HEALTH & SCIENCE

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

COST OF HEALTHCARE RISING FASTER THAN WAGES

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - The cost of health insurance in the United States
climbed nearly twice as fast as wages in the first half of 2007, with
family coverage costing employers around 1,000 dollars a month, a poll
showed. . . The 6.1 percent rise in health insurance premiums marked a
slowdown from the rate of increase last year, but also strongly outpaced
inflation, running at 2.6 percent.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_health_insurance_costs_rise_near_09122007.html


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

BRITISH HOSPITAL BANS FLOWERS

THIS IS DORSET, UK - Flowers are out at the Dorset County Hospital where
bouquets are being banned. Any flowers delivered to the flagship
hospital in Dorchester will be refused or relatives will be asked to
take them away.

Director of nursing Alison Tong said the ban covers all wards. She said:
"There is evidence to show that flowers in vases that are not
effectively maintained can pose an infection risk, so it is for this
reason that we have decided that flowers will no longer be accepted on
our wards." . . . She said getting rid of vases of flowers also made it
easier for staff to keep wards clean and tidy.

http://www.thisisdorset.net/mostpopular.var.1664859.
mostviewed.hospital_bans_flowers.php


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

PRO PHARMA SUICIDE DATA QUESTIONED

NY TIMES - Last week, leading psychiatric researchers linked a 2004
increase in the suicide rate for children and adolescents to a warning
by the Food and Drug Administration about the use of antidepressants in
minors. The F.D.A. warning, the researchers suggested, might have
resulted in severely depressed teenagers going without needed treatment.

But the data in the study, which was published in The American Journal
of Psychiatry and received widespread publicity, do not support that
explanation, outside experts say.

While suicide rates for Americans ages 19 and under rose 14 percent in
2004, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants in that group was
basically unchanged and did not drop substantially, according to data
from the study. Prescription rates for minors did fall sharply a year
later, but the suicide rates for 2005 are not yet available from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"There doesn't seem to be any evidence of a statistically significant
association between suicide rates and prescription rates provided in the
paper" for the years after the F.D.A. warnings, said Thomas R. Ten Have,
a professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/us/14suicide.html?ex=
1347422400&en=7466134bea8dffd6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

REPORT: HEALTHCARE IN CUBA

GUARDIAN - According to the World Health Organization a Cuban man can
expect to live to 75 and a woman to 79. The probability of a child dying
aged under five is five per 1,000 live births. That is better than the
US and on a par with the UK. Yet these world-class results are delivered
by a shoestring annual per capita health expenditure of $260 - less than
a 10th of Britain's $3,065 and a fraction of America's $6,543. There is
no mystery about Cuba's core strategy: prevention. From promoting
exercise, hygiene and regular check-ups, the system is geared towards
averting illnesses and treating them before they become advanced and
costly.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,2167200,00.html

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||