December 8, 2003                    

CDC Study Raises Level of Suspicion - Insight Magazine - "Canned tuna or canned poison?...'We know that high levels of mercury can impair the cognitive development as well as the growth and development of a young child.'...What the critics of mercury in vaccines find provocative about this report is the acknowledgement by physicians that the high levels of mercury ingested from canned tuna can cause severe health risks. One such critic, the mother of an autistic child, wonders 'why everyone gets up in arms over ingesting small amounts of mercury from fish or from breaking a thermometer but finds it acceptable to inject an even more toxic form of mercury directly into the bloodstream of infants.'"

political action alert - To thank Kelly O'Meara and Insight Magazine for their recent article entitled "CDC Raises Level of Suspicion." - National Autism Association Grassroots Center

Study Proves Vaccine Safety - Courier Mail, AU via www.immunizationinfo.org - "The meningococcal C vaccine is being distributed in Australia this year via a mass vaccination program, and there have been 21 serious reactions and no deaths reported, according to the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee."

Comment:  Just curious how many received the meningococcal C vaccine (pre-and post-marketing) and how their results (including long and short-term adverse reactions and disease incidence) compare to a never vaccinated group.

Communicating science to the public:  MMR vaccine and autism - journal article - Vaccine - "Many well-controlled studies performed subsequently found no evidence that MMR vaccine causes autism." - For another view on how "well-controlled" these studies are, go to: Scandals: Why We Won't Take No* For An Answer (*No relationship between MMR and autism)

Vaccine - Table of Contents

The children of middle Australia are in crisis - There seems to be something wrong with the way our young are brought up. - The Age - "There is a growing body of evidence that children from the "mainstream" of suburban Australia are displaying serious physical, intellectual and emotional problems...Last month a report was published that added to that body of evidence. It indicates that many more Australian children than previously thought might be at risk of not being able to fulfil(sic) their educational potential...The results revealed that 26 per cent were vulnerable to not being able to achieve their educational potential, and 13 per cent were at high risk, particularly in the cognitive and linguistic skills area."

Comment: For more on this, go to Survey finds 1 in 4 five-year-olds have developmental problems

Relief That May Be Too Risky - Hormones: About 9 million women use hormones, down from 15 million last year - Newsweek via www.msnbc.com - "For 15 years Sidney Constien of Malvern, Pa., took hormone therapy for symptoms of menopause. “I kept asking the doctor, ‘How long do I have to take this?’ He kept saying, ‘How long do you want to live?’...bolstered by the widespread belief that hormone therapy prevented heart disease in postmenopausal women, Constien stayed on it. Then, in the spring of 2002, she was diagnosed with breast cancer."

Importing health hazards - www.usnews.com - "Every day, destructive organisms that threaten our health and our food supply cross into our country undetected. Gaps in border controls and inadequate inspections leave this country vulnerable to devastating viruses, bacteria, pests, and, in the potentially worst case, terrorism."
 

Unhappy Returns - China's public-health system was told to make its way in the free market. Now, the underfunded network can't cope with re-emerging diseases. - Time Asia via www.time.com
 

Influenza Fears: An Early Warning From Colorado - Time Magazine online www.time.com

CDC to Monitor Children's Flu Complications - Drug-Resistant Staph a New Wrinkle - AP via ABC News

Congress told to think globally on disease threat - The United States needs eyes and ears in other nations to detect the outbreak of infectious diseases that are likely to have a global impact. - www.ama-assn.org

Congress gives FDA authority to require drug testing in children - Some physicians call the legislation "misguided" and question the ethics of recruiting pediatric patients. - www.ama-assn.org

Cutting medical errors means systems, money - IOM panel chair says patients should leave hospitals with fewer medical problems, not more. - www.ama-assn.org

"State of the CDC" hits the agency's high notes - A glossy report shows a shift in style that many praise. But some fear a new agency emphasis comes at the cost of disease prevention. - www.ama-assn.org

Agreement may boost disease management - Patient-physician collaboration may be key to controlling chronic medical conditions, but achieving it is often a challenge. - www.ama-assn.org

Demolished: the myth that allows drugs giants to sell more - The Independent, UK - "For years, the drugs industry has grown fat on a myth - the false belief that all drugs will work on just about everybody...That has essentially been the rationale for a culture that has encouraged doctors to prescribe first and ask questions later - at a cost to the NHS of £7.2bn a year in medicines."

Comment: There is some overlap between this article and the one below.

Glaxo chief: Our drugs do not work on most patients - The Independent, UK - "Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them...It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public." 

Comment: Note drug efficacy table in the article above.

Attention Deficit Drugs May Have Long-Term Effects - Reuters via ABC News - "Drugs given to children to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder could have long-term effects on their growing brains, studies on rats suggest."

HHS: Faulty research removed two years ago - UPI - "Despite news reports that recent, federally funded research on the effectiveness of a sex education program may have included fabricated data, the researchers involved actually were exposed more than two years ago and the skewed information was excluded from the final study, the Department of Health and Human Services said Friday."

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