News - Liberal Democrat Disability Association

Drug 'mends' muscular dystrophy

An experimental drug may be able to compensate for the genetic error responsible for some cases of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, US scientists hope. In rodents, the drug PTC124 was able to restore the muscle function normally lost in this disease, Nature reports. Trials have already begun in humans, although the results will take years. The drug works by allowing cells to read through certain mistakes in the genetic code for a protein - dystrophin - missing in 15% of patients with DMD.

25 Apr 2007

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Fears over care 'information gap'

There is a lack of information to help people with conditions such as diabetes to access local services, a study says. The Picker Institute said patients with chronic conditions and their carers often came up against "brick walls" when looking for help.

25 Apr 2007

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Town doubles its disabled spaces

Cheltenham has doubled the number of off-street disabled parking bays in its car parks to 55. Blue badge holders can park all day free of charge in any council off-street car park as long as their badge is displayed.

25 Apr 2007

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Pregnant woman's torturers jailed

A man and woman who kidnapped, stripped and tortured a pregnant teenager with learning difficulties have been jailed for a total of 17 years. Tammy McGregor, 19, had hot salted water poured over her wounds and cigarettes stubbed out on her at a flat in Aberdeen.

19 Apr 2007

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Haemophiliac deaths 'avoidable'

The supply of contaminated NHS blood products to haemophiliacs in the 1970s and 1980s was "wholly avoidable", an independent public inquiry has heard. Some 5,000 people were exposed to hepatitis C and of these more than 1,200 were also infected with HIV. Victims, and relatives of some of the more than 1,700 patients who died, have been addressing the privately-funded hearing, due to report in late summer. The government has said treatments were given in "good faith".

19 Apr 2007

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Tag dementia sufferers - minister

Elderly people with dementia could be tagged to make it easier to track their movements, a minister has proposed. Science Minister Malcolm Wicks told the BBC the satellite technology could enable them to lead fuller lives and would reassure their families. He said it would give sufferers, who often experience memory loss, "freedom to roam around their communities."

19 Apr 2007

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