Cabinet rules that South Africans must be given antiretrovirals

Curves That Must Be Retraced

We exhibit a polynomial time computable plane curve Γ that has finite length, does not intersect itself, and is smooth except at one endpoint, but has the following property. For every computable parametrization f of Γ and every positive integer n, there is some positive-length subcurve of Γ that f retraces at least n times. In contrast, every computable curve of finite length that does not int...

Fee-for-Service Payment – An Evil Practice that Must be Stamped Out?

Co-opting physicians to regulate Fee-for-Service (FFS) payment is more feasible and simpler to administer than capitation, Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs) and pay-for-performance. The key lies in designing and revising the fee schedule, which not only defines and sets the fee for each item, but also the conditions of billing. Adherence to these regulations must be strictly audited in order to c...

Vaccines must be given in order to protect.

(See the articles by Gallagher et al. and Moss et al., on pages 339–46 and 347–55, respectively.) Potential conflicts of interest: none reported. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two articles in this issue of the Journal [1, 2] highlight the importance and ...

Prediction rules must be developed according to methodological guidelines.

Free Antiretrovirals Must Not Be Restricted Only to Treatment-Naive Patients

D espite the " 3 by 5 " initiative [1], which aims to treat 3 million people with antiretrovirals (ARVs) by the end of 2005, access to ARVs in resource-poor settings remains limited. Moreover, in some ARV-access programmes, free ARVs are provided only, or preferentially, to patients who are ARV naive. Treatment restricted to patients who are ARV naive was initially the case in Uganda, with the ...