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7” . J\ Herald & Lantern 5 October '83

Rx

Hfcalth Watch / ;by Dr Robert C Beitman

The incubation period for . genital herpes is between three and 20 days, generally no more than seven. As the disease begins you may feel a burning, itching or tingling in the genitals Pain in the muscles of the rear end, sometimes extending down the legs, is reported. You may feel like you have ".pins and needles” in the genital area. If you suffer from recurrent herpes, then this description is very familiar. The herpes can be spread even at this early stage. TTie first time someone gets genital herpes they usually feel as if they have the flu — fevef, tiredness, and other flu symptoms. Recurrences usually are free of this phase. Lymph nodes near the groin may swell and be painfully tender due to the body’s immune reaction lo the disease THE SPOT where the outbreak is to occur will appear reddened. Next a pimple-like raised area on the skin will develop This grows to be fluid-filled, like a blister, with red skin beneath. Soon these blisters, called vesicles, break upon and become oozing, ulcers. Healing begins when a crust forms over the ulcer and new skin begins to replace the sore. If it is your first outbreak, new sores may break out while others heal. In recurrent cases all the ulcers tend to start and finish fairly close together in time. First time infections last two to six weeks and recurrent infections may end within one week. Recurrent infections generally are not as severe as the first. Two-thirds of first time herpes patients are reported to have recurrence within one year. For men, the lesions will generally occur anywhere chi the penis. Painful urination and discharge may occur if the urethra (passageway to the bladder) become involved. WOMEN TEND to have the most painful experience. The vaginal area is moist and walking causes friction on the lesions, making healing difficult. When urinating the

im This week's menu ol meals setved by the Cape May County Nutritional Project For the EMeriy

Next week’s menu: Oct. 10: Columbus Day holiday. Oct. 11: spaghetti with tomato sauce, meat balls, parmesan cheese, mixed salad with Italian dressing, Italian bread, pineapple tidbits. Oct. 12: over fried liver with onion gravy, mashed potatoes, peas, com muffin, apple. Oct. 13: creamed dried beef, chopped broccoli, rice, whole wheat bread, prune crumb cake. Oct. 14: New England clam chowder, glazed carrots, whole wheat bread, chocolate pudding. Margarine and milk, coffeeor tea are included with each meal.

urine touching the lesions bums terribly. In women the lesidns may be present on the lips of the vagina, along the inner thighs, around the anus and within the urethra or around it. Internal lesions are a predominantly female problem, although occasionally herpes is found in the male prostate. Women can get a severe herpes infection of the cervix or vagina, usually accompanied by a watery vaginal discharge. This can cause a cancer scare for some women due to the symptons. Unfortunatley, cancer of the cervix is statistically linked to genital herpes, so it is good advice for herpes carriers to have pap smears every six months. There are a number of . serious complications possible from herpes. One of the most tragic can be ( the effect on pregnancy. Infants do not have .mature infection control systems and those bom with herpes can experience seizures, paralysis, coma and birth defects. IN ONE STUDY 60 percent of infants bom with genital herpes died. Therefore in pregnant women who have herpes, careful monitoring is esspnHal to make sure that the disease is not communicable during delivery. If the disease is acUve during labor, a cesarian section will prevent the child from passing through the infected area. Herpes genita’is is now the focus of much research. It requires responsibility and maturity on the part of those infected to attempt to not pass ikon. As discussed, careful monitoring is important. Health Watch is a public education project of the Cape May County Unit of the American, Cancer Society.

Symposium On Beaches

OCEAN CITY - A beach protection symposium will be held, beginning 9 a.m., Friday, Oct. 14, at the Music Pier, Boardwalk near 8th St. The symposium is sponsored by the New Jersey Coastal Counties Committee (Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth and Ocean Counties), in cooperation with the state DEP, USACOE, Rutgers University and the New Jersey Marine Science Consortium-Sea Grant. Mayor Jack Bittner will extend a welcome, and Clement Sommers, chairman of CCC, will open the program. This will include overviews of the problem, protection programs, and future alternatives. Registrations should be made ny Oct. 7 with the Cape May County Planning Board, Court House 08210. Sommers can be reached at 201-431-7460.

We need your type. Donate Blood.

Child Study Teams Spot Handicaps

ED. NOTE - This is one in a series of articles by First Call forJielp. a division of the United Way of Cape May County, explaining human service agencies. First Call, at 729-2255, can refer persons to the appropriate agency. t When it is suggested to parents by a teacher that their child should be observed by the Child Study Team, it is often a traumatic expeience. Fearing that their child is “not normal” can be confusing and frightening for any parent, but observation by. a-Child Study Team is by no means a sentence to educational dungeons. The purpose of the Cape May County Child Study Teams is the identification of children with an “educationally” handicapping condition which impairs the pupil physically, emotionally, intellectually, or socially. Without special education- and/or related services, the pupil could not function similarly to non-impairecf pupils. IN OTHER WORDS, their job is to identify the student who is fighting to

overcome a handicapping situation, of which he/she or the parents may be unaware, and find the appropriate educational method to allow the student to overcome the limitationand rise above it. By far, most of these special programs are available within the child's regular school and are handled along with the normal school programs This *is called “mainstreaming”. With this sort of special attention, the student usually overcomes the problem and advances along with his/her peers. But for the child who needs concentrated attention to advance - to hill advantage, there is the Special Services School District, which provides intensive programs to meet" the needs of the severely handicapped.. IF YOU FIND a child close'to you struggling to keep up or losing interest in education, don’t hesitate to speak to the teacher and suggest an evaluation by the Child Study Team at the school. They can find the answer and restore pleasure to learning.

..SOCIAL SECURITY....

local bulletin

Q. My doctor has recommended that I have an operation. Before I make up my mind, I’d like to get an opinion from another doctor. Will Medicare pay for a second opinion? A. Yes. Medicare will help pay for a second opinion in the same way it pays for other services by doctors. In fact. Medicare recommends that you get a second opinion to help you decide about surgery. Ask your doctor to refer you to another doctor. Or, you can call Medicare’s Second Opinion Referral Center for the names and phone hbmbers of doctors in your area who will provide second opinions. The toll-free

number is 1-800-638-6833 <1-800-492-660frln Maryland). Q. My wife and I both will be 65 later this year. How soon should we apply for our Social Security benefits? A. You should apply for retirement benefits about .two to three months before you plan to retire. Thaf 2 way, your claim can be processed in time for your payments to start when you stop working. Even if you decide not to retire, you should file an application two or three ihonths before 65 to make sure you will have full Medicare protection starting at age 65.

Tot-Finder Plan Set for Township

“Red Cross <fc Tne <Lm««cn N<!on« 'Vs'

COURT HOUSE - Middle Township Committeeman Charles Leusner has announced that the Middle Township Publicity Department will sponsor a Tot-Finder Decal Program for the month of October. The program, which is designed to save lives through fire prevention, provides free Tot-Finder decals to any Middle Township resident making the request. Leusner said the decal is highly visible during the day and reflective during the night. When placed on the outside window of a child's bedroom, it clearly marks the location of your children’s room — thus enabling the local fire department to rescue children first in the event of a fire. MAYOR AND Director of

Public Safety Mike Voll said that he hopes the TotFinder program will become an annual promotion in the publicity department since children account for over one-third of the ration’s fire casualties. Voll said “In the confusion of a fire, families often become separated and all too often the result is a child trapped in his room.” “The Tot-Finder program is designed to help avert this tragedy.” Leusner said the decal can also be used to mark the rooms of invalids and other family members who require special attention. Any Middle Township resident wishing to obtain a free decal may call Amy Bongiovanni at the Municipal Building at 465-5107.

County

Library

by Kathleen Dully

Should last week's column on Soviet foreign and military policies start you thinking about U S Foreign and Defense policies; you will find some of the following books enlightening. U.S. Defense Policy by Congressional Quarterly, Inc. (1983) includes analysis of the latest public information on defense. This book covers the topics of budgeting for defense, the new importance the Reagan team attached to conventional (non-nuclear) warfare and a stronger NATO defense as well as its plan to build up the U.S. naval fleet to a 600-ship Navy, Reagan’s nuclear strategy. Also covered art the development of Rapid Deployment Forces initiated by President Carter soon after the Iranian revolution and conceived of as a mobile command made up of various air, land and sea forces that could be deployed to world trouble spots, and a look at. the present state of the' armed services. force Without Arms. U.S. Armed Forces As a Political Instrument explores the use of military forces as an instrument of diplomacy. The U.S. has used 215 shows of force in the years since World War II; this book describes and analyzes, those circumstance^ and their diverse conclusions. Barry M. Blechman, the author, is a former assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency National Defense (1981) by James Fallows Atlantic Monthly's noted Washington correspondent, is a brilliant reevaluation of America’s defense needs and analyzes the shortcomings of the nation’s defense, reveals the technical, bureaucratic and often psychological sources of these shortcomings, and offers defense options for the 80’s that reflect new domestic and international realities. In so doing he rescues the subject from the ideological crossfire of the right and left and the simplistic increasingly . sterile debate over “more” versus “less.” SOME OF the new realities Fallows discusses are: the economic constraints caused by domestic inflation and complex weapons systems whose upkeep costs are unexpectedly large; a new international order in which the military must cope with controversial political issues, including the growing threat of terrorism, nuclear proliferation and shifting global ‘‘hot spots”, the intangibles % of leadership, troop morale and tactical ingenuity. But it is the current state of the American military establishment itself that is more disturbing. What Fallows calls "managerial thinking" is responsible for the inflexibility of current strategies for battle, complex weapons that operate — when they operate at all —

only under narrowly specific “ideal” conditions, and a corps of specialists -who can — and will — make ,more money in private industry. Precarious Security by General Maxwell D Taylor, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, undertakes to answer the question “Can the U.S. remain secure in The upcoming decade despite the increase in valuables requiring protection and in potential, threats to them?” The answer is a cautious affirmative hedged by conditions uncertain as to fullfillment. A principal proviso is the adoption .of a national security policy and suppor-’ ting programs providing adequate military means to deter nuclear war without engaging* in a numbers race with the Soviets, to maiptain. military superiority in the Western Hemisphere and along essential sea lanes, and to provide an cxpedi tionary force of moderate size to deal with unpredictable contingencies The Present Danger (1980) by- N or man Podhoretz, editor of Com mentary magazine enters a plea for clarity about the needs and purposes of American foreign policy at this critical moment when the Soviet Union is taking advantage of its opportunities for political and miliary expansion while the U.S., weakened and uncertain, ponders its response. He provides a sweeping and illuminating analysis of those events and forces in American society that have contributed to what he sees as the erosion of the country’s will to play its' necessary role as political and economic leader of the free world and as effective defender of its own very real "interests.” This book is meant to inform and awaken us to the urgency and the magnitude of the present danger which may be leading toward what Mr. Podhoritz calls ‘‘The Finlandization of America,” this nation’s * political - and economic subordination in the face of overwhelming Soviet power. Nuclear Weapons and World Politics. Alter natives for the Future by the Council on Foreign Relations studies the control of nuclear weapons from the viewpoints of destructive technology and the fundamentals of political choice. This volume offers insights at both levels through close examination over a broad spectrum of conceptions in dealing with the problem of nuclear weapons and those they will post for international peace and progress. Arms, Defense Policy, and Arms Control is a collection of 12 essays contributed by experts in the field of arms control that cover a broad spectrum of analysis. Detente or Debacle; Common Sense in U.S.-Soviet Relations by the American Committee on the East-West tackles such questions as: "Are we headed back into a cold war with the Soviet Union? Whose fault is it that American-Soviet relations have deteriorated so sharp- - ly?” — and presents varying political viewpoints in their answers.