The good news, and the bad news...

Cheap antibiotic slashes death rate in HIV-infected children: study
Last Updated Fri, 19 Nov 2004 13:19:35 EST

LONDON - All children with HIV in developing countries should take a low-cost antibiotic because it could nearly halve the death rate, researchers say.
Dr. Diana Gibb of Britain's Medical Research Council and her colleagues tested co-trimoxazole, a combination of two drugs, on 534 children in Zambia under the age of 15 who were infected with HIV.
Half the children were given the drug each day, while the other half took a sugar pill.
The results were so favourable that the study was stopped early to allow the placebo group to start treatment.
After 19 months, 74 children (28 per cent) who took the drug had died compared to 112 (42 per cent) among the placebo group, the team reported in the Nov. 20 issue of the medical journal the Lancet.

You mean, 186 kids had to die before they knew this was an option. Somehow this doesn't seem as positive a breakthrough as it should...


Court deals major blow to autistic children
November 19 2004 at 08:03PM
By David Ljunggren

Ottawa - Parents of autistic children in Canada suffered a big setback on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled that provincial governments did not have to pay for a promising yet expensive treatment.
There are around 100 000 children in Canada with autism, a neurological disorder which in its most severe form can leave sufferers unable to communicate with the outside world.
Although there is no cure, some parents say young children can benefit enormously from 30 to 40 hours a week of intensive behavioural therapy - which can cost up to C$60 000 a year per child.
Provincial governments - which run Canada's universal healthcare system - have generally refused to pay for the therapy on the grounds that it does not fall in the category of medical treatment they are obliged to provide. This stance has triggered a raft of lawsuits by parents seeking funding.
But the Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit by a group of parents from British Columbia who argued the provincial government's refusal to pay for the therapy was discriminatory under Canada's charter of rights.
"One sympathises with the petitioners... (but) despite their forceful argument, the petitioners fail to establish that the denial of benefits violated the charter," the seven judges wrote in their unanimous ruling.
"As a parent of a child with autism, I am profoundly shocked... it is clear now that health care in Canada is ultimately a fraud," said Andrew Kavchak, whose three-year old son has been waiting for almost a year for help from Ontario.
"You have to choose your illnesses carefully. My son would be better off having leukaemia because then he would have treatment immediately," he said.

What a horrific thing for a parent to have to say...