C M G Buttery

From the AMA’s American Medical News today, we find that the cost of immunizing a child less than 18 years old was $11.68 in 1975, while in 2006 it was $668.81. The cost has risen as more shots are recommended, as the cost of making new vaccines increases, as safety concerns arise, and as protection [...]

USA Today carries a headline story on lead poisoning in children, noting that replacing paint on wndow sills, on which teething children chew might prevent this. Why should any family with children have to rent a domicile which contains lead paint. A few cities have required prerental inspection of homes, for more thn 30 years, [...]

How many potential parents think twice before unprotected sex? A report found that for women with private insurance, the average delivery cost was $6,520 and the average cost for prenatal care was $1,962, compared with $4,577 and $2,142, respectively, for women enrolled in Medicaid, the Washington Times reports. Private health insurers covered 87% of the [...]

Read the lead editorial and contents of this week’s BMJ, which focuses on the relationship between income and health, or the reverse. WhIle many of us have been teaching about these issues, this week many major medical journals are focusing on the topic.

Despite news media excesses and actions of tort lawyers, women who receive silicone gel-filled breast implants do not have a higher risk of breast cancer or other cancers and do not experience lower survival rates after breast cancer diagnosis, according to a new report published in the November issue of Annals of Plastic Surgery. This [...]

The following extract from today’s lead editorial in the NEJM should entice all of you to read the whole editorial. “The Clinton administration’s misadventure carries several broader lessons about the politics of health care reform. First, no matter how much momentum it seems to have, no matter how many signs point to change, there is [...]

The quantity of alcohol consumed, and not the type consumed, is an indicator of increased breast cancer risk in women, according to Kaiser Permanente researchers who presented their findings Sept. 27 at the European CanCer Organization’s annual conference. In addition, the increased breast cancer risk from drinking three or more alcoholic drinks a day is [...]

In an article published in ‘Pediatrics’ lead author, Julie A. Mennella, PhD, a psychobiologist at Monell states “Infants spent less time sleeping overall and woke up from naps sooner when their mothers smoked prior to breastfeeding,” While many women quit or cut down on smoking while pregnant, they often relapse following the birth of the [...]

“In Sub-Saharan Africa, Malaria kills at least 800,000 children under the age of five each year,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “Controlling malaria is vital to improving child health and economic development in affected countries. Studies show that malaria disproportionately affects the poorest people in these countries, and so contributes to their further [...]

According to the latest report from the WHO Recent scientific advances and increased vaccine manufacturing capacity have prompted experts to increase their projections of how many pandemic influenza vaccine courses can be made available in the coming years. Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, Director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research at WHO, said today. “However, although this [...]