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Media Examines U.S. Government's Steps To Lift HIV Travel Ban
The New York Daily News on Friday examined the federal government"s recent actions to remove HIV from the list of diseases that can bar foreign residents from entry into the U.S. According to the Daily News, "The current regulations took effect in 1987, at the height of the worldwide AIDS scare," but, "[n]ow, with the backing of the Obama administration, the ban could be lifted by the end of the year." Martin Cetron, director of the CDC"s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, said, "We"re trying to end the stigma and the discriminatory practice for a disease that doesn"t warrant exclusion for coming into this country." MSNBC.com reports that "immigration critics say they"re leery of the proposal that could allow an average of 4,275 HIV-infected people into the country annually, with a lifetime medical cost of about $94 million for those admitted during the first year, according to CDC estimates published this month in the Federal Register" (Aleccia, 7/17). Through Aug. 17, CDC is seeking public comment on the proposed rule to remove HIV from the list of diseases that can bar entry into the U.S. (Miller, 7/17).
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Nursing Shortage Eases With Recession's Help
"The nation"s deep recession is helping to alleviate the decade-long nursing shortage, as workers who had left the field in better times are returning in droves," the Wall Street Journal reports. The paper quotes a study, one of six papers on the nursing workforce published today in the journal Health Affairs, that found "nearly a quarter-million nurses entered the work force in 2007-08, an 18% surge that was the largest two-year increase in at least three decades." Many of them had left nursing, but "re-entered the work force to compensate for a spouse"s lost income or health benefits, the study said." The increase is "particularly remarkable at a time when the U.S. economy has shed more than six million jobs, helping to solidify the profession"s "recession-proof" image." The study found that the surge in new nurses is due to "efforts to expand nursing schools, attract more young people into the field and improve working conditions," along with an increase in the number of foreign-born nurses.
News of the day
Not Only Does Our Gut Have Brain Cells It Can Also Grow New Ones, Study
A new US study has added to existing knowledge about the million or so brain cells in our gut by using lab mice to show that it can also grow
Diagnostics

Substance Abuse Appears To Be An Important Factor In Increased Risk Of Violent Crime By Persons With Schizophrenia

The increased risk of persons with schizophrenia committing violent crime may be largely mediated by co-existing substance abuse problems, according to a study in the May 20 issue of JAMA. Many studies have reported on the association between major mental disorder and violence, including some that specifically have examined the relationship with schizophrenia. "These reports typically find that schizophrenia is related to a 4- to 6-fold increased risk of violent behavior, which has led to the view that schizophrenia and other major mental disorders are preventable causes of violence and violent crime," the authors write. They add that considerable uncertainty exists as to what is the cause of this elevated risk. Some studies have indicated that substance abuse may play a role. Seena Fazel, M.D., of the University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, England, and colleagues examined the relationship of schizophrenia with violent crime and the possible role of substance abuse. The study included data from nationwide Swedish registers of hospital admissions and criminal convictions from 1973-2006. Risk of violent crime in patients after diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 8,003) was compared with that among general population controls (n = 80,025). Potential confounders (factors that can influence outcomes; age, sex, income, and marital and immigrant status) and mediators (intervening factors such as substance abuse) were measured at the beginning of the study. To study familial confounding, the researchers also investigated risk of violence among unaffected siblings (n = 8,123) of patients with schizophrenia. The researchers found that among patients with schizophrenia, 1,504 (13.2 percent) had at least 1 violent offense compared with 4,276 (5.3 percent) of general population controls (adjusted odds ratio, 2.0). The rate of violent crime in individuals diagnosed as having schizophrenia and substance abuse (27.6 percent) was significantly higher than in those without substance abuse (8.5 percent), which resulted in adjusted odds ratios of 4.4 for violent crime in schizophrenia with substance abuse and 1.2 in schizophrenia without substance abuse. The risk increase among those with substance abuse was significantly less pronounced when unaffected siblings were used as controls (28.3 percent of those with schizophrenia had a violent offense compared with 17.9 percent of their unaffected siblings), suggesting significant familial (genetic or early environmental) confounding of the association between schizophrenia and violence. "We demonstrate that the risk of violent crime in schizophrenia in patients without comorbid substance abuse is only slightly increased. In contrast, the risk is substantially increased among patients with comorbidity and suggests that current practice for violence risk assessment and management in schizophrenia may need review," the authors conclude. JAMA 2009;301[19]:2016-2023. JAMA


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