Health Check - 08/02/2012

BIN LADEN DOCTOR

The United States has confirmed publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor helped them to track down Osama Bin Laden.

Aid agencies who’ve questioned whether this tactic breached the medical oath to 'do no harm' believe that it could threaten the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns, by eroding trust.

It’s not clear whether DNA samples were ever taken from Bin Laden’s children, but the doctor in question has been arrested by the authorities in Pakistan.

But on the British Medical Journal’s forum doc2doc a lively debate has developed on the ethics of using medical care to track someone down.

Some believe that the action was taken for the ‘greater good’ and that the doctor should be freed.

GOUT AND OBESITY

Gout is often associated with an image of a red-faced older man, slightly overweight, with a glass of port in hand.

But the painful condition which affects the joints – often the joint at the base of the big toe - is on the increase amongst younger people who are obese.

One of the researchers who first identified this trend for gout to strike earlier is from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in the United States.

HEALTH MYTH - CHEESE AND SLEEP

Folklore would have us believe that cheese gives you nightmares - but does it?

HONEY AND SKIN INFECTIONS

A rather special kind of honey which is made by bees collecting nectar from manuka bushes in New Zealand and Australia looks like a promising bet to treat wounds.

Manuka honey has long been known for its anti-microbial properties - but it’s not been clear until now exactly how it works.

Now a team at Cardiff Metropolitan University in the UK has revealed that manuka honey inhibits the growth of ‘biofilms’ - communities of bacteria which can develop on the most difficult to treat wounds.