- Email: [email protected]
Restriction on sale of HIV test kits
804
infants experience pain, and adequate analgesia is necessary for both physiologic and ethical reasons". Children are said to experience moderate to severe pain in as many as 60% of procedures and many do not receive opioids after surgery even though postoperative pain is expected. The guidelines specifically question the withholding of analgesics from very small infants in the belief that they might severely depress respiration. On the contrary, say the panelists, recent studies show that careful pain treatment of infants reduces surgical stress and postoperative deaths. 1. Acute Pain Management: operative or medical procedures and trauma. Available free from AHCPR Publications Clearinghouse, PO Box 8547, Silver Spring, Maryland
20907, USA.
million, and WHO hope that the disease will largely disappear from an
eleven-countrv
Restriction
area.
on
sale of HIV test kits
From April 1, the advertising and sale of test kits for human immunodeficiency virus to the public will be an offence in the UK, as will the provision of HIV testing services other than through a registered medical practitioner. These kits are intended for use for screening purposes and their sale, to health services for instance, must be accompanied by a warning about interpretation of results. The intention is that the kits should not be available over the counter for self-testing, and that testing is not done without
appropriate counselling. FDA
warning
on
ACE inhibitors
The Food and Drug Administration announced last week that labels for all angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors will be required to carry a "boxed warning" for women in the advanced stages of pregnancy. At FDA’s request, six manufacturers of ACE inhibitors in the US are sending out "Dear Doctor" letters about the risk of harm to fetuses, including kidney failure and face or skull deformities, when the drug is taken by women in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Information accompanying these products has for several years warned of these risks, but additional cases continue to be reported. More than 50 cases of fetal damage have been reported over the past few years. No risk to fetuses seems to arise from exposure to ACE inhibitors limited to the first trimester. Pharmacists will be asked to counsel women of childbearing age who are taking ACE inhibitors and will be provided with stickers for the bottle that read, "If you become pregnant consult your doctor promptly about switching to a different drug".
Cutaneous diphtheria The UK’s Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre would like to be informed of the isolation of Corynebacterium diphtheriae from skin infection, together with the patient’s relevant travel details. This appeal follows the isolation of the organism from skin ulcers of two UK residents who had recently returned from journeys abroad- C diphtheriae var mitis, together with group A streptococcus, was isolated from a non-healing ulcer of a man who had been in India, and C diphtheriae vargravis, together with group A streptococcus and Staphylococcus aureus, from a persistent foot ulcer that had developed after sandfly bites in the Yemen. The second patient’s wife, who had remained in the UK, began to have itchy weeping lesions on the lower limbs about a week after her husband’s return; C diphtheriae vargravis was among the organisms isolated. The organisms were non-toxigenic and the patients were treated with erythromycin. The last case of cutaneous diphtheria reported to the CDSC was in 1990, from a girl who had recently returned from Pakistan. 1. Anon. Corynebacterium diphtheriae, skin ulcers and travel abroad. CDR 2: 51.
Final attack
on
Weekly 1992;
riverblindness
Riverblindness, that ancient scourge of many African countries, has almost been eliminated in West Africa as a result of the World Health Organisation’s Onchocerciasis (Riverblindness) Control Programme, which is sponsored by WHO, World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. The programme, begun in 1974, is claimed to have provided protection against the disease for 9 million children, cured over 1million seriously infected people, and freed 25 million hectares of previously blackfly-infested land for resettlement and cultivation. The programme’s strategy is based on vector (savanna blackfly) control and treatment of infected individuals with ivermectin. The spraying of environmentally safe insecticides effective against blackfly larvae at breeding sites in fast-flowing rivers has virtually removed the parasite reservoir in the seven countries (20 million people) in the first part of the programme. Phase four (the last six-year period) was launched in February, 1992. Twenty-two donors have pledged$US150
European Academy of Teachers in General Practice
European Conference on General Practice, Gleneagles, March, 1992, was the occasion for intimation of the formation of a European Academy of Teachers in General Practice. This is seen as a logical development of the work of the New Leeuwenhorst Group, which brings together some 28 experienced teachers in general practice in different European countries. The secretary designate is Prof Jan Heyrman, professor of general practice, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. The Academy includes amongst its aims the coordination and promotion of training and teaching in general practice in Europe. The 13-15
Global security Medical Action for Global Security (MEDACT) is holding its inaugural conference on April 4 at Regent’s College, London. MEDACT, whose first President is Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, has been formed by the merger of the Medical Association for Prevention of War with the Medical Campaign Weapons. Further details can be obtained from Holloway Road, London N19 4DJ, UK.
Against Nuclear MEDACT, 601
Speed-trapped testes Lots of people get shot at by policemen. Happily the ammunition is usually a microwave and it is the speeding motorist’s purse not his person that is damaged. An improbable titbit in the March 2 issue of Cancer Weekly indicates that policemen in Michigan believe themselves to be victims of their weaponry. 7 of the 244 policemen working out of Grand Rapids and Wyoming have testicular cancer--and they are blaming radar guns. One former policeman is suing the companies that make the instruments. In what direction did he point his?
Seasonal quiz The two winners of our seasonal quiz are Mr V. Loughlin, FRCS, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, and Dr R. Hoffmann, Neustadt,
Germany.
International
Diary
3rd congress of the International Society for Rheumatic Therapy will take place in Mannheim, Germany on May 10-15: Mrs Margarete Dathan, Secretariat, Klinik Auerbach, Heinrichstrasse 4, 6140 Bensheim 3,
Germany (06251-705149). 2nd international symposium on Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy and Other Transthyretin Related Disorders is to be held in Skelleftea, Sweden on June 1-3: Dr Lars Steen, Department of Medicine, University of Umea, S-901 85 Umea, Sweden (46 90 151630).
The Harvard-Amsterdam Conference, formerly the Eighth International Conference on AIDS/3rd STD World Congress, will be held in Amsterdam on July 19-24: Harvard AIDS Institute, 8 Story Street, Cambridge, MA02138, USA (telephone 617-495 0478, fax 617-495 29630,or Dutch Foundation-AIDS Conference 1992, Max Euweplein 30,1017 MB
Amsterdam, Netherlands.
infants experience pain, and adequate analgesia is necessary for both physiologic and ethical reasons". Children are said to experience moderate to severe pain in as many as 60% of procedures and many do not receive opioids after surgery even though postoperative pain is expected. The guidelines specifically question the withholding of analgesics from very small infants in the belief that they might severely depress respiration. On the contrary, say the panelists, recent studies show that careful pain treatment of infants reduces surgical stress and postoperative deaths. 1. Acute Pain Management: operative or medical procedures and trauma. Available free from AHCPR Publications Clearinghouse, PO Box 8547, Silver Spring, Maryland
20907, USA.
million, and WHO hope that the disease will largely disappear from an
eleven-countrv
Restriction
area.
on
sale of HIV test kits
From April 1, the advertising and sale of test kits for human immunodeficiency virus to the public will be an offence in the UK, as will the provision of HIV testing services other than through a registered medical practitioner. These kits are intended for use for screening purposes and their sale, to health services for instance, must be accompanied by a warning about interpretation of results. The intention is that the kits should not be available over the counter for self-testing, and that testing is not done without
appropriate counselling. FDA
warning
on
ACE inhibitors
The Food and Drug Administration announced last week that labels for all angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors will be required to carry a "boxed warning" for women in the advanced stages of pregnancy. At FDA’s request, six manufacturers of ACE inhibitors in the US are sending out "Dear Doctor" letters about the risk of harm to fetuses, including kidney failure and face or skull deformities, when the drug is taken by women in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Information accompanying these products has for several years warned of these risks, but additional cases continue to be reported. More than 50 cases of fetal damage have been reported over the past few years. No risk to fetuses seems to arise from exposure to ACE inhibitors limited to the first trimester. Pharmacists will be asked to counsel women of childbearing age who are taking ACE inhibitors and will be provided with stickers for the bottle that read, "If you become pregnant consult your doctor promptly about switching to a different drug".
Cutaneous diphtheria The UK’s Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre would like to be informed of the isolation of Corynebacterium diphtheriae from skin infection, together with the patient’s relevant travel details. This appeal follows the isolation of the organism from skin ulcers of two UK residents who had recently returned from journeys abroad- C diphtheriae var mitis, together with group A streptococcus, was isolated from a non-healing ulcer of a man who had been in India, and C diphtheriae vargravis, together with group A streptococcus and Staphylococcus aureus, from a persistent foot ulcer that had developed after sandfly bites in the Yemen. The second patient’s wife, who had remained in the UK, began to have itchy weeping lesions on the lower limbs about a week after her husband’s return; C diphtheriae vargravis was among the organisms isolated. The organisms were non-toxigenic and the patients were treated with erythromycin. The last case of cutaneous diphtheria reported to the CDSC was in 1990, from a girl who had recently returned from Pakistan. 1. Anon. Corynebacterium diphtheriae, skin ulcers and travel abroad. CDR 2: 51.
Final attack
on
Weekly 1992;
riverblindness
Riverblindness, that ancient scourge of many African countries, has almost been eliminated in West Africa as a result of the World Health Organisation’s Onchocerciasis (Riverblindness) Control Programme, which is sponsored by WHO, World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. The programme, begun in 1974, is claimed to have provided protection against the disease for 9 million children, cured over 1million seriously infected people, and freed 25 million hectares of previously blackfly-infested land for resettlement and cultivation. The programme’s strategy is based on vector (savanna blackfly) control and treatment of infected individuals with ivermectin. The spraying of environmentally safe insecticides effective against blackfly larvae at breeding sites in fast-flowing rivers has virtually removed the parasite reservoir in the seven countries (20 million people) in the first part of the programme. Phase four (the last six-year period) was launched in February, 1992. Twenty-two donors have pledged$US150
European Academy of Teachers in General Practice
European Conference on General Practice, Gleneagles, March, 1992, was the occasion for intimation of the formation of a European Academy of Teachers in General Practice. This is seen as a logical development of the work of the New Leeuwenhorst Group, which brings together some 28 experienced teachers in general practice in different European countries. The secretary designate is Prof Jan Heyrman, professor of general practice, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. The Academy includes amongst its aims the coordination and promotion of training and teaching in general practice in Europe. The 13-15
Global security Medical Action for Global Security (MEDACT) is holding its inaugural conference on April 4 at Regent’s College, London. MEDACT, whose first President is Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, has been formed by the merger of the Medical Association for Prevention of War with the Medical Campaign Weapons. Further details can be obtained from Holloway Road, London N19 4DJ, UK.
Against Nuclear MEDACT, 601
Speed-trapped testes Lots of people get shot at by policemen. Happily the ammunition is usually a microwave and it is the speeding motorist’s purse not his person that is damaged. An improbable titbit in the March 2 issue of Cancer Weekly indicates that policemen in Michigan believe themselves to be victims of their weaponry. 7 of the 244 policemen working out of Grand Rapids and Wyoming have testicular cancer--and they are blaming radar guns. One former policeman is suing the companies that make the instruments. In what direction did he point his?
Seasonal quiz The two winners of our seasonal quiz are Mr V. Loughlin, FRCS, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, and Dr R. Hoffmann, Neustadt,
Germany.
International
Diary
3rd congress of the International Society for Rheumatic Therapy will take place in Mannheim, Germany on May 10-15: Mrs Margarete Dathan, Secretariat, Klinik Auerbach, Heinrichstrasse 4, 6140 Bensheim 3,
Germany (06251-705149). 2nd international symposium on Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy and Other Transthyretin Related Disorders is to be held in Skelleftea, Sweden on June 1-3: Dr Lars Steen, Department of Medicine, University of Umea, S-901 85 Umea, Sweden (46 90 151630).
The Harvard-Amsterdam Conference, formerly the Eighth International Conference on AIDS/3rd STD World Congress, will be held in Amsterdam on July 19-24: Harvard AIDS Institute, 8 Story Street, Cambridge, MA02138, USA (telephone 617-495 0478, fax 617-495 29630,or Dutch Foundation-AIDS Conference 1992, Max Euweplein 30,1017 MB
Amsterdam, Netherlands.