November  15, 2003                    

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UK and Italy have low MMR uptake - BMJ - "WHO vaccine experts attribute low UK levels to an "unfounded" scare that the measles mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism (8 November, p 1069), which has dented public confidence both in Britain and across Europe. But the experts say that coverage is substandard across Europe owing to a surprising lack of political will to implement an effective disease prevention programme, given the region's stated goal to eliminate measles by 2007. ^"

MMR Research Doctor Gives Talk In Home City - The Bath Chronicle - "The Government and the World Health Organisation have rubbished his claims but Dr Wakefield is continuing to garner support from around the world for his research...Working on behalf of the charity, Visceral, in Fountain Buildings, he has pledged to continue his work until he uncovers the truth."
 

Hepatitis Outbreak Leaves Three Dead - AP via The New York Times -  "At least 490 people have fallen ill in the outbreak..."

Deadly Pa. Hepatitis Outbreak Spurs Panic - Nation's Biggest Known Outbreak of Hepatitis Kills 3, Causes Panic in Greater Pittsburgh Area - AP via ABC News - "The nation's biggest known outbreak of hepatitis A is causing such a panic that people are lining up by the thousands for antibody shots and no longer eating out."

Comment - According to the textbook Vaccines, Hepatitis A usually results in complete recovery.  What has happened to make the disease so deadly in this outbreak?

U.S. Advises Hepatitis A Precautions Amid Probe - Reuters - "Consumers should fully cook green onions as a precaution against hepatitis A, U.S. health officials said on Saturday as they probed the cause of an outbreak that has struck more than 500 people in Pennsylvania."

Pa. outbreak raises privacy issue - Ohio officials say they would have ID’d suspected source - www.toledoblade.com

Fear, rumors follow outbreak of hepatitis in Pennsylvania - Chicago Sun-Times

Mark Shields: The business lobby's campaign against McCain - CNN - "After pharmaceutical companies had put more than $30 million into congressional campaigns to elect their friends, the drug chiefs want and expect a friendly Republican-run Congress to kill any profit-threatening price controls on prescription drugs or any liberal scheme to allow citizens to buy cheaper, generic versions of expensive brand-name medicines...The Republican House promptly showed its gratitude by secretly inserting provisions in the anti-terrorism Homeland Security Bill to allow Eli Lilly to escape liability for any childhood autism linked to its smallpox vaccine and to allow American companies that move their legal address offshore just to avoid paying U.S. taxes to win federal contracts paid for by American taxpayers." - To go to Senator John McCain's Straight Talk America, click here. (November 27, 2002)

More than you need to know? - These days, we are screened for a whole raft of diseases, from cervical and prostate cancers to heart defects. We're told such tests save lives. But just how effective are they? Jerome Burne investigates - The Guardian, UK

Pill seeker - The Guardian, UK - "Selling amphetamines to children is a career that normally ends in jail. But not for Matthew Emmens, the chief executive of Shire Pharmaceuticals, the UK's third largest drug company."

Medical errors - Website of the week - BMJ - "It wasn't that long ago that many people regarded doctors' opinions and actions as near miracles. Nowadays, however, the doctor-patient interaction is more of a deal, where terms must be respected. If a provider does not offer the best quality products, the clients know full well how to safeguard their rights. Hammurabi's rules are back, and if doctors make mistakes in treating their patients they must pay—and the price might be their liberty, as an editorial in this week's BMJ discusses (p 1118). ^"

The criminialisation of fatal medical mistakes - A social intolerance of medical mistakes has caused them to be criminalised - BMJ

Patients are at risk because of nurses' long hours, says report - BMJ

Retrospective analysis of evidence base for tests used in diagnosis and monitoring of disease in respiratory medicine - BMJ - "Few, if any, diagnostic tests give unambiguous results. To deal with this we are advised to combine clinical impressions of pretest probability with test results to derive a post-test probability of disease.¹⁰ This requires that the test be assigned a weighting, expressed formally as a likelihood ratio—that is, calculated from the results of scientific studies of the test's performance. Standards for research of diagnostic tests have been published,⁷ and when these standards are not met studies have been shown to overestimate the value of tests.¹¹ Many of the trials of diagnostic tests that are available fall short of these standards. ^"

US advisory panel's chairman calls for reversal of breast implant decision - BMJ

Trial shows no clear benefit from cannabis for patients with MS - BMJ

WHO launches initiative to encourage eating fruit and vegetables - BMJ

Measuring the health of nations: analysis of mortality amenable to health care - BMJ

BMJ Table of Contents, November 15, 2003

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