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Health Check: 24/05/2010

24/05/2010

BBC World Service - Health Check, 24/05/2010

Worldwide shortage of medical isotopes. PACO in Buenos Aires. Tinnitus. Smallpox and HIV.

Worldwide shortage of medical isotopes; PACO, the highly addictive drug in Buenos Aires; Mindful meditation for Tinnitus and possible links between the smallpox vaccine and the spread of HIV.

There is a worldwide shortage of the radioactive material used in medical tests for cancer, heart disease and kidney function. Scans to detect cancer rely on isotopes which are only produced at six nuclear reactors in the world. In July 2009 the biggest reactor in the world, Chalk River, in Canada was closed temporarily and a Dutch reactor, the largest in Europe closed in March 2010 for routine maintenance. The result is a critical shortage of medical isotopes in hospitals across the globe. Some patients are waiting longer for tests and even diagnoses. Professor Alan Perkins, President of the British Nuclear Medicine Society explains.

PACO is a highly addictive drug popular amongst children in the slums of the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires.  PACO is a paste made from raw cocaine cut with glue, crushed glass and even rat poison.  It’s cheap and emergency departments at hospitals in Buenos Aires say they’re seeing more admissions for this drug than for any other.  It’s estimated to kill two people a week and its use is spreading. Valeria Perasso reports from Buenos Aires. 

Tinnitus is a condition where people hear a constant sound all day and night regardless of what’s going on around them. It might be a ringing, a screeching, a buzzing or even a roaring in the ears. It affects around 15% of people at some point in their lives and there’s no cure. Claudia Hammond visits the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London to meet clinical psychologist, Laurence McKenna and two of his patients to find out how mindful meditation and cognitive behavioural therapy are helping manage their symptoms. 

New research published in the journal BMC Immunology is suggesting that it might be no coincidence that as smallpox was eradicated and the vaccine to protect people against it was gradually withdrawn, rates of HIV increased.  Is it possible that the smallpox vaccine somehow gave people some protection against HIV? Dr Raymond Weinstein from George Mason University in Virginia explains why there might be a link between HIV and Smallpox.

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