Monday, Dec 15th
Last update10:21:52 AM GMT
Health Glance
A set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing H.I.V. infections among young people has provoked criticism from conservative groups that say the program would be too explicit for young children and promote access to legal abortion as a right.
“Only 40 percent of young people aged 15 to 24 have accurate knowledge” of how the disease is transmitted, he said, even though that age group “accounts for 45 percent of all new cases.”
Even worse is a growing trend to invert this process: to promote diseases to fit existing drugs. In a fascinating New York Review of Books piece, Marcia Angell, M.D., denounced the practice of "disease mongering." As she put it, "The strategy is to convince as many people as possible (along with their doctors, of course) that they have medical conditions that require long-term drug treatment."
A British Medical Journal article said it more succinctly, "A lot of money can be made from healthy people who believe they are sick."
Pfizer Inc. agreed to plead guilty under a $2.3 billion federal settlement over unlawful prescription-drug promotions.The company in January disclosed it would pay the $2.3 billion over allegations it had marketed the since-withdrawn anti-inflammatory drug Bextra and possibly other products for medical conditions different than their approved use. Details of the settlement weren't available in January, however.
The final agreement, announced Wednesday, also resolves Justice Department investigations involving alleged past off-label promotional practices concerning Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica and allegations related to certain payments to health-care professionals Pfizer medicines.
Current advice from the Department of Health had said that research showed mobile phone use “affects brain activity”, although it conceded there were “significant gaps in our scientific knowledge”.
But a draft of a new advisory leaflet for parents now makes clear that precautions need not be taken when it comes to children.
It sounds almost too good to be true: a health care plan with no limits, no deductibles, free medicines, tests, X-rays, eyeglasses, even dental work — all for a flat fee of $250 or less a year. To get it, you just have to move to Mexico.
As the United States debates an overhaul of its health care system, thousands of American retirees in Mexico have quietly found a solution of their own, signing up for the health care plan run by the Mexican Social Security Institute.
A computed tomography (CT) scan can detect calcified plaque in coronary arteries. And because this calcium-laced plaque is believed to be associated with the presence of heart disease, CT scans are being widely advertised and hyped at many medical centers. Mostly, the scans are aimed at the healthy as a new must-have "preventive" test.
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