Photo credit: Hannah Cai, The Epoch Times

Iffath Hoskins, M.D., SVP, chair and residency director, Department of OB/GYN, joined U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer at a July 1 press conference to speak out about the recent increase in Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). Senator Schumer, along with Dr. Hoskins and other area medical professionals, called for a nationwide plan to combat the alarming trend in N.Y. and across the nation of infants being born addicted to prescription painkillers or other opiates. According to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association last month, approximately 3.4 of every 1,000 infants born in 2009 suffered from NAS, roughly one infant was born with the syndrome every hour.

"By addressing addiction in pregnant mothers, increasing training of doctors to recognize this condition, revising medication labeling, and expanding funding for research and data collection, we can help to decrease the number of innocent lives that are affected by NAS," stated Dr. Hoskins. To read more, visit http://bit.ly/N5OQQh or http://bit.ly/P3026q.

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