be about $200,000.

The opinion that follows about the new juvenile high-risk release program is my opinion from my own experience as an ex-offender and, later, as a probation supervisor for the Common Pleas Court. The 13 months I spent incarcerated taught me much. It is lonely, scary and depressing, but it did give me the time needed to realize the errors of my ways. After all, I did commit a crime against society. What are we saying with this juvenile high-risk release program? "Because you are a young person, you are exempt from the punishment any adult would receive for the same crime.

Despite the economic good times, 9.2 million American children - one in seven - are in serious distress and at risk of having continuing problems later in life. These youngsters are at risk not just for one reason, but for many. What makes their situation especially dire is that each is burdened with four or more measurable risk factors, as identified by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in its new Kids Count Data Book, which was released today. The factors are: the child is growing up in a single-parent home; the household head does not have a high school diploma; family income is below the poverty line; a parent does not have steady full-time employment; the family is receiving welfare benefits; and the child lacks health insurance.

URBAN VIOLENCE IS EVERYBODY'S PROBLEM Murder has become so commonplace in big cities that the mind must be numbed against it. How many killings can you endure to read about with your morning coffee? How many families can you mourn with? . . . So . . . you begin to brush off the violence as "inner-city" or "gang related" or "drug-connected. " It's too easy to glance at a high-crime street address or an obvious high-risk situation and turn the page . . . But . . . violence can't be contained in inner-city mean streets . . . we are all at risk, all in harm's way. It shouldn't take a serial killer or a random drive-by shooting or . . . the death of a colleague as a reminder.

ATLANTA - U.S. health officials said Thursday that doctors should consider giving an AIDS prevention pill to women and heterosexual men who are at high risk for getting the virus. The government previously advised doctors to give the once-a-day pill Truvada to high-risk gay and bisexual men only. However, more than a quarter of new HIV cases each year are heterosexuals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "That's not a portion of the epidemic we want to ignore," said Dawn Smith, the CDC physician who was lead author of the new guidance.

Think for a moment about a world in which genetic screening of people and fetuses is routine. Suppose you knew you had a high risk of dying in 10 years? Should it be legal to keep that information to yourself when buying life insurance? How would a managed-care provider treat a couple who refused preventive treatment (an abortion) for a fetus that would require lifetime medical care? What if screening revealed children's individual endowments of traits we now call intelligence?

True or false? A tornado has as much chance of setting down in metropolitan Philadelphia as it does in Montgomery, Ala., Savannah, Ga., or Louisville, Ky. Surprisingly, the answer is true. According to statistics compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's Storm Prediction Center, all four areas have the same level of tornado activity. Unless they've come face to face with a twister, or watched one tear the roof from a house or uproot trees in a backyard, the majority of Northeasterners consider tornadoes creatures of the Midwest or Deep South.