The following will appear in the February 13 issue of The Lancet:

Under-5 health The UK’s National Audit Commission suggests that the health of young children from deprived backgrounds and ethnic minorities has not improved over the past decade in important outcomes such as obesity and dental health, despite government efforts. The Commission has appealed to local authorities to tailor and monitor services more carefully, engaging parents early on in children’s development.

PET for Pakistan Last weekend saw the opening of Pakistan’s first PET and CT scanning centre at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Lahore. In inaugurating the new unit, leader of the Movement for Justice party Imran Khan said that, until now, patients with cancer in Pakistan have had to travel thousands of miles to Singapore to obtain a diagnosis.

HIV plans On Jan 25, the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies published its report on priorities for HIV prevention over the next 5 years of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It highlights deficiencies in research into prevalence and ef­fective interventions, and prioritises accessible testing, specifically for high-risk, high-stigma groups.

Information action Participants at the Global Health Information Forum in Bangkok, Thailand, on Jan 27–30, have released a call to action on improving national health-information systems. The general principles of the call are: transparency, good governance, investment and capacity building, harmonisation and integration, and planning for the future.

An end to smoking? The UK Depart­ment of Health has identified distinct social patterns in smoking, with low-income areas lagging behind in the quitting race. The government paper A smokefree future pledges renewed support for deprived communities, and targets tobacco advertising, vending machines, and cheap imports. One of the goals is a tobacco-free London for the 2012 Olympics.

Stricter rules Doctors in India could lose their licences if they receive gifts or sponsorship from pharmaceutical companies, according to new rules issued by the Medical Council of India (MCI)—the regulatory body for medical professionals in the country. The MCI has amended its professional code of conduct in a bid to reduce practices such as prescription of branded drugs instead of cheaper generic drugs.

Merck ban The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has banned Merck’s sales staff from its US health-care centres, urging the company to reconsider the price of raltegravir. The drug is still priced as a salvage therapy even though, after Food and Drug Administration approval for wider use, it is now used as a first-line treatment. Ralte­gravir is one of the most expensive antiretroviral drugs on the market.

Health-worker homes Civil society organis­ations have urged the Govern­ment of Uganda to address the scarcity of accommodation for health-care workers, especially in rural areas. According to a review by the Ministry of Health, only 20% of health workers are provided with accommodation at their place of work. Transport and cost issues for the remaining majority are leading to high workforce attrition.

Scottish H1N1 deaths Surprisingly high death rates from influenza A H1N1 have raised concern about general health in Scotland, with some interpreting the finding as indicative of a lower standard of health overall. However, the Scottish Government says that the unexpected ranking as the country with the third highest death rate can be explained by poor cross-national statistical uniformity.

Dengue rise Latin America has seen dengue cases increase almost five-fold in the past 30 years, according to the Pan American Health Organization. 4·8 million cases were reported during 2000–07, compared with 2·7 million in the 1990s and 1 million in the 1980s. Cases of dengue haemorrhagic fever are also increasing, and transmission is now occurring in almost all countries in the region.

Lipid woes A report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that 20% of US teenagers have abnormal lipid concentrations. The large proportion of study participants who fulfilled the American Academy of Pediatrics criteria for lipid screening affirmed the importance of clinical vigilance, in view of the association with cardiovascular disease in adulthood.

Qatar course Qatar will be the first Middle Eastern country to run training programmes for disaster relief. A memorandum of under­standing has been signed by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the University of Calgary–Qatar to run the courses, which aim to train aid workers in responding to medical and other needs after a disaster.

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