What do you know about hepatitis E? Not a thing, in my case, before I read the editorial on p.949 accompanying this vaccine trial. It’s caused by a tiny RNA virus (HEV) and is endemic in various remote parts of the world. The vaccine is based on recombinant HEV protein and the successful trial was […]
Human papilloma viruses, which are the commonest sexually transmitted pathogens, come and go from the genital tract and usually do little harm except for types 16 and 18, which cause the great majority of cervical cancers. Two thousand US women between the ages of 14 and 59 in the latest round of the National Health […]
For several years, it’s been known that cardiopulmonary bypass machines can throw off micro-debris and this has been linked to the cognitive impairment seen in a substantial proportion of patients following cardiac surgery. […]
Tidings of Seretide to send sales soaring. This study, funded by GlaxoSmithKline (and hence in part by you, dear taxpayer), finds “significant benefits […]
It’s amazing how long it has taken us to recognise the basic mechanisms of stroke. Peter Rothwell’s short editorial points out that in people with carotid plaque, processes similar to coronary occlusion can take place suddenly due to plaque instability. […]
This week’s Lancet is dominated by the subject of male circumcision to reduce HIV infection, on the basis of two interventional trials from Kenya and Uganda, which show a 50% reduction in line with the previous study from South Africa. […]
This study puts paid to the idea that tight glycaemic control during on-pump cardiac surgery improves outcomes. In this trial it did the exact opposite. […]
Harvey Marcovich was sharing a platform with a fellow paediatrician when they were asked about the potential health benefits of preserving the male foreskin. […]
In less than ten years, the treatment of myocardial infarction has progressed from just giving aspirin and ensuring the quick delivery of thrombolysis, to complex strategies to maximise early invasive therapy together with the use of glycogen IIb/IIIa inhibitors. […]
Kawasaki disease is a disease with many characteristics you don’t want a disease to have. It’s so rare that you will not see it more than once in a GP lifetime, but so dangerous that you mustn’t miss it; it picks out children at random, but often clusters; we don’t know its cause, but it […]