Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Bug Spray-Doused Drug Overdoses on the Rise in Indianapolis
There’s been a large rise in the number of overdoses with bug spray-doused drugs that turn people into “zombies,” Indianapolis officials say.
The concoction is called KD and includes either marijuana, tobacco or the synthetic marijuana called Spice that’s laced with heavy-duty bug spray. Users smoke the mixture, CBS News reported.
“We describe it as being like a zombie. They cannot talk to us,” Capt. Chris Major of the Indianapolis Fire Department told CBS affiliate WTTV.
“Their movements are slow and lethargic, a lot of drooling and a loss of function. We find them with their clothes off, eating the grass, pulling dirt out of the ground and trying to put it in their mouth,” Major said.
“We find people passed out with it still in their hand. That is how fast it has an effect on them,” he noted.
Major said that there have been nearly a dozen KD overdose calls in one day, and sometimes responders deal with the same person a number of times a day, CBS News reported.
“They do not know what is in this stuff or who has made it so they are all taking chance, which for some reason they are willing to do because we get the same people using over and over again,” Major said.
Officials say they are trying to pinpoint the source of the drug, CBS News reported.
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ABC TV Reporter Reveals HIV-Positive Diagnosis
An on-camera reported for a Los Angeles TV station recently revealed he’s been HIV-positive for more than a decade.
Karl Schmid, who works for ABC7 in Los Angeles, made the announcement in a Facebook post on Friday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The 37-year old Australian native who has covered events such as the Academy Awards and Vanity Fair Oscar party said his industry peers urged him to stay quiet about having HIV.
“I work in television. And on the side of the camera where, for better or worse it’s considered ‘taboo’ for people ‘like me’ to be ‘like me,'” Schmid wrote, according to the Reporter.
“For 10 years I’ve struggled with ‘do I or don’t I?’ For ten years the stigma and industry professionals have said, ‘Don’t! It’ll ruin you.’ But here’s the thing. I’m me. I’m just like you,” Schmid wrote.
He continued: “Labels are things that come and go but your dignity and who you are is what defines you. I know who I am, I know what I stand for and while in the past I may not have always had clarity, I do now. Love me or hate me, that’s up to you.”
Schmid also had a message for others with HIV. “For anyone who has ever doubted themselves because of those scary three letters and one symbol, let me tell you this, you are somebody who matters.”
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