Chinese medicine kills one child, makes 151 sick
Herbal medicine prescribed to primary schoolchildren in southwest China to ward off chickenpox killed one and made 151 sick, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.
The accident happened in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, on Wednesday when more than 200 children took a homemade herbal concoction, Xinhua said.
About 150 children suffered diarrhea, nausea and vomiting after taking the medicine, a mixture of some 15 types of traditional herbs, it said.
Docs want to dispense drugs if pharmacists won’t
The American Medical Association wants legislation that will allow physicians to dispense drugs when pharmacists say their consciences will not allow them to fill prescriptions for contraceptives, painkillers and mood stabilizers.
The AMA says conscientious objection by pharmacists is a major public health problem in many areas of the country.
To solve the problem, the AMA’s policy-making House of Delegates voted Monday to ask for changes in state laws so that physicians can dispense medications when there is no “willing pharmacist within 30 miles.”
More than 40 dead in Pakistani heat wave
More than 40 people have been killed across Pakistan by extremely hot weather and the searing temperatures are expected to last at least a couple more days, officials said on Tuesday.
Most of the fatalities have come in the central province of Punjab, the country’s most populous province, where temperatures soared to 48 degree Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) on Monday. Tuesday might get even hotter, a weather official said.
UK baby death expert faces misconduct hearing
A British doctor who gave evidence at the trial of several women wrongly convicted of murdering their children faced charges of serious professional misconduct on Tuesday.
Paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow appeared at a hearing of the General Medical Council (GMC) in London and could be banned from practising if found guilty.
Meadow was an expert witness in the trial of Sally Clark, Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony, who were all freed by the Court of Appeal after serving years in prison after they had been wrongfully convicted of killing their children.
Australia’s ‘Dr Death’ kind, smart—Indian hometown
An Indian-born surgeon dubbed “Dr Death” who has been linked to the deaths of 87 Australian patients is a kind and brilliant man with a passion for playing cricket, said his family and friends.
Jayant Patel, who left Australia in March and could face murder, negligence and fraud charges if he returns, was the brightest student ever to pass through the medical college in his hometown of Jamnagar, on the west Indian coast, they said.
Glaxo and IAVI to develop HIV vaccine
A public-private partnership to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS was announced on Tuesday by GlaxoSmithKline and the not-for-profit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
In a statement, GSK said the collaboration—the first between IAVI and a major vaccine company—would facilitate early research and development of its “promising” adenovirus vaccine vector technology.
The vectors are derived from adenoviruses, originally isolated from non-human primates, which have been engineered to be non-infectious and capable of efficiently delivering genes expressing HIV proteins to the immune system.
