C M G Buttery

A Hazard Study from Monash University in Australia reports that six people died and more than 150 went to hospital with scooter injuries in Victoria between 2000 and 2005. People older than 80 were over represented in both fatalities and hospital-treated injury cases. Further the study director says a national approach is needed urgently to [...]

Scientists at UAB today discussed a crucial missing link in the search for the origin of HIV-1, the virus responsible for human AIDS. That missing link is the natural reservoir of the virus, which the team has found in wild-living chimpanzees in southern Cameroon. Although researchers have long suspected that HIV-1’s origins lie in some [...]

Tobacco use is responsible for approximately one in 10 premature deaths among adults worldwide. Sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on May 31. This year’s theme is Tobacco: Deadly in Any Form or Disguise. The goal is to raise awareness about the harmful health effects of [...]

Today’s JAMA has a valuable article on chronic homelessness. Much damage may be done by the revolving doors of helping agencies who have not focused on the serial homeless. The study noted that the average cost in San Diego for the chronic homeless was $70,000 a year. It was much more cost effective to provide [...]

In this week’s Lancet are two book reviews on the life of John Snow. One on the science of his life focussing on his skills in anaesthesiology “Operations without Pain” by a descendent, Stephanie Snow. Another one that focuses on his fight against Cholera “The Medical Detective”: by Sandra Hempel.

Once again, we learn that unnecessary medical tests are costing the U.S. health care system millions—and potentially billions— of dollars per year, and add unnecessary patient stress, say researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The uathors say that among the [...]

From the Kaiser Family Foundation May 18 daily reports: The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post on Tuesday examined CDC’s new “preconception care” recommendations — published in the April 21 edition of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report — that encourage women to maintain physical and emotional health before they become pregnant. According to [...]

A concensus report from the NIH on the evidence for use of vitamins in prevention of chronic disease is worth reading. This is particularly true in view of the huge vitamin industry developed supposedly to keep people well! It is clear P.T. Barnum was right.

A report from Duke University and the Wellcome Trust today noted that a team of British and American scientists has completed the detailed genetic mapping of human chromosome 1, the largest single unit of genetic material in the human genome and the final chromosome to be completely sequenced. “This achievement effectively closes the book on [...]