On behalf of Mental Health Europe I would like to respond to the Lancet's Editorial (Jan 27, p 282)1 written about our Mapping and Understanding Exclusion report.2 Although we welcome the coverage of our report, we were disappointed to see a reference to the need to uphold the status quo on coercive measures, which might lead to confusion regarding the conclusions of our report. The Lancet's Editorial stated that: “Involuntary treatment and detention are a necessary part of mental health care”.1 This statement is contrary to the core message in our report, which recommended that to reduce coercion in mental health services European states should adopt policies and practices that aim to immediately reduce coercion in mental health services and ultimately make such practices by exception only, in line with human rights standards.

It was with great concern that we read the Editorial in The Lancet (Jan 27, p 282)1 regarding institutional and coercive mental health treatment in Europe, in which Greece was among the countries with substantial shortfalls in mental health services and violations of patients' human rights.

Jean-Frederic Colombel and colleagues' CALM study (Dec 23, 2017, p 2779),1 which investigated the effect of tight control management on Crohn's disease, reported significantly better outcomes with tight control than with clinical medical management. Tight control consisted of prespecified therapy escalation if a patient's Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI) was at least 150, or if they had elevated C-reactive protein or calprotectin, and resulted in significantly better mucosal healing (and clinical remission) than did therapy escalation based on clinical symptoms alone.

The Correspondence from Hans Herfarth and colleagues raised clinically relevant questions about our study1 of patients with Crohn's disease, whose treatment was adjusted based on stringent criteria for clinical symptoms and biomarkers (tight control) or less stringent clinical criteria alone.

In current drinkers of alcohol in high-income countries, the threshold for lowest risk of all-cause mortality was about 100 g/week. For cardiovascular disease subtypes other than myocardial infarction, there were no clear risk thresholds below which lower alcohol consumption stopped being associated with lower disease risk. These data support limits for alcohol consumption that are lower than those recommended in most current guidelines.

Vector control with long-lasting insecticidal nets and indoor residual spraying accounts for most of the 1·3 billion fewer malaria cases and 6·8 million fewer malaria-related deaths attributable to declining transmission between 2000 and 2015.1–3 However, because resistance to pyrethroid insecticides has spread through African malaria vector populations, concerns over maintaining these gains have been widely voiced—but these are frequently disputed.4 The findings presented by Natacha Protopopoff and colleagues5 in The Lancet provide rigorous, long overdue, new evidence for those working in the field of malaria vector control.

The PBO long-lasting insecticidal net and non-pyrethroid indoor residual spraying interventions showed improved control of malaria transmission compared with standard long-lasting insecticidal nets where pyrethroid resistance is prevalent and either intervention could be deployed to good effect. As a result, WHO has since recommended to increase coverage of PBO long-lasting insecticidal nets. Combining indoor residual spraying with pirimiphos-methyl and PBO long-lasting insecticidal nets provided no additional benefit compared with PBO long-lasting insecticidal nets alone or standard long-lasting insecticidal nets plus indoor residual spraying.

Das P, Horton R. Pollution, health, and the planet: time for decisive action. Lancet 2018; 391: 407–08—In the acknowledgments section of this Comment (published online first on Oct 19, 2017), the Governments of Germany, Norway, and Sweden should have been thanked for their “funding of the report, input, or both”. This correction has been made to the online version as of April 10, 2018.

We are delighted to invite abstract submissions for Public Health Science: A National Conference Dedicated to New Research in UK Public Health, to be held in Belfast, UK, on Nov 23, 2018. This is our seventh annual conference to showcase the creativity of the public health research community in the UK and Ireland. The conference provides a forum for academics, practitioners, and policy makers to discuss important public health issues, and learn about the latest public health science and its role in advancing and supporting public health practice, policy, and health services.

Following unsuccessful eradication attempts there was a resurgence of malaria towards the end of the 20th century. Renewed control efforts using a range of improved tools, such as long-lasting insecticide-treated bednets and artemisinin-based combination therapies, have more than halved the global burden of disease, but it remains high with 445?000 deaths and more than 200 million cases in 2016. Pitfalls in individual patient management are delayed diagnosis and overzealous fluid resuscitation in severe malaria.

When Hugo Chavez became Venezuela's new president in 1998, he promised to provide free health care to all and enshrined this right within Venezuela's new constitution, rewritten in 1999. Progress was rapid and initial results were promising: according to the World Bank, life expectancy at birth rose from 71·8 to 74·1 years for both genders and infant mortality fell from 26·7 to 14·6 deaths per 1000 live births between 1998 and 2013, the period of Chavez's rule. Success was recognised on the international stage and Venezuela achieved most of the UN's Millennium Development Goals set for 2010.

On March 28, President Donald Trump relayed on Twitter that Ronny L Jackson, personal physician to the president and a rear admiral in the US Navy, but with no prior experience in administration, would replace Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary David Shulkin. The announcement was met with shock and dismay as Shulkin, who had been at the VA since 2015 and who was the sole holdover from the Obama years, was well regarded by Republicans and Democrats alike. Trump himself had even referred to Shulkin as “our David”, an unusual term of endearment for anyone from the previous administration.

On March 27, the National Health Commission replaced China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) as the ministry responsible for health. The new commission is now headed by Ma Xiaowei, who was the former deputy head of the dismantled NHFPC. Chinese media have described Xiaowei as the person who understands China's health and hospital situation best, owing to his strong background in medicine. Since his graduation from the medical treatment department of China Medical University in 1982, Xiaowei has served many key roles in various health sectors such as the president of the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University and director of Liaoning Provincial Health Department.

A key part of medical training is developing the ability to recognise physical signs of illness in a patient and associate them with the causative pathology. The acquisition of this skill, through training and experience, marks the transition of student to clinician. In recent years, the required repertoire has changed, expanding to include recognition of pathological and radiological signs. But the passing of this diagnostic expertise from one generation to the next remains remarkably unchanged across the globe.

Dear Human (video), a hip-hop video was developed as part of the project Measuring Humanity.1 Working with marginalised groups, the participant-led research programme uses bottom-up creative community engagement to challenge policy makers and academics to reassess what counts as evidence when developing policies, practices, and recommendations. The video features rapping written using co-produced data from marginalised community members, health and voluntary sector practitioners, and researchers.

On April 7, 2018, World Health Day, WHO launches a new campaign—Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, Everywhere. This is a noble cause. As the agency notes: half the world's population is unable to access essential health services; 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty each year because of out-of-pocket expenditures on health; and catastrophic spending on illness and disease is a truly global problem. Therefore, “our next historic achievement is right in front of us: health for all humankind…Together, we can make universal health coverage happen in our lifetime.” The campaign will run throughout 2018.

The medical community is caught in the middle of omnipresent violence in Mexico, where homicide rates reached record levels in 2017. David Agren reports from Villahermosa.

Influenza could be an overlooked cause of death in Africa. Although rapid progress has been made, there is still limited surveillance capacity to assess the risk of epidemic. Andrew Green reports.

Western medicine is organised into silos. Faced with a patient requiring specialist advice, a general practitioner or emergency doctor has to make a call about where to direct them. Sometimes, the right clinical destination is obvious: a compound thigh fracture will always need an orthopaedic surgeon. But many patients fall foul of this rigid system. An individual complaining of dizziness might get bounced from ENT, to cardiology, to neurology, to psychiatry before achieving a diagnosis.

Clinicians and patients are getting out of touch with one another. When I was a medical student, I spent hours with patients, examining them on the ward, taking blood, and assisting at operations. At first I felt clumsy, inept, and embarrassed at the prospect of physical contact, for touch is surrounded by social conventions and taboos that are difficult to break through. But gradually, through practice, I became more confident. Touching people stopped feeling strange. Ostensibly, the purpose of these examinations was to gather diagnostic information that I would relay to senior clinicians.