2008
From Ganfyd
Look forward to HPV immunisation for girls.
The General Medical Council continued its move from leading the profession to driving it by becoming more general, less medical and more directive. And dropping its standard of proof so that doctors they know but could not adequately prove to be bad could be removed from practice. A fascist was elected to the London Assembly. Under a new prime minister the dismantling of some of the more stupid aberrations of the previous one continued, but the failure of the NHS' massive computerisation effort became less deniable before it could be reformed.
UK Pandemic Influenza guidance updated
Access to medicines for NHS patients
Was subjected to a review which rejected in England the concept of co-payments to access medicines.
A Melanoma cured by cloning and immunotherapy
Several in the series were not, but one patient is reported to have had his disseminated melanoma cured by identifying a clone of T cells displaying activity against many of its cells, cloning them out of the body and returning the resulting large population. Melanoma immunotherapy
Promising.
No Meningitis deaths last year
Last year was the first year since UK records began that no-one under 19 died from meningococcal C/meningitis. (April)
- Salisbury D. Report of the Director of Immunisation April 2008. London: NHS, 2008
- DH press release, Monday 21 April 2008 10:39
Intrathecal Etanercept in Alzheimer's disease
One series in one clinic claims remarkable effectiveness[1]. It'd be nice. (April)
GP's contractual options for 2008/09
The outcome of the General Practitioners Committee (GPC) poll on contractual options for 2008/09 was announced on 6 March 2008. See:
SSRI bias again in news
These drugs have been shown to have bias in published versus non-published studies favouring the manufacturers for one licensed indication, depression now in adults as well as children.
A mouse caught a cold
Previously no non-primate animal model for this disease has existed. The mouse has been engineered to have a receptor protein similar to the one rhinoviruses use to infect human cells.
Tooke final report
The final report of the UK Independent Inquiry into Modernising Medical Careers with recommendations for the future training of UK medical graduates was released
