Medical Legislation News and Research

RSS

Mosquito threat to Europe from imported plants

Some experts believe that the importation of tropical plants into Europe may pose a disease risk to European countries because the plants harbour deadly mosquitos which carry the threat of exotic diseases.

21 Nov 2005

The Medicare Drug Benefit: A Prescription for Confusion

If many seniors are scratching their heads about the new Medicare prescription drug plan, so are the experts.

20 Nov 2005

Bird flu spreads in China while Bush's $ 7.1 billion pandemic fund stalls

As World health experts predicted there will be more human bird flu infections in China, the U.S. Congress has stalled the funding of President George W. Bush's plan to cope with a pandemic.

20 Nov 2005

Doctors' surgeries open round the clock

In future patients in the UK will be able to see a GP in the evenings and at weekends.

14 Nov 2005

Warnings to be put on condoms

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is calling for warnings to be placed on condoms.

14 Nov 2005

Number of men interested in donating sperm has declined significantly

A study by a leading UK fertility centre has found that the numbers of men - especially students - coming forward as potential sperm donors fell sharply after 2000, almost certainly due to growing awareness that changes in the law would be removing the right to anonymity.

13 Nov 2005

Flu expert calls for mandatory vaccination of health care workers

Johns Hopkins' senior hospital epidemiologist and flu expert is calling for mandatory vaccination of all health care workers as the best means of protecting patients and hospital staff from widespread outbreaks of the viral illness.

10 Nov 2005

British mother demands the right to know about teenage abortion

A British mother is presently fighting government guidelines issued last year to reduce teenage pregnancy, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases.

10 Nov 2005

Mongolian birds provide Avian influenza virus samples

Avian influenza virus samples collected from wild birds in Mongolia by field veterinarians from the New York City-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have been selected by the World Health Organization to be part of a new human pandemic influenza vaccine currently in development.

7 Nov 2005

Unrelated adults, usually a male boyfriend, dramatically increase the risk of inflicted injury

Young children who live in households with one or more unrelated adults are nearly 50 times as likely to die from an inflicted injury, usually being shaken or struck, as children living with two biologic parents, report researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Chicago in the November 2005 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

7 Nov 2005

Drug company proposes FDA check all drug advertising prior to marketing

Drug company AstraZeneca has proposed that it should be a mandatory requirement for pharmaceutical companies to submit all direct-to-consumer advertising to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review prior to its use.

2 Nov 2005

Fertile women most attractive to men

According to researchers at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, women with high levels of the sex hormone oestrogen have prettier faces.

2 Nov 2005

Dead human tissue illegally used in surgery

London Health Sciences Centre is investigating if its surgeons used human tissue products that were recalled because they might have been taken illegally from corpses at funeral homes in the United States.

31 Oct 2005

Lawyers' salaries in private sector impact whether drug cases go to trial

Assistant U.S. attorneys in districts with high private salaries are more likely to take a drug-trafficking case to trial than are assistant attorneys in districts with low private salaries, according to a study by economists at Rice University and Colgate University that is published in the October issue of the Journal of Law and Economics.

25 Oct 2005

New strategies to help developing countries address neglected diseases

For the health challenges facing developing countries, the numbers alone are staggering. Every day, 40,000 people - enough to fill a sports stadium - die from preventable infectious diseases and malnutrition. Entire generations of human potential are perishing.

25 Oct 2005

Growth hormone illegal for off-label anti-aging use

Because of 1988 and 1990 amendments to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, off-label distribution or provision of human growth hormone to treat aging or age-associated illnesses is illegal in the United States, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

25 Oct 2005

Canada province will seize children of drug addicts

Canadian province Alberta wants to be able to remove children from the homes of parents who recklessly abuse drugs or are involved in selling them.

24 Oct 2005

US Congress has wasted an opportunity to tackle the rising numbers of chronically hungry people in the world

On World Food Day, Oct 16, the World Food Programme (WFP) delivered some disquieting news: the number of chronically hungry people is rising again after decades of decline. Almost 6·5 million people have died so far this year from hunger and related diseases, which claim more lives than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

20 Oct 2005