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Disparity In Sex Ratio Increases In Vietnam
Sex-selective abortion among families in Vietnam with a cultural preference for boys has contributed to a sex ratio of 112 male infant births for every 100 female births in the country, according to a government official, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. According to the AP/Yahoo! News, many doctors in Vietnam do not comply with a 2003 law prohibiting the disclosure of a fetus" sex. Duong Quoc Trong, deputy director of the General Office for Population and Family Planning, said that the birth rate in 1999 was considered close to the natural rate, with about 107 boys born for every 100 girls. Since 2006, the ratio of boys to girls has steadily increased and approached a rate similar to China"s imbalance 20 years ago, he said.Trong added that the government intends to more strictly enforce the country"s ban on sex-selective abortion. The Ministry of Health recently confiscated more than 2,600 books that claim to describe ways to conceive a male child, such as special diets, MOH Deputy Chief Inspector Nguyen Dingh Bach said. He added that the ministry also ordered seven Web sites to remove articles describing such methods (AP/Yahoo! News, 7/2).

Mouse Study Indicates Immune Cells From Spleen May Be Essential In Healing Heart Attack Damage
It takes a spleen to mend a broken heart - that"s the conclusion of a surprising new report from researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Systems Biology, directed by Ralph Weissleder, MD, PhD. In the July 31 issue of Science the team reports how, in following up an intriguing observation, they discovered an unexpected reservoir of the immune cells called monocytes in the spleen and went on to show that these cells are essential to recovery of cardiac tissue in an animal heart attack model.
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John Kufuor Leads Effort To Fight Global Hunger Among Schoolchildren
The former Ghanaian president, John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor, has
Mental Health

Monitoring Bone Density In Older Women Is Unnecessary And Potentially Misleading

Monitoring bone mineral density in postmenopausal women taking osteoporosis drugs (bisphosphonates) is unnecessary and potentially misleading, concludes a study published on bmj.com. Osteoporosis is a major public health problem, particularly in older women because bone density falls after the menopause as oestrogen levels dwindle. Low bone mineral density is an important risk factor for fractures. Some guidelines recommend regular monitoring of bone mineral density in postmenopausal women, but it is costly and some experts question whether it is able to show how a patient is responding to treatment. So researchers based in Australia and the USA assessed the need for monitoring by estimating how much the effects of the drug alendronate (a widely used bisphosphonate) differ between individuals. They analysed data from the Fracture Intervention Trial (FIT), a large randomised trial that compared the effects of alendronate with placebo in over 6,000 postmenopausal women with low bone mineral density. Bone density of the hip and spine was measured at the start of the study and then again one, two and three years later. After three years of therapy, almost all (97.5%) women treated with alendronate showed at least a modest increase in hip bone mineral density. Moreover, this treatment effect did not vary substantially between individuals. This, say the authors, makes monitoring individuals" response to treatment unnecessary. Another reason often given for monitoring is to improve adherence to treatment. However, most problems occur within three months of starting treatment - much earlier than the first measurement at one year, explain the authors. Evidence also shows that discussing problems with a healthcare professional a few months after starting treatment improves adherence. Monitoring bone mineral density in postmenopausal women in the first three years after starting treatment with a bisphosphonate is unnecessary and, because of the potential to mislead, is best avoided, they conclude. These findings strengthen the case against routine monitoring of bone mineral density during the first few years of treatment, writes Juliet Compston, Professor of Bone Medicine at the University of Cambridge, in an accompanying editorial. The clear implication for clinical practice is that patients may be given inappropriate advice if changes in bone mineral density are used to monitor treatment. She concludes: "Routine monitoring of bone mineral density during the first few years of antiresorptive treatment cannot be justified because it may mislead patients, lead to inappropriate management decisions, and waste scarce healthcare res." Emma Dickinson BMJ-British Medical Journal


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