- Email: [email protected]
Will the Badi survive?
said Elliott. Elliott added that doctors in the HMO who wish to prescribe tacrine may do so. Nevertheless, Elliott said he expects
Nobel prize for split genes
that patient and Alzheimer advocacy groups and opponents of managed care will point to this decision as managed care at its
The 1993 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine goes to two biochemists for their independent 1977 discovery of discontinuous genes. Richard J Roberts from Derby, UK, is now research director of New England Biolabs in Massachusetts, USA, and Phillip A Sharp from Kentucky is head of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of
:
worst.
"But this is an example of managed care at its best: doing independent reviews of the data, going through the literature very carefully, getting all the best people we have together, and making a decision that we feel very good about." Lisa Wilder, a spokeswoman for Warner-Lambert Co., which is marketing tacrine as Cognex, estimated that 75% of the nations’s HMOs were going to list tacrine, as would "virtually" all Medicaid programmes.
Michael McCarthy
: Technology. Their discovery that many genes consist of several strips (exons) strung along a DNA
Will the Badi survive? To workers trying to stem an HIV epidemic by reducing the reservoir of HIV infection in prostitutes, a worst-possible scenario might be a community where female prostitution is the sole employment, where there are good reasons for not using condoms, and where social prejudice rules out other ways of making a living. Such a nightmare exists.1 In north-west Nepal, on the border with the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, live the 5000-strong Badi tribe. These untouchables, the lowest in the traditional Hindu caste system, cannot enter most employments. They cross the open border in season to India, where the women work as prostitutes. For Badi women, induction to tribal work is at menarche, with a lavish nuptial ceremony for which a client pays heavily and after which she is fledged for trade and can expect at least one client a day until she is 30. The Badi do not use condoms because of"... the desirability of pregnancy and the resulting possibility of more female sex workers within the family".1 154 of 228 Badi women consenting to serological testing for syphilis (Venereal Disease Reference Laboratory-VDRL) were positive. All 250 samples tested for HIV were negative. Bhatt and colleagues from Kathmandu warn that "The abundance of overland truck routes will no doubt be a significant factor in carrying HIV virus from the large cities of the south" and chillingly add that "Once the virus does enter this group, the Badi people and their culture could be devastated within a decade or less". John Bignall 1
Bhatt P,
Gurubacharya VL, Vadies G. A unique community of family-oriented prostitutes in Nepal uninfected by HIV-1.
Int J STD AIDS 1993; 4:
280-83.
strand
with
inactive
sections
(introns) in between, led to a clearer understanding of how genes make messenger RNA and dictate the structure of proteins. : Discontinuity allows a gene to make more than one messenger RNA by splicing to-
Beating some sense...?
gether different exons in a variety of sequences. Defining exons and introns in DNA sequences, and finding out how splicing occurs has proved useful in the study of malignant and hereditary diseases, and has led to challenging speculations about how genes evolved. Roberts, interviewed by the New York Times shortly after hearing of his award, recalled that in 1977 "Everyone thought the interesting stuff had been discovered ... that the age of molecular biology was dead and there were no more interesting discoveries to be made". Fortunately the pessimists were mistaken. Four previous Nobel prizes for physiology or medicine have gone to researchers into genes: it is likely there will be more in years to come. John Bignall
boxers’
improvement in serial addition was
maintained, whereas the results of rugby and water-polo players were unchanged
from baseline. The recognised susceptibiEvidence, other than anecdotal, that boxing lity of serial addition to a positive re-test in general is unwarrantably more dangereffect was negated by multivariate analysis. ous than other sports is thin on the ground. So was, perhaps surprisingly, any correButler and colleagues’ undertook a trial lation of boxers’ test improvement with the among UK amateur sporting youth who numbers of blows to the head received as boxed, played water polo, and played rugby assessed by a referee watching videotapes of football. : the fights. The first difficulty they encountered was . The authors conclude that amateur adhering to the ideal that trials should boxing at the least did no neuropsycholocompare like with like, apart from the gical damage, and, at best, might even have variable under test. At baseline, boxers improved the performance indices chosen; were significantly less able at most of the although they admit"... the possibility of a neuropsychological tests chosen (serial self selection for boxing for those indiviaddition-the time taken correctly to add duals with lower levels of neuropsycholoup a series of single-digit numbers-has gical functioning". been shown to be particularly sensitive to head injury and may be taken as representative of the other tests). John Bignall The sample of 86 boxers were, n6netheless, not worse but better at serial addition 1 Butler RJ, Forsythe WI, Beverly DW, shortly after a fight, whereas water polo and Adams LM. A prospective controlled rugby players showed no difference in investigation of the cognitive effects of testing after a match. Furthermore, at amateur boxing. J Neurol Neurosurg assessment
up to two years
:
later, the
News in brief
Psychiatry 1993;
56: 1055-61.
kidney, about 1000 for a heart, and 350 for a liver.
Nicotine patch products These will be Foundation This removed from the list of products presLeiden-based organisation, which organcribable on the UK National Health Ser-
Eurotransplant
ises the exchange and allocation of organs for the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Austria, and Germany, celebrated its 25th anniversary with a symposium last week. Founded by the Dutch immunologist JonJ van Rood, the present chairman, it initially focused on kidneys. : Today it not only coordinates the exchange of other organs but also has a sister organisation, Bio Implant Services Leiden, dealing with the exchange of body tissues. It has about 12 000 patients waiting for a
vice from Nov 1. 62 other medicines, mainly topical antirheumatic preparations, and 550 foods, toiletries, and pesticides have also been removed in the latest review
of prescribable drugs. Passive smoking The European Commission made prevention of passive smoking central to the events last weekEuropean Week Against Cancer. A special report will be sent to health workers
throughout Europe. 983
Nobel prize for split genes
that patient and Alzheimer advocacy groups and opponents of managed care will point to this decision as managed care at its
The 1993 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine goes to two biochemists for their independent 1977 discovery of discontinuous genes. Richard J Roberts from Derby, UK, is now research director of New England Biolabs in Massachusetts, USA, and Phillip A Sharp from Kentucky is head of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of
:
worst.
"But this is an example of managed care at its best: doing independent reviews of the data, going through the literature very carefully, getting all the best people we have together, and making a decision that we feel very good about." Lisa Wilder, a spokeswoman for Warner-Lambert Co., which is marketing tacrine as Cognex, estimated that 75% of the nations’s HMOs were going to list tacrine, as would "virtually" all Medicaid programmes.
Michael McCarthy
: Technology. Their discovery that many genes consist of several strips (exons) strung along a DNA
Will the Badi survive? To workers trying to stem an HIV epidemic by reducing the reservoir of HIV infection in prostitutes, a worst-possible scenario might be a community where female prostitution is the sole employment, where there are good reasons for not using condoms, and where social prejudice rules out other ways of making a living. Such a nightmare exists.1 In north-west Nepal, on the border with the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, live the 5000-strong Badi tribe. These untouchables, the lowest in the traditional Hindu caste system, cannot enter most employments. They cross the open border in season to India, where the women work as prostitutes. For Badi women, induction to tribal work is at menarche, with a lavish nuptial ceremony for which a client pays heavily and after which she is fledged for trade and can expect at least one client a day until she is 30. The Badi do not use condoms because of"... the desirability of pregnancy and the resulting possibility of more female sex workers within the family".1 154 of 228 Badi women consenting to serological testing for syphilis (Venereal Disease Reference Laboratory-VDRL) were positive. All 250 samples tested for HIV were negative. Bhatt and colleagues from Kathmandu warn that "The abundance of overland truck routes will no doubt be a significant factor in carrying HIV virus from the large cities of the south" and chillingly add that "Once the virus does enter this group, the Badi people and their culture could be devastated within a decade or less". John Bignall 1
Bhatt P,
Gurubacharya VL, Vadies G. A unique community of family-oriented prostitutes in Nepal uninfected by HIV-1.
Int J STD AIDS 1993; 4:
280-83.
strand
with
inactive
sections
(introns) in between, led to a clearer understanding of how genes make messenger RNA and dictate the structure of proteins. : Discontinuity allows a gene to make more than one messenger RNA by splicing to-
Beating some sense...?
gether different exons in a variety of sequences. Defining exons and introns in DNA sequences, and finding out how splicing occurs has proved useful in the study of malignant and hereditary diseases, and has led to challenging speculations about how genes evolved. Roberts, interviewed by the New York Times shortly after hearing of his award, recalled that in 1977 "Everyone thought the interesting stuff had been discovered ... that the age of molecular biology was dead and there were no more interesting discoveries to be made". Fortunately the pessimists were mistaken. Four previous Nobel prizes for physiology or medicine have gone to researchers into genes: it is likely there will be more in years to come. John Bignall
boxers’
improvement in serial addition was
maintained, whereas the results of rugby and water-polo players were unchanged
from baseline. The recognised susceptibiEvidence, other than anecdotal, that boxing lity of serial addition to a positive re-test in general is unwarrantably more dangereffect was negated by multivariate analysis. ous than other sports is thin on the ground. So was, perhaps surprisingly, any correButler and colleagues’ undertook a trial lation of boxers’ test improvement with the among UK amateur sporting youth who numbers of blows to the head received as boxed, played water polo, and played rugby assessed by a referee watching videotapes of football. : the fights. The first difficulty they encountered was . The authors conclude that amateur adhering to the ideal that trials should boxing at the least did no neuropsycholocompare like with like, apart from the gical damage, and, at best, might even have variable under test. At baseline, boxers improved the performance indices chosen; were significantly less able at most of the although they admit"... the possibility of a neuropsychological tests chosen (serial self selection for boxing for those indiviaddition-the time taken correctly to add duals with lower levels of neuropsycholoup a series of single-digit numbers-has gical functioning". been shown to be particularly sensitive to head injury and may be taken as representative of the other tests). John Bignall The sample of 86 boxers were, n6netheless, not worse but better at serial addition 1 Butler RJ, Forsythe WI, Beverly DW, shortly after a fight, whereas water polo and Adams LM. A prospective controlled rugby players showed no difference in investigation of the cognitive effects of testing after a match. Furthermore, at amateur boxing. J Neurol Neurosurg assessment
up to two years
:
later, the
News in brief
Psychiatry 1993;
56: 1055-61.
kidney, about 1000 for a heart, and 350 for a liver.
Nicotine patch products These will be Foundation This removed from the list of products presLeiden-based organisation, which organcribable on the UK National Health Ser-
Eurotransplant
ises the exchange and allocation of organs for the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Austria, and Germany, celebrated its 25th anniversary with a symposium last week. Founded by the Dutch immunologist JonJ van Rood, the present chairman, it initially focused on kidneys. : Today it not only coordinates the exchange of other organs but also has a sister organisation, Bio Implant Services Leiden, dealing with the exchange of body tissues. It has about 12 000 patients waiting for a
vice from Nov 1. 62 other medicines, mainly topical antirheumatic preparations, and 550 foods, toiletries, and pesticides have also been removed in the latest review
of prescribable drugs. Passive smoking The European Commission made prevention of passive smoking central to the events last weekEuropean Week Against Cancer. A special report will be sent to health workers
throughout Europe. 983