PEOPLE infected with HIV might

well want to know who gave it to

them – but the genetic sequence

of their virus won’t tell them.

The virus is now routinely

sequenced in each infected person

to uncover drug-resistance genes,

but virus sequences have also

been used in several high-profile

court cases by lawyers seeking to

show who infected whom. This

has led some HIV carriers to

wonder if they might be able to

do the same.

“The data won’t work for that,”

warns Deenan Pillay of University

College London – because HIV

evolves too fast. This means that

even though the viruses from two

people may look similar, other

local viruses may even be more

alike. Analysing them can’t show

whether A infected B or vice versa,

whether it went through a third

person or whether both were

infected by another person (BMJ, DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39315.398843.BE).

However, the British database –

now the world’s largest collection

of viral sequences from a national

epidemic – could answer other

important questions. For example,

it could tell us whether certain

strains tend to spread among

certain risk groups, or where the

super-spreaders of HIV are.

MANY hospitals already restrict

cellphone use to prevent signals

interfering with sensitive medical

equipment. Now a study suggests

that modern cellphones have a

bigger effect on equipment than

older phones and that regulations

may need to be beefed up to

protect patients.

Erik van Lieshout and

colleagues at the University of

Amsterdam’s Academic Medical

Centre in the Netherlands tested

61 pieces of medical equipment

commonly used in critical care

units, such as ventilators and

syringe pumps, and found that

33 per cent of the devices were

adversely affected by cellphone

signals. Problems included

mechanical ventilators shutting

down, safety alarms being

disabled and external pacemakers

malfunctioning. “Any effect on

such equipment could be

extremely detrimental to

patients,” says van Lieshout.

General packet radio service

(GPRS) signals, used in most

internet-enabled phones, were

the worst offenders, affecting

some equipment from up to 3

metres. Conversely, universal

“HIV sequences have been used by lawyers seeking to show who infected whom”

“Mechanical ventilators shut down and external pacemakers malfunctioned”

BEYOND Einstein? It nearly didn’t

get beyond mission control.

Facing cutbacks, NASA has picked

dark energy as the subject of the

first of its Beyond Einstein

missions due to begin in 2009.

Forced to choose between

several missions, including an

observatory for studying gravity

waves, and the Black Hole Finder

probe, the agency asked the US

National Research Council for

recommendations. The winner,

the Joint Dark Energy Mission

(JDEM), will study the force

thought to be accelerating the

expansion of the universe. NASA

will now select between one of

three competing JDEM designs.

“We were worried that things

had slowed down in all the

sciences [at NASA],” says Saul

Perlmutter of the University of

California, Berkeley, who heads a

team that has submitted one of

the competing designs.

ER P

RODU

CTIO

NS/C

ORBI

S

mobile telecommunications

system (UMTS) signals used on

3G networks were less harmful,

with phones needing to be within

centimetres of equipment to

have an effect (Critical Care,

DOI: 10.1186/cc6115).

While many authorities offer

guidelines to hospitals, these are

often ignored, says van Lieshout,

“and doctors are some of the

worst offenders”.

DANI

EL H

EAF

–Unwanted interference?–

–All together now…–

60 SECONDS

Prozac down, suicide up

Suicide rates in young people may be

rising as they shun antidepressants.

Use of selective serotonin reuptake

inhibitors (SSRIs) began dropping in

2003 afters fears surfaced over their

safety. But while prescriptions fell,

youth suicides increased over the

next two years by 49 per cent in the

Netherlands and 14 per cent in the US

(The American Journal of Psychiatry,

DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07030454).

Fake drugs flood

Fake malaria drugs have flooded the

Kenyan market, prompting Chinese

manufacturer Holley-Cotec to withdraw

some 20,000 doses of genuine

artemisinin-based drugs as people

struggle to tell them apart. Fake

artemisinin is rife in south-east Asia,

but had never been seen before in

Kenya, says Willy Akwale, head of the

country’s malaria control programme.

Ebola outbreak in Congo

Ebola virus has broken out in the

Democratic Republic of Congo, 300

kilometres east of Kikwit, where it last

struck the country in 1995. So far nearly

half of the 400 people stricken with

the virus since late August have died

and new cases continue to appear.

Anyone for bioweapons?

Texas A&M University in College Station

allowed unauthorised staff to handle

potential bioweapons on at least seven

occasions, according to a report by

the US Centers of Disease Control and

Prevention, called in after claims that

workers were infected with brucellosis

and exposed to Q fever. Biodefence

research at Texas A&M remains on hold

until the university gets the all clear .

Opportunity awakes

The Mars rover Opportunity is awake

once more. Dust kicked up by huge

storms covered the rover’s solar panels,

forcing NASA to shut it down. Fresh

winds have now cleared the dust, and

as New Scientist went to press, NASA

was preparing to drive Opportunity

into Mars’ giant Victoria crater.

HIV can’t tell tales

Cellphone risks

Darkness wins

www.newscientist.com 15 September 2007 | NewScientist | 5

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