Hysteria

That best describes this Sun-Sentinel article.

Three days a week, Autoya Hollis, 17, makes the trip from her home in West Palm Beach to the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital for kidney dialysis. Both girls have the same kidney ailment that caused Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning to need a kidney transplant. Because the name of the disease -- focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS -- is so daunting to pronounce, some people simply call it "Alonzo Mourning disease," said pediatric kidney specialist Dr. Gaston Zilleruelo.

South Florida has the nation's highest rate of children with kidney failure, Zilleruelo said, about eight new cases per million population, or about 24 cases a year, compared with a national average of six cases per million.

"We're about 30 percent higher," Zilleruelo said.

The disease may be more prevalent in South Florida because of the large immigrant population, high premature birth rate and growing number of children who are overweight or obese -- all risk factors for kidney disease.

"We are in the presence of what we could almost call an epidemic. The percentage of patients with FSGS in dialysis is about 25 percent, almost double the rest of the nation's 12 to 14 percent," Zilleruelo said. "So it's a concern. Something on the local or regional level is causing the higher rates of Alonzo Mourning disease, and we also have more blacks and Hispanics on dialysis, compared to the national average."

This was considered front page news at the Sun-Sentinel.(Hat tip- Bob at The Daily Pulp) I don't see two cases more in a million as an epidemic. Instead its a statiscal variation, what other states have eight in one million?

What I do see here is a newspaper with a doctor's help making news out of something while serious, is not otherwise newsworthy. What diseases are less prevelant in Florida? That would be good news, and not worth printing. The MSM prefers doom and gloom.

Maybe it's good the Sun-Sentinel will soon have new ownership. This paper can definitely stand improvement.

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