Tuesday 8 November 2011

Painkillers cost the NHS in England £442m a year


Painkillers cost the NHS in England £442m a year

By Dominic HughesHealth correspondent, BBC News
A variety of painkillersThe amount spent each year on painkillers - also known as analgesics - has been growing

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The NHS in England spent more than £440m last year on painkillers.
Figures also show that some doctors spent thousands of pounds prescribing over-the-counter painkillers and flu medication like Anadin and Lemsip.
On average, health trusts in England spent £8.80 per head of population on analgesics.
But in some northern towns and cities the figure was as high as £15, while in parts of the south it was as low as £3.26 per head.
Using figures from the NHS Information Centre and the Office for National Statistics, data analysis firm SSentif found some large differences between the average amount spent on painkillers.
The biggest spenders were Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Rochdale and Blackpool, where painkiller prescription bills in primary care trusts (PCTs) averaged £2.3m.
That is more than double the amount spent in Richmond and Twickenham, Camden and Westminster.
Deprivation link

Drug tariff

Top five spenders per head of population in 2010/11:
  • PCT Middlesbrough: £15.39
  • PCT Hartlepool: £15.01
  • PCT Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale: £14.80
  • PCT Blackpool: £14.29
  • PCT Great Yarmouth & Waveney: £14.25
The lowest five spenders per head of population in 2010/11:
  • PCT Richmond & Twickenham: £3.26
  • PCT Camden: £3.84
  • PCT Westminster: £3.85
  • PCT Sutton & Merton: £3.86
  • PCT Kingston: £3.86
The analysis also showed that across England just over £3,000 was spent on prescriptions for cold and flu remedies like Lemsip and Beechams Powders.
More than £59,000 was spent on over-the-counter painkillers like Anadin and Panadol.
Researchers looked for a link between painkiller prescribing, deprivation and old age.
In the south they found a strong link between prescribing painkillers and age, but almost no link with deprivation.
In the north the link with deprivation was stronger but there was no link to age.
'Good of patients'
Judy Aldred, managing director of SSentif, said that spending on painkillers in the NHS had grown steadily.
"At the moment, the responsibility for the prescribing budget lies with primary care trusts but this is about to change. PCTs are phasing out and GPs are being given greater responsibility, including the management of their own prescribing budgets.
"Although the figures involved were comparatively low, it was concerning to see products such as Lemsip and even Alka-Seltzer XS offered on prescription.
"When GPs begin shouldering the responsibility for prescribing costs, it will be interesting to see if this continues."
But the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Dr Clare Gerada, said GPs were not prescribing painkillers without cause.
"There are very many reasons why GPs prescribe painkillers, including - but not limited to - the changing and increased needs of our ageing population, and the improved use of painkillers themselves, for example in alleviating the symptoms of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.
"GPs understand the importance of responsible prescribing, and do so in accordance with the standards laid out by the British National Formulary. GPs do not prescribe just for the sake of it; they do it for the good of their patients."
A spokesman for the Department of Health added: "It is important that those living with pain should be able to obtain adequate relief. However the decision to prescribe pain relief must be clinically based on the assessment of the patient's needs.
"There are many factors that affect the number of prescriptions for painkillers dispensed in one particular area and no one factor can be looked at in isolation."

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Sunday 6 November 2011

The worrying news that drilling for shale gas

Home » WWF news



Fracking, earthquakes and the positive answer to shale gas


2 November 2011






The worrying news that drilling for shale gas probably did cause earthquakes near Blackpool is only part of our problem with ‘fracking’. The other big environmental elephant in the room is that shale gas is simply another greenhouse gas-pumping fossil fuel, and far from the ‘wonder gas’ it’s hyped as.










The report into this year’s unusual seismic activity in Lancashire - released today by Cuadrilla Resources, the British company exploring for natural shale gas in the Bowland Basin – concludes that: “It is highly probable that the hydraulic fracturing … did trigger a number of minor seismic events.”






It just serves to confirm one of our many fears about shale gas. As well as the earth tremors, and concerns over ground and surface water contamination attributed to shale gas drilling, there are of course also the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its extraction and the consequent burning of what is yet another carbon-emitting fossil fuel.






That’s why we’re calling in the first instance for a moratorium on shale gas extraction in the UK until the potential environmental risks around shale gas drilling have been properly researched and the right regulations have been put in place.






But we’re also reiterating that a new ‘dash for gas’ risks taking the world towards dangerous levels of climate change - increasing temperatures by at least 3.5°C according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency.






As Nick Molho, our head of energy policy, says: “We’re extremely concerned by the way shale gas is being painted as a ‘wonder gas’ that will slash energy bills in Britain and somehow help tackle climate change.






“Shale gas is still a fossil fuel, and a new dash for gas could see global temperatures skyrocket. There’s also no evidence that it will have a big impact on energy bills, which have in fact been driven up in recent years by a rising gas price.”






Our research - seen most recently in our Positive Energy report, which demonstrates how renewable sources of energy could meet between 60% and 90% of the UK’s electricity demand by 2030 - makes it clear that prioritising energy efficiency and renewables like wind, wave and tidal power, not shale gas, are the best way of reducing our disproportionate vulnerability to the gas price, and of genuinely tackling climate change, in the long term.






The government has to listen to the clear and sensible evidence and steer a straight course to a low-carbon future - resisting the siren calls of the fossil fuel industry


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U.N. sponsor fracking



APPROPRIATE DEVELOPMENT OF SHALE GAS RESOURCES

Submitted by Patrick on August 19th, 2011
In May 2011, the Shale Gas Production Subcommittee of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Secretary of Energy Advisory Board began exploring safe and environmentally sound methods of extracting natural gas from shale rock formations using hydraulic fracturing (commonly referred to as “fracking”) techniques.  The Subcommittee released its 90-day Interim Report on August 18, 2011.

The Interim Report recommends improvements in:
  • Availability of public information on shale gas operations;
  • Communication between state and federal regulators;
  • Standards to reduce the impact of fracking on air, water, land, and wildlife;
  • Public disclosure of fracking fluid chemicals;
  • Reduction of diesel engine use in the production process;
  • Information sharing among natural gas developers; and
  • Research and development of more effective fracking technologies.

To read the full report, click here.

A final report is expected on November 18, 2011.  More details on the U.S. Department of Energy’s work on shale gas development are available online at www.shalegas.energy.gov.
For comments from former Sen. Timothy E. Wirth, President of the UN Foundation and the Energy Future Coalition, on the need for leadership on natural gas and clean fuels, click here.
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Joe Frazier has liver cancer


Boxing ex-world champion Joe Frazier has liver cancer

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Joe Frazier. File photo Joe Frazier held the world title in 1970-73


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US former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier is in hospice care with liver cancer, his manager says.
He says Frazier - also known as Smokin' Joe - was diagnosed with cancer several weeks ago.
"I would be a liar if I did not tell you it is very serious," Leslie Wolf told Reuters news agency.
The 67-year-old held the world title between 1970 and 1973. He was the first man to beat Muhammad Ali in 1971. He lost the next two bouts with Ali.
Mr Wolf said that Frazier was diagnosed with liver cancer last month and was now in hospice care in Philadelphia.
"Joe is a fighter. Joe doesn't give up," the manager said, adding that doctors and Frazier's team were "doing everything we can".
Frazier won the heavyweight title in 1970 by defeating Jimmy Ellis in New York. He held it until 1973, when he was beaten by George Foreman.
But the boxer is perhaps most widely-known for three great fights with Ali, including the epic Thriller in Manila in 1975
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laser treatment

Doctor trials laser treatment to change eye colour


Close-up of human eye After the brief laser procedure, the colour change is said to take a few weeks to take effect

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A US doctor is trying to pioneer a laser treatment that changes patients' eye colour.
Dr Gregg Homer claims 20 seconds of laser light can remove pigment in brown eyes so they gradually turn blue.
He is now seeking up to $750,000 (£468,000) of investment to continue clinical trials.
However, other eye experts urge caution because destroying eye pigment can cause sight problems if too much light is allowed to enter the pupil.
Stroma Medical, the company set up to commercialise the process, estimates it will take at least 18 months to finish the safety tests.
'Irreversible' The process involves a computerised scanning system that takes a picture of the iris and works out which areas to treat.
The laser is then fired, using a proprietary pattern, hitting one spot of the iris at a time.
When it has hit every spot it then starts again, repeating the process several times.


“Start Quote

The pigment is there for a reason. If it is lost you can get problems such as glare or double vision”
End Quote Larry Benjamin Stoke Mandeville Hospital, UK
However the treatment only takes 20 seconds.
"The laser agitates the pigment on the surface of the iris," Dr Homer - the firm's chairman and chief scientific officer - told the BBC.
"We use two frequencies that are absorbed by dark pigment, and it is fully absorbed so there is no danger of damage to the rest of the eye.
"It heats it up and changes the structure of the pigment cells. The body recognises they are damaged tissue and sends out a protein. This recruits another feature that is like little pac-men that digest the tissue at a molecular level."
After the first week of treatment, the eye colour turns darker as the tissue changes its characteristics.
Then the digestion process starts, and after a further one to three weeks the blueness appears.
Since the pigment - called melanin - does not regenerate the treatment is irreversible.
Lasers are already used to remove the substance in skin to help treat brown spots and freckles.
Dr Gregg Homer Dr Gregg Homer said he first had the eye laser idea in the mid-1990s
Safety concerns Other eye experts have expressed reservations.
"The pigment is there for a reason. If the pigment is lost you can get problems such as glare or double vision," said Larry Benjamin, a consultant eye surgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in the UK.
"Having no eye pigment would be like having a camera aperture with a transparent blade. You wouldn't be able to control the light getting in."
Dr Homer said that he only removes the pigment from the eye's surface.
"This is only around one third to one half as thick as the pigment at the back of the iris and has no medical significance," he said.
He also claimed patients would be less sensitive to light than those born with blue eyes. He reasoned that brown-eyed people have more pigment in the other areas of their eyeballs, and most of it will be left untouched.
"We run tests for 15 different safety examination procedures. We run the tests before and after the treatment, and the following day, and the following weeks, and the following months and the following three months.
"Thus far we have no evidence of any injury."
Testing in Mexico
Dr Homer originally worked as an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, but gave up full-time practice in the mid-1990s to study biology at Stanford University in California.
He said he filed his first patent for the laser treatment in 2001. But it was not until 2004 that he began carrying out experiments on animals at a hospital facility.
To fund his research he used his own savings, attracted investments from venture capital funds and secured a government grant. Dr Homer said he has raised $2.5m to date.
Artwork of a section through a healthy human eyeball Dr Homer said his treatment only removes pigment from the eyeball's surface
Tests on humans initially involved cadavers, and then moved on to live patients in Mexico in August 2010.
"From a regulatory perspective it is easier," Dr Homer said, "and I can speak Spanish fluently so I can closely monitor how everyone is doing."
Seventeen people have been treated so far. All are very short-sighted. They have been offered lens transplants in return for taking part.
Dr Homer said the work is checked by a board of ophthalmology experts to ensure it is up to standard.
The new funds will be used to complete safety trials with a further three people.
Stroma Medical then intends to raise a further $15m to manufacture hundreds of lasers and launch overseas - ideally within 18 months.
A US launch is planned in three years' time, because it takes longer to get regulatory approval there.
Stroma Medical believes the treatment will be popular; its survey of 2,500 people suggested 17% of Americans would want it if they knew it was completely safe. A further 35% would seriously consider it.
There is also evidence of a growing desire to alter eye colour overseas - a recent study in Singapore reported growing demand for cosmetic contact lenses.


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    Saturday 5 November 2011

    (H1N1) virus

    Putative amino acid determinants of the emergence of the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus in the human population

    1. Daphna Meroza,
    2. Sun-Woo Yoonb,
    3. Mariette F. Ducatezb,
    4. Thomas P. Fabriziob,
    5. Richard J. Webbyb,
    6. Tomer Hertzc,1, and
    7. Nir Ben-Tala,1
    + Author Affiliations
    1. aDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel 69978;
    2. bDepartment of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105; and
    3. cVaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109
    1. Edited by Barry Honig, Columbia University Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY, and approved July 8, 2011 (received for review October 6, 2010)

    Abstract

    The emergence of the unique H1N1 influenza A virus in 2009 resulted in a pandemic that has spread to over 200 countries. The constellation of molecular factors leading to the emergence of this strain is still unclear. Using a computational approach, we identified molecular determinants that may discriminate the hemagglutinin protein of the 2009 human pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) strain from that of other H1N1 strains. As expected, positions discriminating the pH1N1 from seasonal human strains were located in or near known H1N1 antigenic sites, thus camouflaging the pH1N1 strain from immune recognition. For example, the alteration S145K (an antigenic position) was found as a characteristic of the pH1N1 strain. We also detected positions in the hemagglutinin protein differentiating classical swine viruses from pH1N1. These positions were mostly located in and around the receptor-binding pocket, possibly influencing binding affinity to the human cell. Such alterations may be liable in part for the virus’s efficient infection and adaptation to humans. For instance, 133A and 149 were identified as discriminative positions. Significantly, we showed that the substitutions R133AK and R149K, predicted to be pH1N1 characteristics, each altered virus binding to erythrocytes and conferred virulence to A/swine/NC/18161/02 in mice, reinforcing the computational findings. Our findings provide a structural explanation for the deficient immunity of humans to the pH1N1 strain. Moreover, our analysis points to unique molecular factors that may have facilitated the emergence of this swine variant in humans, in contrast to other swine variants that failed.
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    'old-fashioned' green


    Calling for an 'old-fashioned' green revolution


    Tensie Whelan (Image: J.Henry Fair)
    VIEWPOINT
    Tensie Whelan
    Using "good old-fashioned" farming techniques will help deliver a sustainable green revolution in Africa, says Tensie Whelan. In this week's Green Room, she warns that failure to protect biodiversity, water supplies and forests could spell disaster for the continent.
    People walking through a rainforest in Liberia (Getty Images)
    I have seen many ways in which farmers in Africa have increased quality and yield... through the implementation of better farm management and farm husbandry
    The new green revolution that is needed on the continent of Africa has been much discussed of late.
    With pressing development needs in many parts of Africa, and with a growing population, that revolution is desperately overdue.
    But when it comes, it must be sustainable; socially, economically and environmentally.
    A green revolution created and developed at the expense of sustainable, clean water supplies, good forestry protection and good soil management will not only be a disaster for the people of Africa, it will be a disaster for its ecology as well.
    Yet so far, much of the debate has been on the technology of agricultural inputs such as the role of fertilizers and genetically modified (GM) seeds.
    Whether the stance taken in the debate around these often controversial issues is pro- or anti-, my overriding conclusion is that those advocating for or against are missing a fundamental issue.
    Back to basics
    The debate - dominated by the West - has become, like so many western debates on big environmental questions, fixed on the technological solutions that will magically create tomorrow's paradise.
    African farmland, AP
    Africa's soils are being depleted of nutrients
    'Barren future' for Africa's soil
    In doing so, it has largely ignored the role good farming and forestry practices can play in mitigating food scarcity, protecting scarce water supplies and soil productivity, addressing climate related issues and both preserving and enhancing biodiversity across the continent.
    Our experience at the Rainforest Alliance shows that by using "good old fashioned" farming techniques, such as good land-use management and harvesting practices, or reintroducing native tree cover to provide shade for the crops, leads to an improvement in the productivity and quality of farmers' crops and reduces susceptibility to pests and natural disasters.
    This approach delivers clear economic, environmental and social benefits.
    The Ethiopian coffee regions are biodiversity hotspots. Here, more than anywhere else the work to combine sustainable coffee production, forest conservation and biodiversity is vital.
    Such an approach directly benefits Ethiopian small coffee farmers. It is also in Ethiopia's best interest and in the collective interest of us all.
    Sustainable farm management techniques also increase net farm income. In studies of Rainforest Alliance cocoa farms in Cote D'Ivoire and Ghana, researchers consistently find higher yields and higher net income for farmers who have embraced these practices—without expensive new technologies.
    Under pressure
    Elsewhere, local populations have relied on Morocco's cork forests for generations.
    Tree saplings from the website Great Green Wall website
    One scheme hopes planting trees will help halt desertification
    Africa push for 'great tree wall'
    The forests provides vital resources and services including; timber, fuel wood, honey, mushrooms, berries and watershed protection.
    But illegal logging, over grazing, forest fires and the over-collection of firewood are destroying these biodiversity rich forests.
    By working with local people, providing the skills and incentives to maintain their forests, we are laying the ground work for people to gain a sustainable livelihood from the cork and argan oil found in these forests.
    And sustainable forestry management and extraction is essential if we are to preserve some of the most charismatic of African species, the great apes.
    In the Congo basin - home to the chimpanzee, bonobo and gorilla - only 10-15% of the forests are protected as either national parks or nature reserves.
    Most of the Congo's great apes live outside these areas, in forest covered by logging concessions.
    Where these concessions are managed under Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification schemes, these populations remain healthy.
    There is currently 4.5 million hectares of FSC logging concessions housing healthy populations of gorillas and chimpanzees.
    While this sounds a big number, it is only a fraction of the total logging concessions available.
    By giving more political and financial support and priority to FSC certification governments, communities and companies can help to meet their commitments under the UN biodiversity conventions while ensuring a sustainable economic use of this natural resource.
    Returning to agriculture, I have seen many ways in which farmers in Africa have increased quality and yield, as well as lowered production costs and improved working conditions for themselves and their workers through the implementation of better farm management and farm husbandry.
    All of this results in better long-term management and stewardship of soil, water, biodiversity and human resources.
    It creates a balanced relationship whereby wildlife is both protected and enhanced and farmers are able to compete in the global market which so many of them supply.
    Tensie Whelan is president of the Rainforest Alliance
    The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website


    Do you agree with Tensie Whelan? Are "good old-fashioned" farming techniques being overlooked in favour of hi-tech solutions? Are global demands for resources plunging Africa into an ecological crisis? Is it possible to balance the growing demand for crops with a sustainable future for all in Africa?
    Why do we always assume that Western technology is the answer to everything? Technologies developed for temperate climates may not be suitable for sub-Tropical and Tropical regions of Africa. Also the farmers cannot afford the seeds and associated fertilisers and pesticides. There was a program years ago about "front door farming" in southern Africa where starting with small plots, no bigger than a front door, on a soil that was basically sand and by working in small groups to save compostable material families were able to grow firstly fresh veg to support themselves and then eventually a small surplus to sell. Not a single GM seed or artificial fertiliser was used. The system was self sustaining based on good old-fashioned care, and in this case creation of, a fertile soil. Local food varieties have developed over millenia to cope with local conditions and with a bit of support the knowledge of local people can be used to improve the environment for themselves and the biodiversity. The arrogance of the West that we have the answer to everything is extremely worrying and often appears to be purely profit driven. We should be tapping into and supporting the local knowledge before it is lost.
    Jane, Cardiff
    The old fashioned farming is goood techniques,no model material.Becauce we use simple material like cutless,hoe etc.
    mohammed, chad
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