BOOKS FOR CHILDREN ANSWERS QUESTIONS
Books can answer children's questions. Concrete, practical questions, and silly, fantastic questions. Questions about bodies, about animals, about plants, and about the stars. Questions about other people and other places and other ways of living and thinking and doing. Books answer questions-for every stage, for every age, for every child.
Wash Your Hands, by Tony Ross, addresses one of kids' favorites, "Why?" and gives parents better answers than "because I said so" or "because they're filthy, that's why." It makes kids giggle, laugh, snort, and wash their hands.
This is the Tree by Miriam Moss, illustrated by Adrienne Kennaway, answers older children's questions about other worlds and other places, about animals, and about how lives are changed and enriched by nature. Answering some questions, it provokes more about ecology and the environment.
For further information, contact Kira Lynn, Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 858/456-9641.
PARTNERS AGAINST PAIN STUDIES CHRONIC PAIN TREATMENTS
Patients in chronic pain are so dissatisfied with the efficacy of their prescription and over-the-counter pain control medications that 78% are willing to try new treatments and 43% would spend more on a treatment if they knew it would work, according to a national U.S. survey commissioned by Partners Against Pain (PAP), an educational program sponsored by Purdue Pharma. PAP commissioned the survey to identify the scope of pain management, including access and barriers to treatment within the United States. According to the National Institutes of Health, pain costs Americans more than $100 billion each year in health care costs and lost productivity.
Pain has a tremendous personal cost as well. Many of the surveyed patients believe their family is tired of hearing about their pain-related problems, such as quality of life issues, and think that their family does not understand how their pain affects their life. Forty percent of patients surveyed are uncomfortable discussing their pain with family and friends; 37% of patients say it can be isolating.
PAP is a public service program of Purdue Pharma intended to educate health care professionals and patients about appropriate pain management. For more information, visit the PAP website at http://www.partnersagainstpain.com.
NATIONAL NETWORK FOR IMMUNIZATION INFORMATION
The National Network for Immunization Information (NNii) was launched in October 2000 to meet the pressing need for timely, accurate, clear, objective information on immunization issues. The organization's purpose is to help parents and others make informed decisions about immunization by ensuring that they have access to the information that they need. NNii has two educational tools designed to help parents, physicians, nurses, and policy makers make better vaccine decisions-a resource kit, "Communicating with Patients about Immunizations," and a web site, http://www.immunizationinfo.org. The executive director of NNii is Bruce G. Gellin, MD, MPH.
LIPODYSTROPHY STUDY RESULTS
A recent survey sponsored by Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. found that 71% of physicians who treat people living with HIV believe the causes of lipodystrophy are multi-factorial. The survey comprised 300 physicians who had written at least 22 prescriptions for HIV medications in the past month and who treat an average of 130 patients.
Lipodystrophy is a condition that affects some people with HIV and is characterized by abnormal distribution of fat, which may include an increase in abdominal girth, fat accumulation behind the neck (known as buffalo hump), and/or lipoatrophy (the loss of fat in the face and limbs). The physicians surveyed identified several factors as likely contributors to lipodystrophy: the use of protease inhibitors, the use of nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, use of nucleoside analogs, the length of HIV infection, and the time of antiviral therapy. Most physicians surveyed supported the need for additional prospective trials to define more clearly lipodystrophy and its causes.