"Health & Medical News"

From:
Treatment Research Institute
600 Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: (215) 399-0980
http://www.tresearch.org

Paying substance abuse treatment providers for results, not services, may lead to improved quality of care, according to the first published study of a novel performance-based contracting system implemented by the State of Delaware in 2002.

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A global strategy for reducing the harm associated with alcohol use will be issued within the next two years by the World Health Organization (WHO), Reuters reported Jan. 25.

The WHO’s executive board announced that the strategy would tackle a broad range of alcohol-related problems, from liver problems and sexually transmitted diseases to auto crashes. Prevention recommendations would be issued for “all at-risk populations such as young people and those affected by the harmful drinking of others,” according to Fadela Chaib, a WHO spokesperson.

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In an effort to crack down on establishments that may serve drinks to already intoxicated customers, New Jersey is instructing police officers to ask motorists they stop on suspicion of drunk driving where they consumed their last drink, USA Today reported on Nov. 27.

Police then send the information to the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control Agency, who are sending investigators to the establishments most frequently cited by drivers as the location of their last drink.? 

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The conservative government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to unveil a new drug strategy that critics say takes its major cues from the U.S. War on Drugs, the Ottawa Citizen reported Oct. 4.

The $64-million plan being released today is expected to include an education campaign that stresses that there are “no safe drugs.” Health Minister Tony Clement said the campaign is aimed at countering “confusion” about the safety and legal status of marijuana.

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A major obstacle in the treatment of infections and other diseases of the brain is the blood-brain barrier, which prevents systemically delivered therapeutic drugs from reaching the brain.

Grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, have now shown that a short protein (peptide) from the rabies virus can carry a strip of therapeutic material into the brain via intravenous administration. Once delivered to the nerve cells of the brain, the strip, called a small interfering RNA (siRNA), was shown to protect mice from infection caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV).

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