Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Review At Walter Reed Is Ordered
- Tehelka - The People’s Paper
- Irregular heartbeat linked to genetic mutation
- Intelligence counts: UN rewards outstanding NZ scientist
- Autism Gene Identified By Yale And Global Consortium
- Comments on ‘Cheney shoots down Bush message on climate change’

Review At Walter Reed Is Ordered
Washington Post - Feb 24, 2007
Those effects will play out until the individuals die. And I now receive more compensation for PTSD than my gunshot wound which I have received since 1969 as well as my malaria since same time. The nature of PTSD is it is POST TRAUMA. IT GETS WORSE, not better, if not treated. This is another part of the outrage, and I hope Dana Priest does a special article on the PTSD damage inflicted on these veterans. com spoke of how individuals with psychological issues, particularly, PTSD victims, were among those who seemed to have been ignored in this fiasco… And I predict that right-wing nutters will say this is the problem with socialized medicine. And I predict that right-wing nutters will say this is the problem with socialized medicine. By martin | Feb 24, 2007 1:20:55 PM |.

Tehelka - The People’s Paper
Tehelka - Tehelka (subscription) - Feb 24, 2007
It is the first of a new class of antiproliferative agents
called signal transduction inhibitors, which interfere with the pathways
that signal the growth of tumour cells. It kills the abnormal cells
while having little effect on normal cell growth. This medicine is a
lifeline for blood cancer patients. India is signatory
to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS), 1995, which obliges WTO-signatory countries to grant patents
for technological products, including pharmaceuticals. India sought
10 years to comply with these obligations, starting to grant patents
on medicines since 2005. In 2001, WTO countries signed the Doha Declaration,
which states: “The (TRIPS) Agreement can and should be interpreted
and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members’ right to
protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines
for all. ” That helped India to reformulate its patent law, by
amending Section 3(d) of the Patents Act, 1970 that contains a key public
health safeguard… Similarly, the British Medical Journal published a study rating barely
5 percent of all newly-patented drugs in Canada as ‘breakthroughs’. And a breakdown of over 1,000 new drugs approved by the US Food and
Drug Administration between 1989 and 2000 revealed that over three quarters
had no therapeutic benefit over existing products. Research shows that
while patent protection has increased in the last 15 years, the
innovation rate has been falling

If one looks at
Novartis’s past record, this is not the first time that a controversy
of this nature has propped up. In 1998, along with 38 other companies,
Novartis took the South African government to court for its Medicine
and Related Substances Act that allowed for compulsory licencing and
parallel import of medicines to South Africa, again allegedly in violation
of patent rights. Novartis had to withdraw the application due to public
pressure. “The reasons were similar to the ones they claim now
in India. It took three years of sustained public pressure for the companies
to withdraw their cases in 2001.

Irregular heartbeat linked to genetic mutation
eMaxHealth.com - Feb 24, 2007
Doctors prescribed medication, but it proved to be ineffective. As a next step, Mayo Clinic physician researchers explored and confirmed the presence of a genetic mutation that clearly established an inherited predisposition to atrial fibrillation. Their study findings appear in the February issue of Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine. "Why certain patients develop atrial fibrillation while others do not, despite comparable environmental stress exposure, might ultimately depend on their genetic makeup," the authors write. Atrial fibrillation is recognized more often in the elderly who have underlying structural heart disease. But in this study, Mayo Clinic researchers address the gene-based form of atrial fibrillation that affects younger people who do not otherwise harbor risk factors for the disease. The case was compared to 2,000 individuals who did not carry the mutation or suffer from atrial fibrillation.

Intelligence counts: UN rewards outstanding NZ scientist
New Zealand Herald - Feb 24, 2007
University of Auckland professor Margaret Brimble says shellfish toxins, which can cause diarrhoea, paralysis and amnesia, can be harnessed in the quest for new treatments for pain, epilepsy, strokes and hypertension. Professor Brimble believes a potential “medicine chest” exists if the world is prepared to “open the door”. Molecules in plants, soil organisms and the sea are waiting to be discovered, tested and manipulated; all with the goal of tackling diseases and conditions once viewed as daunting or even unconquerable. And, as the toxins caused in mussels and scallops by “red tide” algal bloom show, some of these promising pharmaceutical leads can be found in the unlikeliest places. “What we do is we look to nature to find new active ingredients or molecules to develop into new medicines,” Professor Brimble said in Paris, where she received an award from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) this week. “One example is a compound produced by fungi which kills the bacterium that causes infected ulcers… Molecules in plants, soil organisms and the sea are waiting to be discovered, tested and manipulated; all with the goal of tackling diseases and conditions once viewed as daunting or even unconquerable. And, as the toxins caused in mussels and scallops by “red tide” algal bloom show, some of these promising pharmaceutical leads can be found in the unlikeliest places. “What we do is we look to nature to find new active ingredients or molecules to develop into new medicines,” Professor Brimble said in Paris, where she received an award from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) this week. “One example is a compound produced by fungi which kills the bacterium that causes infected ulcers. The compound occurs in nature. It is produced by the fungi but only in small amounts. So we then try and make that compound in the laboratory and make structure analogues similar to that compound that may be better - and that’s the way you develop new medicines.

Autism Gene Identified By Yale And Global Consortium
Medical News Today - Feb 24, 2007
, and Ami Klin are part of a global research consortium from 19 countries that identified an individual gene and a region of a chromosome that may lead to autism in children. The findings are published online in Nature Genetics and also will be published in the journal’s March print edition. They are based on the largest autism genome scan done to date. The Autism Genome Project (AGP), including over 120 scientists from over 50 institutions who formed performed the research. The AGP began in 2002 when researchers from around the world decided to collaborate and share their samples, data and expertise to aid in identifying autism susceptibility genes. Funded by Autism Speaks, a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of autism and raising money to research the disorder, and the National Institutes of Health, these are the preliminary findings from the AGP’s first phase.

Comments on ‘Cheney shoots down Bush message on climate change’
Register - Feb 24, 2007
In spite of our proficiency at gathering and analysing, we’re still unable to effectively grasp those large, long-lasting and far-reaching aspects of our universe that impact us. While we should continue striving to learn, understand, analyse and theorise, we should also recognise our limitations - just because we can’t know all the answers doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. But this is the very first time in the recorded history of mankind that we’re contemplating intentional environmental change on a global scale. Hurray for us - we’re starting to think REALLY BIG! But all caution to us, for it’s the first time we’re intentionally attempting to change systems that are this large and about which we have more questions than answers. My original premise, as I recall, was not that we shouldn’t change our ways and actions, but that we shouldn’t stray from a structured method of thinking that has brought us farther ahead than any past species of which we’re aware. And that takes me back to my original posting title - Mourning the Death of the Scientific Method. Whatever is going on right now with respect to the “debate” on mean global temperature increase, it isn’t science… Meanwhile, I note that during the last 20 years my planet has been getting distinctly warmer. I understand that CO2 acts to trap heat, and I see also that increasingly vast amounts of the stuff (along with all kinds of pollutants) are being produced by our industry. I also realise that the earth has been subject to natural temperature variations over the millennia, and that this could be responsible for current warming. However, commentators - especially on the sceptical side - insist we know too little about how these work. Which means, in short, that we have NO EVIDENCE that natural causes are currently operating, while one apparent cause - our own industrial emissions - certainly is. I am open to the suggestion that the search for funds distorts the direction of scientific research, as I am to the possibility that the nuclear fuel industry has a vested interest in promoting the global warming agenda - and yes, I remember the great K2 fiasco (which I never believed in). However, to suggest that the whole global warming movement is little more than a scientists’ scam, as some have done, amounts to a vast conspiracy theory.