Health and Medicine

A vaccine has been developed, which could prevent inflammation and illness caused by certain bacterial infections following major surgery, scientists heard today (Tuesday 09 April 2002) at the spring meeting of the Society for General Microbiology at the University of Warwick.

Dr Elliott Bennett-Guerrero, Chief of Cardiac Anesthesia at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, USA says, “Severe inflammation caused by bacterial toxins is becoming recognised as an importa

Signs of virus from human faeces found in bottled water.

Mineral water is marketed for its purity. But Swiss scientists are claiming that some brands may be contaminated with human faeces.

In 11 of 29 European brands of bottled mineral water Christian Beuret and colleagues of the Cantonal Food Laboratory in Solothurn found signs of the virus that causes more than 90% of the world’s stomach upsets 1 , 2 . The virus is called Norwalk-like virus

Approximately 375,000 Europeans suffer cardiac arrest every year – often with fatal consequences. Even upon successful resuscitation, several patients suffer severe and irreparable brain damage. One in seven patients could be saved and the amount of serious damage resulting from cardiac arrest could be drastically reduced by reducing the body temperature of those affected to between 32 and 34 degrees in the first 24 hours following the cardiac arrest. Such are the results of a Europe-wide study, in w

Research by Dr Mark Nieuwenhuijsen published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine today (4 April) highlights an area of potential risk to pregnant women through exposure to the by-products of chlorination in swimming pools.
The following statement clarifies the potential risk:

Dr Nieuwenhuijsen, from the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at Imperial College, London says:

“There is no empirical evidence that chlorination by-products in swimming

New evidence in this week’s BMJ supports the use of up to three antiviral drugs (triple therapy) to treat people with HIV.

Researchers in Birmingham reviewed 54 trials involving over 20,000 patients with HIV infection who had not already received antiviral therapy.

Combinations of up to three drugs were consistently and significantly more effective, but there was inadequate evidence on the effectiveness of quadruple or higher combinations. There was also marked variation, mainly acc

Common allergens (such as dust mite and grass pollen) and viruses may act together to exacerbate asthma, concludes a study in this week’s BMJ.

Sixty patients (aged 17 to 50) admitted to hospital over a year with acute asthma were matched with two controls: patients with stable asthma and patients admitted to hospital with non-respiratory diseases (inpatient controls). Skin tests for dust mite, cat, dog, and grass allergens were performed on all patients.

A significantly higher propo