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Harvard World Health News Highlights:
Black Lung Plagues Kentucky Miners: Dust Hasn't Settled on Deadly Disease
R.G. Dunlop and Laura Ungar (The Courier-Journal (Kentucky), June 24, 2007)
"Mark McCowan knew he had inhaled a lot of coal dust during 20 years of operating heavy equipment in underground mines in southwest Virginia.
But at 40 years old, he had no symptoms of disease, and a chest X-ray taken eight years earlier had shown nothing amiss.
Plus, a federal law enacted to eliminate coal workers' pneumoconiosis -- black lung -- had been in effect for more than 35 years.
Yet, after McCowan followed a friend's example and got a second chest X-ray in April 2005, he found he was another example that the nation's commitment to eliminating black lung has been imperfectly fulfilled."
Cervical Cancer Drug War
Adam Cresswell (The Australian, June 29, 2007)
"Gardasil, which was based on work by former Australian of the Year Ian Frazer, has proved to be 100 percent effective in protecting women against types 16 and 18 of the human papilloma virus, which together are thought to cause 70 percent of cervical cancers worldwide -- and up to 80 percent in Australia...However, interim findings from a large international study involving more than 18,000 women aged 15 to 25 -- including about 500 women in Australia -- has found that a rival vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, not only protects against types 16 and 18, but also provides lesser protection against types 45 and 31."
Editorial: Autism in the Vaccine Court
(The New York Times, June 24, 2007)
"The vaccine court will be addressing the narrow issue of whether these families deserve compensation from a national vaccine injury fund. But the proceedings will inevitably affect all parents’ attitudes toward the measles vaccine and toward pediatric vaccinations in general. We can only hope that, however the verdicts go, parents will remain eager to get their children vaccinated." Free registration required.
Black Lung Plagues Kentucky Miners: Dust Hasn't Settled on Deadly Disease
R.G. Dunlop and Laura Ungar (The Courier-Journal (Kentucky), June 24, 2007)
"Mark McCowan knew he had inhaled a lot of coal dust during 20 years of operating heavy equipment in underground mines in southwest Virginia.
But at 40 years old, he had no symptoms of disease, and a chest X-ray taken eight years earlier had shown nothing amiss.
Plus, a federal law enacted to eliminate coal workers' pneumoconiosis -- black lung -- had been in effect for more than 35 years.
Yet, after McCowan followed a friend's example and got a second chest X-ray in April 2005, he found he was another example that the nation's commitment to eliminating black lung has been imperfectly fulfilled."
Cervical Cancer Drug War
Adam Cresswell (The Australian, June 29, 2007)
"Gardasil, which was based on work by former Australian of the Year Ian Frazer, has proved to be 100 percent effective in protecting women against types 16 and 18 of the human papilloma virus, which together are thought to cause 70 percent of cervical cancers worldwide -- and up to 80 percent in Australia...However, interim findings from a large international study involving more than 18,000 women aged 15 to 25 -- including about 500 women in Australia -- has found that a rival vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, not only protects against types 16 and 18, but also provides lesser protection against types 45 and 31."
Editorial: Autism in the Vaccine Court
(The New York Times, June 24, 2007)
"The vaccine court will be addressing the narrow issue of whether these families deserve compensation from a national vaccine injury fund. But the proceedings will inevitably affect all parents’ attitudes toward the measles vaccine and toward pediatric vaccinations in general. We can only hope that, however the verdicts go, parents will remain eager to get their children vaccinated." Free registration required.
