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Claims that the discovery of a gene could help prevent diabetes may raise unrealistic expectations

Earlier this year, scientists discovered that a variant of the TCF7L2 gene was associated with type 2 diabetes. In subsequent media coverage, they claimed this could lead to a diagnostic test to identify people who carry the variant gene and that people who knew of their extra risk would then be motivated to avoid the lifestyle habits that lead to diabetes.

7 Sep 2006

Ageism is endemic in health services

In England, decades of health service underfunding have provided an environment in which ageism has flourished, writes Professor John Young in an editorial.

7 Sep 2006

Trial shows H5N1 vaccine safe and effective

A vaccine in development against the H5N1 influenza virus can produce a safe immune response in healthy people at low doses, according to an article published by The Lancet.

7 Sep 2006

New radiotherapy/chemotherapy strategy improves outcomes for children with medulloblastoma

Radiotherapy that is adapted for the severity of disease and followed by a shortened course of chemotherapy substantially improves the outcome of children with a type of brain tumour called medulloblastoma, claim investigators in an Online/Article in The Lancet Oncology.

7 Sep 2006

Mexico's health system reforms working

Julio Frenk, Minister of Health of Mexico, outlines the results of the country's 6-year project of health system reform in a Public Health article in this week's issue of The Lancet.

7 Sep 2006

SSRI's developed for premature ejaculation, safe and effective

A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) developed specifically for the treatment of premature ejaculation is safe and effective for men severely affected by the condition, according to an Article in this week's issue of The Lancet.

7 Sep 2006

Medicare should increase oversight to ensure privacy, security

Nearly half of insurers who sponsor Medicare Advantage plans experienced security breaches involving Medicare beneficiaries' private health records in the last two years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports.

7 Sep 2006

Sacramento City Council approves sale of nonprescription needles

The Sacramento, Calif., City Council on Tuesday voted 6-2 to approve a measure that will allow the nonprescription sale of syringes to adults, the Sacramento Bee reports (Stern, Sacramento Bee, 9/6).

7 Sep 2006

U.S., Africa HIV/AIDS epidemics deserve equal attention, funding

Over the last few years, the U.S. increasingly has "turned its attention" to the HIV/AIDS "crisis" in Africa even though in "large parts of this country, America is Africa," Patrick Moore, author of "Tweaked: A Crystal Meth Memoir," writes in a Long Island Newsday opinion piece.

7 Sep 2006

Many adults need help understanding basic medical instructions, as most are written at above-average level

Fewer than one in six U.S. adults have proficient health literacy, according to report released on Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

7 Sep 2006

Please go Tshabalala-Msimang!

HIV/AIDS advocates and scientists, including a U.S. Nobel laureate, on Tuesday in a letter to South African President Thabo Mbeki called for Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to step down and protested the government's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Wall Street Journal reports.

7 Sep 2006

Crisis of HIV/AIDS in Florida's black communities

Although there has been progress in recent years, blacks in south Florida are more than three times as likely to be HIV-positive than whites in the region, according to a report from the Florida Department of Health, the Miami Herald reports (Goldstein, Miami Herald, 9/7).

7 Sep 2006

Czech Government has not fully answered charges of forced sterilizations of Romany women

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women this week is expected to finalize and release a draft report that says the Czech Republic government has not completely answered allegations that more than 80 Roma, or Gypsy, women from 1986 through 2004 were sterilized in the country without informed consent.

7 Sep 2006

Patient satisfaction not best indication of quality of care

The argument that the "best way to improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care is to make the market for health care more like the market for everything else" is based on the erroneous "belief that health care is -- in most respects -- like any other product," columnist David Wessel writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

7 Sep 2006