A roundup of today's other stories in brief.
Royal Free sets a medical first
The Royal Free Hospital in London has become the first in Britain to perform a new type of surgery for pancreatic cancer. The treatment is for those with advanced tumours that have spread to the portal vein. The technique involves cutting out the tumour and a long segment of the portal vein and replacing it with part of the jugular vein.
Research to look at disability services
Trinity College's School of Nursing and Midwifery has begun research to "examine the strengths and weaknesses of publicly funded Irish health services for women with disabilities in relation to pregnancy, child- birth, and early motherhood".
The researchers want to talk to women with disabilities who have experience of publicly funded maternity services. They include women who are blind/vision impaired; women who are deaf/hard of hearing; women with a physical disability; women with mental health difficulties; or women with an intellectual disability.
Contact: Denise Lawler at lawlerde@tcd.ie or tel: 086-3789758.
Whopping rise in whooping cough in Britain
Cases of whooping cough in Britain have risen 177 per cent since 2003, figures suggest. Provisional data released by the British Department of Health showed there were 1,071 cases in England last year.
This is up on the 539 cases in 2006 and a 177 per cent rise on the 386 cases in 2003.
Cases of tuberculosis (TB) have also risen by 17 per cent, from 6,741 in 2003 to 7,862 in 2006. Cholera has risen 52 per cent, from 25 cases to 38, while typhoid has gone up 17 per cent, from 174 cases in 2003 to 203 in 2006.
CVS gets triple cash injection
Queen's Centre for Vision Science (CVS) in Belfast has been boosted by grants of more than £500,000 (€765,000) from three charities to investigate the two leading causes of blindness in Britain and Northern Ireland. The centre's researchers, led by Prof Alan Stitt, will carry out studies of sight-threatening conditions affecting diabetics and the elderly over the next three years.
The largest grant came from the New York-based Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which has awarded more than £250,000 for research into diabetic retinopathy.
Prof Stitt has also been awarded two other grants to research into age-related macular degeneration (AMD) - the leading cause of sight loss in people over 50.
More than £170,000 has been granted by the charity Action Medical Research to try to find information about the molecular and cellular processes that damage the retina, and cause vision loss in AMD. The charity Fight for Sight has given £90,000 for other research.
Pricier pills a panacea for pain
A new study has found that people given identical pills received greater pain relief from the one they were told cost more.
The study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, told patients that one pill cost $2.50 and the other cost $0.10. "We expect more from products with high prices and good names and we wanted to see if these things could change how we react to pain medication," said MIT behavioural economist Dan Ariely, who led the research. "The answer seems to be yes."
Ariely said the findings could explain why many people report that generic drugs are less effective than their branded equivalents, and why a substantial number of patients prefer costly pain relievers to cheap alternatives, such as aspirin.
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Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity In Dying, which campaigns for greater patient choice at the end of life, commenting on a survey which showed that 76 per cent of those questioned agreed or strongly agreed that terminally ill people should be allowed medical help to die.
"This survey shows the majority of the public recognises the right to die as a fundamental choice at the end of life