Montgomery, NIH Near ‘Superbug’ Agreement

Pact would require notification of the public.

  After a fatal “superbug” swept through the National Institutes of Health earlier this year unbeknownst to the public, state and county officials are on the verge of an agreement that will require NIH to report outbreaks of similar hospital-acquired infections, according to Montgomery County's health officer. Last fall, a drug-resistant strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae spread throughout NIH’s research hospital, infecting 18 people. Twelve of those cases were fatal; seven attributed to Klebsiella. Federal and state guidelines did not require NIH to report the outbreak, and NIH officials said they chose not to alert the public earlier because healthy people outside the hospital were at little to no risk, The Washington Post reported. …

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Former NIH Worker Sentenced in 100K Credit Card Scheme

Germantown woman bought 119 iPads with government-issued credit card.

A Germantown woman who used a government-issued credit card to buy 119 iPads and other personal items was sentenced to six months in prison and was ordered to pay $106,096.09, the amount it cost the government, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday. According to federal prosecutors, Tamia M. McCoy, 33, used her government-issued credit card to buy electronics, designer perfume, a clutch bag and a queen-size mattress set—some of which she resold online—during her time as a purchasing agent and procurement analyst at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. McCoy also used the card to pay for house cleaning and cell phone service. To avoid detection, McCoy falsified documents …

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Montgomery Mojo

MoCo Mojo: Is Montgomery County Too 'Fuddy Duddy?'

Is there a generation gap in Montgomery County?

  We have a test for you. Do you call it Montgomery County? Or do you call it MoCo? The answer may tell us something about the different generations in our county. In Montgomery County, seniors are the fastest-growing age group, according to the county’s Division of Aging and Disability Services. The number of seniors in Montgomery County, the state’s largest, increased 130 percent from 1980 to 2010, the agency said. That number is expected to increase an additional 65 percent from 2000 to 2020. The way the blog just up the pike put it, Baby Boomers arrived and "found life so good here that they never left." According to county planning officials, the county has 15 percent fewer adults between 15 and 24 than in 2000 and 17 percent fewer 25…

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Report: Seventh Death Attributed To 'Superbug' At NIH Clinical Center

An antibiotic-resistant superbug, which spread through the hospital last year, has killed a boy whose case was the first reported there since January.

A “superbug” infection killed a boy Sept. 7 at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, the seventh victim of the bacterial strain, The Washington Post reports. The victim, a seriously ill boy from Minnesota, died of a bloodstream infection, according to the report. The boy’s case marks the first new infection at the clinical center since January, The Post reported. An antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae was first detected in a patient at the clinical center in August 2011 and spread to 17 additional patients, 11 of whom died. Staff there attributed six of the deaths directly to the superbug, The Post reported. Klebsiella infections can pose a threat to seriously ill, hospitalized patients with weakened immune …

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NIH Worker Pleads Guilty to Credit-Card Theft

Germantown woman used government-issued credit cards for personal use, according to prosecutors.

A purchasing agent for the National Institutes of Health has pleaded guilty to using government credit cards to buy 119 iPads, a mattress set, and other items for personal use, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday. Tamia M. McCoy, 32, of Germantown, worked as a purchasing agent and procurement analyst at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases since 2007. The loss to the government from McCoy’s purchases is between $70,000 and $120,000, the plea agreement states. McCoy faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz has scheduled sentencing for July 26.

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