Medicine and Health
New York City reports outbreak of West Nile virus
By Andrea Peters, October 7, 1999
Scientists in the New York metropolitan area have identified the presence of a viral strain never before seen in the Western hemisphere, West Nile virus. Initially believed to be an outbreak of St. Lo...
Shift work and ill-health
By Leanne Josling, September 6, 1999
A growing number of workers in Australia are required to work shifts, particularly night and rotating shifts, despite mounting evidence of the safety dangers and risks to health involved. Nearly one m...
UN reports reveal global growth of drug abuse
By Steve James, August 28, 1999
Two recent reports by the United Nations Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) provide an insight into the global spread of drug abuse. "Global Illicit Drug Trends" was compiled from questionnaires sent to ...
Australian schoolgirl contracts HIV via blood transfusion
By Kaye Tucker, August 13, 1999
The tragic news of a young girl infected with HIV via a blood transfusion has exposed serious problems in blood screening procedures in Australia. The girl, a primary school student, was given a trans...
What is involved in the Genetically Modified Food debate?
By Chris Talbot, August 9, 1999
Hardly a week goes by in Britain without headlines related to genetically modified (GM) food, usually opposed to it. This week the Church of England decided that growing GM products in field tests on ...
TB on the rise in Britain
By Barry Mason, July 22, 1999
The growing incidence of tuberculosis in Britain has prompted the formation of a campaign group, TB Alert. TB is caused by a bacterial infection, which can affect any part of the body, but most usuall...
AIDS is number one killer worldwide: Zimbabwe is worst hit country
By Barry Mason, June 29, 1999
AIDS is now the number one killer disease worldwide, ahead of malaria and tuberculosis. In 1998, four million people in sub-Saharan Africa became infected with HIV, joining approximately 34 million pe...
US pharmaceutical companies reap huge profits from AIDS drugs
By Debra Watson, June 5, 1999
The international financial crisis and growing world inequality dominated much of the roundtable discussion at the 1999 Annual World Health Assembly (WHA 1999). The World Health Organization (WHO) hel...
Safety of genetically modified food questioned
Interview with gene scientist, Dr Arpad Pusztai
By Paul Mitchell, June 3, 1999
The British House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (STC) has been investigating the nature of scientific advice to government. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are the subject of its f...
US study establishes link between dioxin and cancer
By Perla Astudillo, June 1, 1999
A recent study published in the journal of the US National Cancer institute provided conclusive evidence of the direct relationship between industry and the cancer-causing effects of the chemical diox...
Cancer and social life
Review of Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, by Sandra Steingraber
By Joanne Laurier, May 13, 1999
Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, by Sandra Steingraber, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1997
Genes that kill malignant skin cancer cells
By Kaye Tucker, April 28, 1999
Is it possible that our own genes hold the key to finding new ways to fight cancer? Researchers at London's Brunel University think so. In February, they announced the discovery of two new genes that ...
