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Popular Articles

Kennedy's Absence Felt As Health Reform Push Intensifies
Congressional Democrats seeking leadership are feeling Sen. Edward Kennedy"s absence in the looming health care reform debate as he continues his battle with brain cancer, and struggles to return to Washington, The New York Times reports.

London Health Service Begins Offering Rapid HIV Tests
Barts and the London NHS Trust has become the first National Health Service provider in the United Kingdom to offer rapid, oral HIV tests, BBC News reports. Officials hope that the service will increase the number of people who seek testing because requirements of giving blood and waiting for test results are eliminated with the rapid tests. Barts will offer the rapid, oral tests in non-health care settings such as outreach centers. In addition, sexual health workers hope to be able to offer the test in night clubs in the future. About 200 people in Barts clinics have received rapid tests since March, and officials hope to test 250 people monthly. Merle Symonds, the sexual health adviser at the trust, said the message that HIV is a treatable disease has not "filtered through and stigma does remain around HIV, even if it is waning." Lisa Power of the Terrence Higgins Trust -- an HIV/AIDS organization that also offers rapid, oral tests -- said that a major problem surrounding HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom is that many people are not aware of their status. She added, "Anything we can do to increase the take-up of testing is welcome, and we think what Barts is doing is fantastic."According to BBC News, the United Kingdom has the largest number of people living with HIV in Western Europe, with men who have sex with men accounting for 41% of new cases. BBC News reports that approximately one-third of HIV-positive people in the country are not aware of their status (BBC News, 5/20).
News of the day
New York Doctors Race To Abide By In-Office Surgery Rules
"A New York State law that takes effect on July 14 has physicians who perform office-based surgery scrambling to upgrade their offices or find new space altogether," The New York Times reports. The Patient Protection Bill, "signed into law by Gov. Eliot Spitzer in July 2007, is intended to ensure high safety standards in offices when surgery and other invasive procedures are conducted with more than minimal sedation" and is "the first time that New York State will regulate office-based surgeries." Doctors may need to modify their office space with "larger elevators, improved ventilation, backup power equipment with the ability to run for a longer period and other mechanical accommodations." But "since some medical offices cannot be physically adapted to meet accreditation requirements, especially in Manhattan, many physicians have been seeking new office space." This can be difficult in the city, where there is "a dearth of recently built medical office space." Claire Pospisil, "a spokeswoman with the New York State Department of Health, said the state did not know how many medical offices were conducting operations; this was one reason for the new law." She estimates that "70 or 75 percent of medical offices in New York City and Long Island do these surgeries."
Nutrition

Schools Failing Children With Sickle Cell

The lack of awareness in schools is having a serious impact on the education of children with Sickle Cell, according to research published in the British Education Research Journal this month. Sickle Cell is a blood disorder that is named after the distinctive shape formed by the red blood cells of people with the condition. It affects one in every 2,000 children born in England. Professor Simon Dyson, Director of the Unit for the Social Study of Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell at De Montfort University (DMU), led a team of researchers from DMU, Loughborough University and the University of York to establish the experiences at school of young people who suffer from the disorder. The project, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, showed that the general advice available to schools to support children with medical conditions misses out many of the issues relevant to young people with Sickle Cell. Professor Dyson said: "The children we spoke to perceive both their physical and social environment as triggers to episodes of their illness. "From the 569 young people we surveyed many are not fully believed by teachers and only a minority are allowed painkillers. "Whatever systems may or may not be in place to support children with Sickle Cell, these measures are perceived to be failing. "Children with Sickle Cell need to drink plenty of water to remain hydrated and need to use the toilet more often, but half the children reported not being allowed to do either. One girl was even told by a teacher to "wet herself" and her mother had to write to the school threatening to send them the dry cleaning bill if they continued to disallow toilet breaks. "A third of children also reported being forced to undertake PE activities outside during winter despite this being a factor that could trigger their illness. The anaemia associated with Sickle Cell causes tiredness, resulting in a lack of concentration but many were accused of being lazy; one teenage girl told us that although she is frequently tired in class when she did produce good work she was accused of cheating. "Children with Sickle Cell may also miss days at school and many are not helped to catch up on work when they return. The best practice was The City of Leicester College where all children who missed lessons had formal sessions with a teacher to ensure they caught up. This not only helped the young boy with Sickle Cell with his work but also did not make him feel different from his friends. This is the kind of help and support children with Sickle Cell need and we hope that by producing this research schools will begin to take notice." Dr Asa"ah Nkohkwo, Director of the Sickle Cell Society, said: "We would like to thank the researchers for helping to highlight this important issue. There are 15,000 people in this country with Sickle Cell and the nature of their condition makes a good education even more vital for their future employment prospects." Sonia Lindsay from the Organisation for Sickle Cell Anaemia Research, said: "These findings confirm everything that our clients have been telling us for years. The government claim that "Every Child Matters" but sometimes it seems that every child matters except if they"re a child with Sickle Cell." De Montfort University


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