This week is European Immunization Week, which exists to “boost awareness of the importance of vaccination and increase the success of immunization programmes nationally and throughout the Region.” Here is the Welsh Chief Medical Officer views on vaccination:

After providing clean water, air and food, vaccination is the most effective public health intervention for saving lives and protecting our health.

And it’s not too late to vaccinate, if you found yourself caught up in a vaccine scare.

Do you turn from a scientist who publishes an important paper on cell membranes that is cited by thousands of other papers into a man standing in front of an “Expose the 9/11 Cover-Up” poster talking about vaccine conspiracies?

Here’s a paper in the The British Journal of Diabetes & Vascular Disease I’ve just published with a colleague about prescribing errors in diabetes that may be of interest to some readers.

Prescribing errors in diabetes have the potential to cause serious adverse effects. Antidiabetic agents are a significant cause of admission to hospital. Prescribing errors can be caused by poor handwriting, failure to communicate clearly, and by the use of inappropriate abbreviations. Serious errors involving insulin have been reported in the UK media. While education and training may reduce the number of errors, experience shows that errors will continue to occur without changes to systems. Br J Diabetes Vasc Dis 2009;9:84—88

Here is a list of UK newspaper reports of errors related to the use of insulin in hospitals since 2000:

2001 Blood glucose reading misinterpreted, and failure to monitor insulin pump. Fatal.

2001 Junior doctor ignorant of insulin syringe use; ten times overdose; attributed to lack of training. Fatal.

2002 70 units to be administered to child by nurse, instead of 7 units; error spotted before administration by parent No harm.

2002 Misheard advice over phone; led to 50 units being prescribed instead of 15 units. Patient died, but coroner did not attribute death to error.

2003 Junior doctor administered 50 units instead of 5 units. Fatal.

2003 Overdose of insulin; no details available. Coroner recorded verdict of death by natural causes, but patient did not recover consciousness following error.

2004 Poor handwriting in prescribing records led to 40 units being given instead of 4 units. Fatal.

2005 Junior doctor used wrong syringe, believing 1 unit of insulin in 1ml; 100 times overdose; attributed to lack of training. Fatal.

Fans of Battlestar Galactica will be pleased to know that the Asssociation of Teachers and Lecturers are taking action to protect UK schools from a Cylon attack. Colin “Adama” Kinney, from Cookstown High School in Northern Ireland, is aware of the Cylon’s ability to hijack wireless networks.

‘Let’s stick to wired computers and other wired devices for the time being.

‘Ok, so teachers may have to wait a little longer for their IT suite to become available but at least we will be protecting the earth from Cylon attack. Everybody remembers what happened to Caprica‘

Or something like that.

The Telegraph provides more information:

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, which represents more than 160,000 staff, called for a major investigation into the biological and thermal effects of wi-fi.
[...]
At the ATL’s annual conference in Liverpool, teachers backed calls for curbs on the use of wi-fi until health risks have been properly assessed.

Colin Kinney, a teacher from Cookstown High School, Northern Ireland, said: “Have we the right to avoid the moral warnings simply for access to a few more computers? Are our pupils going to thank us in the years to come if they have become sterile or suffer from cancer, brought on by or exacerbated by the exposure to wi-fi?
[...]

The union backed calls for a Government investigation into the “considerable biological and thermal effects” and for the results to be made public.

The union may be pleased to know that the Health Protection Agency is currently undertaking a two year study into the effects of wi-fi. Hopefully it will report this year, or early next year. In the meantime, banning Wi-FI from schools is an over-reaction, as well as being impractical as children are exposed to multiple Wi-Fi transmitters in the streets they live in. If there is a risk the ban should be nation-wide.

Wi-Fi scare stories in the media just keep coming. Here’s Panorama at Bad Science, people who can feel emails being sent, and the classics teacher who only felt well at the weekends.

Remember Wi-Fi eats babies!

On Friday 17th April 2009 you could attend a one day course at Aston University on drug metabolism.

Drug metabolism exerts a powerful influence on drug action - from complete failure of a drug’s effectiveness to life-threatening toxicity. This course focuses on the aims, responses and processes of human drug biotransformation systems. As a result, it will assist health care professionals - particularly new prescribers (e.g. nurses, podiatrists or optometrists) to develop their drug therapy practices.

It’s hosted by Prof Michael Coleman, who combines academia with being cool and witty in equal measure.