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"Right now, all transplantations on foreign patients are deemed suspended. Kidney transplantation is not part of medical tourism." -Health undersecretary ALEXANDER PADILLA, announcing a temporary halt to kidney transplantation on foreigners following reports that poor Filipinos have been selling their kidneys for a pittance.
"Patients usually ask 'paano ako magkaka hepa B e di naman ako umiinom ng alak.' Alcohol intake does not lead to hepa B. Drinking can only aggravate, and if you have a preexisting alcoholic liver disease, it can be aggravated by having hepatitis B." -Gastroentorologist JAIME IGNACIO, correcting misconceptions about the link between alcohol intake and hepatitis B.
"Ninety percent of alcohol drinkers, those who take more than four to five drinks daily, will develop fatty liver (or alcoholic steatohepatitis). That is already a given. If you check patients with alcohol liver disease, both their serum cholesterol and triglyceride are usually already abnormal. Because of that the liver cannot process the fatty acids." -Gastroenterologist LUIS ABOLA, on the role of alcohol in fatty-liver disease
"The costs of inaction are simply too high. Without concerted and evidence-based responses, Asia can expect an economic [annual] loss of US$2 billion by 2020." -DR. CHAKRAVARTHI RANGARAJAN, chair of the Commission on AIDS in Asia, warning of an AIDS epidemic in Asia
"It could be argued that the very business model of the fast-food industry promotes gorging. Advertising campaigns frequently emphasize the extra value of enormous portion sizes offered for an apparently minimal in cost over smaller orders. Free beverage refills in some establishments exemplify this strategy. -DR. CARA EBBELING, Children's Hospital Boston, and colleagues, in a study on the fast-food industry, Pediatrics, May 2007
"We are doing our best to bring it to clinics as quick as possible." -SHINYA YAMANAKA of Kyoto University, following their development of a technique to transform human-skin cells into stem cells similar to embryonic stem cells
"In science, generally, we allow for being wrong five percent of the time. "If you use the wrong analysis methods with this kind of study, you might be wrong half the time. We're not going to advance science if we're wrong half the time." -DAVID MURRAY, Ohio State University's College of Public Health, on flawed statistical analysis in many cancer trials |
