Technology

New drugs on the block: Blank looks and wild thoughts appear when terms like lysosomal storage disorders are heard by most pediatricians. But the news that enzyme replacement therapy is now available for atleast 3 of these disorders must alert us to refresh our memories about them. Type I Gauchers which clinically presents in adulthood with anemia, thrombocytopenia and spleenomegaly has had intravenous enzyme replacement therapy , available for more than a decade. But in those deemed unfit for this, oral therapy has been licensed for use in Europe since this year. Anderson -Fabry disease which can present with disparate find-ings ranging from pain crisis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and renal failure and type 1 mucopolysachharidase have also seen enzyme replacement therapy becoming available recently this year (eBMJ 30 August 2003).

Improving TRIPS: In the complex jungle of trade, law, politics and economics, the milk of human kindness often turns sour. But hope burgeons afresh after the landmark Geneva meeting on 30 August. Poor countries in desperate need of life saving drugs can now ask countries like India and South Africa which have a strong generic drug industry to produce cheaper versions of the drug for them. Of course under close supervision by big brother countries to see they are not secretly siphoned off to developed nations.The deal reached under the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Council (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization, covers diagnostic kits as well as drugs ( eBMJ 20 September 2003).

Sleeping with the enemy: While lot of work has been done to study how computers and television in children's bedrooms are delaying sleep in children a new potential threat has also been identified. In Europe children wake up several times at night to pick up text messages on their mobile phones. In the Leuven study on media and adolescent health based in Belgium, 2500 children aged 13 and 16 were studied. 13.4 % of 13 year olds and 20.8% of 16 year olds wake up 1-3 times per month and more than 2% of them wake up every night to pick up text messages. At the rate the mobile telephony industry is exploding, this may be the wake up call for all parents to nip this potential disaster in the bud ( eBMJ 13 Sep 2003)

Gouri Rao Passi,
Consultant, Department of Pediatrics,
Choithram Hospital & Research Center,
Indore 452 001, India.
Email: [email protected]