News In Brief 5 May 2009

NHS Failed Man Killed By Overdose

A patient given a lethal overdose by an out-of-hours German doctor was failed, a health trust has admitted.  Daniel Ubani accidentally administered 10 times too much painkiller to David Gray, 70, while working for a health trust in Cambridgeshire last year.

The doctor, who worked for Take Care Now, on behalf of the NHS, had been called to the man’s home in Manea, Cambridgeshire, on 16 February.  Mr. Gray was suffering pain caused by renal colic and kidney stones.  In related news, a second patient had to be taken to hospital after receiving inappropriate treatment from Dr Ubani.  Police sources said they became aware of the woman’s case as they investigated a possible manslaughter charge against Ubani for the death of 70 year old David Gray last year.  Furthermore, the family of David Gray has called on the NHS to suspend all foreign out-of-hours doctors.

Health Trusts’ Building Projects

More than 700 building projects are planned across 200 health trusts in England as part of a drive to eliminate mixed sex accommodation in hospitals, health secretary, Alan Johnson announced.

In January, the government pledged to stop paying hospitals for the care of patients in mixed sex wards unless it could be clinically justified.  The Royal College of Nursing Chief Executive, Dr Peter Carter, said that eliminating mixed sex accommodation would be a hugely significant step towards dignified patient care for all.

Hormone Injection Will Pave Way For Male Pill

A contraceptive injection for men achieved a 99 per cent success rate in a study conducted in China.  The study, which involved injecting men with testosterone, was the largest conducted into the topic.

The study found that over a period of two years, the method proved to be 99 per cent successful as a contraceptive.  However, after the study ended, fertility levels in all but two of the men returned to normal.

The findings are published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Vital Medicine Rationed As Chemists Sell Drugs Abroad

Hundreds of medicines have been rationed in Britain because pharmacies are selling drugs abroad to profit from the weakness in the pound.  More specifically, 370 medicines have had their distributions restricted by pharmaceutical wholesalers.

Stomach ulcer treatment, Nexium and Plavix, for heart attackes and strokes are two of the 25 drugs that pharmacists are struggling to get hold of, according to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.

AstraZeneca said there had been isolated incidents of shortages of Nexium which had been easily dealt with.

Ministers Dropped Vioxx Protest After Lobbying From US Drug Firm

The Guardian reported that private lobbying by American pharmaceutical company, Merck, resulted in government ministers backing down from supporting British people who claimed that failed pain relief drug, Vioxx, caused them heart attacks and strokes. 

Merck is refusing to compensate hundreds of Britons who said their health was damaged,  despite the fact that the multinational has paid out more than £2 billion to 44,000 people in America.

The Lancete magazine accused Merck of knowing about the risks four years earlier4, but ignoring them ‘out of ruthless, shortsighted and irresponsible self-interest’ – a claim denied by the drugmaker.

School Closed After Pupil Catches Virus and Infects Four Classmates

An independent school has become the fourth to close because of swine flu, after five pupils were diagnosed with the infectious disease.

Alleyn’s School in Dulwich, South East London, will be shut for at least a week after a Year Seven students who went on an Easter holiday to America passed the disease to four friends.

The Health Protection Agancy said it was unclear whether the pupils,  who returned to class last week, had spread the H1N1 virus to other classmates.

In related news, the World Health Organisation last night moved away from raising its swine flu pandemic alert to the highest level, but warned that the virus was still very unpredictable.  WHO spokesperson, Thomas Abraham, said raising the alert threat was still a possibility, adding that the organisation had consistently said a pandemic was imminent.  It was only a matter of time before it moved to phase six unless the virus suddenly became weaker and died off.

Cut In Doctors Hours’ Puts Births At Risk

Limits on the hours worked by junior doctors could make giving birth more dangerous because they would have less time to train, a consultant has said.

Martin Lupton, a consultant at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said that junior doctors would work more night shifts under new rotas, reducing the time when they learned from senior colleagues, whose work was concentrated during the day.

Mr Lupton said that giving birth was safer than it had ever been before, providing staff were properly trained.  The concern was that in 10 years’ time would that still be the same?

Beware Of Extreme Diets Cancer Patients Warned

Experts have warned that cancer survivors who adopted ‘extreme diets’ to try and sotp the disease returning were wasting their time and could be harming their health.

The World Cancer Research Fund said that diets that urged cancer patients to drink only fruit and vegetable juice, avoid meat or dairy products or take large doses of supplements might be popular, but would not work.

Dr Rachel Thompson, science programme manager at World Cancer Research Fund, which is renowned for its research into preventing the disease, said that people who had had cancer often ended up following diets that involved cutting out types of food or having lots of supplements.  It was very easy to make bold claims about how different diets could stop cancer returning, but there was no strong evidence these diets do what they say.  People were often investing money and hoped in something that could be doing more harm than good.

Gates Offers Scientists At The Edge Of Innovation $200m

Today, more than 80 projects at the far edge of innovation in global health research will share millions of pounds of grants to support unorthodox thinking and the outside chance of a world-changing discovery.

Among the recipients, announced today by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as part of their Grand Challenges initiative, are three British scientific teams pursuing novel approaches to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and pneumonia, as well as viruses such as HIV.

The grant recipients are based in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin and North Americas.

Tachi Yamada, President of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health programme, said some things required a revolution, rather than an evolution, in thinking.  The problem was that we could be locked into an orthodoxy of thinking that shackled us and prevented us from thinking in novel ways.

Britain Faces Deadly Risk From Attempts To Open Pet Borders

Attempts by the European Commission to eliminate controls on pets entering Britain have the potential to endanger human health, according to veterinary experts.

Beginning next year, the European Union want to stop the tick and tapeworm checks that must be carried out on all pets arriving in Britain and travelling on a pet passport.

Animal Health Minister and Nigel Gibbens, the Government’s Chief Veterinary Officer, are lobbying to retain the controls.  They hope that a statement from the European Food Safety Authority, which said that the risk of introducing the parasite into new areas was ‘greater than negligible’ will help their cause.

Scans That Reveal If Chemotherapy Is Working

A new method of combining scans can show if chemotherapy is working within a week if the cancer treatment starting.

The innovation, created by a team of scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles, combines a CT scan to locate the cancer with another imaging process, called Positron Emission Tomography, or PET scan.  A PET scan is a highly sensitive technique that can identify how well the smallest tissues in the body are working. 

Dr Fritz Eiber, who led the study, said they wanted to see if they could determine a response after a single administration of chemotherapy.  There was no point in giving a patient a treatment that was not working.  These drugs made patients sick and had long-term serious side-effects.