-Caveat Lector- >From the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_450000/450791.stm > Friday, September 17, 1999 Published at 23:45 GMT 00:45 UK > <Picture> > <Picture> > World: Europe > <Picture> > Russian TB threatens the world > <Picture> > One in 10 Russian prisoners is thought to have TB > <Picture> > By Madrid Correspondent Daniel Schweimler > > World experts in the treatment of tuberculosis have warned that the > disease in Russian prisons is a timebomb waiting to go off. > > Speaking in Madrid at the International Conference on Lung Health, they > said that unless urgent measures are taken to stop what they call "the > prison TB pump", the incidence of the disease in Russia will keep > growing and inevitably spread to the rest of the world. > > The incidence of tuberculosis in Russia has more than doubled since 1991 > and a quarter of those cases are in Russian prisons. > > TB breeding grounds > > The conditions in these under-heated, under-resourced, overcrowded > buildings is ideal for the spread of the disease, which is killing about > 5,000 prisoners a year. > > > <Picture: [ image: Scientists are testing traditional herbal remedies as > they search for new cures]>Scientists are testing traditional herbal > remedies as they search for new cures The head of Russia's prison > medical service, Colonel Alexander Conets, told delegates that thanks to > a greater openness in Russian society, they could firstly admit that > there is a problem and secondly seek help in trying to deal with it. > > But 100,000 prisoners are released from Russian jails every year, many > of them infected with TB. > > Lee Reichman from the National Tuberculosis Centre in the United States > said the problem would not remain confined to Russia. "Tuberculosis is > an infectious disease, it spreads from person to person," he said. > > "So it must spread and it's being incubated in Russian prisons, and > unless we do something about this incubation, when it gets out it's > going to be a disaster." > > Resistance spells danger > > But what is also worrying health experts is the increase of a new form > of drug resistant TB which has developed because of widespread misuse of > antibiotics. This new strain of the disease is expensive to treat and is > also finding a perfect breeding-ground in Russian jails. > > > <Picture: [ image: Cold, crowded and underfunded - Russian prisons > provide ideal conditions for spreading TB]>Cold, crowded and underfunded > - Russian prisons provide ideal conditions for spreading TB A number of > international organisations, with the backing of the World Health > Organisation (Who), have launched a pilot project in the central Russian > region of Tomsk to try to deal with this new strain of TB. It is > expensive and there are fears that funding for the project could be > misused. > > Hopefully the World Bank is going to come in with a major loan, but the > local problems in Russia - where there's currently chaos and worse - > will make it difficult to receive the loan or use it properly," said Mr > Reichman. > > According to speakers at the conference, there is no time to lose - the > accelerating spread in Russian prisons of HIV, the virus that can lead > to Aids, will they say lead to an explosion of TB among inmates. > > The message from the Madrid conference is clear: that as we enter the > new century, Western countries and international organisations must > provide the commitment and the financial resources to address public > health threats on a global scale. >From the Telegraph (UK) www.telegraph.co.uk > > ISSUE 1576Saturday 18 September 1999 > > Hearts taken from 11,000 babies > By Sean O'Neill > > HOSPITALS have removed and retained, without parents' consent, > the hearts of at least 11,000 children who died of cardiac disease in the past > 40 years. > > Large collections of damaged and malformed hearts are stored at major hospitals > across the country. The organs were removed from the bodies of children during > post mortem examinations for which consent was given. > > But permission was not sought from families to store the hearts for decades to > carry out medical research. Relatives did not know that they were burying their > children without their hearts. The largest collection is held at Alder Hey > Children's Hospital in Liverpool, which has amassed 2,500 hearts since the late > 1950s. > > In London, the Royal Brompton Hospital and Great Ormond Street Children's > Hospital have catalogued and stored some 2,000 hearts each. There are 1,500 kept > in Birmingham and a further 1,000 in Leeds. Hospitals in Southampton, Newcastle, > Manchester and Bristol have retained about 500 each. > > The widespread practice of tissue retention came to light following the scandal > of high death rates in paediatric cardiac surgery at the Bristol Royal > Infirmary. > > Helen Rickard, who uncovered the practice when she discovered that her daughter > Samantha had been buried without her heart, will give evidence on Monday to the > public inquiry into events at Bristol. Mrs Rickard, whose 11-month-old daughter > died in 1992, obtained a coroner's permission for the return of her baby's heart > four years later. > > She said: "I thought I had buried my daughter after the operation but discovered > she was not completely laid to rest. If I had known Samantha's heart had been > taken out I would have insisted it was put back before she was buried." > > Mrs Rickard thought her case was an isolated one until the United Bristol > Healthcare Trust admitted last February that it had retained the hearts of 170 > children who died at the Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1976 and 1995. The > extent of the practice nationally was revealed to the Bristol inquiry by Prof > Robert Anderson, president elect of the British Paediatric Cardiac Association. > > Prof Anderson, who amassed the collection at the Royal Brompton and is now > responsible for that at Great Ormond Street, said the failure to consult parents > was a result of "cock up" rather than conspiracy. > > He told the inquiry: "I understand the distress that has been caused. I think I > can speak on behalf of pathologists interested in congenital heart disease > throughout the country, that none of us were retaining hearts with any intention > of creating distress. > > "None of us would have wanted to do that. It was an act of omission by us not > realising that appropriate permission had not been granted. Certainly, when the > whole thing broke, I was surprised that we had not thought of this earlier and > we should have done. > > "I think that the advances we made in surgical treatment, in understanding, in > diagnosis, in the past 35 years would not have been possible had we not had > access to this collection." > > The Bristol inquiry, chaired by Prof Ian Kennedy, is expected to recommend when > it reports next year that permission is obtained from families before doctors > retain organs or tissue. > > Bristol Royal Infirmary has already introduced new consent forms explaining why > doctors might wish to retain organs. The Royal College of Pathologists is > drawing up guidelines to ensure that parents are kept fully informed. > > Micheala Willis, chairman of the Bristol Heart Children Action Group, said any > parents with concerns should contact the hospitals where their children were > treated. Mrs Willis, whose son Daniel died after surgery at Bristol, said: > "People thought the problem was just confined to Bristol, they did not realise > that hospitals nationwide were retaining organs. It will come as a shock. There > should be parental consent in all cases. Often, if parents understand the > reasons organs are retained, there is no problem." > > James Wisheart, the surgeon at the centre of the Bristol scandal, has admitted > not seeking the explicit consent of parents for the removal of hearts from > children who died. A spokesmen for Alder Hey said its organ retention policy was > under review and Great Ormond Street said it had used a new consent form since a > family complained. A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Universal Declaration of Human Rights + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." --- Ernest Hemingway + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
