Nexus - 1504 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

NEWS ... GLOBAL NEWS ... HIGHER-YIELDING GM CROPS These are the shocking findings of g KIDNEY RECIPIENT GETS s s g findings of MYTH EXPOSED Panorama investigation, which found that "PERSONALITY TRANSPLANT" These are the shocking findings of a Panorama investigation, which found that in the UK in the past year the bug had claimed the lives of 10 times the number of hospital patients over the age of 65 than anywhere else in the world. Sally Magnusson, who made the programme ("How Safe Is Your Hospital?") said: "Thousands of families are in exactly the same position—angrily grieving for relatives who went into hospital with one thing, only to be struck down by a superbug in the wards. Professor Richard James, who runs a Nottingham University centre investigating hospital infections, described the findings as evidence of an "extraordinarily bad situation". He said: "More than 50 per cent of hospital trusts have a rate of infection that's more than 10 times that of any other country." Among the most serious concerns is that these figures reflect a mutation and strengthening of the superbug. Only two antibiotics can treat C. diff., and research has revealed that it has developed partial resistance to one of them. Ironically, measures brought in to combat MRSA in hospitals are actually contributing to the spread of C. difficile. According to Professor Brendan Wren, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, alcohol handwashes, which are now used in 94 per cent of hospitals, encourage the growth of C. diff. spores. (Source: The Daily Mail, UK, 7 May 2008, http://tinyurl.com/3gndm3) major new study shows that genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, thus undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis. The study, carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt, has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields. Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he started the research (reported in the journal Better Crops) because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question, 'How come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?" Prof. Gordon grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field. The modified crop produced only 70 bushels of grain per acre, compared with 77 bushels from the non-GM one. A similar situation seems to have happened with GM cotton in the USA, where the total US crop declined even as GM technology took over. Last week [commencing 14 April], the biggest study of its kind ever conducted— the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development—concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger. Professor Bob Watson, the director of the study and chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when asked if GM could solve world hunger, said: "The simple answer is no." (Source: The Independent, UK, 20 April 2008. http://tinyurl.com/3tdoed) heryl Johnson, 37, says she has changed completely since receiving a new kidney in May [2007]. She believes that she must have picked up her new characteristics from the donor, a 59-year- old man who died from an aneurysm. Now, not only has her personality changed, but the single mother also claims that her tastes in literature have taken a dramatic turn. Whereas she only used to read low-brow novels, Dostoevsky has become her author of choice since the transplant. Miss Johnson, from Penwortham, in Preston, Lancashire, UK, said: "You pick up your characteristics from your donor. My son said when I first had the transplant, I went stroppy and snappy— that wasn't me." The former Preston North End football steward's life has been turned round since her successful operation. "I totally respect the family who gave me this kidney. They have given me the best thing they can—a chance for a normal life. I am forever grateful to them." Academics in America have developed a theory called "cellular memory phenomenon" to explain the personality changes that are allegedly experienced by some transplant recipients. Examples include a Massachusetts woman with vertigo who became a climber; a Milwaukee lawyer who began eating Snickers, having always hated chocolate; and a seven-year-old girl who orphan bak Fey r No, T cat po ARTI ABOUT Your Eeetegical Fe ce co RWS . — & FY ee ry Ww an y —— = 0, caW'T po AMT INE ABOUT Your Eeetegical FooTPraeT BYT © car geT Rib oF TWO CoRWS . SUPERBUG KILLS ONE PATIENT HOURLY IN BRITISH HOSPITALS I is four times more deadly than MRSA and is showing signs of resistance to one of only two drugs able to combat it. New research has revealed that the hospital superbug Clostridium difficile (C. diff.) is responsible for 6,500 deaths in British hospitals each year—the equivalent of one person dying every hour. So mec ifle JUNE — JULY 2008 NEXUS +7 www.nexusmagazine.com