What's in the news

A round-up of Canadian health news, from coast to coast to coast (and beyond).

Dr Henry Morgentaler has been granted permission from a judge to proceed with a lawsuit against the government of New Brunswick, to force the government to cover abortions at his private clinic under the provincial medical insurance plan. [Canadian Press] Many women in New Brunswick use the Morgentaler clinic because the province has the most restrictive laws on access to abortion services in Canada.

BuyDCA.com, the California-based business that sold dichloroacetate online to desperate cancer patients hoping for a miracle treatment until the US Food and Drug Administration shut it down last July, is back up and running. [Edmonton Sun] This news won't please University of Alberta cardiology researcher Evangelos Michelakis, who made the discovery that the chemical could shrink rats' tumours. His research was widely circulated and end-stage cancer patients began experimenting with the (toxic) drug -- in some cases, as I reported last year about a Toronto clinic, with doctors' blessings.

Heroic Canadian Olympic rowing coach Bent Jensen is busy working with his team in Beijing while he undergoes chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, forcing him to use a wheelchair at times during the Olympics. "He's the toughest guy I know," commented a team member. [Sun Media]

A Detroit radiologist has begun writing notes explaining why American patients crossing the Canadian border may appear to the Department of Homeland Security's "radiation portal monitors" to be radioactive. Kitty litter and bananas also set off the anti-terrorist alert system. So far, however, no terrorists have been caught using the border scanners. [Newsweek]

Dr Julio Montaner, a UBC professor of medicine and internationally renowned HIV/AIDS researcher, has been named International AIDS Society president. The announcement came during the International AIDS Conference, hosted this year in Mexico City. Dr Montaner recently squared off against the federal government at a House of Commons Health Committee hearing on the merits of harm reduction strategies to combat infection and mortality. [International AIDS Society]

After a meeting with incoming CMA President Robert Ouellet, New Brunswick Health Minister Mike Murphy is ready to sign on to the CMA's patient-based funding idea and is pushing for a federal fund to recruit foreign physicians. "For us it's very refreshing that we see that someone is taking action," Dr Ouellet said. [Moncton Times & Transcript]

Lance Armstrong is heading to Montreal next month to cycle and raise money for a McGill University cancer-care initiative. [McGill]

The video game Re-Mission, in which players blast cancerous cells as Roxxi the nanobot, has been shown to encourage compliance with antiobiotic treatment in pediatric cancer patients. [McMaster]

Canada should adopt the American idea of physician assistants (PAs), says the CMA. [CMA]

Pharmaceutical companies' press releases are often dishonest, report a team of Toronto researchers. [PLoS One] [Canadian Press]

Saskatoon health board member Eric Braun, who was arrested on drug charges after he was busted for cocaine, magic mushrooms and marijuana early this year, has now also been charged with possession of child pornography. [Canadian Press]

Breastfeeding mothers held a "nurse-in" at a Vancouver H&M in protest of the store's request to a woman to nurse her child in private. The store has apologized. [Canadian Press]

In the UK, inclement weather alerts cut hospital admissions for COPD by 20%. [Medical News Today]

The incidence of polio in Nigeria has risen by 240% since last year. [Reuters]

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