The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7470 p328
22 September 2007

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Eclipse of the honeybee

Care of the elderly should be viewed as a human right

More details emerge on the Schiller mystery

Accelerated spread of new infectious diseases is unprecedented

Eclipse of the honeybee

A comment in the 25 August 2007 issue of The Lancet draws attention to the unanswered question of where our accustomed population of honeybees has gone.

There have been reports that beekeepers have recently found that many hives have been left deserted at a time when activity is to be expected in the normal course of events.

The name given to this phenomenon is “colony collapse disorder” and it affects north America, France, Sweden and Germany, in particular.

Oddly enough, it has been ascertained that no dead bees are to be found in affected regions but quantities of honey and plant pollens remain.

Some beekeepers have reported losses of 50 to 90 per cent of their insects. In the long run the consequences for human food supplies if the trend continues could be great, perhaps comparing with those affected by global warming.

One study has suggested that cellular telephone use has a place in the picture, but there is no proof that electromagnetic radiation has been involved.

Global warming has also been blamed, because bees have to maintain their hive temperature within 3C in order to perform their essential communicative dance. Nevertheless, colony collapse disorder is nothing new, having been associated with abandoned hives as long ago as 1869.

Bees are the major pollinators of a wide range of food plants, including almonds, cherries, pears, melons and cucumbers, so their commercial value is massive. Beekeepers would not be the only losers if bees’ activity declined.

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Care of the elderly should be viewed as a human right

An editorial in the 25 August 2007 issue of The Lancet explains how the care of the aged should be viewed among the many issues of human rights. The matter has been thrown into prominence by the reports of hurricane damage in the new world and the suffering this has caused in populations, particularly of the very young and very old.

A parliamentary report recently released in the UK dealing with the rights of older people in health care has emphasised the dismal environment in which many institutionalised old people have to live. Problems arise from premature discharge from hospital, discrimination through rationing of services, physical neglect resulting in malnutrition, dehydration, bed sores, inappropriate medication, physical abuse, sexual assault and lack of privacy, dignity and confidentiality. In general, these reflect negative attitudes towards the elderly individual.

Attention to the problem is urgently required by the numbers of people living longer than previously. By 2050 there will be twice as many people aged 80 and older in the UK and the US and the difficulties will increase. Much good care is provided, but often by poorly paid and undervalued staff, and abuse and neglect are widespread.

Conventions on human rights adopted by the UK and Europe affirm common-law rights to humane and equitable care, including physical and psychological integrity and impose positive obligations on public authorities. Yet policy makers in the UK have hitherto paid little more than lip service to such rights and their practical implications.

Much continuing education and training will be necessary to persuade everyone concerned in caring for the elderly to see their work as a positive contribution to a civilised society based on fundamental human rights. In the forefront the health professions will be outstanding by their very nature.

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More details emerge on the Schiller mystery

When the poet Friedrich Schiller died in 1805 of tuberculosis at the age of 45 he was buried in a common grave. In 1826 attempts were made to exhume his remains but found more than a dozen skulls in the grave. The local mayor in Weimar maintained that the largest was Schiller’s, but serious doubts persisted.

A second exhumation in 1911 pointed to a different skull as belonging to the poet. Thus the final tomb contains two skulls. Recent work has involved the exhumation of Schiller’s wife and son in an effort to establish the truth.

Several books have been written on the controversy, according to a note in the 3 August 2007 issue of Science. Scientists are to study the skulls in question and DNA samples will be studied from these and from the remains of Schiller’s wife and son, in order to determine the truth about these tantalising remains.

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Accelerated spread of new infectious diseases is unprecedented

According to a report in the 1 September 2007 issue of the BMJ, infectious diseases are increasing their rate of spread more rapidly than before. The World Health Organization has stated that new diseases are emerging at the unprecedented rate of one each year. In its annual world health report, WHO has appealed for more international co-operation to tackle a serious threat to public health worldwide. The situation is described as far from stable.

Among the factors that have helped to accelerate the spread of diseases is the increasing use of air travel (with more than two billion passengers per annum), population expansion, wider resistance to drug treatment, under-resourced health care programmes, intensified farming practices and general degradation of the environment.

The rapid spread of one health crisis into adjacent regions of the earth constitutes a constant emergency. The great fear is the possible emergence of new diseases on the scale of AIDS or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Moreover, entirely new infections are appearing at an unprecedented rate and often show an ability to cross geographical boundaries rapidly. Since 1967 at least 39 new pathogens have been identified. Old infections such as pandemic influenza, malaria and tuberculosis are mutating, with increased resistance to antimicrobial agents.

Global co-operation in surveillance, open sharing of knowledge of technologies, materials and laboratory samples is desirable. More international and national resources for training, disease surveillance, laboratory capacity and response networks are called for, involving diplomacy; close co-operation, transparency and preparedness are the essential factors.