What's in the news: Jan. 7 -- Struggling farmers lose sleep over the economy

As the economy continues to struggle, a new study reported that Saskatchewan farmers' health is increasingly at risk because they're losing sleep over their financial problems. [Journal of Agromedicine abstract]

Toronto General Hospital's disclosure that poorly designed sinks were at fault for the spread of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which led to the death of 12 people, has sparked a lawsuit against the hospital. University Health Network CEO Dr Bob Bell said, "It would be terrible if hospital leaders were to be gagged as to reporting risk to patients." [Toronto Star] Read more about the hospital's announcement last month in Canadian Medicine.

Sault Ste Marie Mayor John Rowswell will bring his complaint that "Northern Ontario residents are needlessly dying because they don’t get the same level of health care as (is) offered in the rest of the province" to federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq. [Northern Times]

A UBC study published online ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases proved the effectiveness of universal screening for chlamydia in a female Canadian aboriginal population in the Arctic. [Sexually Transmitted Diseases abstract]

In a finding contrary to what they had assumed, Quebec and Alberta researchers discovered that expert skiers and snowboarders are actually at an 88% greater risk of being severely injured on the slopes than beginners. [Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport abstract]

Breast cancer survivors who stay active are about half as likely to die of breast cancer as survivors who do not exercise regularly, reported scientists with the Alberta Cancer Board's Division of Population Health. [International Journal of Cancer abstract]

A University of Manitoba study to measured the effects of a program in Mysore, India, to reduce the sexual risk of female sex workers found the intervention increased condom use significantly, especially with occasional clients, and halved sexually transmitted disease prevalence. The program was intended to prevent HIV transmission, and the researchers wrote that recent HIV infections seemed to have been successfully decreased. [AIDS abstract]

Children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy are more aggressive, reported a new University of Montreal study in the journal Development and Psychopathology. "The fact that we... see it [violent behaviour] in very young children is a sign that cigarette smoking is not a good thing. During pregnancy, it's not a good thing," study co-author Dr Jean Séguin told The Globe and Mail. "It affects the nervous system of the children in many ways, and this is one of them. It makes the kid harder to manage." [Globe and Mail]

Two Canadians and one American co-published an essay in The Lancet arguing against the US Food and Drug Administration's administration this past fall to cease relying on the Declaration of Helsinki's medical research ethics guidelines and to instead require the less stringent ethics practices of the International Conference on Harmonization's Guideline for Good Clinical Practice. Among the ethical safeguards mandated by the Helsinki Declaration that could now potentially be done away with are rules requiring:

• Investigators to disclose funding, sponsors, and other potential conflicts of interest to both research ethics committees and study participants
• Study design to be disclosed publicly (eg, in clinical trial registries)
• Research, notably that in developing countries, to benefit and be responsive to health needs of populations in which it is done
• Restricted use of placebo controls in approval process for new drugs and in research done in developing countries
• Post-trial access to treatment
• Authors to report results accurately, and publish or make public negative findings

The authors appealed to President-elect Barack Obama to intervene. "In view of these concerns, we suggest the new US administration suspend this rule pending a review of the implications for US-sponsored research overseas. If such review confirms our concerns, the FDA should be directed to rejoin the international community in requiring that studies be done in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki." [The Lancet abstract] [CBC News]

The Globe and Mail's Celia Milne takes a look at the dangers of transplant tourism. [Globe and Mail]

Canadian musician Leslie Feist donated 100% of her band's merchandise profits from 2008 -- a total of over $200,000 -- to charities including Médecins sans frontières Canada, CARE Canada, War Child Canada, and The Salvation Army's Howard Hospital, in rural Zimbabwe, which is run by Canadian expatriate physician Paul Thistle. [Feist Myspace blog] I wrote about Dr Thistle's work in Zimbabwe last year. [National Review of Medicine]

Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation CEO Rocco Rossi will be named national director of the Liberal Party of Canada, reported The Globe and Mail. [Globe and Mail]

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