Methods
In 2018 and 2019, five macroregional events and one multidisciplinary group meeting were held, at which panels of Italian experts, including pulmonologists, general practitioners (GPs), allergists, National Health Service (NHS) payers and representatives of patients’ associations, discussed the diagnosis and treatment of patients with severe asthma. The meetings were organized according to geographic location, with participants from: Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige; Piedmont, Liguria and Aosta Valley; Sicily, Calabria and Basilicata; Lazio, Tuscany and Sardinia; and Campania and Apulia. Attendees were local allergists, pulmonologists, and GPs known to be experienced in the management of severe asthma. Attendees were invited to participate independently of the sponsoring pharmaceutical company, based on the physicians’ publication history, reputation and curriculum vitae. During the meetings, panels of experts (total n=58) and attendees (total n=127) were asked to identi
Can you really be transgender at four years old? Matthew Stubbings, and wife Klara Jeynes, both 44, from the English city of Doncaster, believe so. Their “son” Stormy was born as a girl named Emerald. However, from 18 months Emerald identified as a boy like her twin brother Arlo, so they are raising him as a boy.
“His gender identity, what’s in his head, doesn’t match his physical sex,” Stormy’s dad wrote on LinkedIn. “I am so proud that he knows who he is and isn’t constrained by societal norms and prejudices.”
Fortunately for these children and their parents and unfortunately for the experts at gender clinics, the latest news on this front leaves a cloud of doubt hovering over transgender medicine. It is increasingly looking like a kind of 21st century voodoo. In a series of publications doctors have expressed their dismay at the ready availability of gender transitioning and its rapid spread amongst young people.
Daily Times
A smoker’s right to choose better health While smoking can cause serious diseases, a large proportion of consumers find themselves unable to quit smoking altogether
May 6, 2021 Pakistan is one of 15 countries worldwide with a heavy burden of tobacco-related ill-health. Despite considerable tobacco control efforts, the smoking incidence in the country is not decreasing fast enough. Which is why tobacco harm reduction needs to be an additional measure complementary to the existing tobacco control efforts in the country. Advances in science and technology have enabled the development of better alternatives to smoking, presenting a huge opportunity for improving public health, if acted upon.
Current research activities include clinical trials of new and improved vaccines for children and adults, surveillance of invasive bacterial diseases and penumococcal vaccine impact in children in Nepal, studies of cellular and humoral immune responses to glycoconjugate and typhoid vaccines, and development of a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine.
ANDREW J POLLARD, FRCPCH PhD FMedSci, is Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity at the University of Oxford, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, Fellow of St Cross College and Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at the Children’s Hospital, Oxford, UK. He obtained his medical degree at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, University of London in 1989 and trained in Paediatrics at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, UK, specialising in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at St Mary’s Hospital, London, UK and at British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. He obtained his PhD at St Mary’s Hospital, London, UK in 199