October

Until recently, type 2 diabetes mellitus was almost unheard of in children, but over the past few years there has been a significant increase in incidence of this condition in children and adolescents. It has occurred too rapidly to be solely attributable to genetic predisposition, indicating that environmental factors are likely to play a key role in its development. 

I recently attended a patient self-management seminar. The idea is to involve patients in their own care, thereby increasing the chance that they will actually make appropriate lifestyle changes. After completing the course, filled with religious self-management fervor, I was un­leash­ed upon my unsuspecting patients. 

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic di­sease affecting British Col­umbians. Family physicians manage patients with osteoarthritis on a daily basis using strategies that range from reassurance to surgical intervention. Large joint OA, as exemplified by hip and knee osteoarthritis, places a significant burden on society be­cause of the disability associated with it. Patients affected by OA of the hip and knee often require surgical intervention. 

Recent industry concerns over Health Canada’s backlog of roughly 10000 so-called natural remedies awaiting pre-market review[1] have not gone unheeded by Health Canada. 

In a move reminiscent of a Kafka novel, the nation’s foremost health protection agency has decided to address the bottleneck posed by an already woefully lax screening process by simply exempting products from such review altogether for at least a couple of years.

Scope of problem
More than 60 years after the development of effective antimycobacterial therapy, tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant problem in British Columbia. Provincial TB rates exceed the Canadian average, attributable to the disproportionate burden in foreign-born and Aboriginal populations. Further reduction in the rates will require targeting populations at high risk of reactivation of latent TB with preventive treatment.