equipocesca

A recent study concludes that mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) therapy provides the “same or better” relief for pain and disability, as current gold standard treatments for chronic unspecific low back pain (cLBP) caused by degenerative disc disease (DDD), namely spinal fusion and total disc replacement. This conclusion lacks scientific base, as pointe out in this [...]

There is a debate on vaccines. There is agreement on the advantages of some of them have for the individual and for the population, like the poliomyelitis, and there is great disagreement on others, like the vaccine against the human papilloma virus or the flu. In any case, vaccines should be a voluntary practice because [...]

The health system has four functions: 1/ health protection, 2/ health promotion, 3/ health prevention, and 4/ care of diseases and helping to die. In this text there is a proposal for a graphical representation that helps in understanding the medical activity. Logical graphical representation of medical activity. Gérvas, J. Diciembre 2011. Download English version here.

Influenza vaccines are useless. But every year millions of patients and healthy persons get vaccinated against flu virus. Cochrane reviews are consistent: flu vaccines are useless in healthy persons (elderly, adults and children under two years) and do not stop transmission in between humans. The case of Poland versus the world demonstrated that the vaccine [...]

All health services have adverse effects, all health services might produce damage to health. A few services produce more benefits than harms in specific situations. Unnecessary and inappropriate services mainly produce harms, and few benefits if any. Quaternary prevention is the prevention of unnecessary and/or inappropriate services and the prevention of over-medicalisation. Quaternary prevention refers mainly to personal services, [...]

Year after year we have heard about the need of a new flu vaccine shot because the virus mutations. But this season, 2011-2012, the flu vaccine is exactly the same of the previous one, 2010-2011. Now the reason is that the immunity lasts one year. It is a “terminator” vaccine, as the sterile seeds you [...]

Primary health care have a different status across countries. This paper is an exploration of the reasons why. Much can be learned by analysing Spain as a benchmark, and comparing it with other Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy, and Portugal). Critical steps in Europe to set up PHC under conditions of resource constraint. The case fo the [...]