Public Health
Real Battle Over Mental Health Law About to Begin
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The UK government’s climb down on reform of mental health legislation is not a victory - the real battle is about to begin, warns a senior doctor in this week’s BMJ.
The UK government’s announcement that it has abandoned its eight year attempt to achieve a new Mental Health Act for England and Wales is an apparent victory for patients, professionals, and liberal democracy, writes Professor Nigel Eastman of St George’s Hospital, London.
But faced with almost unanimous opposition from those with an interest in mental health care, the government has stated that it will instead introduce a shortened and streamlined bill amending the 1983 Mental Health Act.
Minimal genome should be twice the size
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The simplest bacteria need almost twice as many genes to survive than scientists first believed, according to new research published in Nature (30 March 2006).
Bacteria are some of the simplest forms of life and have been studied by scientists trying to identify the smallest collection of genes - or minimal genome - that is needed for maintaining life.
Traditionally scientists have done this by removing, or ‘knocking out’, a series of individual genes from a bacterial genome to see what effect this has on its ability to survive.
Clinton calls for mandatory AIDS testing while UN discourages Goa
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Bill Clinton is suggesting that mandatory testing for HIV/AIDS be used in countries with high infection rates and the means to provide lifesaving drugs.
The former U.S. president says countries where there is no discrimination against people with the illness and where anti-AIDS drugs are available should now consider universal testing.
Twenty years ago, at the start of the AIDS epidemic, mandatory testing was frowned on because of the stigma attached to the deadly illness and the lack of treatment for those infected.
China says it will ban sale of human organs
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China said on Tuesday it will ban the sale of human organs and strengthen oversight of its transplant market, which critics say has become a haven for illegal trade and centers on organs of executed prisoners.
Ministry of Health regulations that take effect on July 1 require the written consent of donors and restrict the number of hospitals allowed to perform transplant operations.
Cases must also be discussed by an ethics committee, said the regulations posted on the ministry’s Web site (http://www.moh.gov.cn).
Intensive care innovations win Microsoft award
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An academic team which includes key researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Hull has taken both first and second prizes, in a nationwide innovation competition run by Microsoft.
Dr Paul Dark, a Clinical Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine from Manchester Medical School based at Hope Hospital, and Drs John Purdy and Rob Miles of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hull, mentored and supported students to develop innovative, software-based products to support intensive care. The students then entered their ideas into Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a technological ‘Olympic games’ which sets top young technologists from around the globe on the world’s toughest problems.
Egyptian program to eliminate elephantiasis successful
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Organizers of a 20-year global effort to eliminate a parasitic infection that is a leading cause of disability have an early victory to savor: a five-year Egyptian elimination campaign has mostly succeeded, according to a new report in the March 25 issue of The Lancet. Infection with the parasites, threadlike filarial worms, can lead to the dramatic, disfiguring swelling known as elephantiasis.
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Ain Shams University in Egypt found that after five years of annual mass treatments with two drugs, rates of filarial infection sharply declined in Egypt.
Clinton urges investment in disaster early warning
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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton urged the world on Monday to invest in early warning systems to prevent the massive death and destruction seen in recent earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters.
“Hazards are not disasters by definition. Hazards only become disasters when lives and livelihoods are swept away,” Clinton said in a statement before the start of the International Early Warning Conference in Bonn on Monday.
Thailand battles major botulism outbreak
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Thailand flew 17 people with severe botulism to Bangkok on Thursday, while dozens more were being treated in rural hospitals after one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the muscle-paralyzing disease.
The 17, including 12 women and a young girl, were among 160 villagers who fell ill after eating contaminated bamboo shoots during a festival in the northern province of Nan.
Crucial breakthrough in pectin biosynthesis
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Most people know pectin as a common household gelling agent in making jams and jellies, but its uses are vast. It has anticancer properties, for instance, and may have a role in important biological functions including plant growth and development and defense against disease.
Despite the importance of pectin as a major component in the primary walls of plants, scientists have known relatively little about how this family of complex polysaccharides is made. Especially perplexing has been how the synthesis of the three different classes of pectic polysaccharides is coordinated to produce the pectin matrix in cell walls.
Test seen unlikely to crimp defibrillator sales
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Medicare’s decision to pay for a test that determines whether someone needs an implantable heart defibrillator will likely have little immediate impact on the $10 billion market for the devices, analysts said.
Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, Tuesday agreed to pay for the test, developed by Cambridge Heart Inc., a tiny company based in Bedford, Massachusetts.
Governments blamed for health staff brain drain
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Increasing nurses’ pay in Britain and ensuring that the supply of U.S. doctors meets demand could stem the brain drain of healthcare workers from poor countries to rich ones, researchers said on Tuesday.
The exodus of doctors and nurses seeking better pay has caused a crisis in low-income nations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where HIV/AIDS has put an added burden on already limited resources.
EU agrees to alternatives to animal drug tests
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The European Union has approved six alternative drug-testing methods to replace experiments on animals in a move that will help to save up to 200,000 rabbits each year, its executive arm said on Tuesday.
The change will also increase the accuracy of the tests, thereby making the products concerned safer, the European Commission said.
White House wants more drug tests in students
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Student athletes, musicians and others who participate in after school activities could increasingly be subject to random drug testing under a program promoted by the Bush administration.
White House officials say drug testing is an effective way to keep students away from harmful substances like marijuana and crystal methamphetamine, and have held seminars across the country to promote the practice to local school officials.
Regular exercise closes the fitness gap between young and old
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According to new research the older we get the harder we have to work to keep fit.
Seniors it seems may have to work harder than young people to perform the same physical activity, but regular exercise may close that age gap.
Researchers found in a study comparing sedentary adults in their 60s and 70s with those in their 20s and 30s, that older men and women had to use much more oxygen to walk at the same speed as their younger counterparts.
Chinese AIDS activists call for release of colleague
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Chinese AIDS activists on Friday called for the release of fellow rights worker Hu Jia, who vanished a month ago, while his wife said she still had no idea where he was and was becoming increasingly worried.
The 32-year-old Hu went missing after going on hunger strike with several others to protest what they said was the government’s hiring of thugs to beat up a civil rights campaigner.
His wife, Zeng Jinyan, told Reuters that she had been to the prosecutor’s office to try and lodge a complaint that the police were holding her husband illegally.
