Study Sees Cancer Survival in a More Optimistic Light
(The New York Times, Oct. 11, 2002)
"Because statistical methods used in calculating cancer survival are too conservative, [a new] study says, Americans with cancer are actually living longer than many doctors have been led to expect, and patients researching their disease on the Internet may be reading prognoses that are grimmer than the truth."
See the study: Long-Term Survival Rates of Cancer Patients Achieved by the End of the 20th Century: A Period Analysis
(The Lancet, Oct. 12, 2002)
Free registration required for article and study.

Resumption of Gene Therapy Urged
(The Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2002)
"New tests offer overwhelming evidence that a leukemia-like disease diagnosed in a 3-year-old boy in France was triggered by the experimental gene therapy he received as a baby, the first proof that the nascent and troubled field of medicine can cause cancer."

$8.1 Billion Gap Seen in Aid for Disease Fight
(The Boston Globe, Oct. 9, 2002)
"A new international organization fighting AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria estimates that it will need $8.1 billion from rich countries and the private sector over the next two years in order to keep up with the demand from poor countries burdened by fighting the diseases, according to documents obtained by the Globe."

Brain Size Tied to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(The New York Times, Oct. 9, 2002)
"The brains of children and adolescents in whom attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is diagnosed are on average 3 percent to 4 percent smaller in volume than those of children without the condition, according to a large-scale government study whose findings were reported [recently]."
Free registration required.

Plea for More Help for TB Hotspots
(BBC News Online, Oct. 5, 2002)
"Ambitious targets to cut TB in some of the worst affected countries will not be met without extra financial help, say experts. The World Health Organisation has identified a $300 million 'funding gap' between what is needed to fight the disease and what has been given by governments and raised from donors."

Africa

Sharia: Convicted Lovers to Remain in Jail
(This Day, Lagos, Oct. 9, 2002)
"Two lovers, Fatima Usman and Ahmed Ibrahim, convicted to death for adultery in a Niger State Sharia court are to remain in jail following [the recent] adjournment of their bail hearing. The couple was not brought from jail for the hearing, nor are they aware of the severe punishment they are facing. This is the latest in a series of judgments handed out by Sharia courts in Nigeria and which have provoked concern amongst human rights groups around the world."

Australia, New Zealand

Australia: Testing Their Patients
(Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 6, 2002)
"Doctors struggling to cope with an endless stream of patients are closing their books, forcing people to seek help in hospitals or pharmacies. The problem is most acute in outer metropolitan Sydney and rural [New South Wales], where there is a worsening shortage of general practitioners. The Australian Medical Association says doctors are no longer prepared to work 70-hour weeks for shrinking returns, and there are not enough young GPs being trained to replace an ageing workforce."

More Women Give Natural Birth a Miss
(Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 6, 2002)
"Women are turning away from natural childbirth, once one of the great feminist issues of the 1990s. The number of children born in birth centres has dipped to a minuscule 2.6 percent of the population in [New South Wales], and home births are virtually non-existent, according to Health Department figures. Meanwhile, more women are demanding caesareans and epidurals."

Asia

Thailand: These Slaves Among Us
(The Bangkok Post, Oct. 6, 2002)
"Thailand is among the many countries shadowed by the stigma of modern-day slavery; the best efforts of various organisations barely make a dent in the transnational tentacles of human traffickers."

Middle East: Palestinian Health Care Failing
(The Jerusalem Post, Sept. 30, 2002)
"Security authorities have not yet found a way to expedite the free passage of Palestinian health teams on the West Bank, and as a result there are delays in the vaccinations of children, especially in remote areas, a senior Health Ministry official said."

Europe

U.K.: Managers in NHS To Be Bound by Ethical Code
(The Independent, London, Oct. 10, 2002)
"A new ethical code for NHS executives, described as a managerial equivalent of the Hippocratic oath, was published in an attempt to prevent the manipulation of waiting list figures."

Zurich: Terminally Ill 'Death Tourists'
(TimeEurope, Oct. 14, 2002)
"[Klaus] Eckstein is a member of Dignitas, a controversial Zurich-based organization that offers assisted suicide to people suffering from incurable conditions. Dignitas rents an apartment in the city where clients self-administer a fatal dose of barbiturates and slowly fade away while listening to their favorite music...[Their] work is fueling criticism at home and abroad, and a debate about the organization is expected in the Swiss parliament soon."

U.K.: Tory Scheme To Help Meet Costs of Private Health
(The Independent, London, Oct. 8, 2002)
"People who pay for private health treatment would get part of the cost met by the Government under a Tory policy that was announced [recently]...Although the Tories admitted they would face Labour allegations of creating a 'two-tier health system,' they insisted their plan would help the sick to get treated more quickly and relieve some pressure on the National Health Service."

U.K.: Mental Health Tsar Pledges To Amend Bill
(The Independent, London, Oct. 8, 2002)
"The Bill includes new measures to detain the mentally ill indefinitely without any crime having been committed. Psychiatrists, lawyers, mental health charities and patients have all united against the proposed reforms which they claim will deter the mentally ill from seeking treatment."

Caring for the Child Victims of Chechnya
(The St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 4, 2002)
"Psychiatrists say the war in Chechnya has made some children overaggressive, while others have developed stutters or blocked out the outside world and lost interest in life due to acute depression. Many more have problems with their perception of reality or their memory -- [f]or example, obsessively recalling details of bad experiences. Many teenagers still wet their beds at night, and it is not rare for children to attempt suicide."

North America

Bush's Science Advisers Drawing Criticism
(The New York Times, Oct. 10, 2002)
"The Bush administration's choice of science advisers on matters varying from reproductive medicine to lead poisoning in children is drawing criticism from some Democrats in Congress, who complain that the advisers are being selected for their ideology and ties to industry rather than their scientific expertise."
Free registration required.

Oklahoma: Reuse of Needle at Hospital Infects 50 With Hepatitis C
(The New York Times, Oct. 10, 2002)
"More than 50 people at an Oklahoma hospital have been infected with hepatitis C after a nurse repeatedly used the same needle and syringe to give drugs, area health officials say."
Free registration required.

Two Genes Linked to Congestive Heart Failure
(The New York Times, Oct. 10, 2002)
"People who inherit common variants of two genes have 10 times the risk of developing congestive heart failure, a condition that afflicts five million Americans, researchers say."
Free registration required.

Environmental Health: Under the Plume in New York
(The American Prospect, Oct. 21, 2002)
"It is now clear, thanks to NASA space photographs first published in August by Newsday, that the black, toxin-laden plume of World Trade Center debris blew for more than 30 hours directly from Ground Zero to the East River, which separates Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens...Yet every health and stress survey conducted to date by the New York Academy of Medicine, the EPA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the state and city health departments of New York has been limited to Manhattan."

$80 Million Award for Malpractice
(Newsday, New York, Oct. 9, 2002)
"Erin Brenner is a beautiful 12-year-old with thick blonde-streaked hair, sparkling eyes, and a radiant smile. She's bright and enthusiastic about school, but she can't walk or dress herself. A twin, Erin has cerebral palsy, a condition her lawyer says was brought about because she was born too soon. [Recently], after a three-week trial and a day of deliberations, a Suffolk jury awarded Erin's family $80 million in medical malpractice damages, reportedly the highest award ever on Long Island."

Washington State: Record Demand at Food Banks
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Oct. 9, 2002)
"As Washington grapples with one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, a record number of the state's families are relying on food banks to stave off hunger."

FDA Nominee Encounters Little Resistance in Senate
(The Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2002)
"Mark McClellan breezed through a relatively short hearing on his nomination to become commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and he will probably be formally approved by week's end, officials said."

On Medicine's Frontier: The Last Journey of James Quinn
(The New York Times, Oct. 8, 2002)
"Mr. Quinn's experience, pieced together from interviews with him and his family, his doctors, his patient advocate and officials at Abiomed, the Danvers, Mass., manufacturer of the heart, provides a rare glimpse inside the choices made by a dying patient and his physician. It also provides a peek behind the scenes of the highly publicized artificial heart experiment, which has enrolled seven patients since July 2001."
Free registration required.

California: What the Doctor Ordered for Stem Cell Research
Opinion
Michael A. Goldman
(San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 7, 2002)
"Californians can be proud that our lawmakers have set the stage for the state's continued leadership in biomedical research, but we must not be complacent about flawed reasoning in the nation's capital. If pending federal legislation criminalizing stem-cell research is passed, then even California's progressive laws will be futile against the tide of intransigence."