But if anyone can develop vCJD, the eventual epidemic could affect 2.5 times as many as previously predicted,over a longer time.”We may well see [cases of human BSE] well into the second half of this century,” Professor Collinge of St Mary’s Hospital in London said in New Scientist magazine.Research by Professor Collinge on the cannibal tribes of Papua New Guinea – who used to eat the brains of deceased relatives as a mark of respect – found elderly people are still developing kuru, the CJD-like disease, more than 40 years after the practice was banned. Over the past 100 years, more than 2,500 members of the Fore tribe have died of kuru, which resembles vCJD.Significantly, the latest people developing the disease have one of three specific genetic combinations on a gene which produces the protein implicated in kuru, BSE and vCJD. The possible combinations, or “genotypes” are called M-M, V-V and M-V. These occur respectively in 37 per cent, 12 per cent and 51 per cent of the population.Everybody who has so far developed vCJD has had the M-M combination, found in only 38 per cent of people. Some scientists had suggested people with the two other combinations might be immune. But Professor Collinge said the 11 newest cases of kuru, in the oldest people, are affecting those with the M-V genotype.”We’re seeing lifetime incubation periods,” said Professor Collinge, who is on the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, advising the Government on BSE and CJD.Research with mice had suggested the M-V genotype, while not conferring immunity, would lead to longer incubation times The kuru findings confirm that.

Evidence of “classical” CJD, which seems to affect only people over 65 and has no known cause, show it predominantly affects people with the M-M genotype. They make up 80 per cent of cases, with the rest almost evenly spread between the V-V and M-V genotypes.This suggests the M-M combination is particularly susceptible, which would explain why the first cases of vCJD have been in such people.After the Phillips report into BSElast month, a aid package worth millions was set up to help families of victims of vCJD, but the Secretary of State for Agriculture, Nick Brown, said the Government did not have an estimate of how many would eventually die So far nearly 90 have died of it since 1995. The numbers are expected to rise to hundreds or thousands over coming decades.. A doctor who was once jailed for performing illegal abortions was struck off the medical register for a second time yesterday after he admitted medical blunders that caused Britain’s worst hepatitis B outbreak. A doctor who was once jailed for performing illegal abortions was struck off the medical register for a second time yesterday after he admitted medical blunders that caused Britain’s worst hepatitis B outbreak.
Dr Madhusudan Shivadikar appeared before the professional ethics committee of the General Medical Council over allegations that he infected 60 people with hepatitis B at his Finchley Alternative Medical Centre in north London.Dr Shivadikar, 71, was removed from the register by the GMC for less than a year in 1979 after he served an 18-month prison sentence for illegally trying to carry out two abortions in the mid-1970s.This time, the GMC struck Dr Shivadikar off after a hearing into nine separate offences, including failing to protect patients and staff from “serious communicable diseases,” and allowing his unqualified daughter to draw blood and carry out injections.The charges also accuse Dr Shivadikar of causing the 1998 virus outbreak through his use of an unconventional acupuncture treatment, autohaemotherapy, which involved injecting patients with their own blood mixed with a saline solution. Although the needles were sterilised, he allegedly used a communal syringe and reused the same saline bottle for numerous patients.Dr Shivadikar admitted a number of medical blunders but denied that amounted to serious professional misconduct.. Laughter may be the best medicine, according to a study showing that people who have had a heart attack are more likely to have a glum outlook on life.

Laughter may be the best medicine, according to a study showing that people who have had a heart attack are more likely to have a glum outlook on life.
This is the first time a poor sense of humour has been linked to heart problems and some doctors are tentatively suggesting that being funny may prolong life. “The old adage that ‘laughter is the best medicine’ definitely appears to be true when it comes to protecting your heart,” said Michael Miller, director of the cardiology centre at the University of Maryland, who led the research.But other scientists remain uncertain about whether humour helps to prevent heart problems or people with heart problems tend to lose their sense of humour. Rose Marie Robertson, the president of the American Heart Association, said: “That question would be more interesting, but it would also be much harder to answer.”The Maryland team interviewed 300 people, half of whom had either suffered a heart attack or had been given coronary artery bypass surgery. They found that people with heart disease were 40 per cent less likely to laugh compared with people of the same age without heart disease.Dr Miller said: “We don’t know yet why laughing protects the heart, but we know that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This can cause a series of inflammatory reactions that lead to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries and ultimately to a heart attack.”The volunteers were asked a series of multiple-choice questions such as: if you arrived at a party and found someone else wearing the same clothing would you: (a) not find it amusing; (b) be amused but not show it; (c) smile; (d) laugh or (e) laugh heartily.The researchers found people with heart disease were less likely to recognise humour or use it to get out of uncomfortable situations. They laughed less, and were more likely to become angry or hostile.”We know that exercising, not smoking and eating foods low in saturated fat will reduce the risk of heart disease. Perhaps regular, hearty laughter should be added to the list,” Dr Miller said at the association’s meeting in New Orleans yesterday..

One of the country’s leading centres for heart surgery is “on its knees and riven by internal conflict” according to an independent inquiry published yesterday. One of the country’s leading centres for heart surgery is “on its knees and riven by internal conflict” according to an independent inquiry published yesterday.
The Oxford Heart Centre at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford has seen its international reputation as a “pinnacle of cardiac surgery” collapse owing to a lack of leadership, growing personal animosity between the surgeons, loss of confidence among the nursing staff and a culture of “complacency and secrecy.”The story told by the report, commissioned from independent heart surgery experts last March, carries a warning for the NHS about what some observers have described as “a clash of big egos”. In the early 1990s, the two surgeons running the centre, Stephen Westaby and Ravi Pillai, were performing a remarkable 1,100 operations a year, far more than rival centres, and their achievement was widely admired. But as their relationship deteriorated and they began to function as two separate individuals, the centre’s work rate dropped, nurses became disillusioned and concerns about patients safety surfaced.The report said: “In four years, the annual number of adult open-heart operations carried out in Oxford dropped from over 1,400 to 800. In the past year alone, the number of operations cancelled on the day of admission has risen by over 20 per cent to 130 and looks to be getting worse.

The consequence is a 30 per cent increase in the total numbers waiting,” it says.”At a time when cardiac centres throughout the country are gearing up for major expansion called for by the Government, the Oxford Heart Centre finds itself on its knees and riven by internal conflict.”The report, which makes 34 recommendations, says the surgeons must put aside their personal animosities and work together as a team or “the future for this specialty in Oxford is bleak.” A second inquiry into allegations that junior staff were left unsupervised and staff had been harassed is still awaited.. A hospital consultant accused of neglecting his duties in an inquiry report into the abuse of elderly patients, published today, has since been promoted to a senior post in the NHS trust where the abuse took place. A hospital consultant accused of neglecting his duties in an inquiry report into the abuse of elderly patients, published today, has since been promoted to a senior post in the NHS trust where the abuse took place.
Dr Chris Hallewell, in charge of mental health services at the North Lakeland Trust, in Carlisle, has escaped disciplinary action for his role in the scandal despite being the subject of withering criticism in the report by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI).The commission, set up by the Government to monitor standards in the NHS, was called in to investigate the systematic abuse of elderly patients who were, over several years, bullied, sworn at and tied to commodes while being fed.Its report, revealed in The Independent yesterday, concluded that there had been an “almost complete absence of effective management” which allowed the abusive practices to flourish.The Chairman and the Chief Executive of the trust have been sacked and senior managers disciplined. But Dr Hallewell, who was the consultant in charge of the wards at Garlands Hospital, where the abuse took place, was promoted earlier this year to Associate Medical Director of the trust.The commission’s report reserves some of its strongest criticism for Dr Hallewell, identified only as the associate medical director with responsibility for the patients. The wards where the abuse took place were the subjectof two internal inquiries into allegations from 1996 and 1998.Dr Hallewell told inquiry investigators that he had been made to feel “like a visitor” on the ward, and “had not known of the abuse”. However, details of the 1996 internal investigation obtained by The Independent cast doubt on this claim.They show that Dr Hallewell had been made aware of complaints about patients’ treatment. The minutes of a meeting between him and the hospital’s internal investigators to seek his thoughts on complaints are included in the final investigation report.