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Multimedia News Coverage on WHN
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A
page on World Health News highlights the latest video and
audio health news broadcasts from major media outlets.
A
highlight:
"Dr.
Donald Berwick, a Harvard-trained pediatrician, has dedicated
his life to tracking a killer in a place that's supposed to
make you well, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric reports."
WHN
Multimedia Page
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Texas
To Require Cervical Cancer Vaccine
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Doctors
Call Governor's Vaccine Mandate Premature
Todd
Ackerman
(Houston Chronicle, Feb. 7, 2007)
"Gov. Rick Perry's order requiring schoolgirls
to get inoculated against a sexually transmitted virus
linked to cervical cancer may be unpopular with social
conservatives, but another important group also is lining
up against it: doctors."
A
Vaccine To Save Women's Lives
Editorial
(The
New York Times, Feb. 5, 2007)
"Congratulations to Texas for becoming
the first state to require vaccinating young schoolgirls
-- ages 11 and 12 -- against a sexually transmitted virus
that causes cervical cancer and genital warts. Other states
would be wise to follow the same path."
Free registration required.
Earlier:
Texas Governor Orders Cancer Vaccine for Young Girls
(Houston Chronicle, Feb. 3, 2007)
See
also:
Washington
State: Cervical Cancer Could Be Free, But Not Mandatory
(Associated Press, Feb. 7, 2007)
HPV
Vaccine: Who Chooses?
(Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5, 2007)
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Risk
Still Low on Drugs To Aid Immunity
Judy
Peres
(Chicago Tribune, Feb. 7, 2007)
"Older breast-cancer patients who get drugs to boost their
immune system during chemotherapy double their risk of developing
leukemia later on, a new study has found."
Free registration required.
Europe:
Cancer 'To Become Bigger Burden'
(BBC News Online, Feb. 7, 2007)
"Rising
rates of cancer diagnosis will put an increasing strain on health
care systems across Europe, experts warn."
Test
To Predict Breast Cancer Relapse Is Approved
Andrew
Pollack
(The New York Times, Feb. 7, 2007)
"A new genetic test that tries to predict whether
a woman with breast cancer will have a relapse won approval
yesterday from the Food and Drug Administration, marking a step
toward an era in which medical treatments are personalized for
each patient."
Free registration required.
Aggressive
Breast Cancer Hits Latinas
Dorsey
Griffith
(The Sacramento Bee, Feb. 5, 2007)
"An aggressive and hard-to-treat type of breast
cancer known to plague young African American women also disproportionately
affects Latinas at higher rates, new research in California
shows."
Lab
Disaster May Lead to New Cancer Drug
(Reuters, Feb. 4, 2007)
"Her carefully cultured cells were dead and Katherine Schaefer
was annoyed, but just a few minutes later, the researcher realized
she had stumbled onto a potential new cancer treatment."
As
Oral Cancer Drugs Gain, Dosage Problems Grow
Scott Allen
(The Boston Globe, Feb. 4, 2007)
"[T]he take-at-home [cancer drug] arsenal greatly increases
the risk of underdoses, overdoses, and just plain mistakes as
patients wrestle on their own with unpleasant side effects,
complex treatment plans, and simple cancer fatigue. More than
half of patients taking one widely used oral chemotherapy, Xeloda,
occasionally cut back their dose or take a medication 'break'
to reduce side effects such as nausea and skin irritation, according
to a survey of oncologists."
Free registration required.
See
also:
Australia: New Drug Gives Relief for Breast Cancer Sufferers
(Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 4, 2007)
Car
Drivers 'Risking Skin Cancer'
(BBC News Online, Feb. 4, 2007)
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Low
AIDS Awareness Adds to Crisis
Dahleen
Glanton
(Chicago Tribune, Feb. 7, 2007)
"More than 25 years into the AIDS epidemic, HIV continues
to soar in the black community, accounting for nearly half the
newly diagnosed infections in the U.S. in a recent yearly assessment
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Free registration required.
New
HIV Infections Hit High in Japan
(Associated
Press, Feb. 7, 2007)
"The numbers of new infections of HIV and AIDS
patients in Japan hit record highs in 2006, the Health Ministry
said Wednesday, underscoring concerns over spreading infections."
Disease-Fighting
Fund's Expenses Hit
John Donnelly
(The Boston Globe, Feb. 5, 2007)
"The executive director of a $7 billion fund to fight deadly
diseases in the world's poorest countries has made extensive
use of a little-known private bank account, spending hundreds
of thousands of dollars on limousines, expensive meals, boat
cruises, and other expenses, according to an internal investigation."
Free registration required.
South
Africa: MCC Stalls New AIDS Drugs
Belinda Beresford
(Daily Mail & Guardian, South Africa, Feb. 3, 2007)
"South
Africans have been denied the 'biggest advance' in antiretroviral
therapy over the last few years because of a lack of urgency
in the drug registration process in South Africa, according
to the Treatment Action Campaign."
Gambian
President's HIV 'Cure' Condemned
(BBC
News Online, Feb. 2, 2007)
"A
claim by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh that he can cure AIDS
in three days has been lambasted by a leading South African
HIV/AIDS specialist...Mr. Jammeh said last month he had begun
treating 10 patients on Thursdays with secret medicinal herb
ingredients. His health minister backs his claims, saying in
trials so far patients had gained weight and physically improved."
See
also:
Bono Targets HIV in Africa with Licensing Deals
Alan Beattie
(Financial Times via Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5, 2007)
Free registration required.
Zimbabwe
To Expand Free Roll-Out Program
(Daily Mail & Guardian, London, Feb. 2, 2007)
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Los
Angeles: Gang 'Capital' Steps Up Fight
Michael
Martinez
(Chicago Tribune, Feb. 4, 2007)
"After more than 20 years trying to eradicate Los Angeles'
gangs -- whose violence influenced American culture from video
games to movies -- officials were sharply rebuked for ongoing
failures in a new study by a local civil rights group."
Free registration required.
New
Orleans: In City, Dysfunction Fuels Cycle of Killing
Adam Nossiter and Christopher Drew
(The New York Times, Feb. 4, 2007)
"Other
cities have plenty of murders. But only in New Orleans has there
been the uniquely poisoned set of circumstances that has led
to this city’s position at the top of the homicide charts.
Every phase of the killing cycle here unfolds under the dark
star of dysfunction: the murderers’ brutalized childhoods,
the often ineffectual police intervention, a dulled community
response, and a tense relationship between the police and prosecutors
that lets many cases slip through the cracks."
Free registration required.
See
also:
Japan:
Gang Turf War Threatens Tokyo
(The Japan Times, Feb. 7, 2007)
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Exclusive Book Excerpt:
Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Morality
The overarching theme of a medical education
is to heal. In a compassionate and insightful new book, Dr.
Pauline Chen examines how doctors must accept the outcomes of
their patients' battles, and how the medical community as a
whole can improve the care of the dying.
Dr.
Pauline Chen
Excerpted
from Final Exam by Pauline
Chen. Copyright (c) 2007 by Pauline W. Chen. Reprinted
with permission from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf.
 (February
7, 2007) -- I
never intended to make my living among the dying. When I entered
medical school, I dreamed of helping people. And for me, helping
meant saving lives. I imagined a clinic filled with
grateful, cured, modern-day Lazarus equivalents. I also convinced
myself that my undergraduate background in medical anthropology
would make me more empathic than other physicians; my patients
would not only be physically cured but would be emotionally
healed in culturally relevant ways.
As it
turns out, my dreams about my future medical career were not
that different from those of most medical students. Premedical
students overwhelmingly believe that as physicians they will
be able to cure and help their patients. Few choose this career
to care for the dying; instead, they believe they will save
others from the inevitability of death.
Sherwin
Nuland postulates in his book How We Die that "of
all the professions, medicine is one of the most likely to
attract people with high personal anxieties about dying. We
became doctors because our ability to cure gives us power
over the death of which we are so afraid." Attracted
to medicine in part because of our own particular anxieties,
we may be a self-selected lot who eagerly suppress these fears
as we adopt a professional ethos that embraces denial.
Once we
are accepted into medical school, we advance through the ranks,
becoming medical students, then interns, then residents, and
then perhaps subspecialty fellows. In this modern apprenticeship
we take our cues from the fully trained attending physicians
who serve as our clinical professors, mimicking their thought
processes, preferences, and even attitudes. The attendings
take their teaching responsibilities and the professional
hierarchy quite seriously. Charles Bosk, a medical sociologist,
writes that "[the] power of attendings in the system
of everyday controls is truly remarkable." In some specialties
that hierarchy is so powerful that any perceived deviations
from attending physicians, in action or even words alone,
can become grounds for job termination.
As young
students and doctors in the midst of profound sleep deprivation
and chaotic personal lives centered on work, we are eager
to find easy truths or at least comfortable lessons in patient
care. Soon enough, however, we discover that death among patients
is an inevitable part of our profession. We look to our attending
physicians for guidance and we learn that many of them have
not only their own difficulties in dealing with death but
also little insight into how these attitudes affect the care
they give terminal patients. Even our textbooks, usually overflowing
with data, provide us with little or no help with the dying.
Thus,
without guidance or advice, few of us ever adequately learn
how to care for patients at the end of life. We end up sifting
through our own experiences with precious little support,
and we watch patients die, sometimes directly under our watch
and always despite all of our best efforts and all that we
have learned. For many of us, it is a rite of passage that
is painful and terrifyingly lonely; years afterward, even
decades afterward, we cannot forget our first patients.
Full
text
Multimedia
from NPR:
Interview
suggested as an NPR 'Driveway Moment':
Surgeon
Writes of Death, Dying in Final Exam
Running time: 9:36; aired Jan. 27, 2007
Related
article:
Pennsylvania:
Let's Not Forsake the Dying, Says State Report
Michael
Vitez
(The Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 5, 2007)
-- "Pennsylvania must do a much better job of caring
for people with chronic illnesses in the last stages of life,
according to a new state report. The report, to be released
today, urges more support to family caregivers, better education
and higher standards for health professionals in end-of-life
care. It also called for restructuring how health care is
paid and provided to allow more attention on keeping people
comfortable at the end of life and not just trying to cure
them."
Free registration required.
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Wal-Mart
and a Union Unite, at Least on Health Policy
Michael
Barbaro and Robert Pear
(The New York Times, Feb. 7, 2007)
"[On
Wednesday] morning, in an extraordinary meeting in Washington,
the chiefs of Wal-Mart Stores and the Service Employees International
Union will stand together and agree on a series of goals for achieving
universal health coverage, according to people briefed on the
matter."
Free registration required.
Medicare
May Get a $66-Billion Trim
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
(Los Angeles Times, Feb. 6, 2007)
"The budget President Bush proposed Monday calls for the
deepest Medicare cuts of his six years in office and falls short
in expanding health coverage to uninsured children -- a top priority
for congressional Democrats this year."
Free registration required.
Moving
Toward Greater Drug Safety
Editorial
(The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2007)
"The Food and Drug Administration is making encouraging moves
to strengthen its regulation of drugs that are already on the
market. But the changes fall far short of what’s needed to
protect millions of unsuspecting patients whose adverse effects
may show up only after years of use."
Free registration required.
Pricing
a Colonoscopy? We Tried; It Isn't Easy
Patricia
Sabatini
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Feb. 4, 2007)
"[T]he issue of so-called price 'transparency'
-- knowing upfront what your medical treatment and tests will
cost -- is growing in importance for many consumers...The problem
is, it has been difficult, if not impossible for consumers to
be savvy shoppers because doctors, hospitals and insurers generally
aren't prepared to give them good information about the cost of
services."
Why
Pharma Must 'Go Hollywood'
Liam Bernal
(The Scientist, February 2007)
"Hollywood is dependent on creativity and innovation,
so its evolving business model can provide useful insights. This
is not as crazy as it would seem. The Hollywood business model
is more evolved than the model currently followed across pharma."
See
also:
California:
The Low Cost of Prevention
Editorial
(San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 5, 2007)
Massachusetts:
Universal Health Plan Can Cost Under $300, Insurers Say
(The Boston Globe, Feb. 5, 2007)
Free registration required.
Young
Doctors See Drug Makers' Freebies as a Bad Habit
(Los Angeles Times, Feb. 4, 2007)
Free
registration required.
Tennessee:
State Leads Nation in Prescriptions
(The Tennessean, Feb. 4, 2007)
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Life
on Her Terms
Susan
Brink
(Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5, 2007)
"About 1.2 million patients, 80% of them older
than 65, received hospice services in 2005, an increase of 150,000
from the year before and up from 210,000 in 1990, according to
the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization...[E]nd-of-life
experts say there are hints in the numbers that point to a trend
toward more people being willing to call a halt to aggressive
treatment."
Free registration required.
In
Elder Care, Signing on Becomes a Way to Drop By
Christine Larson
(The New York Times, Feb. 4, 2007)
"About 19 million Americans, aside from paid providers, are
caring for someone over the age of 75, according to the National
Alliance for Caregiving. With the number of older Americans growing
rapidly, products and services to help adult children care for
their parents are on the rise."
Free registration required.
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Study
Finds Dangers in Heart-Surgery Drug
Denise
Gellene
(Los Angeles Times, Feb. 7, 2007)
"Raising fresh concerns about a widely used heart-surgery
medicine, a study released Tuesday reported that the drug Trasylol
increased patients' long-term risk of dying by nearly 50%."
Free registration required.
Low-Level
Toxicants Can Harm Brain
Jamie
Talan
(Newsday, New York, Feb. 6, 2007)
"Low levels of mercury and lead exposure can damage developing
brain cells -- a finding that might help explain how these toxicants
can lead to a host of mental and medical problems, a new study
said."
Scientists
Fight for Research Funding
Karen
Augé and Katy Human
(The Denver Post, Feb. 3, 2007)
"Since 2004, researchers looking for treatments for cancer,
heart disease and other ailments have found it harder and harder
to get NIH funding as the agency's budget has stagnated. This
year's proposed NIH budget, according to a House Appropriations
Committee spokesman, is $28.9 billion, just a 2.2 percent increase
and less than the rate of inflation."
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Fashion
World Asks: How Thin Is Too Thin?
Sandra
Jones
(Chicago Tribune, Feb. 4, 2007)
"While
designers, advertisers and model agencies have generally avoided
taking blame for the epidemic of eating disorders connected to
body image, the industry will raise the issue Monday, when the
Council of Fashion Designers of America holds its first panel
discussion at the show on health in the fashion industry."
Free registration required.
Clicking
Themselves Sick Online
Courtney
Perkes
(The Orange County Register, Feb. 3, 2007)
"The number of eating-disorder sites, including pages on
MySpace.com and Facebook.com, is estimated to be in the thousands."
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Indonesia
May Sell, Not Give, Bird Flu Virus to Scientists
Donald
G. McNeil, Jr.
(The New York Times, Feb. 7, 2007)
"Indonesia, which has had more human cases of avian
flu than any other country, has stopped sending samples of the
virus to the World Health Organization, apparently because it
is negotiating a contract to sell the samples to an American vaccine
company, a WHO official said yesterday."
Free registration required.
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H5N1
Found in Britain
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Five
Countries Banning U.K. Poultry
(BBC
News Online, Feb. 6, 2007)
"South Korea and Hong Kong have become the latest countries
to ban imports of U.K. poultry following the outbreak of
bird flu on a Suffolk turkey farm."
As
Turkey Cull Ends Ministers and Farmers Hope Virus Has Not
Spread
John
Vidal, Ian Traynor, Will Woodward, and Paul Lewis
(The Guardian, London, Feb. 6, 2007)
"The government, farmers and supermarkets
were crossing their fingers last night that the H5N1 outbreak
on Bernard Matthews's turkey farm in Suffolk was an isolated
case and the lethal disease had not spread further."
Mystery
Deepens Over Cause of Suffolk Bird Flu Outbreak
John
Vidal and Paul Lewis
(The
Guardian, London, Feb. 5, 2007)
"The government was [on Sunday] night investigating
possible links between the discovery of H5N1 avian bird
flu at a Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Suffolk and recent
outbreaks of the disease in Hungary."
World
Braced for Huge Surge in Bird Flu Cases
Robin
McKie and Nick Mathiason
(The Observer, London, Feb. 4, 2007)
"The number of cases of the deadly bird flu
virus is increasing around the world as scientists struggle
to combat the disease that is now threatening to jump species
and infect humans. The news comes as Britain confirmed its
first ever case of H5N1 in a farm in Suffolk."
Earlier:
Lethal
Virus Hit Five Days Ago: Now Cull Begins
(The
Observer, London, Feb. 4, 2007)
It's
Too Early To Panic, But We Should Prepare
Opinion
Jo Revill, health editor
(The Observer, London, Feb. 4, 2007)
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U.S.
Companies Prepare for Bird Flu Pandemic
(Reuters,
Feb. 6, 2007)
"The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration urged employers to develop plans to
cope with a possible flu pandemic on Tuesday, suggesting letting
employees work from home and encouraging sick workers to stay
home without reprisals. But a few international companies and
small regional firms were already making bird flu planning a full-time
job, and said on Tuesday they have had to prepare for the unthinkable."
Don't
Discount Bird Flu, Says Presidential Adviser
Delthia Ricks
(Newsday, New York, Feb. 5, 2007)
"A top biodefense adviser in the Bush administration
acknowledged Friday that people are tiring of the drumbeat about
pandemic flu, but he characterized the threat as real and urged
countries worldwide to quicken the pace of drug development and
vaccine research."
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Anti-Smoking
Campaigns: Gore Works Best
(Agence
France Presse, Feb. 6, 2007)
"Smokers are far likelier to be prodded into kicking
the habit if cigarette packets show graphic pictures of some of
the health threats from tobacco, and if those warnings are regularly
updated, researchers have reported."
For
Newsweek Subscribers, a Question: Smoking or Nonsmoking?
Maria
Aspan
(The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2007)
"Attention, all magazine readers who want to quit
smoking or avoid cigarette-related advertising: Newsweek
may have a special offer for you."
Free registration required.
Shelters'
Message: Give Up Smoking
Charles Sheehan
(Chicago Tribune, Feb. 4, 2007)
"Amid
broad skepticism, nascent campaigns to get the homeless off cigarettes
are bubbling up in Chicago and across the country."
Free registration required.
One
Puff Above the Limit
Opinion
Bernadine Healy, M.D.
(U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 4, 2007)
"Most
parents who smoke want to give it up and sure don't want their
kids to start. Moms may be just the pressure point for change.
But don't punish them. Encourage, educate, and motivate them,
and provide programs tailored to assist them in kicking their
addiction. Help smokers become better mothers. And let health
experts, not cops, walk the smoking beat."
Israel:
Treasury Said To Oppose Law That Would Bolster Enforcement of
Smoking Ban
Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
(The Jerusalem Post, Feb. 2, 2007)
"The Finance Ministry is opposing a private member's bill
that would require all local authorities and municipalities to
hire inspectors who would devote most of their time to enforcing
no-smoking laws in public spaces and workplaces, even though this
could earn the authorities an estimated NIS 450 million bonanza
a year, The Jerusalem Post has learned."
Free registration required.
See
also:
New Jersey: Smoke Ban in the Cards for Casinos?
(The Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 6, 2007)
Free registration required.
Quitting
Smoking: Cold Turkey with 'a Side of Pills,' Most Effective, Experts
Say
(The Boston Globe, Feb. 5, 2007)
Free registration required.
China:
Tobacco Advertising on Blacklists Again
(China Daily, Feb. 3, 2007)
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No
More Mars Bar Ads for Children
(BBC
News Online, Feb. 5, 2007)
"The company that makes chocolate bars such as Mars
and Snickers, is to stop targeting its advertising at under-12s."
'Autism
Diet' Getting a Closer Look
Cherie Black
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Feb. 3, 2007)
"Dubbed by some as the 'autism diet,' it is a gluten- and
casein-free way of eating, often used by people diagnosed with
the digestive disorder celiac disease...Why the diet seems to
work isn't completely understood."
China:
New Guidelines for Healthy Lifestyles
Chong
Zi
(China Daily, Feb. 3, 2007)
"The
Chinese people are getting heavier and less healthy. As health
care costs rise, prevention becomes the watchword. And a balanced
diet is believed to be the best way to stay healthy. China is
going to update its food guidelines this year in the hope of combining
healthy eating with exercise."
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Japan:
Osaka Plans Another Homeless Eviction
Eric
Johnston
(The Japan Times, Feb. 3, 2007)
"[H]omeless people are routinely denied national health-care
coverage and other official support because they must have a registered
address to qualify for state and municipal benefits. Late last
year, the government learned that nearly 3,350 people living in
Nishinari Ward had registered their residence as Kamagasaki Liberation
Hall, a small space where people often squat or gather to socialize."
Florida:
Orlando Homeless Laws Stir Heated Debate
(Associated
Press, Feb. 3, 2007)
"[I]]n July, the city commission tried a 'supply-side' approach:
It passed an ordinance regulating the feeding of large groups
of people in Orlando's downtown parks. Those who wished to feed
more than 25 hungry individuals at parks within a 2-mile radius
of City Hall could do so, but only if they obtained a 'Large Group
Feeding Permit' from the parks department -- and no one would
be granted more than two feeding permits a year. No exceptions.
For the first time anyone in Orlando could remember, not only
would panhandlers find themselves in the crosshairs of the law,
but so would those trying to help them."
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