A southwestern Idaho bird farm has been quarantined after a bird there was found to have a low-pathogenic bird flu, but Idaho Department of Agriculture officials say it is not the same bird flu virus that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa.

The Ag Department says the type of virus found in the Idaho game bird is commonly found in wild birds and normally causes only minor illness in the animals. The virus poses little or no risk to human health and it’s not believed that any people have gotten sick in connection with the ill bird.

The farm was quarantined the farm and state officials will test the flock, investigate the source of the illness, and notify neighboring gamebird and poultry farms. (AP)

Researchers at Boise State University say they have used emerging nanotechnology techniques to devise a way to kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells healthy.

Biology professors say that many cancer drugs target rapidly dividing cells, but can leave people sick because the dose is also toxic to other cells in the body. But the group says its research has found that zinc-oxide nanoparticles can selectively kill cancer cells without harming normal cells.

The group described its work in a paper published in July in the journal Nanotechnology. The paper has become one of the most popular in the 58 journals published by the Institute of Physics, being downloaded more than 250 times in the first month of its publication. (AP)

Idaho Governor Butch Otter has announced the award of a $1 million grant given to strengthen the state’s High Risk Insurance Pool.  The award was given to the state by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Otter says the pool is a private-public partnership that helps get insurance coverage to Idahoans who otherwise would not have access to health care.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) comments

More than 6,300 Idaho residents have utilized the pool since it inception and during that time, the pool has paid nearly $29 million in medical claims.

People who benefit from these pools usually have a history of health problems that make it extremely difficult for them to find affordable health care coverage.

The number of Idaho residents who don’t have health insurance has remained about the same since 2004, even while employers say they’ve scaled back on benefits for both full-time and part-time workers.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates about 14% of Idaho residents didn’t have health insurance last year. That number is about the same as estimates from 2004.
But while the number of uninsured residents in Idaho hasn’t changed during the past four years, surveys also show that employers are offering less health benefits to workers.
Last year, a survey of 1,500 Idaho employers showed 63% offered some form of health insurance to full-time workers. In 2005, nearly 75% of those employers offered at least some health insurance to full-time workers.
Last year, Idaho employers offered medical coverage to only 9% of their part-time workers last year. That’s also down from 2005, when nearly 20% offered benefits to these employees. (AP)

Washington state health officials have approved the sale of Spokane’s Empire Health Services to a large national hospital company.

The announcement clears the regulatory hurdles for the $156 million deal to close this fall.

The buyer, Community Health Systems Inc., plans to spend $100 million over the next five years upgrading buildings, medical equipment and computer systems at Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital and Medical Center. Backers of the sale anticipate the improvements will help Deaconess return to competitiveness with Sacred Heart Medical Center, which has become the dominant health care provider in Eastern Washington.

The Deaconess sale also creates the region’s largest charitable foundation. The estimated $80 million foundation is envisioned as a grant-making trust that will help address health care access and other medical issues. (Spokesman Review)

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is warning Idaho women and children to limit how much bass they eat because of high levels of mercury.
The agency issued an advisory on Monday after increased levels of mercury were detected in both smallmouth and largemouth bass in Idaho lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
Elevated mercury levels have been linked to learning disabilities in children and heart, nervous system and kidney damage in adults. Pregnant women should not eat fish containing mercury.
Agency officials say mercury intake can be limited by eating young bass that are small and have accumulated less mercury than larger bass. Mercury levels can also be reduced by eating other fish, such as rainbow trout. (AP)

The Kootenai County Medical Center in northern Idaho plans to build a three-story addition that will provide a new area to care for mothers and babies.
Officials say the $30 million Women’s and Children’s Center is still in the design phase. Don Soltman, the hospital’s vice president, says the 52,000-square-foot addition will be built on the east side of the main hospital.
Kim Anderson, a company spokeswoman, says the design includes comments made by women who gave birth at the medical center as well as staff at the hospital.
Construction could start in April and be finished within 20 months. (AP)

Officials at St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute in Boise say the facility is shutting down it’s bone-marrow donor registry because it can’t meet new standards that it add 1,000 minorities a year.
The new standards were recently set by the National Marrow Donor Program based in Minneapolis. Mark Allen, the institute’s Marrow Donor Center coordinator, says the demographics of the region make it impossible to recruit 1,000 minority bone marrow donors. St. Luke’s averages 1,000 donors each year, and just ten percent are minorities.
Officials at St. Luke’s say they will shut down the program in September. (AP)