MORNING AFTER PILL TO BE DELIVERED BY COURIER
The Daily Telegraph (p9) and the Daily Mail (p21) say that for 20 pounds women will be able to order the morning after pill online, so that the drug is delivered by courier to their home or office.
The service is being launched in London to save women from visiting their GP. Critics claim the service it will encourage underage sex by making the pill easier to obtain.
GOVERNMENT'S FLU STRATEGY MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO DEATHS
The Guardian (p4), The Independent (p8), The Times (p10) and the Daily Mail (p19) report that according to the former chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson, the government’s decision to scrap the flu awareness campaign may have contributed to a rise in deaths.
The Times says: “A survey by Donaldson and researchers from Oxford University and Imperial College London found that there were a third more deaths in 2010-2011 than in 2009-10, 474 to 361. By contrast, deaths fell in every other European country except Greece and Italy.”
Donaldson concluded in his report that this was “likely” to have been caused by “striking” differences in the government response and a “laissez-faire” approach to the flu outbreak, reports The Independent.
“The Department of Health said the comparison was inappropriate and blamed a ‘particularly cold winter’ last year for the greater number of deaths,” says The Times.
UK LAGS BEHIND EUROPE IN ALZHEIMER'S TREATMENT
The Daily Mail (p36,37) focuses on the UK’s “shameful record” of Alzheimer’s diagnosis, especially when compared with how other countries deal with the disease.
For example a survey conducted by Pfizer found that a majority of physicians in six different European countries recommended treatment at the time of diagnosis. However in the UK this only happened in 51% of cases, whereas in Poland or Spain it happened in 86% of cases.
Dr David Wilkinson from Southampton’s Memory Assessment and Research Centre, adds: “While things such as combination drug treatment (prescribing memantine and donepezil) is now standard treatment in France, Italy, Spain and many U.S. states, we’re still lagging behind, as always.”
According to a 2005 Facing Dementia survey, most European physicians accepted there is a “critical window of opportunity” for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, and that most of these should begin immediately, but in the UK only about half the doctors felt there was a critical window for initiating treatment.