One sad part of the so-called Arab Spring has been the detention and trial of a number of health workers in Bahrain. While 48 were arrested in March and April, 20 are accused of felonies, with their trial set to conclude on 29 September. What happens in the latter stages of the trial and the […]
Category: Guest writers
Martin Carroll: Time is running out to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
To many observers in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) seemed to herald a new era in efforts to improve the lives of those living with poverty, disease, and hunger. A historic agreement between all 193 United Nations member states, the MDGs pledged to overcome the obstacles to human development in the 21st century, which […]
Bob Roehr: Methamphetamine use drives HIV infections among gay Thais
One in 10 gay and bisexual men aged 18 to 21 became infected with HIV during their first year of enrollment in a cohort study in Bangkok. The rate of new infections slows down a bit after that, in part because those most likely to become infected already are. Fully 1 in 3 of them […]
Bob Roehr: The road to Bangkok
The lot of an ink stained wretch of a journalist, even one who writes for as illustrious a publication as the BMJ, is not filled with travel and expense accounts. Those budgets, once small, have now disappeared as traditional media formats have contracted while online grows. Thankfully a few charities have stepped into the breach. […]
Richard Smith: Communicating with patients about ductal carcinoma in situ
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a condition we don’t understand. We don’t know its significance, how to describe it, and how to treat it. Worse, we may have created it. Its incidence in the US in 1975 was 1.87 per 100 000; now it’s 32.5. During that time there has been no drop in […]
Marge Berer: Independent abortion counselling? Whose problem?
Nadine Dorries MP is a very skilful politician. She decides there is a problem, for which she has absolutely no evidence. She not only manages to get her problem on to the front pages of the newspapers but also on to the agenda of the House of Commons. Having spoken to her about it, the […]
Richard Vize on banning outdoor smoking
Four years after the ban on smoking in public buildings was extended across the whole of the UK, libertarian hackles are being raised again, this time by local government moves to ban it outdoors. The localism bill, soon to reach the end of its parliamentary journey, includes a “power of general competence” allowing councils to […]
Saleyha Ahsan: Working in a refugee camp in Libya
A few weeks ago, I arrived in Tataouine, a desert town in South Tunisia, on a hot sandy day. I was there to work with the Libyan Global Relief Committee (LGRC), a medical group comprised of Libyan nationals or members of the diaspora returning home to help. These doctors and nurses have created a system to accommodate and […]
Bob Roehr on Mila Means – a physician at the centre of the US abortion wars
Demonstrations for and against the question of abortion are going on all this week outside a clinic in Germantown, Maryland, in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Opponents of abortion have also broadened their attack to seek greater restrictions on sex education and reproductive health. They have particularly targeted government funding and services contracts for the medical charity […]
Philip Wilson: The dangers of science by press release
Imagine you’ve just completed a groundbreaking piece of research. Do you: a) go and tell your mates down the pub; b) publish in a peer reviewed journal; or c) rush out a press release? According to legend, Crick and Watson stylishly chose “a” after they discovered the structure of DNA, strolling into The Eagle in […]