►January 24, 2004 - Researchers accuse WHO and Global Fund of malpractice - journal article (BMJ) - "An international group of 13 malaria researchers has accused WHO and the Global Fund of medical malpractice for supporting the use of ineffective malaria treatments. This practice, says the group, at the very least 'wastes international aid money, and at most, kills patients who have malaria.'"

►January 20, 2004 - Nerves, Heal Thyselves - Weizmann Institute via Life Science News

►January 23, 2004 - NIH defends consulting deals - (requires registration) - At Senate hearing, top officials deny wrongdoing; Zerhouni appoints review panel cochairs - The Scientist - "Senior officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) yesterday denied committing any improprieties when they accepted lucrative consulting contracts from pharmaceutical and biotech companies that had dealings with the agency. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, one institute director called the allegations, reported by the Los Angeles Times, “'misleading, grossly inaccurate, and filled with false innuendo.'”

►January 23, 2004 - NHS to get 'dirty bomb' detectors - NHS hospitals and ambulance crews are to get radiation equipment to enable them to detect dirty bombs. - BBC

►January 23, 2004 - Antibiotics in food production investigated - A new article raises concern that the banning of antibiotics in food animals may harm both human and animal health. The report, published this month in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, argues there is little to no scientific evidence to suggest that the use of antibiotics in food animals negatively impacts human health. - NOVIS  via  www.foodproductiondaily.com

►January 23, 2004 - Hair dye may raise cancer risk, U.S. study shows - Reuters

►October 1, 2003 - Global Vaccine Coalition Backs Un Immunization Strategy For Measles - An international coalition for immunization has endorsed a plan by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to reduce child deaths from measles by increasing the opportunities for vaccination early in childhood. - www.europaworld.org

►January 22, 2004 - CDC investigating CJD cluster in N.J. - UPI via http://interestalert.com

►January 22, 2004 - U.S. Urges WHO to Go Softly on Travel Alerts - Reuters Health

►July/August 2003 - Three reasons to return to traditional diets - In the 1930s US dentist Weston Price travelled the world to study the diets of 'primitive' peoples. He found a startling lack of disease and proof that a system of environmentally-friendly local food production is the best way to ensure human health - www.infochangeindia.org

►January 2004 - HIV diagnoses increased in more than half of the United States (requires registration) - New statistics show that more effort in prevention strategies is needed. - www.infectiousdiseasenews.com

Comment:  But what if, as many believe, HIV has nothing to do with AIDS?  Then what do these diagnoses mean, other than an spelling an opportunity to create fear and sell toxic drugs?

►January 2004 - Reducing medical errors requires computerized information systems (requires registration) - Data standards are crucial to improving patient safety, according to a new report. -  www.infectiousdiseasenews.com

►January 21, 2004 - Colo. last in giving kids shots - Data: Whooping-cough rate triple U.S. average - The Denver Post

Comment:  Colorado is not in last place according to NVIC's Colorado State Contact, Cindy Loveland.  To read her letter to the governor on this issue, click here.

►Winter 2003 - An Interview with Dr. Reginald Finger, ACIP member -   The ITAT Sharpshooter - "Q ...Do you intend to stay involved here in Colorado? A Dr. Finger: Yes, I especially enjoy being part of the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition. If Colorado is going to climb out the cellar with its immunization rates, some insights from the national level may be helpful along the way. There are at least three other national leaders in immunization here in Colorado too, not counting Tom Vernon from Merck who has strong ties here. If we all work as a team, maybe some really good things will happen!"

Comment:  Isn't this a teeny, tiny conflict of interest? 

►January 24, 2004 - Thailand, Cambodia confirm bird flu - www.theage.com.au - "Once birds or humans develop antibodies against a particular incarnation of H5N1, 'the virus has to change to escape that immunity ... that's what it does,' he said...'It's constantly changing,' Webster said in Hong Kong, where he is conducting research at a local university.

Comment:  What does this say about the viability of vaccination?  Doesn't this suggest that vaccines solve nothing, and instead may inherently create the need for more vaccines?  This may not be a problem for the vaccine manufacturers.  But is it good for the rest of us?

►January 24, 2004 - Autism seems to be increasing worldwide, if not in London -  letter - F. Edward Yazbak, paediatrician - journal article (BMJ) - "Taylor's raw data have remained inaccessible since 1999, when he first denied any connection between autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination, in a study that neither had a population based cohort design nor sufficient statistical power to detect an association.^"

►January 2002 - Was the Baby Shaken? - letter - by Alan Clementson, MD (Professor Emeritus, Tulane University Medical School) - Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients - "Child abuse laws have given rise to many accusations of "Shaken Baby Syndrome," which has become a popular diagnosis to explain infant deaths, and even for living infants who are brought to an emergency room following a fall. Much is made of the finding of pinpoint petechial hemorrhages in the retina at the back of the eye, but the existence and the extent of such hemorrhages are dependent on the capillary strength or fragility, the strength or weakness of the smallest blood vessels, which can be affected by many different conditions. In fact, an infant can die with extensive retinal hemorrhages, a blood clot under the capsule of the brain, extensive bruises, broken bones and sores that will not heal, due to Barlow's disease, without having been subjected to anything but the tenderest of loving care."

Comment:  Normally I don't put anything but the most recent news in the breaking news and on the front page, but I am making an exception in this case.

►January 23, 2004 - HIV experts suggest halt to Thailand vaccine trial - www.indystar.com

►January 23, 2004 - The Vaccine That Missed - Sales of Pricey FluMist Disappoint Wyeth, MedImmune - The Washington Post - "Wyeth yesterday gave its first official reckoning of just how badly FluMist failed to meet the expectations of the New Jersey drug company."

►January 21, 2004 - ’Flu shot compliance varies in region - Fort Frances Times

►January 22, 2004 - Pseudoscience and Globesity - www.techcentralstation.com - "When the Bush administration announced last week it will demand significant changes to the World Health Organization's initiative against global obesity, it sparked a flurry of international protest from special interest groups accusing him and the food industry of putting corporate interests ahead of the obesity crisis. The WHO report, Obesity - Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic, was produced with the International Obesity Task Force, whose stated mission is 'to convince world leaders that something can be done to address the problem [of globesity].' The Administration stated the plan was based on faulty scientific evidence and succeeded in blocking its approval. Tuesday, WHO decided to table it until the end of February to allow for changes to the text."

►January 22, 2004 - Body Talk: Candida: The Hidden Weight Loss Culprit! - Not only is it hard to lose weight with candida, poor digestion and mal-absorption can set the stage for serious nutritional deficiencies, further diminishing the body's immune defenses. - www.africana.com

►January 21, 2004 - Bacterium that causes food poisoning may lead to better anti-viral vaccines - American Chemical Society via www.eurekalert.org - "A new vaccine formulation that utilizes an unusual protein derived from a bacterium that causes food poisoning — Listeria — could paradoxically be used to improve the safety and effectiveness of vaccines for a variety of viral diseases. These could include HIV, smallpox and influenza, according to researchers at the University of Michigan...Conventional vaccine formulations typically use live or weakened viruses to boost the immune response. The Listeria formulation uses viral protein components along with the bacterial protein, reducing the possibility of accidental viral infection. In preliminary animal studies, the new vaccine also appeared to boost the immune response better than a conventional vaccine, according to the researchers."

►January 22, 2004 - Astronauts Can Be Grounded by Shingles - Reuters Health - "Even astronauts with the right stuff and at the peak of health may be laid low by shingles, brought on by stress, it seems...Shingles is a sometimes painful rash caused by the reactivation of the virus that causes chickenpox. The virus remains dormant in nerve cells after the chickenpox clears up, but it may be reactivated decades later by physical trauma, although it is relatively rare in healthy young adults...However, a study has found that the mental stress of space travel reactivates the culprit virus, varicella zoster, in a substantial proportion of astronauts."