Health Statistics

She was determined to help. That's how family and friends remember Audrey LaRue Jones. She prepared meals on Saturdays for those who couldn't. She taught Sunday school at the Methodist church. She worked with a local foundation to give canned goods to the needy. In one of America's most desperately poor cities, where storefronts routinely stand boarded, she taught high school English--and loved it. "She'd take in anybody; she loved to do for people," says her husband of 29 years, Elmer D.

The Food and Drug Administration dismissed explicit warnings of danger as the agency raced to approve a new diabetes drug that has been linked to at least 33 deaths due to liver injuries, records and interviews show. Senior FDA officials reviewed the drug on a "fast track" while downplaying harmful potential side effects. The drug, a pill called Rezulin, has become a sales sensation since it was launched in March of 1997 by the Warner-Lambert Co., a major U.S.

The U.S. abortion rate held steady in 1996 at its lowest level in two decades, the government reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said there were 20 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44--the same rate as in 1995. States reported 1,221,585 abortions in 1996, an increase of less than 1% from the year before. Since abortions were legalized nationally in 1973, rates increased steadily until 1980, when they reached 25 per 1,000 for women ages 15 to 44.

The facts and figures on colds in America, according to the most recent statistics (1994): * There are nearly 66 million cases of the common cold annually. * 28.5 million of these cases affect Americans under 17. * Colds keep children out of school 20 million days each year. * Americans spend about 24 million days in bed due to the common cold each year. * 68% of common colds suffered by children younger than 5 are treated by medical personnel.

It was a decision that changed Auntie Vero's life. Unmarried and pregnant as a young woman in the early 1970s, she sought an abortion. But the general practitioner had little experience in the procedure, and it went horribly wrong. When she got home, she began to suffer excruciating abdominal pain and swelling. Later, she learned that she was bleeding internally. In a panic, she rushed back to the same doctor, a decision that proved nearly fatal.

Nearly 100 million visits (96,545,000 to be exact) were made to American ERs in 1995, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Here are more facts and figures about our emergency room visits: * Average number of visits per 100 people: 36.9 * Most frequent principal reason for visit: stomach and abdominal pain, 5.9 million visits * Number of injury-related visits: 37.2 million * Number of urgent visits: 44.2 million * Type of drug most frequently mentioned: Tylenol, 9.

The facts and figures on flu in America, according to the most recent statistics (1994): * Number of deaths annually: 607 (1996) * Number of cases reported annually: 90.4 million * Number of cases per 100 people: 35 * Number of restricted-activity days due to flu: 315.4 million * Number of bed days due to flu: 170 million * Number of work-loss days due to flu: 69.3 million. Source: National Center for Health Statistics

Two startling reports on AIDS show the disease is spreading so rapidly in South Africa that it threatens to cripple the economy and devastate families for decades, perpetuating the ills of apartheid. Released to coincide with World AIDS Day today, the reports say that while the AIDS epidemic was slow in coming to South Africa and its neighbors compared with other parts of the continent, it now has arrived with a vengeance. The region has become the hardest hit in the world.

Federal health officials will call upon states today to track HIV infection as an integral part of their AIDS reporting programs, urging that individuals be identified by name, as states now do with those who have full-blown AIDS. But, while officials believe name-reporting to be the best way to conduct this surveillance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will leave it to the states to decide on their own systems, including the use of so-called unique identifier codes.

San Francisco bartenders showed dramatic improvements in lung health within two months after the January implementation of California's indoor smoking ban, UC San Francisco researchers report today. Bartenders were exposed to unusually high levels of secondhand smoke before the ban--about four to six times the level found in other workplaces. Examining 53 bartenders before and after the ban was implemented, Dr. Mark D.