Disease

Judy Seckler GLENDALE ADVENTIST MEDICAL CENTER -- Leg pain does not have to be a permanent part of your life. Glendale Adventist Medical Center will offer a free Legs for Life screening from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday in the hospital's 1500 building, 1500 Chevy Chase Drive. Leg pain during walking, numbness and tingling may be a sign of Peripheral Vascular Disease. Persons with the disease have a greater risk for heart attack, stroke and loss of limbs, yet awareness of the disease by the public is low. At the screening, people are asked to fill out a questionnaire, and then an ankle-brachial index is measured by an experienced vascular technologist.

The Glendale News-Press recently visited Horace Mann Elementary School and asked fifth-grade students: "What have you learned about vectors, such as mosquitoes?" "I've learned ways you can stop the vector population, and about the kinds of insects and how their bodies work." ARMEN TARBINIAN, 10 Glendale "Mosquitoes have diseases and they pass it to people and people die." AYDEE MENDEZ, 10 Glendale "I've leaned that a female mosquito can lay eggs in water and infect a whole pool.

Rodney Tanaka GLENDALE -- Glendale Adventist Medical Center found that more than half of the more than 1,000 Armenians tested at community health fairs in the past 10 years had high cholesterol levels. The hospital, working with the Armenian American Medical Society, created a program that brings healthy eating and living into Armenian homes. "Hearts 'N Health" trains volunteers in health issues and sends them into kitchens to demonstrate healthy cooking.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- A Glendale building maintenance worker has been diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease, and officials have conducted tests to determine if City Hall buildings are a source of contamination. The male employee, whose name is not being released, is doing well in a hospital outside Los Angeles County and is expected to fully recovery, said city spokesman Ritch Wells. He was hospitalized with what was thought to be a case of ordinary pneumonia, but the condition was identified last week as Legionnaire's disease -- a mild to severe pneumonia caused by bacteria that is not communicable.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE ? Hoover High School graduate Lori Hartwell's kidneys have failed her, but that doesn't mean her brain has, she said. "Once you become chronically ill, people feel the need to help you," she said. "The real secret to happiness is understanding you're still valuable." Hartwell, 39, is trying to show others battling chronic kidney disease just how valuable they can be through an organization she started in 1993, the Renal Support Network. Last week, she and about 20 others from the Renal Support Network traveled to the nation's capitol to speak with legislators about how to bring more awareness to chronic kidney disease.

More than 40 years ago, Congress first requested that the president designate February as American Heart Month. I am pleased to report that every year since 1964, the president has designated the month to highlight the importance of heart disease awareness and prevention. This year, I am honored to once again co-sponsor a resolution in the House of Representatives in support of the goals and ideals of American Heart Month and National Wear Red Day. This resolution, 1039, unanimously passed the House earlier this month.

GLENDALE — Despite a record dry year for the region, mosquito control officials are warning the public to remain vigilant during this summer's breeding season that could still see a spike in the insect's population growth — and with it, the spread of the West Nile virus. Glendale and foothill residents who have over-watered their yards as the region crackles under a 12-inch rain shortfall this season have unwittingly created choice breeding grounds for mosquitoes that may carry the virus that has now become endemic to the area, said Truc Dever, spokeswoman for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District.

State agricultural inspectors have enacted a quarantine and are going door-to-door in a Hacienda Heights neighborhood in an effort to help save the state's $2-billion citrus industry and beloved backyard fruit trees from a disease that has wreaked havoc in Florida and Brazil . The sale of citrus trees is banned in a five-mile radius around the Los Angeles County neighborhood where Huanglongbing, or yellow dragon disease, was first detected...

It's been three years since 13-year-old Samantha Daniels was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. It was the day before Thanksgiving in 2003. "It was horrible," her mother, Amy Casella, said. "I was calling the nurse to find out how much turkey stuffing she could eat because she has to count every carb she has." Samantha, of Glendale, still counts carbs and tests her blood sugar, but now she's not only well informed about her disease, she and her family are on a crusade to find a cure.