There has been growing recognition in the international community that health should be considered a human right, but much less attention has been paid to the ensuing legal obligation to provide international assistance, says a team of authors from M?decins Sans Fronti?res, led by Gorik Oooms.
Latent infection with tuberculosis is common and some infected people develop the active form of the disease. Health-care workers (HCWs) can become infected, develop active disease, and can pass their infection on to patients and others. Research published in PLoS Medicine shows that HCWs in developing countries are at particularly high risk. Over half were found to have latent TB.
Severe malnutrition is responsible for the deaths of millions of children every year. Even when such children are admitted to hospital, up to one in five of them will die. Research published in PLoS Medicine has shown that certain clinical signs in severely malnourished children can predict those who are most likely to die. This should help health care workers focus their attentions on those who are most at risk.
A team of researchers who conducted a landmark trial in Orange Farm, South Africa, which concluded that male circumcision can substantially reduce the risk of becoming infected with HIV, have now studied the economic aspects of this approach to preventing HIV/AIDS. Their new research, published in PLoS Medicine, suggests that circumcision could reduce the cost of health care in South Africa (and other sub-Saharan Countries), mainly through savings on the cost of HIV treatment.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) expresses deep concern over the verdict delivered yesterday by a Libyan court sentencing six health care professionals to death for the alleged intentional transmission of HIV, and strongly urges that the verdict be reviewed by the higher courts.
Governor George E. Pataki signed legislation to enact Timothy’s Law, which will require insurance companies to provide health insurance coverage for individuals with mental illnesses. The new law is named after Timothy O’Clair, a 12-year old boy from Schenectady County who had an emotional disorder, but was unable to obtain mental health services under his parent’s health insurance coverage. Timothy completed suicide in March 2001.
New studies on nutrition and HIV from researchers at Tufts University in Boston find that a high percentage of people with HIV have the same two characteristics of metabolic syndrome, and that people with HIV on HAART may be at risk for zinc deficiency.
Psychological interventions for chronic low back pain are effective, a new review of studies has found. Not only do these approaches improve psychological outcomes such as depression and health-related quality of life, they also reduce patients’ experience of pain.
Sword swallowers are more likely to sustain an injury — such as a perforation of the oesophagus — if they are distracted or are using multiple or unusual swords, finds a study in this week’s Christmas issue of the BMJ.
Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have developed the first gene chip to use in the early diagnosis of at least five hereditary liver diseases, to detect genetic causes of jaundice in children and adults, and potentially to lead to personalized treatment options.