July 2nd 2009
This week in medicine
The following will appear in the July 4 issue of The Lancet:
The price of eggs After a year of deliberation, the Empire State Stem Cell Board has agreed to compensate women financially for donating eggs for stem-cell research. The decision, which makes New York state the first to pay for egg donation for purposes other than reproduction, has caused controversy among some who cite the risk of exploitation and the danger this procedure can represent.
Cooperation on cancer The Ministry of Health in Chile and the US National Cancer Institute are forming a partnership to speed up progress on tackling cancer in Hispanic populations in the USA and Latin America. The alliance aims to cooperate on several mutual interests including basic research, technology transfer, sharing of expertise, enhancement of cancer registries, and early-phase clinical trials that are culturally sensitive.
Violence against men Figures for 2007 from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics show an increase of 159% since 1999 in the number of women charged with violence against their male partners. Abused men face prejudice and lack legal and practical means of leaving violent relationships. The Men’s Rights Agency is calling for action to provide more gender-neutral help to victims of domestic violence.
Homecoming At a conference hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Baghdad, the Government of Iraq has appealed for Iraqi scientists living abroad to return home and help rebuild the economy. During the years of conflict, thousands of professionals and academics fled Iraq because of safety concerns.
New at the top Tom Blundell has been appointed the new Chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)—the UK funding body for research in the life sciences. Blundell, a Cambridge professor of biochemistry and the founding Chief Executive of BBSRC, returned on July 1, succeeding Peter Ringrose. He will remain for 4 years.
Afghan family planning Although family-planning services are provided by 90% of health-care facilities in Afghanistan, only 15% of rural women use them, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health. Low uptake might be due to the perception of contraception as taboo. Afghanistan has the highest fertility rate in Asia, and if this is sustained the population is set to reach 56 million by 2050.
Research priorities On June 30, the US Institute of Medicine released its final report on the 100 health topics for which research into the comparative effectiveness of different approaches to care is most urgent. The top 25 areas range from treatment of atrial fibrillation and hearing loss, to prevention of falls and hospital-acquired infections, to management of prostate cancer and dementia.
H1N1 update As of June 29, there had been almost 71 000 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection and 311 deaths worldwide. Since it was officially termed a pandemic on June 11, the disease has penetrated previously unaffected areas including Morocco, Algeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Papua New Guinea. Bearing the brunt are Mexico, the USA, Canada, Chile, the UK, and Australia.
Children’s rights The Obama administration is considering its position on the nation’s failure so far to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The USA is the only country in the world, save Somalia, not to have signed up to the treaty, which took effect in 1990. When quizzed last week about the reasons for the continued dissent, US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said: “It’s a long story”.
Disaster texts Two mobile-phone operators in Bangladesh have agreed to provide state-generated text messages that warn people in the most vulnerable areas of impending natural disasters. Bangladesh is regularly battered by floods and cyclones, the most recent being cyclone Aila, which struck on May 25, leaving 167 dead and more than 7000 injured.
Insulin and cancer The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) has called for more research after studies from Germany, Sweden, and the UK revealed a possible link between the use of insulin glargine (an insulin analogue) and increased risk of cancer. The studies are not conclusive, and EASD stresses that patients should continue using insulin until more evidence from other countries becomes available.
Sex education In an attempt to learn more about sex, many Chinese people have turned to the internet, leading to concerns by the government about access to inappropriate material. Now health websites that link to sex-related research will only be accessible by health professionals. The move is part of a wider effort to improve the quality of information on health-related websites.
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