Watching the World
How Safe Are Hospitals?
Can hospitals and doctors be hazardous to your health? It virtually goes without saying that they do more good than harm. However, a Harvard University study in the United States found that of over 2,500,000 patients discharged from hospitals in New York State in a single year, nearly 100,000 had suffered “adverse events,” or injuries caused by medical management as opposed to disease. In 27,179 of these cases, negligence was involved. The risk of such mishaps doubled for patients 65 years old or older. Similarly, researchers in Germany examined 780 postmortems carried out there between 1977 and 1990; they found that in 25 percent of the cases, the patients had died of causes that their doctors failed to diagnose. The rate of such errors did not decrease over the 13 years studied, despite scientific progress.
A Greater Role for the UN?
The Paris newspaper Le Figaro reports that the world’s seven most powerful industrial nations have made an official declaration calling for the United Nations to play a greater peace-keeping role in the international community. The declaration states in part: “We are committing ourselves to making the United Nations more powerful and more effective with a view to protecting human rights, maintaining peace and security, and preventing aggression.” The declaration emphasizes the need for a change in the traditional concept of national sovereignty, and it supports UN intervention in countries where human rights violations threaten world peace.
Africa in Anguish
◻ “The World Health Organisation [WHO] estimates that African women constitute 1.2 million of the 1.7 million women infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus which causes AIDS,” states the Nigerian Sunday Concord. Babies born to these women have a 20 to 45 percent chance of being infected with the virus, this indicating that “gains made in child survival and development in the last two decades could soon be reversed.” In one East African nation, 14 percent of all AIDS victims are under four years of age.
◻ Cholera is also sweeping through a number of African countries “at a catastrophic pace,” according to WHO. Although fewer cases have been reported in Africa than in South America, where the epidemic struck earlier in the year, the number of deaths has been much higher. Through July 18 of this year, there were 3,488 deaths reported. Zambia had over 11,000 cases of cholera, with 981 deaths; Nigeria more than 7,600 cases, with 990 deaths; and Ghana some 6,500 cases, with 181 deaths.
◻ Because of drought and the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from civil wars in Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Sudan, “millions of people are facing famine conditions” in the Horn of Africa, says James C. Ingram, executive director of the World Food Program. It is feared that the famine will be as severe as the one that struck the region in the mid-1980’s, when over a million people died of starvation.
Child Abuse in Japan
“The number of children battered, neglected or sexually harassed by their parents and guardians is soaring in Japan,” according to the Mainichi Daily News. Cases reported more than tripled in number during a recent five-year period. According to The Daily Yomiuri, when a group of college professors surveyed 350 women students enrolled in a course on sexual violence, they found that 68 percent of those who responded had been sexually abused during childhood. However, the Mainichi Daily News notes that despite the extent and growth of the problem, “Japanese society barely acknowledges the issue, partly reflecting the fact that killing unwanted babies of both sexes and selling daughters to brothels were common practices until earlier this century.” Experts warn, though, that child abuse will get out of control unless appropriate measures are promptly taken. Japan now has several organizations and telephone hotlines set up to help such victims.
AIDS Specter Haunts Hemophiliacs
AIDS is decimating Spain’s hemophiliacs. According to a report in the Madrid daily El País, over 200 have already died of AIDS; 300 more have the dreadful disease. The situation will probably get worse. There are some 2,730 registered hemophiliacs in Spain, and nearly 90 percent of those who have a factor VIII deficiency—the most common form of hemophilia—have tested positive for the AIDS virus. Medical experts have blamed contaminated blood products for this tragedy. On a positive note, at a recent congress of hemophiliacs, it was announced that a synthetic factor VIII blood fraction will soon be available in Spain.
Sunbathers Beware
The ozone layer over Europe is thinning rapidly. According to New Scientist magazine, the Stratospheric Ozone Review Group recently published a report showing that the ozone layer above Europe suffered an 8 percent drop between 1979 and 1990. That is twice as fast as the rate of depletion that scientists had predicted. Apparently, Europe has seen more ozone loss than even such countries as New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, which are close to the ozone “hole” that forms annually over Antarctica. Many people in these countries in the Southern Hemisphere habitually use sun-blocking lotions, since a depleted ozone layer lets in more of the sun’s deadly ultraviolet-B rays. According to England’s Guardian Weekly, some British scientists are recommending that the British take similar precautions when sunbathing.
“Most Prolific Mother”
Leontina Judith Espinoza is listed as “the world’s most prolific mother” in the Guinness Book of World Records. According to the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, she is now expecting her 74th child at 60 years of age. She has been pregnant 35 times and has given birth to 73 children, of whom 39 were triplets and 24 were twins. The oldest of the 61 children still living is 44. “Born in Argentina and a Chilean citizen since 1963,” says the paper, “Leontina lives modestly with her husband and 32 children in a village close to Rancagua, 90 km [56 mi] south of Santiago.”
Mail-Order Mayhem
The British magazine The Economist recently decried an American catalog that advertises books on how to carry out a horrifying array of criminal acts. The catalog reportedly offers books on such topics as: how to make grenades, bombs, mines, and shotgun mortars; how to fight with knives or brawl in barrooms; how to kill people silently; how to con people out of their money; how to pick locks and bug rooms electronically; and how to conceal weapons and smuggle contraband through checkpoints. The catalog even panders to any who might run afoul of the law for putting such information to use. It has books on how to establish a new identity, how to pass a lie-detector test, and how to use the law to evade the justice system.
Check-Fraud Epidemic
South Africa is facing the worst epidemic of check fraud in its history, according to the newspaper The Natal Witness. It seems that the number of summonses against individuals and businesses for passing bad checks has increased by 22 percent, from 4,600 to 5,600 per month in the last year. These figures represent only a fraction of the problem, though, since they do not reflect those who steal checks; besides, financial experts estimate that only 1 retailer in 4 actually turns to the law for redress when given a bad check. The others simply take the loss.
Everlasting Soles
Of all people, who has the greatest need for long-lasting soles on their shoes? That question was prompted by a recent Daedalus column in the British science magazine Nature. It speculated on use of certain monomers that could, theoretically, lead to the production of a “self-retreading tyre that will never wear out.” The magazine noted that such a technology, if developed, could even supply running shoes with self-retreading soles! However, Nature observes that “most running shoes are owned by fashion-dazed couch potatoes who seldom even amble.” The magazine thus concluded that such “everlasting” soles would be more useful on the “utilitarian shoes of people who really use their feet—housewives, salesmen and Jehovah’s witnesses.”