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Ninety-four years of editorialfreedom
Ann Arbor, Michigan - Friday, August 3, 1984
Vol. XCIV, No. 32-S
Copyrigh 1984
The Mihign Doily
Fifteen Cents
Sixteen Pages
Hospital finds 5 with hepatitis
CAROL L. FRANCAVILLA/Daily
Looking on as Gov. James Blanchard signs the higher education appropriation bill yesterday in Lane Hall are (left to
right) University President Harold Shapiro, State Rep. Morris Hood (D-Detroit), Speaker of the State House Gary Owen
(D-Ypsilanti), State Sen. Jackie Vaughn (D-Detroit), and State Sen. William Sederburg (R-East Lansing).
Blanchard signs education bill
Doctors seek
source of
virus after
nurse's death
By GEORGEA KOVANIS
Doctors at University Hospitals
yesterday announced that a fifth
hospital employee - this time a
resident physician - has been stricken
with hepatitis-B, a viral infection which
has killed one nurse and left three
others ill.
So far, four surgical nurses stationed
in the thoracic surgical intensive care
unit on the east side of the main
hospital's ninth floor have contracted
the infection, which doctors believe was
passed on by a patient.
ONE OF THE four nurses, Caroline
O'Donnell of Milan, died Tuesday after
contracting the disease July 24.
According to hospital spokesman
Stephen Hause, the first case of
hepatitis-B was discovered July 3. Two
more cases were discovered July 24.
After the three cases were reported,
doctors began screening all of the doc-
tors, nurses, and others who came in
contact with the patientsin that unit.
A FOURTH nurse was identified as
having the infection during the
screenings, which took place last
weekend.
Dennis Schaberg, the hospital's infec-
tious disease control officer, said
yesterday at a press conference, the
hospital is about 98 percent completed
with its drive to screen all the workers
in the unit. He recommended that all
workers on the floor be vaccinated
against the infection.
And yesterday, the fifth case was an-
nounced - apparently the result of the
intense screenings. Like the nurses, the
resident also worked in the unit.
BUT BECAUSE he worked in the unit
only during March and April, doctors
and hospital officials have isolated
April as the month when the employees
were exposed to the infection.
Hospital officials are working
through their files in hopes of iden-
tifying the patient who may have infec-
ted the hospital workers. They are also
trying to reconstruct events which took
place in April in order to determine if
any unusual occurrences could have led
to the outbreak.
Because doctors and nurses come in
regular contact with blood, they are
high-risk candidates for contracting
hepatitis.
THE DISEASE'S incubation period is
anywhere from one to six months,
Hause said. It can be contracted
through blood or body secretions.
But although five have been infected
See DOCTOR, Page 2
By ERIC MATTSON
Gov. James Blanchard came to the University yesterday
to sign an $846.6 million appropriation for state universities
and colleges, including a $182.1 million appropriation for
the University.
The bill represents an 11.2 percent increase in funding for
higher education over last year's budget, which helped 13 of
Michigan's 15 state colleges and universities freeze their
tuition at 1983-84 levels.
BLANCHARD praised the schools which froze their in-
state tuition and denied that the pressure he and the
legislature put on the colleges to hold down tuition deprived
the schools of any of their autonomy.
Blanchard said the increase in funding for higher
education, which was part of an overall zero-growth state
budget, will "reverse the trend of disinvestment (in higher
education) which has been occurring over the past few
decades."
In addition, Blanchard said, "average taxpayers and
families need to know that the doors are open based on
achievement, not on money."
The increase in funding for higher education "reaffirms
our commitment to the University of Michigan and other
colleges and universities throughout the state," Blanchard
said.
BLANCHARD originally proposed a program which
would provide a funding increase for those colleges and
universities that approved a tuition freeze for in-state
students, but that plan was vetoed by the Legislature.
The. University approved a freeze of the tuition rate
for in-state students last month. Regent Deane Baker (R-
See BLANCHARD, Page 2
Inside:
* Oodles of kids come to the
University every summer for
sports camps. See Page 3.
* The Justice Department has
come up with a plan to strip
students of their civil rights. See
Opinion, Page 6.
* Dancer Edward Villella may be
gone, but one reporter is still
feeling the aches and pains of
dancing with him. See Page8.
" The American Buffalo isn't so
endangered. See Arts, Page 7.
Outside:
Hot and muggy with a high of 86.
Fraser 'sfuture soars
after winnin ggold
By DOUGLAS B. LEVY wants to have on his team," said
The grueling, grinding years of Thomas Minick, a liason for Monaghan,
training, sacrifice and positive thinking who retired as Sheriff of Washtenaw
are soon to have lucrative benefits for County last February after 24 years
with the department.
Full Olympic coverage begins "Tom likes to surround himself with
on page 14. people like Steve," concluded Minick.
This is the same Minick who employed
Ann Arbor's newest gold medal Olym- Fraser upon his graudation from the
pic hero, Steve Fraser. University of Michigan in 1980 and
"Steve Fraser is the kind of people allowed Fraser the flexible hours
that Tom Monaghan (owner of the necessary so that the national cham-
Detroit Tigers and Chairman of the pion Greco-Roman wrestler could
Board/President of Dominoes Pizza) See FRASER, Page 16