The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7405 p719
17 June 2006

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· Women in pharmacy
· Complementary medicine (2)
· Medicine guides
· Accredited training
· Medicines adminstration
· Regulation
· The Society
· Onlooker (2)

Letters to the Editor

Onlooker

Israel should have been excluded

From Miss K. S. Ginsbury, MRPharmS

In “A backward glance at the Middle East” (PJ, 3 June, p660), Onlooker patronisingly wrote: “It must not be forgotten that a great deal of credit for early medical discoveries must go to physicians living in the Middle East during the first millennium.” He conveniently overlooks a multitude of recent Israeli discoveries:

· Teva’s Copaxone for the treatment of multiple sclerosis

· Given Imaging’s capsule for non-invasive diagnosis of small bowel disease

· Michel Revel at the Weizman Institute of Science discovered the interferon gene that resulted in production of ReBif by Interpharm, subsequently bought out by Serono

· Five out of 17 embryonic stem cell lines eligible for government funding were developed in Israel by Israelis

This is to mention but a few of the medical advancements to emanate from this country and does not even touch on medical techniques such as that pioneered by Shimon Slavin of Hadassah being the first physician in the world to cure a “bubble baby”.

Israel continues to contribute massively to world progress as evidenced in 2005 by the award of the Nobel prize to Hebrew University scholar Robert Aumann for his game theory analysis.

Therefore it would have been appropriate for Onlooker to mention Israel specifically and then exclude it when describing the Middle East as “the most neglected health area in the world”.

Karen Ginsbury
Petach Tikva, Israel

Israel’s national health service is among the best in the world

From Mr A. E. Moss, MRPharmS

I have not read the article in The Lancet referred to by Onlooker (PJ, 3 June, p660) “which reminds us that the Middle East is at present the most neglected health area in the world”, but it would seem that the author might be ignorant of the fact that Israel is usually considered to be part of the Middle East.

Everybody in Israel is covered by the country’s national health service, which is regarded as among the best in the world.

Arthur Moss
Shrewsbury

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