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February 6, 2007

President Seeks $78 Billion Cut on Healthcare Over Five Years

by @ 6:14 pm.  Filed under Health News

Seems the presidents budget for fiscal 2008 will contain massive cuts in domestic programs to pay for the war in Iraq. Bloomberg is reporting the cuts will be over $78 billion over five years.

Bush Seeks $78 Billion in Health Cuts Over Five Years

This will certainly lead to some interesting discussions in the Democratic controlled congress. Take a look at the article to see what programs will potentially be affected.

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    Anti-MRSA Silver Pajamas Undergoing Investigational Trials in UK

    by @ 4:28 pm.  Filed under Health News

    I found this report from the BBC to be interesting and an example of what I call thinking outside the box. By that I mean approaching a problem from a different perspective than normal.

    BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | Anti-MRSA silver pyjamas trialled:

    It describes research being done in England with sheets and clothing )pajamas) made with silver in the them to combat methicillin-resistant staphylococcus areus (MRSA) infection. These infections are the so-called superbugs that are resistant to most common antibiotics. Usually these sorts of infections only respond to Vancomycin and if strains develop a resistance to that and then become prevalent, the world could be back to the equivalent time when all we had were sulfa drugs to treat infections.

    This approach is interesting since it . It is known that silver can be an effective anti-microbial and if this proves effect could be a wonderful way to prevent infections in hospitals.

    I can say that I know first hand how devastating these infections can be as my wife developed a life threatening MRSA infection last summer and was in intensive care for about a week followed by another week in a regular hospital room and eight more weeks of daily IV Vancomycin therapy after that!! THese infections can come on very quickly and are very serious.

    I will definitely keep an eye on this and am interested to see if it works. It certainly is a new way of thinking about preventing hospital infections.

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    Thai Government to Break Drug Patents

    by @ 4:08 pm.  Filed under Pharma News

    I’ve been busy with other projects recently but am not getting caught up on all the chemistry and science related news from the past few days. One of the important ones was a recent announcement about the government of Thailand breaking patents on Plavix (Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb) for heart disease and Efavirenz (Merck) an HIV drug.

    FT.com / World / Asia-Pacific - Thai goverment to break drug patents:

    This seems to have caught the pharmaceutical industry by surprise. The Thai government says they can not afford the drugs and there are legal processes in place for governments to break patents under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. There is much conversation about under what circumstances this can take place since the law evidently is unclear and critics are saying that Thailand doesn’t have criteria outlined to determine when this should occur.

    I have mixed feelings. I am sympathetic to the cost factor but think the Thai government should have enter into negotiations with the companies first. Also, you need to consider that the Thai government recently was overtaken by a military coup de’etat back in September 2006. So it is unclear how exactly this current government will operate.

    I don’t think this will become a trend; I think this particular government may be a an aberration.

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    Science Searching on the Internet

    by @ 12:30 pm.  Filed under Search Tips

    I thought readers might be interested in my most recent podcast discussing science search sites on the internet. I also know of many chemistry sites but in this podcast I keep it more general for a broader audience. All of these are useful to folks looking for science or chemistry information.

    I have more links of interest to chemist here.

    Take a listen to the podcast and let me know what you think.

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