- © 2008 Canadian Medical Association
Prostrate screening: The United States Preventive Services Task Force is recommending that physicians discontinue routine prostate cancer screening of men over 75 because the harms outweigh the benefits (www.ahrq.gov). The harms of screening include discomfort and stress, while the harms of treatment include “erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, bowel dysfunction, and death. A proportion of those treated, and possibly harmed, would never have developed cancer symptoms during their lifetime,” stated the task force.
Work benefits: An Australian Bureau of Statistics study (www.abs.gov.au/ausstats) indicates that continued participation in the labour force trumps retirement as older workers have significantly lower rates of arthritis and cardiovascular disease than do the unemployed and retirees between the ages of 45 and 74.
Racial divide apology: The American Medical Association has issued an apology “for its past history of racial inequality toward African-American physicians,” after releasing the findings of its internal study into organized medicine's racial divide (www.ama-assn.org). On Jul. 30, 2008, Immediate Past President Dr. Ronald Davis told the National Medical Association, which represents black physicians, that the 2 associations should “stand as one” for equal access to quality care, elimination of disparities, diversity in the physician population, as well as cultural competency training for all students, residents and fellows.
Yaounde declaration: Health ministers from the 25 countries in the African Meningitis Belt have committed themselves to a new meningtis prevention and control strategy that includes the administration of a new candidate meningococcal A conjugate vaccine to a proposed 23 million infants and 250 million Africans aged 1 to 29.