Consumer alert!

Illnesses related to C. difficile, a bacteria commonly found in hospitals, is becoming more widespread, more severe, and harder to treat, reports the new issue of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. Health experts are worried that a new, more virulent strain may be to blame.

Certain strains of C. difficile produce toxins that attack the cells lining the colon. Those strains can cause symptoms ranging from mild diarrhea to severe colitis if they enter the gastrointestinal tract of a person who is taking antibiotics. Although antibiotics kill off many types of harmful bacteria, they can also wipe out the good bugs in the large
intestine that keep C. difficile in check.

Most people exposed to C. difficile will not get sick from it, nor will most people who take antibiotics. The risk is higher for patients who are older, spend more time in the hospital, and are treated for a longer period with antibiotics. You can help limit the spread if you learn the risk factors and take some precautions.

The Harvard Women’s Health Watch recommends these steps:
– Wash your hands thoroughly after visiting a hospital. Use soap and water; alcohol-based hand gels do not kill C. difficile.
– If you’ve been taking antibiotics and you develop watery diarrhea and abdominal pain, see your clinician right away.
– Take antibiotics exactly as prescribed. They are of no use in treating colds and other viral diseases.
– Sometimes you need to be in a hospital. But as soon as you feel well enough, ask if home health care is an option for you.

Unless you’re planning to raise a flock of poultry, avoid the temptation to present your kid with a baby chick this Easter.

It’s a cute gesture but one usually unaccompanied by any forethought about what one does with a chick when its no longer a chick, but a growing hen or rooster.

And, even forgetting about the potential risk from bird flu, the chicks carry salmonella. Each year, kids get sick from chicks that from all appearances are normal birds, yet carry the disease.

For more information, check out this advisory from the federal Centers for Disease Control.

TJX Companies, which runs the TJ Maxx store in Monroe and hundreds of TJ Maxx and Marshall’s stores nationwide, acknowledged today that more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen by hackers in a computer intrusion originally announced earlier this year.

Oddly, the revelation came in a 10-K report the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, though the breach is believed to be the largest in U.S. history.

What it means to you is that if you purchased anything from TJ Maxx or Marshall’s from December 2006 back to 2005, get a copy of your annual report and continually check your credit card statements for any purchases you didn’t make.

It also means that about 451,000 Americans, who returned merchandise to the stores without a receipt during the same period most likely have had their personal information stolen, such as name, address and driver’s license number. Again, check all your financial statements and if you get any strange notices in the mail or invoices from companies you’ve never done business with, or phone calls from parties trying to collect debts you’ve never incurred, report it to the Federal Trade Commission.

To try to decipher the company’s 10-K report, you can access it here.

To report ID theft to the federal government, you can fill out this online form.

A study by the Identity Theft Assistance Center finds that persons over 40 are the most common victims of identity theft.
Check out other findings from the data gathered.

A federal lawsuit was filed earlier this month by IDT Telecom Inc., and its pre-paid telephone calling card subsidiary, Union Telecard Alliance, against 10 competitors, claiming the companies were part of a “massive and systematic scheme” to “cheat calling card customers by not providing them with the calling card minutes” promised when the cards were purchased.

On the surface, this sounds like sour grapes from a company which admittedly has seen its revenues shrink in the face of increasing competition. But part of the company’s pleadings includes what it says are the results of its own survey, validated by an independent investigation that included IDT’s cards and those of its competitors.

The company alleges that, on average, its competitors’ cards delivered approximately 60 percent of what was promised in the advertising and in the voice prompts. It contends the cards are often “tricked up” by fees and charges that prevent a consumer from using all the advertised minutes. Many cards have connection fees, sometimes called a “connect surcharge,” “per-call maintenance fee,” or “disconnect fee.” If such charges are not taken into account when calculating the minutes, it creates a false impression that the actual usage can be delivered.

IDT, which sells its cards through Walgreen’s and other retailers, is contending its sales are eroding partly due to competitors who were “flat out lying” about the minutes their cards can deliver.

Regardless of the validity of IDT’s allegations, it serves as a reminder to be a careful shopper when purchasing telephone calling cards and make sure you read the fine print – if there is any – about special fees or charges that might reduce the amount of advertised minutes.

Even if your acne’s driving you crazy, resist the urge to buy Accutane, a powerful prescription drug used for treating acne, online.

The drug only should be used with the supervision of a physician and otherwise can cause birth defects, suicide and depression.

Buying this drug online is such a risky proposition, the Food and Drug Administration today launched a Web site dedicated to cautioning consumers about buyiing the stuff via the Internet.

Anyone who’s applied for a mortgage often will find they’re suddenly on the receiving end of competing offers from other lenders. They come in the form of unsolicited mailings and offers over the phone.

The Federal Trade Commission is reminding consumers that the mortgage application can trigger dozens of prescreened offers. The agency provides insights on how these offers are framed and what you can do to try to reduce the avalanche of solicitations. Check out their alert with links here.

With all the headlines about the troubles of the subprime mortgage market, a new poll finds that more than a third of homeowners — MORE THAN A THIRD! — don’t know what kind of mortgage they have.

Forget about the rate or indexes, a lot of people don’t know if they have a fixed-rate or adjustable and don’t know how many years they’ll have that mortgage.

Do you?