In this issue

Guide to Fringe Events At the Party Conferences

News: 'Health Tourism' Row

News: Small chemists to get market protection

News: Bill gets hearing

News: NHS reveals IT shortlist

News: WWF chemical regulation call

News: Doubts over poor pill taking and HIV drug resistance

News: Drug choices vital to schizophrenia recovery

News: Britain Against Cancer

News: Who's the new DG?

News: New HRT scare

News: Draft bill committee membership announced

Diary

Asparagus, Beaujolais and Canapes
Dr Paul Collinson outlines an ABC of cardiovascular disease and diagnostic tests

Body training
Educating diabetics to manage their own blood sugar levels would significantly reduce the likelihood of expensive complications, writes Dr Arun Baksi and Pat Wilson

A preventable tragedy
Group B Streptococcus is the most common cause of life threatening infection in new born babies, writes David Cameron MP. Many other western countries now routinely test for it - so why don't we?

Food and Fitness

Spot lite on labelling
We must put an end to the meaningless and vague claims made on food packaging, argues Catherine Stihler MEP

Recipe for disaster
New EU proposals on food labelling amount to censorship of manufacturers, warns Martin Paterson, and will baffle consumers

Countering the couch-kid culture
As Britain faces up to an alarming rise in obesity, Sarah Revell examines what can be done to encourage children to take more exercise

Book Review
Jolyon Kimble reviews Fatland: How Americans became the fattest people in the world, by Greg Critser, Penguin, £9.99

Whatever you do stays in Cancun"
The UK is not alone in experiencing an epidemic of sexually transmitted disease. Munizha Ahmad reports from the holiday resorts of Mexico, on the potent cocktail of sun, alcohol and anonymity that is the ultimate recipe for fun, liberation - and danger

Hard to stomach

The hidden disease
Just under half of all deaths from epilepsy are avoidable - yet the stigma surrounding the condition appears impenetrable as ever, reports Dr Tom Stuttaford

Book review
Dr Grant Kelly reviews e-Pathways: computers and the patient's journey through care, edited by Kathryn de Luc and Julian Todd, Radcliffe Medical Press, £27.95

Cracking the Code
Gene therapy is bringing hope to sick children previously considered incurable, writes Sally Dawson

Fertility rights
Infertility is not a 'life-style' issue but a serious, genuine and solvable medical problem, says Dr Gillian Lockwood

Plane Sailing?
Although there is a greater public awareness of DVT, few airline passengers actually know what the risk factors are, writes Sandra Gidley MP

System under strain
The UK is still making slow progress in providing specialist stroke care, writes Jim Cunningham MP

Power to the purchaser
Excluding the markets from healthcare has helped deny the poor and weak the full benefits of modern provision which they enjoy in Europe, argues Professor John Spiers

A man for all seasons
John Reid is now into his fourth cabinet job in the last year. Tom Price asks if the man with a reputation as a bruiser may yet prove to be the tonic the NHS needs

Moral law
The draft mental incapacity bill raises important questions about patient choice. Simon Greaves investigates

A question of dignity
Amongst its many benefits, a mental incapacity act would enhance the self-respect of both the sufferers of Alzheimer's and those that care for them, says David Lepper MP

Fair warning
Unless new legislation provides Mental Health Tribunals with operational definitions of the 'nature' and 'degree' of mental disorder, inconsistent interpretations will continue to apply, argues Dr Elizabeth Perkins

Minority report
Lord Chan welcomes the DoH acknowledgement that more must be done to tackle inequality, racism and institutional discrimination within mental health services

Shock value
New research appears to show that the very reason why ECT works is linked to its most worrying side-effect of memory loss, reports Dr Raj Persaud

Scale of the problem
Nanotechnology poses potentially grave risks to the environment, human health and consumer choice, says Dr Caroline Lucas MEP

A lost opportunity

Rough cuts
Changes to university research funding risk undermining healthcare research which underpins the UK's vital pharmaceutical and bio-medical industries, argue Paul Turner, Michael Powell and Eve Jagusiewicz

Injection of hope
Former nurse Laura Moffatt MP explains what she has done to reduce the risk of NHS workers suffering needlestick injuries

Book review
Tom Price reviews Fighting Infection, House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology (HL 138) £12.50 TSO (or available free online)