An article on antibiotics included this quote from England’s chief medical officer, Sally Davies: “In the Ganges during pilgrimage season, there are levels of antibiotics in the river that we try to achieve in the bloodstream of patients.” Dame Sally had inadvertently conflated two studies: one on bacteria levels in the Ganges and another on industrial discharges in the Hyderabad area. The latter found that effluent from a treatment plant had concentrations of antibiotics higher than bloodstream levels (“The world is facing an antibiotic apocalypse”, News, last week, pages 8-9). An accompanying commentary piece confused neonatal mortality figures when it said incorrectly that globally almost half of newborns would die before they reached 28 days. To clarify: each year, almost half (45%) of the 5.9m global deaths of children under five are babies younger than 28 days old.
Our radio review last week lamented the departure of Edith Bowman from Virgin Radio, saying she had “walked or been binned by the powers that be”. Ms Bowman tells us it was her decision to leave (New Review, last week, page 26).
“… the line Lear says to Ophelia…” (New Review, last week, page 25). That would be Cordelia.
Write to Stephen Pritchard, Readers’ Editor, the Observer, Kings Place 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk tel 020 3353 4656
