Global Update

Indian Pediatrics 2002; 39:989

News in Brief

Scandal

Kidneys for sale: A journalist of the Sunday Times, posing as the son of a man in need of a renal transplant, has exposed the murky world of organ trafficking in the UK. Dr Bhagat Singh Makkar, a GP in Lewisham, London promised the journalist that he could arrange a live, unrelated donor from India in return for a fee. Little did he know that it was a trap and the conversation was being recorded. The General Medical Council has struck him off. It makes us wonder why men are compelled to sell their organs. Extreme poverty breeds extreme degradation (eBMJ 7 Sept 2002).

Environment

The problem with pesticides: Our habit of solving today’s problem without a care for tomorrow’s disaster will keep our country in an almost continuous crisis management situation. Take the case of endosulphan. This is a pesticide, banned in most parts of the world. The ban in India was lifted under pressure from pesticide manufacturers. Now an unpublished study done by the National Institute for Occupational Health has shown that children exposed to endosulphan have higher rates of learning disabilities (10% versus 3 %), have lower IQ’s and higher rates of congenital malformations (cardiac and skeletal). This has compelled the Kerala High Court to reinstate the ban. Perhaps the seed of many more of the illnesses we see, lies buried in our deteriorating environment ( eBMJ 17 August 2002).

Insurance

Premium pressures: Like the dodo, it is rumored that surgeons will soon become extinct in Australia. Sixty percent of this endangered species is planning to retire early and one third of those in training are planning to quit in the wake of 25 - 50% expected increase in the premiums for medical indemnity insurance. The country’s largest medical indemnity insurer became bankrupt in April this year leaving 32000 members without cover. Waiting lists for elective surgery are going to become gargantuan and many surgeons who specialize in specific areas will leave a vacuum, which will not be easily filled. In the US too, obstetric departments are actually closing down because it is too costly too bear the premiums (eBMJ 7 Sept 2002).

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