30 August 2012 Last updated at 05:52 ET More than 35,000-worth of drugs have been seized in an operation to combat drug-related violence in Southampton. Hampshire Constabulary said it had made more than 70 arrests in the three months since the launch of Operation Fortress, at the end of May. About 74,000 in cash had also been seized, officers said. Police are also working with councils and other agencies to tackle the root causes of illegal drug use. Det Supt Kath Barnes, who is leading the operation, said: "I'm bowled over by the support we have had for Operation Fortress since we launched it - everybody wants to be a part of this because they can really see that it's making a difference. "We have put over half a dozen people in touch with drug treatment services and adult services." Operation Fortress was set up in response to a number of violent incidents in the city, including a shooting and a number of stabbings. Southampton also has the highest proportion of illegal drug users in Hampshire, according to police. "We are going to make Southampton a really difficult place to operate from for dealers," Det Supt Barnes continued. Follow this … Continue reading →

In countries such as South Africa, drugs commonly used to treat tuberculosis are becoming less effective as strains of the diseases develop resistance. Image: Tom Fox/Dallas Morning News/Corbis Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way... Read More From Nature magazine More than 40% of tuberculosis infections that are resistant to front-line treatments are also resistant to some common backup drugs, according to research published this week in The Lancet1. Efforts to control tuberculosis are being hampered by the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of the disease, which resist treatment with two front-line antibiotics, rifampicin and isoniazid. In some parts of the world, as many as 50% of tuberculosis cases are resistant to these drugs2. Alternative treatment options are toxic and expensive, relying on second-line drugs that are not as effective and must be given in lengthy courses. Unfortunately, the majority of MDRtuberculosis cases occur in developing countries that cant afford the several billion dollars that the global Stop TB Partnershipestimates3 will be required to combat the disease. More recently, strains of tuberculosis have emerged that are resistant not only to front-line antibiotics, … Continue reading →

30 August 2012 Last updated at 02:23 ET The number of deaths from drugs misuse in Wales fell in 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, the overall trend has shown a sharp rise in the death rate over the past two decades. Last year 137 people died, but that compared with 33 in 1993 and 89 in 2005. The death rate peaked in 2010 with 152 deaths, and the rate still remains higher in Wales compared with every other region in England, said the ONS. However, Ifor Williams, chief executive of the Swansea Drugs Project, was encouraged by last year's fall in deaths and said it showed education and prevention projects were working. "I think it's important that we take the positive rather than seeing the figures from the last 20 years," he said. There's no real evidence to show there are fewer people taking drugs, but this does show us that education and prevention is taking effect Mr Williams said the Welsh government has been "focused" in the last couple of years on preventing deaths and users have been able to carry the antidote naloxone. Naloxone works by temporarily blocking the effect of the opiate … Continue reading →

A biotech company called Cerulean says its nanoparticle-delivered cancer drugs are better at attacking tumors. One result of the side effects of cancer treatments is that patients often can't tolerate or survive a combination of different drugs at the same timewhich can limit a doctor's ability to knock out the disease. The head of a Boston-area biotech called Cerulean Pharmathinks the solution is nanoparticle-delivered drugs, which have fewer and less severe side effects. They could make it easier for doctors to mount a multipronged attack on tumors and kill the cells before they can develop a resistance to any one compound. Cancer cells can develop resistance to individual drugs very quickly, says Oliver Fetzer, CEO of Cerulean. And he points to recent studies showing that different cells within the same tumor can have different genetic mutations. In some cases, that means that a drug that kills cancer cells in one part of a tumor may not work in other parts. This tumor diversity suggests that it would be best to hit cancer cells with multiple drugs at once to make it extremely difficult for the tumor to develop resistance to all therapies. Nanoparticles could help achieve this goal. The nanoparticles … Continue reading →