February 2nd 2008
This week in medicine
Food aid shortages World Food Programme (WFP) provisions for over 2 million people in Darfur are being threatened by an upsurge of banditry. Since the new year, 23 WFP-contracted trucks and their drivers have been seized. WFP representative Kenro Oshidi claims “if the situation continues, we’ll be forced to cut rations”.
Drug settlement Almost 58 000 plaintiffs registered claims against the drug company Merck over its pain drug rofecoxib before the deadline imposed by the US District court. More than 3000 people have already opted to enrol in the US$4·85 billion settlement, which was announced in November last year.
Gaza crisis Desperate Palestinians breached the border with Egypt last week after Israel closed all of Gaza’s crossings on Jan 17 in retaliation to an increase in rocket attacks. Gaza’s medical services, food, electricity, and water supplies have been severely crippled by Israeli sanctions. For more on the crisis in Gaza see World Report.
Suicide watch In a long-overdue move, the US Food and Drug Admin-istration has told drug manufac-turers that they must now monitor whether patients become suicidal during clinical trials. Makers of drugs to treat obesity, epilepsy, depression, and many other conditions will be asked to do comprehensive suicide-risk assessments in their trials.
High mortality The International Rescue Committee estimates that 10 000 people die every week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, half of whom are children. This rate is 50% higher than the average for sub-Saharan Africa and has not slowed in the 5 years since the war ended. Poor health infrastructure and poverty are blamed for excessive deaths from preventable illnesses such as measles.
Healthy hearts The American Heart Association celebrates an early victory this week. Their goal of reducing the number of deaths from coronary heart disease by a quarter between 1999 and 2010 has been achieved 2 years ahead of schedule. The CDC reports a 25·8% reduction in deaths from heart disease in the USA over the past 9 years.
Bird flu threat As bird flu spreads across West Bengal, small poultry traders are exploiting ignorance about H5N1 among poor villagers by selling smuggled, suspect poultry at bargain prices. Fearing human infection and lacking resources, health workers have employed loudspeakers to engage vulnerable communities. Veterinary staff have resorted to night-time raids after resistance to organised culling.
Grand plans Not content with unravelling the mysteries of Jim Watson and Craig Venter’s DNA, researchers in the UK, USA, and China are launching a 3-year project to sequence the genomes of 1000 anonymous people from different ethnic groups. This rich catalogue of human genetic variation should help us to understand how specific regions of DNA are associated with diseases.
Polio vaccination WHO, UNICEF, and the Government of Pakistan have teamed up to immunise 33 million children against polio. Over 85 000 vaccination teams were involved in this latest endeavour to eradicate the disease in Pakistan. In addition to insecurity issues, the teams have to tackle the false belief that the vaccination makes children impotent.
Turning back the clock UK researchers have developed a technique to repair damaged cells in patients with dementia with low-level infrared light. They believe this could partly restore cognitive function and memory loss.
XDR tuberculosis spreads Botswana’s Health Ministry has confirmed two cases of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis. The disease is probably present in other southern African countries, but most lack the laboratory capacity for diagnosis. To prevent the spread of disease, some governments have resorted to isolation of patients during treatment.
Digestion charge UK Department of Health strategists have revealed radical plans to tackle obesity rates. Pilot schemes have seen work colleagues competing to achieve the greatest proportional weight loss for financial reward. No small change either-the UK Government is banking on £372 million to solve this big problem. Will dangling this latest gold carrot be enough to encourage the larger of us to shed the pounds? It remains to be seen.
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