This Week in Medicine

www.thelancet.com Vol 381 May 25, 2013 i

Assisted suicide State lawmakers in Vermont, USA, have passed a bill to legalise physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. After approval from the Governor, the state will become the third in the USA and the fi rst on the east coast to allow assisted suicide. Physicians will be able to prescribe lethal doses of a drug to those expected to live for less than 6 months.

HPV in Kenya Rollout of a GAVI-supported initiative to provide low-cost vaccines against human papillo mavirus (HPV) to girls began in Kenya this week. The vaccine off ers protection against cervical cancer, which leads to 275 000 annual deaths worldwide, 85% of which occur in developing countries. The initiative will be implemented in seven other countries this year, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

West Nile virus The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that 2012 was the dead liest year for West Nile virus in the USA since the virus was fi rst detected in 1999. 286 deaths were recorded in 2012, and total reported infections were the highest since 2003. Warmer weather is thought to have promoted an increase in mosquito numbers.

Medicinal labelling act The UK Government’s new Medicinal Labelling Bill 2013 requires all medicinal products sold within the UK to contain a label stating whether it had been produced as a result of animal research. This law will apply to all medication listed in the British National Formulary, irrespective of whether prescribed or bought over the counter.

Appy mothers The Shanghai Federa-tion of Trade Unions has announced plans to establish up to 1000 nursing rooms in offi ces, shops, and other public buildings in the next 3–5 years to make it easier for working mothers to breastfeed their children. The Federation then intends to launch a free mobile phone app that will allow women to locate their closest rooms.

Tetanus The UN and its partners have announced that the deadly disease tetanus has been eliminated in more than 30 countries that previously had high rates of the condition. Tetanus, an illness easily preventable by a vaccine administered to the mother, kills one newborn child every 9 minutes worldwide. Since 1999, more than 118 million women in 52 countries have been vaccinated.

Falklands suicides Claims that more British veterans of the Falklands War have committed suicide than who died in action have been denied by a UK Ministry of Defence study. The report states that 237 soldiers were killed during the confl ict, whereas 95 have since committed suicide. The suicide rate in veterans was also lower than that of the general population.

Painkillers in the Ukraine Ukraine has relaxed its restrictive policies around access to prescription pain-killers for seriously ill patients. Previously, four doctors needed to sign prescriptions for painkillers such as morphine, and every dose had to be administered by nurses, policies that were criticised by human rights groups. Patients will now be able to keep 15-day supplies of painkillers in their own homes.

Guinea worm eradication Niger’s Ministry of Health is off ering cash rewards to anyone reporting a case of Guinea worm in the country. Although the parasitic illness was close to being eradicated in the region, a recent increase in cases has led to a scale-up of eff orts to combat the disease.

Global health statistics WHO’s annual report on global health statistics high-lights the improvements made in narrowing the health gap between countries with the best and worst health status. The report, released ahead of the 2013 World Health Assem bly in Geneva, indicates that the Millennium Development Goals have led to decreased maternal and child mortality and improved nutrition worldwide.

Mads Gilbert honoured Professor Mads Gilbert has been appointed a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav—the country’s highest civilian honour—in recognition of his work promoting emergency medicine in rural Norway and in developing countries. In particular, the award recog nises Gilbert’s humanitarian work treating civilian casualties in Gaza during the 2008–09 Israel–Gaza confl ict.

Polio vaccination support The Taliban in Afghanistan have renounced their ban on polio vaccination, pledg ing to support programmes aiming to eradicate the disease. The announcement comes shortly after the launch of a government campaign to immunise more than 8 million children aged between 6 months and 5 years throughout the country.

For The Lancet News podcast see http://www.thelancet.com/lancet-news-audio/

For the Vermont senate bill relating to patient choice and control at end of life see http://legiscan.com/VT/bill/S0077

For the CDC surveillance on West Nile virus see http://www.cdc.gov/ ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm

For the UK Parliament’s Medicinal Labelling Bill see http://services.parliament.uk/bills/ 2013-14/ medicinallabelling.html

For the joint UN announcement on the elimination of tetanus see http://www.unicef.org/media/media_69200.html

For the study of UK soldier deaths in the Falklands see http://www.dasa.mod.uk/applications/newWeb/www/index.php?page=48& thiscontent=1440&date= 2013-05-14& pubType=0& PublishTime=08:30:00&from= home&tabOption=1

For the WHO World Health Statistics 2013 report see http://www.who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/2013/en/index.html

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