BMJ  2007;335:996 (10 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39391.449421.59

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From the frontline

Junk reporting

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Lady Heroin's remorseless hunt continues. A young man dies from endocarditis in the baking heat of the ward, his family sobbing, silhouetted in the orange sunset of a psychedelic hospital curtain shroud. Other wounded beasts sweat, tremble, and vomit in withdrawal but, denied opiate substitution, pull out their lines and run off without their deep vein thromboses being treated. Countless victims of heroin roll into casualty—cyanotic, cold, and close to death or dead. We save the ones we can with naloxone, but they simply retreat to the wilderness of the housing estates. I stood by as the safari passed on.

And on the savannah of general practice, male and female patients have turned to selling their bodies on the streets. Others maintain their dignity by shoplifting, stealing cars, or breaking into houses. Hepatitis B and C are rampant. Their children are caged and taken into social work captivity in ever . . . [Full text of this article]

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