12A Weekend Edition-November 14-15, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
NATION
Explosion kills 2 steam pipe workers at veterans hospital
ROBERT BUMSTED I Associated Press
Veterans Affairs Police guard the entrance to a maintenance facility after an apparent steam explosion in a
maintenance building at a Veterans Affairs hospital in West Haven, Conn., Friday, Nov. 13.
BY PAT EATON-ROBB
Associated Press
WEST HAVEN, Conn. - Two
workers were killed in an explo
sion Friday while repairing a
steam pipe in a maintenance
building at a Veterans Affairs hos
pital in Connecticut, officials said.
Alfred Montoya Jr., director of
the VA Connecticut Healthcare
System, said the men were in the
basement of the small outer build
ing and had just finished routine
maintenance on a leaky pipe. He
said the explosion occurred just
after 8 a.m. as the pipe was being
refilled with steam.
The names of those killed were
not immediately released. One
was a contractor and the other
was a VA employee and a Navy
veteran, Montoya said.
That man’s next of kin told
Montoya that her loved one
had decided to work for the VA
because he wanted to take care of
fellow veterans.
“(She said) he wanted to give
back to those men and women
who fought so hard,” Montoya
said. “It’s moments like that really
tear at your heart and tear at your
soul.”
Three other workers were
injured, but those injuries were
not life threatening, officials said.
Officials initially believed one
worker was missing but all were
accounted for.
The contractor who died
worked for Mulvaney Mechani
cal, based in Danbury, Connecti
cut, said company Vice President
Charles Brough.
“Our prayers are with the fami
lies of the victims of this explo
sion,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie
said.
Police, the FBI, the VA and
the federal Occupational Safety
and Health Administration were
investigating the accident, and
the cause of the explosion had not
been determined Friday, officials
said.
The explosion occurred in a
building that houses the hospital’s
labor shops, such as carpentry and
plumbing, a spokesperson for the
hospital said.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal,
a member of the Senate Veter
ans’ Affairs Committee, said the
hospital, which officials said was
built in the 1950s and underwent a
renovation in the 1990s, has decay
ing infrastructure and is on a list of
aging VA facilities that need to be
replaced.
“This building is past its sell-by
date,” he said.
Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat,
said state emergency manage
ment officials will provide as
much aid as necessary to conduct
an investigation.
“This is a heartbreaking trag
edy, and I have instructed our state
agencies to provide full resources
as the response and investigation
continues,” Lamont said.
Big study supports cheap combo pill to lower heart risks
BY MARILYNN MARCHI0NE
Associated Press
A daily pill combining four
cholesterol and blood pressure
medicines taken with low-dose
aspirin cut the risk of heart
attacks, strokes and heart-related
deaths by nearly one third in a
large international study that’s
expected to lead to wider use of
this “ polypill ” approach.
For more than a decade, doc
tors have been testing whether the
cheap, all-in-one combo pills could
make it easier to prevent heart
disease, the top killer worldwide.
Friday’s results show their value
— and not just for poor nations.
“It’s for all sensible countries,”
said Dr. Salim Yusuf of McMas-
ter University in Hamilton,
Ontario. “If the rich countries
don’t want the benefit, that’s their
prerogative.”
He helped lead the study and
gave results at an American Heart
Association conference. They also
were published by the New Eng
land Journal of Medicine.
At least half a dozen compa
nies sell polypills outside the
United States, including several
in Europe, but they’re not widely
used or marketed. Doctors have
been reluctant partly because no
big, international studies have
shown they can lower heart
attacks and deaths — not just
risk factors such as high blood
pressure.
“I think this will change with our
results,” Yusuf said.
One independent expert agreed.
The study is very important and
“the best data we have so far” on
polypills, said Dr. Eugene Yang,
a University of Washington heart
specialist who leads a heart dis
ease prevention panel for the
American College of Cardiology.
In the United States, “I could
definitely see” using a polypill in
places with big health disparities
and access to care problems, he
said. One small study last year in
Alabama suggested benefit.
The new study tested Polycap,
a pill from India-based Cadila
Pharmaceuticals Ltd. that con
tains three blood pressure medi
cines (atenolol, ramipril and the
“water pill” hydrochlorothiazide)
plus a cholesterol-lowering statin.
It sells in India for about 33 cents
a pill.
Researchers enrolled more than
5,700 people, primarily in India
and the Philippines plus Colombia,
Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ban
gladesh, Tanzania and Tunisia.
Men had to be at least 50 years old
and women at least 55. All were at
moderate risk of heart problems
because of high blood pressure,
diabetes or other conditions.
They were divided into groups
and given either low-dose aspirin
(75 milligrams), the polypill alone,
the polypill plus aspirin or placebo
pills. One group was assigned to
get vitamin D, but those results are
not available yet. Neither the par
ticipants nor their doctors knew
who was taking what until the
study ended.
The study was to have run for
five years and to have included
7,000 people, but drug delivery
problems and the coronavirus pan
demic forced researchers to cut it
short. After just over four years
on average, aspirin alone did not
make a significant difference, and
the polypill alone showed a trend
toward modest benefit.
However, the polypill plus aspi
rin showed clear value, reducing
the heart-related problems and
deaths by 31%. About 4% of peo
ple in this group died or suffered
one of the heart problems being
tracked versus nearly 6% of those
on placebo pills.
The side effects were minimal.
About 1.5% more of the polyp
ill users had dizziness or low
blood pressure, but they could be
switched to a lower dose if that
happened, Yusuf said.
“We now have direct evidence”
from several studies with clearly
consistent results and no safety
concerns about the value of polyp
ills, said another expert with no
role in this work, Anushka Patel, a
cardiologist at Royal Prince Alfred
Hospital in Sydney, Australia.
“The public health impact ...
could be enormous,” she said.
The study was funded by the
Wellcome Trust, a British char
ity that supports research; Cadila
Pharmaceuticals; and other
public and private research
organizations.
Yusuf said polypill companies
would need to seek regulators’
approval to sell the pills in various
countries, and that generic drug
makers might team with large
insurers to offer the therapy. He
is hoping that guidelines commit
tees and groups such as the Well
come Trust, the World Health
Federation and the World Health
Organization will advocate for
this approach. Many have already
promoted the concept in medical
journals.
Nathan Whitmire
President,
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