{"id":34706,"date":"2015-07-13T13:55:36","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T12:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=34706"},"modified":"2015-07-13T13:56:55","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T12:56:55","slug":"the-bmj-today-hiking-the-price-of-fizz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2015\/07\/13\/the-bmj-today-hiking-the-price-of-fizz\/","title":{"rendered":"The BMJ Today: Hiking the price of fizz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2015\/07\/sugary_drinks_shop.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-34710\" src=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2015\/07\/sugary_drinks_shop-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"sugary_drinks_shop\" width=\"124\" height=\"124\" \/><\/a>\u2022<\/strong> <strong>Getting busy with the fizzy<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/351\/bmj.h3803\">The BMA is the latest voice to call for a 20% tax on sugary drinks in the UK<\/a>. The tax, if introduced, could reduce the prevalence of obesity by around 180 000 people in the UK, says the doctor&#8217;s union. The target would be all non-alcoholic drinks with added sugar, including energy drinks, soft drinks, and so called sports drinks (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/345\/bmj.e4737\">the subject of a 2012 BMJ investigation<\/a>).<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2015\/07\/paracetamol_pills.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-34709\" src=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2015\/07\/paracetamol_pills-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"paracetamol_pills\" width=\"124\" height=\"124\" \/><\/a><strong>\u2022<\/strong> <strong>Where are we now with paracetamol?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe most widely used and prescribed drug in the UK still begs unanswered questions about its efficacy and safety. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/351\/bmj.h3705\">A new editorial sets out the most up to date answers to three key questions about paracetamol<\/a>: will the treatment work for my clinical problem; are there side effects; and how many tablets do I take?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2015\/07\/hiv_clinic_vietnam.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-34711\" src=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2015\/07\/hiv_clinic_vietnam-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"hiv_clinic_vietnam\" width=\"124\" height=\"124\" \/><\/a><strong>\u2022<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>When getting richer is a double edged sword<\/strong><br \/>\nMost of the world&#8217;s sick live in &#8220;middle income&#8221; countries, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/351\/bmj.h3757\">reports a new commentary<\/a>. These countries, such as India, suffer from their middle tier ranking because they get neglected by major donors and international aid programmes. It&#8217;s a huge problem for HIV patients: 60% of whom live in these countries. But assistance is focused on low income countries. Brazil, for example, pays over $5000 per person a year for antiretroviral drugs, compared to $800 paid in sub-Saharan African countries.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/351\/bmj.h3759\">A related piece of reportage from Vietnam looks firsthand at how the government<\/a> is struggling to fill the gap left by donor funding, and how the rate of new HIV cases is climbing steadily.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Rebecca Coombes<\/strong> is head of investigations and features. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022 Getting busy with the fizzy The BMA is the latest voice to call for a 20% tax on sugary drinks in the UK. The tax, if introduced, could reduce the prevalence of obesity by around 180 000 people in the UK, says the doctor&#8217;s union. The target would be all non-alcoholic drinks with added [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2015\/07\/13\/the-bmj-today-hiking-the-price-of-fizz\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5750],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-bmj-today"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}