Minerva

Specialists have long suspected that malaria and HIV infection interact. In theory, HIV infection could make falciparum malaria more serious or more frequent. Recent research on a rural cohort from Uganda shows that it does both (Lancet 2000;356:1051-6). Clinical malaria and asymptomatic parasitaemia were commoner in people with HIV-1 infection. Further, CD4 counts in infected individuals were inversely related to parasite density and the risk of clinical malaria.

Only 5.7% of in-line skaters in Boston wear protective helmets, a statistic described as “appalling” by researchers from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (Injury Prevention 2000;6:229-31). Their observational study found, predictably, that men are the worst offenders—skating on open roads, forgetting their knee pads, and generally behaving irresponsibly. They are four times more likely than female skaters to be injured.

Persistent otitis media with effusion may or may not delay language development in small children. Either way, treatment with ventilation tubes had no effect on language development in one randomised trial (www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/106/3/e420). The 187 participants were all under 3 years old. Treatment with ventilation tubes had no discernible impact on expression or comprehension when compared with a strategy of watchful waiting.

Trainers of an American football team at one Japanese university became suspicious when five of …