Friday 26th February 2016- The Independent: Asthma: Half of children diagnosed with the respiratory disease may not have it, study suggests

‘More than half of the children being treated for asthma might not actually have the condition, new research suggests.

A study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, found 53 per cent of children had no clinical signs of asthma despite being diagnosed at one of four medical centres in the Netherlands, whose healthcare system is widely regarded as one of the best in Europe.

In the UK last year, researchers found that a third of adults diagnosed with asthma did not actually have it.

Dr Ingrid Looijmans-van den Akker, one of the scientists behind the Dutch research, told The Daily Telegraph: “Over-diagnosis of asthma was found in more than half of the children, leading to unnecessary treatment, disease burden, and impact on their quality of life.

“Previous studies have indicated that asthma is over-diagnosed in children. However, the scale of the over-diagnosis has not been quantified.

“Only in a few children was the diagnosis of asthma confirmed using lung function tests, despite this being recommended in international guidelines. Over-diagnosis gives rise to over-prescription and incorrect use of medication, and to anxiety in parents and children.”

The UK’s National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) has warned that doctors have too often tended to diagnose asthma based on a history of wheezing, coughs and other breathing problems, rather than clinical tests.

Professor Mark Baker, director of clinical practice at Nice, said it was developing new advice on how to properly diagnose the condition.

“As part of this work, Nice is inviting GP practices to take part in a project to check the feasibility of some diagnostic tests that Nice proposes to recommend,” he said.’

Related Articles:

Asthma: Half of children diagnosed with the respiratory disease may not have it, study suggests

Half a million children with asthma may not actually have condition- The Telegraph

Thursday 4th February 2016- The Guardian: Spain reports first known European case of Zika-infected pregnant woman

‘The health ministry in Spain said a pregnant woman who had returned from Colombia had been diagnosed with the Zika virus, Europe’s first known case of the mosquito-born virus this week declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation.

“One of the patients diagnosed in [the northeastern region of] Catalonia is a pregnant woman, who showed symptoms after having travelled to Colombia,” the health ministry announced on Thursday, adding she is one of seven cases in Spain and all are in good condition.

News of the virus, thought to cause birth defects, first emerged in Brazil last year, and health authorities have warned the disease could infect up to 4 million people in the Americas and spread worldwide.

The fever starts with a mosquito bite and normally causes little more than a fever and rash. But since October, Brazil has reported 404 confirmed cases of microcephaly, where the baby’s head is abnormally small – up from 147 in 2014 – plus 3,670 suspected cases.

The timing has fuelled strong suspicions that Zika is causing the birth defect. The virus has also been linked to a potentially paralysing nerve disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome in some patients.’

Related Articles:

Spain reports first known European case of Zika-infected pregnant woman

Zika virus pregnancy case confirmed in Spain – first in Europe- BBC News

Zika: Spanish officials confirm pregnant woman in Catalonia infected with virus- The Independent

Saturday 23rd January 2016- The Independent: Russian HIV cases reach record high of more than a million

‘More than a million Russians are now HIV-positive, as rates of infection in the country reach an all-time high.

Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of the Russian state Aids centre and an outspoken critic of the Kremlin’s conservative health policies, told Reuters that at at least 1 million and possibly as many as 1.5 million Russians were now HIV-positive.

This means that a little over 1 per cent of Russia’s 144,000,000 inhabitants now test positive for the virus, meaning that Russia has more cases of HIV per person than any other European country, save Estonia. By way of contrast, there are only around 100,000 individuals in the UK living with HIV.’

‘“The epidemic is gathering strength,” Mr Pokrovsky added. “Unfortunately, the measures that have been taken have clearly not been enough.”

There were 90,000 new cases in Russia in 2014, and the Aids centre further estimate that the number of HIV infections will reach 2 million by 2019. Since Russia’s first recorded case of HIV in 1987, around 204,000 people have died as a result of the virus.

57 per cent of Russians infected with the virus acquired it through drug use, with around 20 per cent of the country’s large number of known drug users testing positive for the disease. Russia has the largest number of intravenous drug users in the world – 1.8 million of them, according to a 2012 Lancet study.

Only around 30 per cent of Russians diagnosed with HIV currently receive the antriretroviral medication that their bodies need to stop the virus from multiplying.

Mr Pokrovsky told Reuters that he needed at least double the $475,000,000 being offered to him by the Kremlin to fight the disease. However, the Russian economy has been deflated by the collapse in oil prices and the imposition of Western sanctions, and there is likely to be even less public health funding available than before.’

See:

Russian HIV cases reach record high of more than a million

Monday 18th January 2016- The Independent: France clinical trial: Man left brain-dead following drug test dies

‘A patient in who was left brain dead following a botched drugs trial in France has died, AFP has reported.

Six people became unwell following experimental trials at a hospital in Brittany.

The patients, all men aged 28 to 49, had been treated in Rennes University Hospital, some in intensive care.

The head of the hospital’s neurology department said that based on evidence from magnetic resonance imaging scans, three of the patients may be suffering from irreversible brain damage, the New York Times reported.

Originally, 90 people were given the unknown drug in the trial, out of a total of 128 participants.  The rest were given placebos.

The drug that was being trialled is not known, despite some reports that it was a new cannabinoid-based painkiller.

Marisol Touraine, the French health minister, later confirmed that the pill did not contain cannabis or its derivatives but acted on the body’s endocannabinoid system.

Taken orally, the drug was undergoing a Phase 1 clinical trial at a licensed private European laboratory, Biotrial.  The company specialises in clinical trials and are based in Rennes.

In a statement Biotrial said: “The trial has been conducted in full compliance with the international regulations and Biotrial’s procedures were followed at every stage throughout the trial, in particular the emergency procedures for the transfer of subjects to the hospital. We are in close and regular contact with the Health Authorities and Ministry in France. The priority at Biotrial remains the safety of our subjects.”

Biotrial were conducting the tests on behalf of Bial, a Portuguese drug manufacturer. ‘

Related Articles:

France clinical trial: Man left brain-dead following drug test dies

France drug trial: Brain-dead man dies in hospital- BBC News

Friday 15th January 2016- The Guardian: French drug trial leaves one brain dead and five critically ill

‘One person is brain dead and five others are seriously ill after taking part in a drug trial for Portuguese pharmaceutical firm Bial at a clinic in north-west France.

The French health ministry said the six male patients aged 28 to 49 had been in good health until taking the oral medication. They started taking the drug on 7 January. One person started feeling ill on Sunday and the other five afterwards. The brain dead volunteer was admitted to hospital in Rennes on Monday. Other patients went in on Wednesday and Thursday.

Pierre-Gilles Edan, head of the hospital’s neurology department, said one man was brain dead, three others were suffering a “handicap that could be irreversible” and another had neurological problems. The sixth volunteer had no symptoms but was being monitored.’

‘The French health minister, Marisol Touraine, said 90 people in total had taken part in the trial and received some dosage of the drug; others had taken a placebo. All trials on the drug have been suspended and all volunteers who have taken part in the trial are being called back.

The ministry said the test was carried out by the Biotrial clinic for Bial, which “specialised in carrying out clinical trials”.

The trial was intended to test for side-effects of the new drug but all trials at the clinic have been suspended and the French state prosecutor has opened an inquiry.

Touraine said the drug was a so-called FAAH inhibitor meant to act on the body’s endocannabinoid system, which deals with pain. Earlier reports suggested that the drug contained cannabinoids, an active ingredient found in cannabis plants, but the minister said it did not contain the drug or any derivatives of it.

Touraine said the study was a phase one clinical trial, in which healthy volunteers take the medication to “evaluate the safety of its use, tolerance and pharmacological profile of the molecule”.’

‘Testing had already been carried out on animals, including chimpanzees, starting in July, Touraine said.

Bial said it was committed to ensuring the wellbeing of test participants and was working with authorities to discover the cause of the injuries, adding that the clinical trial had been approved by French regulators.’

Related Articles:

French drug trial leaves one brain dead and five critically ill

Multiple investigations launched into France drug trial that left man brain dead- The Telegraph

Friday 8th January 2016- The Independent: New alcohol guidelines: How much is 14 units?

BBC News article explaining new changes:

The Independent:-

‘The UK’s chief medical officer has fully reviewed alcohol guidelines issued in 1995, and reduced the recommended maxium number of limits to 14 for both men and women per week. Previously, men were told they could safely drink 21 units.

The guidelines also warn pregnant women that they should aim to abstain from drinking entirely, when they were previously told they could safely drink one or two units a week at most.

Below, we outline how what the 14 unit limit is equivalent to.

One unit of alcohol (10ml) is the equivalent to:

A single measure of spirits (ABV 37.5%); half a pint of average-strength (4%) lager; two-thirds of a 125ml glass of average-strength (12%) wine; half a 175ml glass of average-strength (12%) wine; a third of a 250ml glass of average-strength (12%) wine.

14 units of alcohol equal:

14 single measures of spirits (ABV 37.5%); seven pints of average-strength (4%) lager; nine and one-third 125ml glasses of average-strength (12%) wine; seven 175ml glasses of average-strength (12%) wine; four and two-thirds 250ml glasses of average-strength (12%) wine.’

The Telegraph:

Binge Drinking Across The UK:

Weekly Alcohol Consumption Guidelines Across Europe:

Related Articles:

New alcohol guidelines: How much is 14 units?

Alcohol limits cut to reduce health risks- BBC News

Weekly alcohol limit cut to 14 units in UK for men- The Guardian

Mapped: How the UK’s new alcohol guidelines compare with the rest of Europe- The Telegraph

Mapped: The binging regions furthest from the new alcohol guidelines- The Telegraph

Sunday 3rd January 2016- BBC News: New laws on e-cigarettes to be introduced across EU

‘To some, they are the perfect way to quit smoking. For others, they are a new health risk.

Laws on electronic cigarettes will change across Europe this year, with new health warnings and controls on how they are sold.

In some parts of the EU, e-cigarettes are currently banned.’

See:

New laws on e-cigarettes to be introduced across EU

Sunday 6th December 2015- The Independent: Jeremy Hunt says non-EU foreign patients to be charged for using NHS services including GP and A&E care

‘Non-EU visitors and migrants to the UK will have to start paying for NHS services, including A&E care and ambulances, the Government has announced.

The changes would see patients from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) charged for urgent and non-urgent care, including rides in ambulances, X-rays, setting broken bones, blood tests, draining fluids and care received from paramedics.’

‘Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the proposed move would save taxpayers £500m a year by 2018.

Mr Hunt said: “We want to make sure that everyone makes a fair contribution to services, by extending charges to make sure visitors pay for the care they receive.

“This government was the first to introduce tough measures to clamp down on migrants accessing the NHS and these changes will recover up to £500m per year to put back into frontline patient care.”’

Related Articles:

Jeremy Hunt says non-EU foreign patients to be charged for using NHS services including GP and A&E care

Government plans to extend NHS charges for non-EU patients- The Guardian

Non-EU patients ‘should be charged for GP services’- BBC News

Thursday 26th November 2015- The Independent: HIV infections hit record level across Europe

‘The number of newly diagnosed HIV cases in Europe has hit an all-time high of 142,000, it has been revealed.

The World Health Organisation said the figure was the largest the continent had suffered since case reports began in the 1980s.’

‘“Despite all the efforts to fight HIV, this year the European Region has reached over 142,000 new HIV infections, the highest number ever,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

“This is a serious concern”.

This rise of the epidemic is primarily attributed to Eastern Europe, where new diagnoses have more than doubled in the past decade.’

‘WHO says the increase in the Eastern region is mainly due to heterosexual transmission and injected drug use.

However, sex between men is still the most common mode of HIV transmission across the continent.

European Centre for Disease Prevention Control acting director Andrea Ammon said: “Europe has to scale up its efforts to reach out to this group. This includes looking at new strategies such as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV and access to care for EU citizens residing in other EU countries.”’

See:

HIV infections hit record level across Europe

Tuesday 24th November 2015- The Telegraph: The blind woman who switched personalities and could suddenly see

‘It had been more than a decade since “B.T.” had last seen anything.

After suffering a traumatic accident as a young woman, doctors diagnosed her with cortical blindness, caused by damage to the visual processing centers in her brain. So she got a seeing eye dog to guide her and grew accustomed to the darkness.’

‘Besides, B.T. had other health problems to cope with — namely, more than 10 wildly different personalities that competed for control of her body. It was while seeking treatment for her dissociative identity disorder that the ability to see suddenly returned. Not to B.T., a 37-year-old German woman. But to a teenage boy she sometimes became.

With therapy, over the course of months, all but two of B.T.’s identities regained their sight. And as B.T. oscillated between identities, her vision flicked on and off like a light switch in her mind. The world would appear, then go dark.

Writing in PsyCh Journal, B.T.’s doctors say that her blindness wasn’t caused by brain damage, her original diagnosis. It was instead something more akin to a brain directive, a psychological problem rather than a physiological one.

B.T.’s strange case reveals a lot about the mind’s extraordinary power — how it can control what we see and who we are.

To understand what happened with B.T. (who is identified only by her initials in the journal article) her doctors, German psychologists Hans Strasburger and Bruno Waldvogel, went all the way back to her initial diagnosis of cortical blindness. Her health records from the time show that she was subjected to a series of vision tests — involving lasers, special glasses, lights shined across a room — all of which demonstrated her apparent blindness. Since there was no damage to her eyes themselves, it was assumed that B.T.’s vision problems must have come from brain damage caused by her accident (the report does not say what exactly happened in the accident).

Waldvogel had no reason to doubt that diagnosis when B.T. was referred to him 13 years later for treatment for dissociative identity disorder, once called multiple personality disorder. B.T. exhibited more than 10 personalities, each of them varying in age, gender, habits and temperament. They even spoke different languages: some communicated only in English, others only in German, some in both (B.T. had spent time in an English-speaking country as a child but lived in Germany).

Then, four years into psychotherapy, something strange happened: Just after ending a therapy session, while in one of her adolescent male states, B.T. saw a word on the cover of a magazine. It was the first word she had read visually in 17 years.

At first, B.T.’s renewed sight was restricted to recognizing whole words in that one identity. If asked, she couldn’t even see the individual letters that made up the words, just the words themselves. But it gradually expanded, first to higher-order visual processes (like reading), then to lower-level ones (like recognizing patterns) until most of her personalities were able to see most of the time. When B.T. alternated between sighted and sightless personalities, her vision switched as well.

That’s when Waldvogel began doubting the cause of B.T.’s vision loss. It’s unlikely that a brain injury of the kind that can cause cortical blindness would heal instantaneously after such a long time. And even if it did, that didn’t explain why B.T.’s vision continued to switch on and off. Clearly something else was going on.’

See:

The blind woman who switched personalities and could suddenly see