Years Later, No Magic Bullet Against Alzheimer’s Disease
Gina Kolata
(The New York Times, August 29, 2010)
"The scene was a kind of science court. On trial was the question “Can anything…prevent Alzheimer’s disease or delay its progression? To try to answer that question, the National Institutes of Health sponsored the court, appointing a jury of 15 medical scientists with no vested interests in Alzheimer’s research. They would hear the evidence and reach a judgment on what the data showed. For a day and a half last spring, researchers presented their cases, describing studies and explaining what they had hoped to show. The jury also heard from scientists from Duke University who had been commissioned to look at the body of evidence -- hundreds of research papers -- and weigh it. And the jury members had read the papers themselves, preparing for this day. The studies included research on nearly everything proposed to prevent the disease…And they included research on traits that might hasten Alzheimer’s onset…It is an issue that has taken on intense importance because scientists recently reported compelling evidence that two types of tests, PET scans of Alzheimer’s plaque in the brain and tests of spinal fluid, can find signs of the disease years before people have symptoms. That gives rise to the question: What, if anything, can people do to prevent it."
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Finding Suggests New Aim for Alzheimer’s Drugs
Gina Kolata
(The New York Times, September 2, 2010)
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Vanishing Mind Series
(The New York Times)
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Mixed Evidence
(The New York Times, August 29, 2010)
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Melissa Healy
(Los Angeles Times, August 30, 2010)
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Mary Brophy Marcus
(USA Today, August 31, 2010)
"In the past, most patients placed their entire trust in the hands of their physician. Your doc said you needed a certain medical test, you got it. Not so much anymore…Many physicians say an increasing number of patients are getting involved in decisions about their medical care, including medication choices, whether they need a specialist, and especially whether they need expensive diagnostic tests, which some health economists say are driving up the cost of health care."
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Warren Richey
(The Christian Science Monitor, August 31, 2010)
"The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a ballot initiative that sought to amend the state’s constitution to establish that Florida residents have a right to refuse to purchase mandatory health insurance -- including under President Obama’s reform effort. The state high court voted 5 to 2 to exclude the referendum issue from the November ballot…Florida was slated to be one of four states voting in November on constitutional amendments barring forced participation in a health insurance program. The three remaining states are Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Missouri conducted a recent statewide vote posing the same question. It passed with 71 percent of the vote."
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California: Healthy Move
Editorial
(Los Angeles Times, August 30, 2010)
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Leslie Tamura
(The Washington Post, August 31, 2010)
"'Mobile health' does not mean a clinic on wheels. It is an emerging field within telemedicine that comprises all aspects of care generated from or available on a portable mobile device such as a cellphone. Doctors already use traditional forms of telemedicine -- teleconferencing and videoconferencing -- but [George Washington University emergency physician, Neal] Sikka said 'mHealth' goes further, eliminating the need for scheduling conference rooms and reserving equipment. MHealth could especially benefit patients living in isolated areas and those who don't want to spend the time, money and energy waiting for evaluation of a superficial injury, Sikka added…Using mobile devices to enhance medical services is nothing new -- remember the pager?...said David Armstrong, professor of surgery and director of the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance at the University of Arizona College of Medicine."
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Opinion
(The Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 30, 2010)
YES: Entrepreneurs will better afford coverage and options will increase
Jim McDermott, U.S. Representative, Washington state
NO: Businesses will drop health plans and hire fewer workers because of the costs
Grace-Marie Turner, president and founder of the Galen Institute
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Opinion, Dr. Michael Wilkes
(The Sacramento Bee, August 29, 2010)
"A national assessment of adult literacy suggests that 14 percent of adults are illiterate. Research suggests that those who are illiterate have lower overall health status and receive less medical care than those who can read even when compared to people with similar income and same type of health insurance…I can't recall a time when a doctor or other health care provider even thought to ask a routine question to determine a person's reading ability. At least one published study reports that when doctors are told ahead of time that a person is illiterate, they take precautions to provide written instructions using pictures, take the extra time to assure adequate understanding and recommend that the person enlist the help of a friend or family member to help them read instructions. This is another example of why doctors need to slow down, build trust with their patients, remain nonjudgmental about a sensitive issue and ask the right questions."
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Russ Juskalian
(Newsweek.com, September 1, 2010)
"Though Alcoholics Anonymous and the many subspecies of programs it has birthed still dominate the alcohol-treatment landscape, new remedy ideas are starting to get attention. 'If you look back 20 years, I think it was primarily behavioral therapies that researchers focused on,' says Raye Litten, associate director of the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). 'But since 15 years [ago] or so, medications have also gotten some spotlight.' This is doubly important because only a fraction of problem drinkers ever seek professional help. Recent research, like the NIAAA’s Project COMBINE, the largest alcohol-addiction treatment study to date, suggests that some of these medical treatments are effective when administered via a family physician -- the one member of the medical establishment problem drinkers are likely to encounter without specifically seeking help for their drinking."
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Opinion, Dr. Richard A. Friedman
(The New York Times, August 30, 2010)
"Sure, all drugs of abuse feel good -- at least initially. But for most people, the euphoria doesn’t last…We understand the initial allure of recreational drugs pretty well…Eventually…even higher and higher doses cease to feel good as users try in vain to recapture the initial high. So what explains compulsive drug use…Many brain imaging studies…show that cues like viewing drug paraphernalia are enough by themselves to activate memory circuits and unleash drug craving. Where you are and what you are doing when you use a drug like cocaine is inextricably linked with the high. And these associations are stored not just in your conscious memory, but also in memory circuits outside your awareness. This kind of pathologic learning lies at the heart of compulsive drug use."
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Stephen Smith
(The Boston Globe, August 30, 2010)
"A dozen years after Massachusetts attempted to ban storefront tobacco ads within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds, a prohibition thwarted by a tobacco company’s legal challenge, the signs remain prolific and prominent in Boston’s lower-income neighborhoods…But now, empowered by Congress to regulate tobacco companies, the Food and Drug Administration is taking steps that could rein in the pastel-hued signs that industry foes say entice young customers to start smoking. With cigarette advertising banished from the airwaves and largely absent from billboards, storefronts are some of the last bastions of tobacco marketing. The continued presence of the ads is a testament, researchers said, to the deep reach of cigarette makers in poorer communities, where merchants said company representatives sometimes personally attach ads to store exteriors."
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Martin Johnston
(The New Zealand Herald, August 30, 2010)
"Demand for tobacco has fallen 15 per cent at supermarkets since the tax rise in April - a far greater reduction than expected. 'It's extraordinary,' public health physician Dr Murray Laugesen said yesterday, commenting on supermarket sales figures supplied to him by research company ACNielsen. Based on earlier tax increases, a tobacco price rise of 10 per cent would have been expected to reduce sales by 5 per cent. In April, the Government increased the excise tax on factory-made cigarettes by 10 per cent and on loose tobacco by 25 per cent. The tax on both types will rise by a further 10 per cent next year, and by the same percentage again in 2012."
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
(Associated Press, August 28, 2010)
"They've lived with the health warnings about smoking for much of their lives and doubtless seen the ill effects on friends, relatives and even themselves, yet about 4.5 million older people in the U.S. keep on lighting up. Medicare is finally catching up to most private insurers by providing counseling for anyone on the program who's trying to kick the habit. Dr. Barry Straube, Medicare's chief medical officer, says it's never too late to quit, even for lifelong smokers. 'The elderly can respond to smoking cessation counseling even if they have been smoking for 30 years or more,' says Straube. 'We do know we can see a reduction in the death rate and complications from smoking-related illnesses.' Not only cancer, heart disease and lung problems, which can kill, but also gastric reflux, osteoporosis and other ailments that undermine quality of life. Smoking-related illnesses cost Medicare tens of billions a year."
Janet Adamy
(The Wall Street Journal, New York, August 31, 2010)
"Regulators' appetite for calorie counts is about to extend beyond restaurants to thousands of other places that offer food, including airplanes, movie theaters and convenience stores. The expansion stems from provisions in the health-care overhaul enacted in March. The government wants calorie listings posted to make it easier for consumers to select healthier options, and the restaurant industry backed the move so it could avoid a patchwork of local ordinances that are developing. So far, the expansion of the calorie counts beyond restaurants has drawn praise from nutrition advocates but push-back from industries that say the original legislation was never intended to hit them."
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Julie Robotham
(The Sydney Morning Herald, August 28, 2010)
"Hospital emergency departments need bigger blood pressure cuffs, larger beds and more lifting devices such as overhead hoists to manage the growing proportion of patients who are obese or morbidly obese, a study says. The study documents for the first time in Australia doctors' and nurses' difficulties in treating such people. Physical examinations were harder because of difficulties positioning the patient, examining the chest or abdomen for abnormalities, and finding veins to place syringes and cannulas, the findings say. As well, it was harder to use a stethoscope to listen to the heart or lungs, and to conduct abdominal scans, while chest X-rays were typically of poorer quality and harder to interpret."
(The Economist, London, August 28, 2010)
"Consume more water and you will become much healthier, goes an old wives’ tale. Drink a glass of water before meals and you will eat less, goes another. Such prescriptions seem sensible, but they have little rigorous science to back them up. Until now, that is. A team led by Brenda Davy of Virginia Tech has run the first randomised controlled trial studying the link between water consumption and weight loss. A report on the 12-week trial, published earlier this year, suggested that drinking water before meals does lead to weight loss. At a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston this week, Dr Davy unveiled the results of a year-long follow-up study that confirms and expands that finding…Why this works is obscure. But work it does. It’s cheap. It’s simple. And unlike so much dietary advice, it seems to be enjoyable too."
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Marie McCullough
(The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 31, 2010)
"After two decades of being about as popular as chastity belts, the intrauterine device is catching on again in this country. IUD [intrauterine device] use nearly tripled in just six years, growing from 2 percent of birth-control users in 2002 to about 6 percent in 2008, according to the latest federal survey. That translates to 2.1 million women -- and the kind of market growth not seen since sales peaked in the 1970s. Medical organizations and health activists are finally succeeding in debunking the idea that all IUDs are dangerous, a misconception rooted in the Dalkon Shield debacle of the 1970s. Clinicians are once again touting the method's hassle-free, long-acting, reversible benefits, while websites like IUD Divas let women share every cramp, question, and concern. This is not to suggest the IUD is now free of controversy."
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Denise Grady
(The New York Times, August 30, 2010)
"A new study suggests several reasons for the nation’s rising Caesarean section rate, including the increased use of drugs to induce labor, the tendency to give up on labor too soon and deliver babies surgically instead of waiting for nature to take its course, and the failure to allow women with previous Caesareans to try to give birth vaginally. Thirty-two percent of all births in the United States -- nearly 1 in 3 -- now occur by Caesarean section. The operations have been increasing steadily since 1996, setting records year after year, and have become the most common surgery in American hospitals. About 1.4 million Caesareans were performed in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available. The increases have caused debate and concern."
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Why Has the USA's Cesarean Section Rate Climbed So High?
Rita Rubin
(USA Today, August 30, 2010)
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Rachel Browne
(The Sydney Morning Herald, August 29, 2010)
"The number of births to teenage mothers in Australia has jumped after decades of steady decline, with a 10 per cent increase nationally. But health experts are divided over how worried we should be about the trend. Nationally, the teenage fertility rate for the period has risen by 8.1% per cent. While some health professionals are concerned, others say the increase is in line with the country's overall baby boom. Dr Patricia Weerakoon, co-ordinator of the University of Sydney's graduate program in sexual health, said teenagers were becoming sexually active earlier, putting themselves at risk of sexually transmissible illnesses and unplanned pregnancies…Despite the increase, Australia's teenage fertility rate of 17 per 1000 teens is still much lower than the US…Britain…and New Zealand…But it is higher than many European countries including Germany…France…and the Netherlands."
Sarah Boseley
(The Observer, London, August 29, 2010)
"The soaring rate of sexually transmitted infections was last week laid at the door of young people…But there are a few other things underlying the bald data put out by the Health Protection Agency…One of those is the slightly dull fact that testing has become much more sensitive, picking up infections that might have been missed in the past. Another is that more people are being tested -- and much of this has to do with the national chlamydia screening campaign…Screening has only reached a small percentage of the eligible age group, but it did treat 38,000 young people for chlamydia in 2008/9. And there is another important, positive effect. Getting tested for chlamydia -- or even considering having a test -- inevitably makes young people think and possibly talk about their sexual health. That's the hard bit for the public health experts. Awareness campaigns are difficult."
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Cindy Dilys M. Asamoah
(Public Agenda, Ghana, August 27, 2010)
"The new phase of the 'Life Choices' family planning initiative is to reverse the decline in the various family planning methods in the Country. The use of modern contraceptives according to statistics have declined in Ghana during the past 5 years for the first time since the early 1980's and until 2008, there had been a steady increase in sexually transmitted diseases. This negative development, according to experts, has immense negative implications for the health and well-being of the Ghanaian population. The Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kumbour, who formally launched the initiative on behalf of the Vice President…He disclosed that over one-third of married women in Ghana have an 'unmet need' for family planning. Explaining, he said one out of every three of our married women want to wait for some time to have a child, or they do not want more children, yet they are not using any contraceptive method."
James Dao
(The New York Times, August 30, 2010)
"Excess weight is the leading reason the Army rejects potential recruits. And while that has been true for years, the problem has worsened as the waistlines of America’s youth have expanded…Though the Army screens out the seriously obese and completely unfit, it is still finding that many of the recruits who reach basic training have less strength and endurance than privates past…As a result, it is harder for recruits to reach Army fitness standards, and more are getting injured along the way…The new fitness regime tries to deal with all these problems by incorporating more stretching, more exercises for the abdomen and lower back, instead of the traditional situps, and more agility and balance training. It increases in difficulty more gradually. And it sets up a multiweek course of linked exercises, rather than offering discrete drills."
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Mike Baker
(Associated Press, August 30, 2010)
"Because of worries about Agent Orange, about 270,000 Vietnam veterans…are being compensated for diabetes than for any other malady…The VA said Monday that it will add heart disease, Parkinson's disease and certain types of leukemia to the list of conditions that might be connected to Agent Orange. The agency estimates that the new rules, which will go into effect in two months unless Congress intervenes, will cost $42 billion over the next 10 years. Lawmakers and federal officials who have reservations about the spending are loath to criticize a program that helps servicemen. They have largely ignored a 2008 report in which a group of scientists said the decision to grant benefits to so many on such little evidence was 'quite extreme'…One large study…after 25 years of research, surveyed the airmen responsible for loading and dumping Agent Orange…The final round of testing actually showed the prevalence of diabetes among those participants was slightly lower than among pilots who did not take part…Some 23 percent of Americans 60 and older have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Alicia Mundy and Bill Tomson
(The Wall Street Journal, New York, September 2, 2010)
"Ever since the recent nationwide salmonella outbreak sickened more than 1,000 people and led to the recall of more than a half-billion eggs, USDA officials have stressed that ensuring egg safety isn't their job. That task, they say, belongs to the Food and Drug Administration, which said Wednesday it is getting help from its criminal division and the Justice Department in looking at the farms at the center of the recall. So what's the point of stamping egg cartons as Grade A? The USDA has two different missions. It does regulate some food safety, especially with meat, but it's also responsible for promoting American food here and abroad. The egg shield comes from the USDA's marketing side. Egg makers don't have to put a USDA grade on their cartons, and some choose not to. But the USDA shield can help them charge more for their products. The egg side is different from the meat side at the USDA, where inspection programs are mandatory and the inspectors' job includes looking for sanitation problems."
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Safer Eggs
Editorial
(Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2010)
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Kay Lazar
(The Boston Globe, August 30, 2010)
"Forget the long sterile corridors, antiseptic smells, and assembly-line feel. In this nursing home [in Chelsea, Massachusetts], elders rule. Residents decide when they want to get up, what they want to eat -- and it’s all freshly cooked by specially trained nursing assistants who pull up chairs, fill their own plates, and join in the conversation…the Green House Project, a national group promoting family-like alternatives to traditional institutional care for people needing long-term skilled nursing services…Unlike traditional facilities that assign staff to patients on a rotating basis, each of the Chelsea 'homes' has two primary caregivers who routinely tend to the same 10 residents and plan meals with them, help them bathe, groom, and dress, and do their laundry. In addition, nurses, therapists, and other medical professionals care for patients throughout the center."
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Ellen Kleinerman
(The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, August 30, 2010)
"Dizziness is the No. 1 reason people 65 and older visit their doctors, says the National Institutes of Health, and about 9 percent of these people report dizziness due to inner-ear or vestibular issues. It's not just the elderly. Experts say that about 40 percent of all Americans experience balance problems serious enough to see a doctor. Quickly finding the cause is key to helping people regain control, achieve confidence and reduce the number of falls, says Dr. E. Luke Bold, director of the Lake Health Balance Center, which opened in July."
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Lisa Szabo
(USA Today, August 31, 2010)
"For the first time, a study out today has found that women with certain high-risk genetic mutations -- which dramatically increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancers -- were more likely to survive if they had preventive surgery to remove healthy ovaries and fallopian tubes. Earlier studies have shown that removing the ovaries and tubes of women with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes reduces the risk of ovarian and breast cancer, and that mastectomies nearly eliminate the risk of breast tumors…But removing young women's ovaries can put them into instant menopause, says Claudine Isaacs of Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, co-author of the study in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Neither surgery removes all cancer risk, because some tumor cells may linger even after surgery."
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Mark Gould
(The Observer, London, August 29, 2010)
"Hospices that care for victims of a form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure hope to get help with treatment costs following a landmark court ruling. After a three-year legal battle the high court has ruled that a company that exposed a former worker, who later died of mesothelioma, to asbestos should pay for part of his hospice care. The ruling is a major boost to hospices, which rely for much of their funding on charitable donations. Engineering firm Foster Wheeler must pay £10,000 to St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, east London…A bed at St Joseph's costs around £900 a day, 35% of which the NHS pays for. As the rest comes from charity, St Joseph's lawyers argued that companies or their insurers should be liable. The ruling could lead to thousands of claims from hospices, with mesothelioma cases set to peak at over 2,450 a year in the next decade."
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Laura Landro
(The Wall Street Journal, New York, August 31, 2010)
"It's a simple step, but one many doctors forget to remind patients to take: Wear a medical-alert bracelet. A growing number of American adults and children face complex medical conditions like heart disease and diabetes. They may have drug or food allergies, suffer from disorders like autism, or take medications like the blood thinner coumadin that medical staff should know about in an emergency. New bracelets and other medical-identification systems can fill in first responders on practically a patient's complete health history. They're a far cry from the simple identification bracelets of the past, which with a few engraved words informed medics that a person was, perhaps, allergic to penicillin. They can steer first responders to a secure website or toll-free phone number, or initiate a text message, to get the medical and prescription history of a patient who may be unconscious or unable to talk about their condition."
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Lindsey Tanner
(Associated Press, August 30, 2010)
"Emergency room visits for school-age athletes with concussions has skyrocketed in recent years, suggesting the intensity of kids' sports has increased along with awareness of head injuries. The findings in a study of national data don't necessarily mean that concussions are on the rise. However, many children aren't taken for medical treatment, so the numbers are likely only a snapshot of a much bigger problem, doctors say…The study appears in Pediatrics, published online Monday, along with a report about sports-related concussions from the American Academy of Pediatrics' sports medicine council...Potential concussions should not be 'toughed out,' say the authors…Affected athletes should always be examined by a doctor or someone else with medical expertise."
David Olmos
(Bloomberg, August 31, 2010)
"A study of 1,824 adults ages 55 to 65 found that moderate and heavy drinkers were less likely to die than abstainers over a 20-year span, according to researchers at the University of Texas in Austin and Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Moderate drinkers were defined as those who consumed alcohol in amounts less than three drinks daily, while heavy drinkers had three or more drinks a day, according to the study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. The results overcame a common criticism of previous similar findings about drinking and longevity: that the outcome was skewed because researchers included former problem drinkers with poor health in the abstainers’ group."
Caroline Alphonso
(The Globe and Mail, Toronto, August 30, 2010)
"A team of Montreal researchers has lent scientific credibility to the view that smoking marijuana can ease chronic neuropathic pain and help patients sleep better…The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that pain intensity among patients decreased with higher-potency marijuana. It is one of a handful of scientific attempts to determine the medicinal benefits of the drug. 'We’re not saying that this is the final solution for chronic pain management. As with any pain strategy, especially with chronic pain, we know that the best approach is a multidisciplinary one,' said lead author Mark Ware, director of clinical research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the McGill University Health Centre. 'All that this does is open the door to the cannabinoid being another tool in the toolbox in treating chronic pain.'"
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Steve Connor
(The Independent, London, August 30, 2010)
"A revolutionary way of screening the entire human genome for the genetic signposts of disease has produced its latest success -- the first inherited link to common migraine and a possible reason for extreme headaches…Scientists believe the findings could lead both to a better understanding as well as new treatments for the chronic and debilitating condition which is estimated to be one of the most costly brain-related disorders in society, causing countless lost working days…Scanning the entire blueprint of human DNA by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has had a profound effect on the understanding of a range of other medical conditions…The study of migraine, published in the journal Nature Genetics, was an archetypal example of the new approach of medical genetics using the GWAS technique."
Elizabeth Cooney
(The Boston Globe, August 30, 2010)
"Around the world, half a billion people live with uncorrected vision problems, according to World Health Organization estimates, in part because eye specialists are rare in the developing world. But a team at the MIT Media Lab believes it can help restore sharp eyesight to many of these people, with a vision test that uses cellphones, an inexpensive clip-on eyepiece, and free software. Ramesh Raskar says his team has developed a prototype eye test that rivals what vastly more expensive machines do in eye doctors’ offices. The implications could be significant for the developing world, where cellphones are far more common than opportunities for eye care. The device, called the Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment, or NETRA, won’t eliminate the need for eye doctors, Raskar said, but it could signal a problem and make it easy for people to get the right glasses from agencies that collect donated ones. The eyepiece costs about a dollar or two to make, Raskar said."
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Opinion
Bernard Kouchner, foreign minister of France;
Katsuya Okada, foreign minister of Japan; and
Charles Michel, development cooperation minister of Belgium
(The Christian Science Monitor, August 31, 2010)
"Do you know the realities of today’s world? A billion people don’t have access to drinking water; a billion people suffer from hunger; nearly one million people die each year of malaria, 1.3 million of tuberculosis, and 2 million of AIDS; and poverty keeps some 72 million children out of school and prevents them from realizing their potential. To tackle such global issues, the UN set out the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which the international community should achieve by the year 2015. A wide range of financial resources that are sustainable, predictable, and additional to the traditional Official Development Aid (ODA) need to be mobilized to meet the global development needs including the MDGs. Given the relentless urgency, we must act. We are determined to find an effective way to finance development that would be alongside -- and not in place of -- public aid. In a world marked by substantial gaps in development and standards of living, we must promote innovative approaches and instruments."
Winifred Ogbebo and Sani Muh'd Sani
(Leadership, Nigeria, August 29, 2010)
"Over four hundred and thirty five persons have lost their lives to cholera and measles this year, the Federal Ministry of Health has revealed. A document signed by the special assistant to the health minister on communication, Rakiya Zubairu, stated that reports from the department of public health shows that so far, 11 states are battling with the epidemic…Giving another reason for the outbreak, the report says, 'a quick survey by Federal Ministry of Health revealed that less than 40% of the entire population in affected states have no access to toilet facilities of any description…Another major factor…is the fact that majority of our population (66% in rural dwellers') lack access to safe drinking water'…Not surprisingly, the current devastation is more widespread in the north, where most statistics say the largest number of the poor live."
Related opinion:
Stop This Cholera Scourge
Editorial
(Daily Trust, Nigeria, August 29, 2010)
(Agence France-Presse, August 31, 2010)
"[O]rganisers of the Delhi Commonwealth Games are now grappling with a mosquito crisis at sporting venues and are even employing larvae-eating fish. 'We are taking all possible precautions against mosquitoes,' a senior official from the Delhi event's organising committee told AFP Tuesday, asking not to be named. 'But we are concerned.' An outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever in New Delhi has led 863 people to seek hospital care since July, according to an official tally, although the real number of infections is thought to be many times higher…A heavy monsoon and the Games construction sites across the city, where water has gathered in large pools, have led to heightened fears this year about mosquito-borne diseases. The insects breed in stagnant water."
Mark Gould
(The Guardian, London, September 1, 2010)
"The labyrinthine NHS is a mass of contradictions. Doctors, nurses and managers are exhorted to work together to keep people out of hospitals, for example by pre-empting crises to avoid expensive emergency admissions. Yet the introduction of more independence and competition means that these same hospitals, particularly the semi-autonomous foundation trusts, are competing for customers to drive up income. A new report published today by health thinktank the Nuffield Trust highlights a handful of NHS organisations that are beginning to break down some of these barriers between hospitals, community health services and general practice to provide more seamless care to patients. The report, Removing the Policy Barriers to Integrated Care in England, stresses that government and NHS must resolve some policy contradictions by devising more effective methods of rewarding caregivers in whatever setting, while still using the twin drivers of competition and collaboration to improve services."
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Opinion
Laurence Isaacson, entrepreneur, restaurateur and impresario
(The Observer, London, August 29, 2010)
"People are very scared of donating [organs]…the psychological barrier of donating when you're alive is high…The lack of information about donation is pathetic. We don't realise that we can survive perfectly well on one kidney and the after-effects are negligible. It's not such a difficult thing to do…We need an advertising campaign talking about donation. More people should consider live kidney donation. What is criminal is how few people are encouraged to donate on death. The UK has one of the lowest donor rates in the western world. About 1,000 people a year die waiting to receive a new organ. The current system is that you have to sign up to donate…If we had presumed consent, there would be a significant increase in the number of organs available. I wouldn't have had to put my friends in such a position."
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Anna Leask
(The New Zealand Herald, August 29, 2010)
"The number of repeat drink-drivers caught on New Zealand roads is showing a worrying upward spiral, and is a problem police are struggling to counter. The number of recidivist drink-drivers has risen steadily over the past three years, and more than 4000 have been prosecuted already this year. Many of them are involved in fatal crashes. Figures released to the Herald on Sunday under the Official Information Act reveal 7200 people were convicted of their third or more drink-driving offence in 2009 compared with 6995 in 2008 and 6639 in 2007. This year to date 4134 have been prosecuted and police expect the number to rise to the 7000 mark over the next four months."
Related graphic:
NZ's Drink-Driving Shame
(The New Zealand Herald)
Mark Guarino
(The Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 2010)
"Although this year hasn't been Chicago's worst, the [three recent] police murders have brought new attention to the city's stubbornly high homicide rate, which experts say is the result of a chronic gang problem and budget cutbacks that have reduced the number of officers patrolling tough neighborhoods…Chicago's gang problem is greater than that in either New York City or Los Angeles, according to Philip Cook, who studies violence at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy in Durham, N.C. Chicago Police Department statistics show that 81 percent of homicides in the first seven months of this year were gang-related, which Mr. Cook says confirms his research that despite policing efforts, gun access is flourishing among Chicago's gangs."
See also:
City's Restrictive Gun Laws Are Rarely Enforced
Mick Dumke and Dan Mihalopoulos
(The New York Times, August 28, 2010)
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