Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases
BMJ No 7111 Volume 315 Press Releases Saturday 27 September 1997 Embargoed: 00.01 hrs 26 September 1997 UK time How the climate may affect our health How the climate may affect our health(Global climate change: the potential effects on health)The rate of climatic change over the next century is expected to far exceed any which took place over the previous 10,000 years, since agriculture and human settlement began. In a paper in this week's BMJ, McMichael and Haines consider the potential effects of climatic change on human health. They suggest that complex changes in the world's ecological infrastructure could lead to altered patterns of infectious diseases, such as malaria and that the impact on agricultural production may result in malnutrition, the impairment of child growth and development and impaired child health in vulnerable populations.
Contact:
Department of Epidemiology and Population
Health,
tel: 0171 927 2254
The paper by McMichael and Haines is the first in a two part series looking at the impact of climatic changes on health (the second part is to feature in next week's issue). In an editorial in this week's BMJ, Read and Stott offer solutions on how carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced on an international and individual scale to improve both global and personal health. The editorial is supported by a table which enables readers to calculate the monthly carbon dioxide production for which they are personally responsible!
Contact: MEDACT (Medical Action for Global Security)
tel: 0114 271 1122
Dr Robin Stott,
tel: 0181 333 3000 x 6180 MEDACT A retrospective study of the HIV test that caused a scare(HIV antibody assay that gave false negative results: multicentre collaborative study)On 29 March 1996, Abbott Laboratories advised its customers to discontinue the use of its HIV test kit, causing a nationwide public scare. In a paper in this week's BMJ, Evans et al retrospectively assess how effective the test really was. They found that the commercial kit, was in fact 99.2 per cent reliable (ie. eight people per thousand were incorrectly advised that their result was negative). The authors write that although test kits of this kind, generally show high sensitivity, false negative results may still arise during routine use and they recommend that one of the methods of combatting this is to consider dual screening for patients known to be at increased risk of HIV infection. They also suggest that tested serum samples should be stored in order that they may be checked, if necessary.
Contact:
Public Health Laboratory
Service,
tel: 0181 200 6868 x 4097
The impact of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa(Mortality associated with HIV-1 infection over five years in a rural Ugandan population: cohort study)The extent of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is well documented, but there has been little research on its effect on the mortality of the general population. Nunn et al report in this week's BMJ on their findings from a rural population in Uganda, which has been surveyed annually since the beginning of the decade. They found that one in ten of all adults was HIV-1 positive and that death rates among infected adults were 10 times higher than among those who were not infected. Almost half (41 per cent) of all adult deaths were attributable to HIV-1 infection and in those aged 13 - 44 years, this proportion rose to a dramatic 70 per cent. The extremely high increased risk of dying experienced by infected people provides strong evidence that HIV-1 is the cause of substantial excess mortality in Uganda and, by inference, in many other populations in the developing world.
Contact:
MRC HIV Clinical Trials Centre,
tel: 0171 380 9991/3
Embargo: 00.01 hrs Friday 26 September 1997 Please contact Public Affairs Division for the text of the paper & the authors for further comment For further information, please contact:
Jill Shepherd on 0171 383 6529
or telephone (8.30am -
6.00pm): 0171 383 6254 Or fax requests to Public Affairs Division, BMA on 0171 383 6403. If you currently receive your British Medical Journal press release by mail and you would like it faxed to you please telephone (0)171 383 6123, Fax: (0)171 554 6123 or E-mail: LRiviere@mail.bma.org.uk When dialling the UK from abroad, remember to delete the first zero from the local area code, eg, (00 44) 171... BMA on Internet page: http://www.bma.org.uk If you intend to use any article publicised in this press release, ensure you quote the British Medical Journal as source
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