Berna Cox takes a break from dusting and polishing to ponder on the merits of doing it at all.

The Department of Health and Children has issued advice to avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico.

Older men whose mela-noma is detected by a doctor are more likely to have thinner and therefore more treatable tumours at diagnosis, according to a new study.

Timing and whether a transplant co-ordinator makes the request are key factors in whether relatives consent to organ donation, according to a new study.

A relatively low dietary intake of vitamins A and C boosts the risk of asthma, according to a new analysis of available evidence.

Patients with thyroid cancer who have previously been exposed to radiation appear to have more aggressive disease and tend to have worse outcomes in the long term, according to a new report from Canada.

Dr Seamas Donnelly writes about the diagnosis and treatment of sarcoidosis, with Ireland having one of the highest incidences of the disease in the world At the National Pulmonary Fibrosis Referral Centre at St Vincent’s University Hospital, patients with progressive pulmonary fibrosis are diagnosed and managed in a multi-disciplinary team environment.

Mike Power, research psychologist, discusses how medicine can effectively mobilise a patient’s ‘hope-factors’ to aid their recovery.

Dr Maura Lynch, a Sister of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, writes about her work in Uganda on the Obstetric Fistula Project.

Initiatives to aid in the recognition, diagnosis and treatment of PVD, as identified by the Joint British Societies’ Guidelines, have been optimised by ACTION, the Atherosclerosis Circulation Training and Information Network.