Public Health
Religion can trump medical advice, docs say
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Many US doctors believe that the religious convictions of their patients should outweigh their own professional advice when it comes to making certain medical decisions.
When the patient is a child, however, a large majority of doctors say that they, and not the child’s guardian, should have the final say, regardless of the guardian’s religious beliefs.
These findings and others come from a survey of 794 physicians nationwide who answered various questions about religion and its effect on healthcare in the United States in an August poll.
Petrol sniffing continues to kill Aborigines
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Petrol sniffing played a part in the deaths of up to 60 Aborigines in Australia’s outback Northern Territory in the past seven years, a coroner was told on Tuesday as an inquest began into three of the deaths.
Outback health workers say there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Aborigines sniffing petrol since the last inquest in 1998, as black outback communities struggle to combat the habit in the face of poverty, disease and abuse.
US senator seeks probe of drug researcher payments
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A top Republican senator on Monday urged the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department to look into a report that Wall Street investors paid researchers to reveal confidential information about ongoing drug studies.
“Selling drug secrets violates a trust that is fundamental to the integrity of both scientific research and our financial markets,” Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said in a letter to SEC Chairman Chris Cox and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
The Seattle Times on Sunday said some medical researchers received up to $500 per hour to tell brokerages and hedge funds about the likelihood of a drug’s success and marketability.
Dutch doctors grant 44 percent of requests to die
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Dutch doctors whose patients asked for their help in dying assisted in their suicide nearly half the time and turned them down just 12 percent of the time, researchers said on Monday.
Doctors granted patient requests to die in 44 percent of the cases, 13 percent withdrew their requests and 26 percent of patients died either before the decision was made or before euthanasia could be carried out, according to study author Marijke Jansen-van der Weide of VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam.
Trust fosters correct drug use when cash is tight
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When strapped for cash, it is not uncommon for people to cut back on taking their prescribed medications. Now, new research indicates that this tendency—which can have obvious adverse health consequences—is offset by a high degree of trust between patients and doctors.
“In our study of over 900 diabetic patients in a VA health system, we found that medication costs were a problem for everybody, regardless of whether they trusted their doctors or not,” lead author Dr. John D. Piette, from the VA Ann Arbor Health Care System in Michigan, told Reuters Health. “Nevertheless, when people didn’t trust their doctors, they were much more likely to cut back on medications because of cost pressures.”
Chinese officials fired for pig disease cover-up
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Four officials have been sacked for trying to cover up the trail of dead pigs early in an outbreak of a swine-borne disease that has killed 39 people in southwest China, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
The officials, all from near Neijiang in Sichuan province, had fabricated reports and deceived inspectors and reporters tracing the spread of the Streptococcus suis bacteria, Xinhua said on its English Web site, http://www.chinaview.cn.
Cloned dog raises ethical questions
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South Korea’s Woo-Suk Hwang has reached the highest peaks of cloning and stem cell research, but critics say he has taken science onto a steep and slippery slope and raised alarming questions about interfering with life.
On Wednesday, Hwang was all smiles as he put on a lab coat and frolicked with an Afghan hound puppy named Snuppy, the world’s first cloned dog, which he helped create.
The dog was named after Seoul National University, where Hwang’s lab has produced results that have put his team at the forefront of cloning and stem cell technology.
China in new push to curb addictive online gaming
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China is preparing to introduce new rules to deal with the growing problem of addictive behaviour in the nation’s booming online game sector, one of the country’s top game operators said on Wednesday.
Industry regulator the General Administration of Publication and Press is in the process of formulating the new rules, called “anti-fatigue” rules by some, said Michael Tong, chief operating officer of No. 2 online game operator NetEase.com Inc.
HK experts see no mutation in swine flu - paper
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A deadly pig-borne disease that has killed 36 people in southwestern China is caused by one type of bacteria and is not a mutated or new strain, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Tuesday.
Three Hong Kong health experts investigating the outbreak in Sichuan province have identified the bacteria as Streptococcus suis and found no evidence that the victims had been infected by any other bacteria, the South China Morning Post reported.
Athletics - U.S. propose life bans for steroid offences
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The United States will urge the world governing athletics body this week to impose life bans on any athlete testing positive for steroids.
The U.S. motion is one of around 300 tabled for debate at a two-day meeting of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) congress starting on Wednesday in advance of the 10th world championships opening on Saturday.
At present first time offenders who test positive for steroids are banned for two years. Lifetime bans follow a second offence.
Tax assessor threatened in Florida anthrax hoax
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A federal health agency worker was charged with making a false threat to infect Florida property assessors with anthrax for revoking her tax exemption, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Michelle Ledgister, who works at the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland, was arrested in Maryland on Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. An anti-terrorism law enacted last year makes it a federal crime to convey false information about anthrax exposure, punishable by up to five years imprisonment.
China educates farmers on pig-borne disease
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Sichuan province in southwestern China has launched a campaign to educate poor, illiterate farmers not to slaughter sick pigs or eat their meat after an outbreak of swine flu hit about 100 villages and killed at least 34 people.
Sichuan, the country’s top pork-producing province, has been forced to suspend all exports of chilled and frozen pork from Ziyang city and surrounding Neijiang prefecture to Hong Kong, where there have been 10 infections since 2004.
New York company expands recall of chicken products
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A New York company is expanding its recall of ready-to-eat chicken products by an additional 90,000 pounds because of possible listeria contamination, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Sunday.
The voluntary recall by Brooklyn, New York-based Ilyssa Manufacturing Corp. started on July 28 when it recalled about 3,200 pounds of “Chef Pronto” chicken products.
Stem cell sponsor sees veto-proof Senate backing
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An expansion of federally funded embryonic stem cell research could pass the U.S. Senate with a veto-proof margin now that the chamber’s leader backs the idea, a leading sponsor of the effort said on Sunday.
But it may be harder getting the super-majority needed to override a possible presidential veto in the House of Representatives, Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter said.
Specter said the decision last week by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to defy President Bush and support legislation liberalizing the administration’s policy on stem cell research had given the effort a “big boost” in Congress.
HK orders clean up as swine flu spreads in China
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Alarmed by an outbreak of swine flu in mainland China that has killed 34 people, Hong Kong’s government set up tough new measures on Monday to try to protect the southern territory from the disease.
Over 180 people have been infected with Streptococcus suis, a form of swine flu, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province since June.
The Hong Kong government ordered pig farms in the city to strictly observe hygiene standards and to dispose of pig carcasses properly in designated areas.
