Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- High inefficiency cited in distribution of medicine
- Doctors offer no guarantees to NFL players who suffer knee injuries
- Laws far behind medicine for critically ill patients, says speaker …

High inefficiency cited in distribution of medicine
Joy Online, Ghana 
Ashitey said these when she launched the Ghana Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) Initiative, in Accra on Wednesday. She noted that due to the problems some countries including Ghana had only a third of their population having access to quality medicine saying, “this contributes to avoidable deaths and medical complications. Ashitey said the problems involved in the sale and distribution of medicines were grounded in the lack of effective communication and collaboration among distributors, prescribers, dispensers and consumers. She said it was due to these lapses that Ghana had offered itself as a pilot for the MeTA initiative adding that it was UK Government’s response to the challenges encountered in the sales and distribution of medicines facing countries with limited resources. Ms Ashitey noted that preliminary studies sponsored by the UK Department for International Development, found Ghana to be ideal for the pilot work because of her enabling legislative and policy environment.

Doctors offer no guarantees to NFL players who suffer knee injuries
SI.com 
For the rest of his career, though, Brady will be watched by opposing teams (and the public) even more closely than he was before his injury. They will be looking for any sign of weakness, any vulnerability that says he isn’t the same quarterback he was before. The American Journal of Sports Medicine recently released a study chronicling the fate of NFL players who sustain ACL injuries. Only about three out of four players who tore the ligament were able to return to the game. "It’s kind of frightening," said Dr. James Gladstone, associate professor and co-chair of the sports medicine service at the department of orthopedics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "Of the players that made it back, they were performing at about 66 percent of the level prior to their injury, so it’s not a given that you are going to get back, and if you do get back, it’s not a given that you will play at the same level.

Laws far behind medicine for critically ill patients, says speaker …
Southeast Missourian, MO 
“When a very ill person is dying, that person is not hungry,” Anderson said. Making sure the patient’s mouth is kept clean and providing ice chips or even small portions of food “they want for pleasure” is more effective, he said. Allowing nature to take its course, he said, is better than cases he has witnessed where patients were resuscitated only to “live through seven or eight infections, a heart attack and multiple strokes before dying a few years later. “Dan Berry, vice president of legal affairs for Southeast Missouri Hospital, attended the afternoon session with nearly 40 other hospital employees. “Legal documents will never provide the answer,” he said. “The communication between health-care providers and patients and families is so important. The human element will trump the legal every time.
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