British Medical Journal articles from July 2001

British Medical Journal archives from July 2001

Social exclusion: old problem, new name.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 28, 2001... In 1842 the BMJ published an editorial deploring that "a professional man, a gentleman, or the family of such living in Bath" could expect to live into their 50s, whereas labourers and their families in Liverpool could expect no more than 15...

Policies to tackle social exclusion.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 28, 2001... Must deal with the iceberg and not just its tip: this is an issue for all society In the past 20 years the United Kingdom has become a more unequal society in which many people have prospered while many others have not.[1 2] This issue...

Reaching all children.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Providing services for mobile and marginalised children is challenging In Britain the many initiatives to improve the wellbeing of children are operating against the backdrop of a government commitment to reduce health inequalities and...

Social capital.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 28, 2001... Trusts need to recreate trust In today's British health service the experiences of patients and the insights of doctors and nurses[1] highlight demoralisation and fragmentation. The solution lies in correcting years of underinvestment,...

Disability discrimination.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 28, 2001... The UK's act requires health services to remove barriers to access and participation Discrimination on grounds of race and gender is increasingly acknowledged in medicine,[1 2] but equal attention has not been given to disability...

One Bristol, but there could have been many.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 28, 2001... Radical change is essential but hard to achieve Some will read the well written report of the Bristol inquiry into children's heart surgery as a "whodunnit?"[1] The answer is that "the system done it," but various named individuals...

Bristol inquiry condemns hospital's "club culture".(News)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Between 30 and 35 children undergoing heart surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary died between 1991 and 1995 who would probably have survived if treated elsewhere, the long awaited report into children's heart surgery at Bristol has concluded....

Individuals who should have behaved differently.(News)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... The report concludes there were individuals who, in the view of the inquiry, could and should on occasions have behaved differently. It singled out several people for specific criticism. James Wisheart: "lacked insight" and would not...

Kennedy refused to read the General Medical Council's reports.(News)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Professor Ian Kennedy, the chairman of the Bristol inquiry, tried to keep an open mind as he listened to parents' distressing stories. Clare Dyer talked to him Professor Ian Kennedy's brother, Smart, lost his life on the front lines of...

EC moves towards "direct to consumer" advertising.(News)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Pharmaceutical companies will be able to provide information on prescription drugs directly to patients with AIDS, diabetes, or asthma under legislative proposals tabled by the European Commission. Announcing the scheme, the enterprise...

Scottish parliament urged to ban tobacco advertising.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... The Scottish parliament is being urged to go it alone and ban tobacco advertising after the failure of the Westminster government to bring forward legislation. A coalition of health professionals and cancer charities has been formed in...

Glossy magazine launched for women drug users.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Mainline Lady, a lifestyle magazine offering information and advice on drugs, health, and women's issues, has been launched in the Netherlands. Its target is an estimated 2000 to 4000 women users of drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and it...

EC to pursue its smuggling lawsuit against tobacco companies.(News)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... The European Commission is planning to continue its multibillion dollar lawsuit in the United States against two US tobacco multinationals--Philip Morris and R J Reynolds--after losing an initial judgment in a New York court. With the...

Doubts raised over cancer vaccine study.(News)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... A prizewinning German study claiming to have found a safe and effective vaccine for kidney cancer has been heavily criticised by doctors who say that the research data may have been manipulated and that the treatment could even be dangerous....

Moderate use of painkillers presents no harm to kidneys.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... A new study counters the belief that moderate, chronic use of common analgesics results in kidney damage (JAMA 2001; 286:315-21). The study investigated moderate, chronic intake of analgesics--equivalent to three or four tablets a week....

Radiation dose in scans could be halved.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... The radiation dose in some chest examinations using computed axial tomography can be more than halved without jeopardising the radiologist's ability to make a diagnosis, a new study has said (American Journal of Roentgenology...

Early bypass surgery increases risk of stroke.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Patients who have a coronary artery bypass graft soon after experiencing unstable angina or non-Q wave myocardial infarcts face a higher risk of stroke than those who forgo the surgery or delay it, according to a study (Circulation 2001; 104:...

Kyoto protocol rescued in Bonn.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Success came at the 11th hour at United Nations climate talks in Bonn as the future of the Kyoto protocol was saved by a last minute compromise. Ministers from 174 countries went into an all night session and an unplanned fifth day of...

Select committee to investigate PFI.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... UK government plans to extend the private finance initiative in the NHS is to be investigated by the Commons health committee. The committee's chairman, David Hinchliffe, Labour MP for Wakefield, is a critic of the initiative.

Safety of yellow fever vaccine questioned.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Researchers are questioning the safety of the yellow fever vaccine after six people died shortly after being immunised with it (Lancet 2001;358:84-5, 91-7, 98-104, 121-2). The six victims inoculated with the attenuated live virus vaccine...

"Young lives" project launched.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... A study that examines the lives of children living in poverty in four developing countries was launched by the UK Department of International Development last week. The project will follow 2000 infants in Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam, and India...

Research ban eased.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, was told this week that experiments involving human subjects could resume provided certain conditions were met. A temporary ban had been imposed following the death of a...

Stem cell transplantation against heart attack.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... For the first time heart surgeons at Rostock university hospital in Germany have transplanted a patient's own bone marrow stem cells into his heart to grow new heart muscle tissue. The patient has recovered without complications, though...

Summit fails to agree new deal on world debt.(News)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... At the recent summit in Genoa, Italy, G8 leaders announced plans for a global health fund to tackle infectious diseases, but the G8 leaders committed only $1.3bn (916m [pounds sterling]) to the fund--a sharp cut from earlier plans for $10bn....

Oxfam accuses Pfizer of "moral bankruptcy".(News)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, is being accused of moral bankruptcy by pricing lifesaving drugs beyond the reach of millions of people in developing countries. The charge comes from the United Kingdom based charity,...

Health effects of housing improvement: systematic review of intervention studies.
July 28, 2001... Introduction Poor housing has been used both as an indicator of poverty and as a target for interventions to improve public health and reduce inequalities in health.[1] Although housing still has a prime place on the health inequalities...

Financial cost of social exclusion: follow up study of antisocial children into adulthood.
July 28, 2001... Introduction The term "conduct disorder" refers to a persistent and pervasive pattern of antisocial behaviour in childhood or adolescence.[1] Typical behaviours include disobedience, tantrums, fighting, destructiveness, lying, and...

Multicentre controlled trial of parenting groups for childhood antisocial behaviour in clinical practice.
July 28, 2001... Introduction Aggression and fighting are part of normal child development and can help children to assert and defend themselves. Persistent, poorly controlled antisocial behaviour, however, is socially handicapping and often leads to...

A memorable patient: The patient might be right.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Callow and naive, I had recently started in general practice. But, full of confidence and believing I knew it all, I worked my way through my newly inherited list of patients with the enthusiasm that some of us may remember from earlier days....

Changing patterns of teenage pregnancy: population based study of small areas.
July 28, 2001... Introduction Consistently high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom prompted governments to set targets for reduction at both the start and the end of the 1990s.[1 2] In England and Wales the most recent target is a reduction...

"They're doing people a service"--qualitative study of smoking, smuggling, and social deprivation.
July 28, 2001... Introduction Smoking is strongly associated with social disadvantage and is an important contributor to inequalities in health.[1-3] The greater an individual's level of disadvantage (as measured, for example, by occupation, income,...

Mortality in children registered in the Finnish child welfare registry: population based study.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Studies have shown inverse associations between childhood social class and mortality,[1] and others have shown higher mortality in children in care.[2 3] However, to our knowledge, only one study has investigated mortality in children in care...

Social environments and health: cross sectional national survey.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Researchers are increasingly interested m studying the effects of the social environment on health.[1] The concept of social capital has been put forward as one explanation for why some communities work better than others, with benefits for...

Un homme different.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... I had been the family's doctor for 12 years. They lived in a small, remote village. One September the father--a tall, physically fit schoolmaster--came to my surgery. "It's stupid," he said, "I just got back from holiday but I feel tired. I...

The health of children in refuges for women victims of domestic violence: cross sectional descriptive survey.
July 28, 2001... Introduction Children in refuges for women victims of domestic violence constitute one of several marginalised groups with poor access to services.[1] They are a largely unstudied population, although a pilot study in Wales identified...

The difference.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... God and Doctor we like adore But only when in danger, not before; The danger o'er, both are alike requited, God is forgotten, and the Doctor slighted. Robert Owen, British social reformer (1771-1838) Submitted by Kavita Pancholi,...

Barriers to uptake of services for coronary heart disease: qualitative study.
July 28, 2001... Introduction Coronary heart disease is the main cause of premature death in the United Kingdom, but there are regional and socioeconomic differences in its incidence and prevalence.[1] Death rates in Barnsley, Rotherham, and Doncaster,...

A memorable patient An unmerciful end.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... I was doing my visits when the surgery telephoned me. Ambulance Control had called--a crew were attending an 82 year old woman who had collapsed--would I go? Three weeks before, Phyllis had had a coronary event; she was treated at home by one...

Extracts from "Clinical Evidence" Trachoma.(Clinical Review)
July 28, 2001... Interventions to prevent scarring trachoma by reducing active trachoma Likely to be beneficial: Promotion of face washing Children having a sustained dean face Fly control using insecticide Antibiotics (versus placebo...

Another case of breathlessness.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... A fit looking young man of 30 attended the surgery complaining of a week's history of increasing breathlessness while in bed at night. He had been registered at the practice for four years and was a rare visitor. During the previous day he...

Equity in the new NHS: hard lessons from implementing a local healthcare policy on donepezil.
July 28, 2001... Summary points Debate is needed about the merit of open access to expensive treatments for many people to identify the few who gain marginal benefit An evidence based approach can conflict with perceptions of fair access by patients...

Systematic reviews of evaluations of prognostic variables.
July 28, 2001... Summary points Systematic reviews are applicable to all types of research design, and studies of prognostic variables are an important additional area where appropriate methodology should be applied Prognostic variables should be...

Bristol fails to ignite.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... Bristol fails to ignite Big bang report goes out with a whimper In the end, Professor Ian Kennedy's report on the Bristol paediatric cardiac affair was a damp squib. Long awaited, all the evidence was known, all the solutions already...

Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health.(Brief Article)(Review)
July 28, 2001... Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health Laurie Garrett Hyperion Books, $16.95, pp 768 ISBN 0 7868 8440 1 Oxford University Press, 24.95 [pounds sterling], pp 540 ISBN 019 8509952 (UK edition available October 2001)...

Poverty, Inequality and Health: An International Perspective.(Brief Article)(Review)
July 28, 2001... Poverty, Inequality and Health: An International Perspective David Leon, Gill Walt Oxford University Press, 29.50 [pounds sterling], pp 368 ISBN 0 19 263196 9 Rating: ****; * I recently found myself haranguing an audience of...

Mind the Gap: Hierarchies, Health and Human Evolution.(Brief Article)(Review)
July 28, 2001... Mind the Gap: Hierarchies, Health and Human Evolution Richard Wilkinson Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 7.99 [pounds sterling], pp 76 ISBN 0 297 64648 6 Rating: ****; * I recently found myself haranguing an audience of trainee...

Online pages that list relevant websites together with short, snappy descriptions are always going to be popular.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... * Online pages that list relevant websites together with short, snappy descriptions are always going to be popular. So those looking for ophthalmology related websites might be interested to hear of eyeuk.com. It is a simple text based...

An excellent palliative medicine resource can be found at www.palliativedrugs.com.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... * An excellent palliative medicine resource can be found at www.palliativedrugs.com. Initial registration is painless and straightforward. Navigation throughout the site is clear and easy, and the resource is free to use. The meat resides in...

A useful and colourful links page of medical imaging topics is located at www.acmeimage.com/medical.html.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... * A useful and colourful links page of medical imaging topics is located at www.acmeimage.com/medical.html. The resources listed are aimed at both public and health professionals alike, and there is certainly plenty to interest the...

Anglo-German Medical Society has assembled a neat, simple, and yet effective web offering at www.agms.de.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... * The Anglo-German Medical Society has assembled a neat, simple, and yet effective web offering at www.agms.de. Like all good sites belonging to an organisation, there is a section devoted to explaining the role of the society...

Immunisation issues are often high profile and health professionals need access to good quality information.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... * Immunisation issues are often high profile and health professionals need access to good quality information. A helpful and user friendly internet resource is always welcome and the American based www.immunizationinfo.org/...

Inequality.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... When I was younger I was teased because we didn't have central heating and my school cardigan came from the girl up the road. I continued to feel subordinate even at university where I was laughed at for my hard vowels. My offspring will...

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... The health of the excluded Social exclusion is a new term to describe an old problem. At the launch of the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit in December 1997, prime minister Tony Blair summed up the significance of the concept for New...

Managing chronic disease.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... All living things die. In nature, untrammelled, the common agents of death are trauma (being eaten is the commonest variety), deprivation, infection, and poisons. Culture is to a large extent concerned with death. It tries to explain it;...

Looking down on Edinburgh.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... From the state of the trees, the season is summer. From the shadows thrown by a couple of large gasometers, the time is clearly early afternoon. And from the way the waves are breaking on the beach at Cramond, the wind is in the north east....

Minerva.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2001... One hypothesis behind rising asthma rates in Australia implicates increased consumption of polyunsaturated fats. This is supported by a questionnaire survey of 1583 parents of preschool children in two Australian cities (Thorax...

Reasons to be cheerful?(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 21, 2001... The G8, the rich countries' club, is about to meet in Genoa, and top of the agenda will be the global health fund to help reduce the burden of HIV infection, tuberculosis, and malaria. While the richest villagers in the global village--the...

The third generation pill controversy ("continued").(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 21, 2001... The risks are still small compared with those of pregnancy The debate about the safety of third generation oral contraceptives shows no sign of fading away. Since it began in 1995 the main participants have been epidemiologists and...

Poverty reduction strategy papers.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 21, 2001... It's too soon to say whether this new approach to aid will improve health A path out of abject poverty is currently being beaten by many low income countries which are developing poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) as a condition...

Vocational rehabilitation.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 21, 2001... Everybody gains if injured workers are helped back into work "Blessed is he who has found, his work; let him ask no other blessedness" wrote Carlyle.[1] However, according to a report published last year from the British Society of...

Drugs for Alzheimer's disease.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 21, 2001... Cholinesterase inhibitors have passed NICE's hurdle Summary of NICE guidance on antidementia drug use * All three drugs (donepezil, rivastigmine, and galantamine) should be available in the NHS for those with mild and moderate...

BMJ Christmas revue.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 21, 2001... Send us your sketches, songs, ravings, and suggestions on saving the NHS Last year we held the first ever BMJ Christmas revue, and it was a huge success. Phil Hammond, the compere, was on devastating form, teasing mercilessly a cabinet...

UK approves preimplantation genetic screening technique.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... The screening of embryos for an abnormal number of chromosomes has been approved in principle by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the body that regulates in vitro fertilisation treatment in the United Kingdom. It is the...

Mortality for paediatric cardiac surgery at Bristol was twice that at other centres.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Death rates in babies less than 1 year old having cardiac surgery in the early 1990s at the Bristol Royal Infirmary were about double those in other centres, according to an analysis commissioned by the Bristol inquiry. Reports of high...

WHO calls on private sector to provide cheap hearing aids.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... WHO calls on private sector to provide cheap hearing aids: The World Health Organization is asking the private sector to provide affordable hearing aids for the 250 million people worldwide with hearing loss who cannot afford current prices....

Sildenafil no longer covered by HMOs in California.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Sildenafil no longer covered by HMOs in California: Health maintenance organisations (HMOs) in California are no longer obliged to pay for sildenafil (Viagra), the drag for male impotence, following a riding by Sacramento Superior Court Judge...

UK government sets up mental health institute in England.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... UK government sets up mental health institute in England: The UK Department of Health has established a National Institute for Mental Health in England, to be led by Professor Louis Appleby, national director for mental health, and to be...

Risk of prostate cancer rises with number of partners.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Risk of prostate cancer rises with number of partners: The risk of prostate cancer in middle aged men increases directly in relation to the lifetime number of female sexual partners they have had, a new study said (American Journal of...

Russia sees sharp rise in AIDS cases.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Russia sees sharp rise in AIDS cases: Nikolai Mashkiileison, coordinator of HIV and AIDS programmes in Russia, announced last week that the number of HIV cases in Russia is now 50% higher than at the beginning of 2001. He said that there are...

Tobacco company claims that smokers help the economy.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Smokers are doing their country a huge favour by boosting tax revenue, dying early, and not drawing a pension, according to a report by the tobacco giant Philip Morris. Officials in the Czech Republic have been given an analysis,...

US abortion clinics afraid of new violence.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Abortion clinics in the United States want greater safeguards because of what they feel are growing threats of violence against them and their staff. Three abortion rights organisations--Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the...

Scientists fertilise mouse eggs without sperm.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Australian researchers have devised a method of fertilising eggs without sperm. Dr Orly Lacham-Kaplan's research unit at the Monash University's Institute of Reproduction and Development in Melbourne developed the procedure with the hopes...

Embryos created for stem cell research.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Researchers from the Jones Institute, a private infertility clinic in Virginia, United States, have disclosed that they have created human embryos for the explicit purpose of harvesting them for stem cells (Fertility and Sterility...

European court's ruling paves way for cross border treatment.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Two key rulings from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg earlier this month have increased the prospect of patients travelling to other EU countries to receive medical treatment. The judgments in the cases, which were brought by a...

Irish children may have been given animal vaccine.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... The Irish authorities are again investigating reports related to the bungled administration of child vaccines more than 30 years ago. The drug company involved has promised its full cooperation. It is becoming clear, however, that not...

Fraud cases being investigated in the NHS double.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... The number of cases of fraud being investigated in the NHS in England doubled last year, a report published last week by the National Audit Office has said. There were 484 cases of fraud, with an estimated total cost of 18m [pounds...

NHS charity funds may increase disparities in access to health.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Charitable funds in the London health service tend to be spent on research and hospital based services rather than community based projects, a new report has shown. The report, from the Charities Aid Foundation, says that charitable...

Poor sales signal shake up in Hungary's health insurance market.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... While one of Hungary's top insurers is pulling out of the healthcare insurance market, another is staking a claim in the sector in anticipation of healthcare reforms expected after next year's national elections. Hungaria Insurance, the...

Bill to ban tobacco advertising in UK heard in Lords.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... A private member's bill that would ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship has had its first reading in the House of Lords. The bill, introduced by Lord Clement-Jones, (pictured) Liberal Democrat health spokesman, is expected to get its...

Blue Cross to reward doctors for satisfied patients.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Blue Cross of California, one of the United States's largest health maintenance organisations, with 2.2 million members, has become the first commercial health maintenance organisation to pay bonuses to its 20 000 doctors on the basis of...

Hamburg surgeon operates after stroke.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... A surgeon from Hamburg, Germany, is being investigated for operating on 21 patients when he was disabled as the result of a stroke. The surgeon, who has not been named, continued to work at Hamburg University Hospital for several months...

GMC steps up hearings to deal with rise in cases.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... The General Medical Council expects the number of complaints against doctors for this year to surpass last year's record breaking total and is stepping up its hearing procedures to deal with charges more swiftly. Complaints to the GMC...

Bill will give Americans right to buy cheaper drugs.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... The US House of Representatives voted to make it easier for individuals to import low cost prescription drugs from foreign countries for their own use, after rejecting a more sweeping proposal to allow bulk imports by drug wholesalers and...

Levels of neurosis remained static in the 1990s.(News)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2001... Although it is difficult to open a newspaper today without finding an article on stress, latest figures show that we are hardly any more neurotic now than we were in the early 1990s. New data from the Office for National Statistics showed...