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1. One Click Stats - October 2010

We provide our readers with the top fifteen documents and articles read/downloaded by thousands of people from all over the globe during October 2010. Romping up the ranks this month has been much information provided by the excellent whistle-blowing WikiLeaks organisation together with FOIA: Multiple UK Children Disabled And Killed By Child Vaccines that has struck a severe chord with parents around the world. And lest we forget, what Science Media Centre Director Fiona Fox got up to with a disgraced British politician. Happy reading to all.
Information Release, The One Click Group

2. WikiLeaks Documents Underestimate Iraqi Dead

John Tirman, Executive Director, Center for International Studies, MIT
The nearly 400,000 documents on the Iraq War released by Wikileaks has stirred an unusual flurry of attention to the persistent brutalizing of civilians during the war, a topic forsaken by the major news media when the conflict was raging. But the English-language newspapers provided with the documents in advance -- the New York Times and the Guardian (London) -- are again misunderstanding the scope of the war’s mayhem. The pattern of American commanders’ misleading statements or outright dishonesty, which Wikileaks’ release of documents from the Afghanistan war last summer already amply demonstrated, is now becoming a military tradition. The reports raise the number of civilians killed by about 15,000 over the estimate of Iraq Body Count (IBC), a London-based NGO. IBC’s count, however widely cited, is accumulated by scanning mainly English-language news media reports. It’s a crude method. The most important point here is tha t by using passive surveillance, one never knows what deaths are being missed. The most authoritative review of all the mortality estimates -- passive and active -- appeared in the professional journal Conflict and Health in March 2008, and concluded that population-based surveys are superior. Something like 700,000 or more Iraqis have been killed either through direct or “structural” violence in the period since the U.S. invaded more than seven years ago. The number could easily be as high as a million. Do the numbers matter? Are 115,000 less morally onerous than a million? Well, yes. But that is not the point here. The major news media in this country supported the invasion. It’s an embarrassment that the war was not only fought on false premises that they in effect promoted, but that the consequences have been so devastating, with more fatalities than were attributed to Saddam Hussein.
Professor John Tirman, Executive Director of MIT's Center for International Studies, Global Research

3. Vioxx Legal Costs For Merck Estimated At $7.7 Billion

Merck & Co. Inc. said Friday that it set aside $950 million to resolve a criminal probe into the Vioxx painkiller it withdrew six years ago, potentially raising legal costs to $7.7 billion and driving down shares for the day. Merck, the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker, with major operations in the Philadelphia region, pulled Vioxx from the market in 2004 after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The company previously paid $4.85 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits claiming injuries and $1.9 billion for legal costs. The new legal reserve will cover an "anticipated resolution" of a probe by U.S. prosecutors into research and marketing of Vioxx. Merck previously disclosed that federal prosecutors in Boston had identified the company in March 2009 as a target of a grand jury investigation and that witnesses had been called in the probe. It also said that certain cities in Europe were weighing whether to bring crimi nal charges.
Tom Randall & David Voreacos, The Philadelphia Inquirer

4. Antibiotic Use Increases Irritable Bowel Disease Risk In Children By 84%

Researchers studied all Danish children born between 1995 to 2003 and compared data on their antibiotic prescriptions - time since use, type, number of courses used and age at use – and later diagnoses. A statistical analysis showed – after adjusting for confounding variables – that the relative risk of IBD was 84% higher for antibiotic users than non-users. This association was strongest among children who had more than seven courses of antibiotics, increasing the risk by more than seven times, respectively, compared with non-users of antibiotics. Study lead Dr Anders Hviid, an epidemiologist at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, said that antibiotics can alter the intestinal microflora and cause overgrowth of potentially pathogenic microorganisms that may trigger IBD in susceptible children.
Lilian Anekwe, PULSE

5. B-Vitamins & Folic Acid Ease Depression Among Stroke Victims

Victims of stroke who regularly take B-vitamins are better able to combat depression. Researchers demonstrated for the first time that they could reduce the risk of depressive symptoms after stroke with the help of vitamins, said Osvaldo Almeida, research director at The Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing.“Previous work had suggested that certain vitamins could have a role in preventing depression,” the journal Annals of Neurology quoted Almeida as saying. “However, we found that the stroke survivors who took daily folic acid, vitamin B6 and B12 were half as likely to become depressed,” according to a statement of The Western Australian Centre. “This is an important finding, as depression is common in stroke survivors - one in three stroke sufferers is affected,” it said.
IANS, The Hindu

6. Plug Into New NVIC Advocacy Portal To Protect Vaccine Exemptions

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC.org) and Dr. Joseph Mercola (Mercola.com) are sponsoring Vaccine Awareness Week Nov. 1-6, 2010 to raise public consciousness about important vaccine issues affecting Americans and their families. A weeklong series of articles about vaccination published on Mercola.com will include a national launch of NVIC's Advocacy Portal, which is a free online interactive database and communications network that empowers citizens to protect and enhance vaccine exemptions in all 50 states. Vaccine Awareness Week will also feature a fund raising campaign to support NVIC's public education programs to prevent vaccines injuries and deaths and defend the informed consent ethic in medicine.
Information Release, National Vaccine Information Centre

7. Passive Surveillance & Under-Reporting Of Vaccine Damage / Death Unacceptable

There are calls for more active monitoring of vaccination programs in Australia, after this year's seasonal flu jab was linked to a spate of serious fevers in young children. Use of the trivalent flu jab was suspended nationally in April for children under five years - an unprecedented move - after a string of adverse reactions. Writing with fellow experts in an editorial published in the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Michael Gold said the case had revealed the shortcomings of existing "passive surveillance". Dr Gold said a review, requested by the Minister for Health in WA, had also highlighted "significant deficiencies" with the way vaccine programs were currently monitored. Passive surveillance relies on hospitals and other health care providers, as well as the public, recognising and reporting suspected cases of adverse reactions to a vaccination. Dr Gold said this led to under-reporting, inconsistencies caused by differing appr oaches state by state and a delayed reaction in those rare cases where there was a problem. The editorial calls for the urgent establishment of a new national body to provide uniform monitoring and "active surveillance", looking for adverse reaction cases in the community.
Danny Rose, Sydney Morning Herald
Related Links:
* Australia Suspends Flu Vaccine After Children Fall Critically Ill
ABC News

8. British National Health Service Suspends London Whistleblowers

Three senior NHS staff in London claim they have been suspended for whistle-blowing after raising concerns about the hospitals they work in, but have been given other reasons for keeping them off work. As NHS staff they are entitled to protection under the Public Disclosure Act 1998 from dismissal or victimisation if they have concerns about misconduct and malpractice. But the three health trusts concerned have denied suspending them for speaking out. The trio became whistle-blowers because of fears about standards of care, they told BBC London's Inside Out programme.
BBC News

9. Veterans Up In Arms As Australian Government Refuses To Recognise Gulf War Syndrome

The Australian Government has rejected the pleas of war veterans to recognise the existence of Gulf War Syndrome, thwarting the hopes of hundreds for extra medical aid and compensation. Despite being recognised in both the United Kingdom and the United States, an investigation by the Repatriation Medical Authority, the results of which were announced in the authority's annual report, found the syndrome was not an injury or disease as defined by Veterans' Entitlements Act. Veterans' groups said yesterday they were devastated by the ruling and felt abandoned by the country they had risked their lives to protect. Former soldier Bruce Relph said, "I'm disappointed that countries in the northern hemisphere have recognised GWS but our Government won't. It’s unfair and unjust.''
Michael Inman, The Canberra Times

10. Child Protection: MPs Must Act On Seized Children Scandal

Torn apart: the system of child protection is a national scandal
Britain's social workers took a beating again last week. On the orders of the children's minister, Tim Loughton, full versions of two harrowing case reviews of the Baby P tragedy were published. They found fault not only with Haringey's social workers but with lawyers, the police and health professionals. Meanwhile, an Ofsted report found that 119 children died or suffered serious injury last year through social workers' failure to intervene. Still largely hidden from view, however, is that other scandal, in its way just as disturbing, in which the failure of our child protection system is the very opposite: the seizure of thousands of children a year from loving homes, for no good reason. The only people in a position to reform this system fundamentally are those who set it up in the first place under the 1989 Children Act – the politicians. But they have, with one or two shining exceptions – notably John Hemming – walked away from the Frankenstein's monster that Parliament created. It is now up to them to support Mr Hemming and all those horribly maltreated families who are campaigning for one of the most out rageous scandals in Britain today to be brought to an end.
Christopher Booker, Daily Telegraph
Related Links:
* The Consensus Report
Family Law Reform

11. New Orleans To Discontinue CCTV Network

There are few other places in the western world which conjure up images of violent crime and disorder as well as New Orleans. Still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina and profound social problems, one might have thought the New Orleanians would be enthusiastic proponents of a wide-reaching CCTV network. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, however, has reached the same conclusion as Big Brother Watch: when it comes to fighting crime, they're not really worth it. According to a piece in the Times-Picayune, in the seven years since CCTV was rolled out across the city at a cost of around $10 million, the cameras have yielded only six prosecution - three for crimes recorded on camera and three "for bribes and kickbacks a vendor is accused of paying a former city official to sell the cameras to City Hall"! While the cameras will continue to operate for now, they will no longer be maintained. If Mayor Landrieu could come to such a conclusion in a city as violent as New Orleans, what message does that send to Britain - home to 20% of the world's CCTV cameras?
David Hamilton Big Brother Watch

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