From the Library

“Once hope of a cure is extinguished in the newly blind adult, there is typically a period of self-mourning, in which the individual retreats from ordinary interaction. Often they speak little, respond tersely if at all to questions, and spend long hours sitting almost motionless. It is an insulative emotional mechanism, an understandable brief response to a profound loss, but also an unconscious ritual of passage. This self-mourning is a signpost of shock and depression, but also a kind of beginning. In the self-imposed silence and stillness, a new way of comprehending the world begins to unfold.” (Roberts, J. A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler. New York, Simon & Schuster; 2006:47.)

Recently researchers from the University of Adelaide have altered a harmless strain of EscherichiaColi to create a possible treatment for certain types of diarrhea. This decoy bacteria neutralises 99.9% of toxins released by more pathogenic bacteria in the intestinal system. In laboratory experiments this decoy bacteria was effective in treating mice with cholera.

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Children with infantile or congenital esotropia usually have surgery in the first few years of life. Many of these children have additional surgeries and may also require treatment for amblyopia. A 20 year follow-up of this disorder was performed at …