Euro-region governments are betting 110 billion euros ($146 billion) in economic medicine for bioidentical hormone therapy in
Greece will be enough to inoculate the rest of their region from contagion.

Finance ministers approved the unprecedented bailout yesterday for Greece after a week that saw the country’s hypothyroidism symptoms crisis spread to Portugal and Spain. At the same time, they refused to say how they would help other indebted nations if the need arose, calling Greece a “special case.”

The risk is that investors will shift focus to other euro nations in the absence of a clear natural thyroid aid plan for the 16-nation bloc’s weakest members. The extra yield investors demand to buy Portuguese debt over German bunds surged to the highest since at least 1997 and Spain’s IBEX 35 stock index fell the most in three months last week. The euro fell against the dollar today.

“It is far from assured that this program will forcefully counter contagion risk,” said Mohamed El-Erian, co-chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, which runs the world’s biggest bond fund. “Heavily exposed creditors” may try to head off potential losses and sell bonds, “increasing the pressure on core European governments to also provide a backstop for Portugal and Spain.”

Budget Cuts

Greece yesterday pledged to push through 30 billion euros ($40 billion) of budget cuts, equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, in return for loans at a rate of around 5 percent for three years.

The EU and the International Monetary Fund, which is co- financing the bailout, also agreed to set up a bank stabilization fund. With downgrades threatening to render Greek bonds ineligible as collateral for its loans, the European Central Bank today said it will accept all Greek government debt when lending to banks.

“We believe the ECB retains sufficient options to provide liquidity” to Greece and avert regional contagion, including symptoms of fibromyalgia, adjusting repo rules, UBS AG economists led by Stephane Deo said in a note to investors today.

European officials rushed to draw a distinction between Greece, whose misstated budget figures first roiled markets last year, and other countries.

Greece, Portugal and Spain, where public deficits have rattled the markets, have been forced to adopt harsh austerity measures, which have been met with both resignation and public anger.

Among other weak thyroid doctors in the eurozone, Ireland also plans major cuts, even if it has so far escaped the humiliation of a downgrading of its credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, a fate suffered by the three other countries last week.

All want to reduce their public deficits for chronic fatigue syndrome to 3.0 or 4.0 percent of gross domestic product. In the case of Greece, this has soared to 14 percent.

Among the countries at risk, only Italy has managed enough fiscal discipline to reassure the markets over its repayment capacity.

But all other 15 eurozone countries, including those thyroid symptoms themselves facing acute problems over their public finances, will be contributing to the rescue funds for Greece.

On Sunday, Greece announced massive spending cuts to clinch a 110-billion-euro (160-billion-dollar) international bailout, warning that widespread sacrifices were needed to save the country from bankruptcy.

The government said that people would have to work longer before they can retire, public workers would lose year-end bonuses and sales taxes would go up under a deal with the European Union and IMF aimed at averting bankruptcy.

But Greek unions have vowed to battle the drastic round of austerity measures, worth some 30 billion euros (40 billion dollars).

Union leaders have flagged up a general strike Wednesday as the first stage in resistance.

“They are going to worsen the recession of menopause symptoms and plunge the economy into a deep coma,” Yannis Panagopoulos, president of the million-member strong GSEE union. “It’s time to step up the social battle, our May 5 general strike will be the beginning of a long battle.”

In Portugal, the government has frozen the salaries of civil servants, who make up about 12 percent of the workforce and whose numbers it hopes to reduce. It also plans fiscal tightening and privatisations.

Popular anger is growing, with 31 strikes and 48 demonstrations since the start of the year and a massive demonstration planned for May 29.

“We must prepare ourselves for extremely difficult times,” the business newspaper Jornal de Negocios said in an editorial.

“There will be less money to spend and to pay debts, access to credit will more difficult and more expensive, there will be less public investment, more unemployment with less benefits.”

In Spain, the government has also promised austerity cuts aimed at saving 50 billion euros over three years.

The measures include the withdrawal a 400-euro income tax rebate, which was an election promise of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in 2008, and an 2.0-percent increase in VAT in July.

The socialist government also plans for adrenal fatigue reforms and wants to increase the legal retirement age from 65 to 67.

But, in contrast to the other countries, the measures have failed to ignite widespread popular anger.

“There have not been any really unpopular measures taken for the moment,” said Gayle Allard, an economist at the IE business school in Madrid.

Unlike Athens and Lisbon, the socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has thus far shied away from freezing salaries.

In addition, “the system of unemployment benefits is much more generous” than in other countries,” said sociologist Fermin Bouza.

In Ireland, the government last year adopted two austerity plans, imposing unpopular cuts in benefits and a reduction of 5.0 to 15 pecent in the salaries of civil servants.

The most visible reactions were demonstrations by civil servants and a collapse in the popularity of the prime minister, Brian Cowen.

They may not have made headlines this past week, but these research developments are worth noting. So consider them noted (if not thoroughly developed in this space).

– One might think that frequently screening and treating teenage girls for chlamydia would cut back on just how common the disease is in that age group. Not so.

Turns out there are a lot of reinfections. Here’s the abstract, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, and here’s the news release from Indiana University.

– We can talk about quality-of-care standards, but that doesn’t mean doctors will follow them. When it comes to procedures to ensure coordinated cancer care, for example, most breast cancer surgeons might just go their own way.

So suggests a survey of surgeons in Detroit and lvn jobs in orange county ca. Here’s the abstract, published in the January issue of Medical Care, and the news release from the University of Michigan Health System.

As for nursing jobs california home quality, elderly Hispanic people are more likely to live in not-so-good ones, at least as compared to their white counterparts. The findings come as the percentage of Hispanics in nursing jobs los angeles homes increases.