Latest KFF Health News Stories
Brazilian Researchers Say Schistosomiasis Vaccine Could Be Available In 3 Years
“Brazilian researchers say they have successfully tested a vaccine against schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms that afflicts more than 200 million people worldwide,” Agence France-Presse reports. Researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro “said it had successfully tested the vaccine in humans, but that more testing would be required in areas where the parasite is most common, mainly in Africa and South America,” the news agency writes. Institute researcher Tania Araujo-Jorge said she hopes the vaccine will be available for distribution within three years, according to AFP (6/13).
Clinical Trials Can Benefit Under-Represented Populations In Developing Countries
While conducting more clinical trials in developing countries can help under-represented populations benefit from new medical developments, trials in low-income settings face challenges such as complicated regulations, Trudie Lang of the Centre for Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford and Sisira Siribaddana of the University of Rajarata and the Institute of Research & Development in Sri Lanka write in an essay published Tuesday in PLoS Medicine (6/12). According to a PLoS press release, “The authors conclude: ‘the globalization of clinical trials should not be about running inexpensive trial sites to benefit distant people, but should focus on bringing research to populations who have previously been under-represented in clinical trials, and enabling these same communities the benefits resulting from new drugs, vaccines, and improvements in managing health'” (6/12).
Cervical Cancer Vaccine, Increased Awareness Could Help Lower Disease Rate In Kenya
AllAfrica.com/Guardian examine efforts to prevent and treat cervical cancer among women in Kenya, where an estimated 3,400 women die of the disease each year and only five percent receive screening. “Kenya’s national reproductive health strategic plan has addressed cervical cancer largely through the roll-out of a low-cost screening tool known as VIA (visual inspection of the cervix using ascetic acid),” but experts agree that more widespread use of cervical cancer vaccines and public education campaigns about the disease would be more effective at preventing and catching cases earlier, the news service reports. “Once the public owns this problem and pushes for it, … then the government would be forced to implement [a vaccine] strategy in full,” Lucy Muchiri, a pathologist specializing in cervical cancer at Kenyatta National Hospital and the University of Nairobi, said, the news service notes (Njoroge, 6/12).
OAS Members Must Assist U.S. Efforts To Ensure Food Security In Americas
“Together with international partners, the United States has launched an unprecedented effort over the past three years to reverse a decades-long decline in agricultural investments,” with a goal of “alleviat[ing] the chronic hunger that afflicts nearly one billion people around the world, including an estimated 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean,” a VOA editorial states. “In the Americas, Feed the Future invests in rural areas of three focus countries: Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti,” the editorial continues, noting, “Over five years, investments and programs involving the entire agricultural value chain from seeds to farms to markets will assist one million vulnerable women, children and family members, mostly smallholder farmers, to escape hunger and poverty in these countries.” The editorial states, “By working together, the United States believes [Organization of American States (OAS)] members can contribute collectively to food security at both the hemispheric and global levels. To achieve that goal, OAS members must safeguard the political and economic progress that has been made to date” (6/12).
WHO Agency Classifies Diesel Exhaust As ‘Carcinogenic’
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the WHO’s cancer arm, on Tuesday announced it has reclassified diesel engine exhaust from “probably carcinogenic” to “carcinogenic,” the U.N. News Centre reports, noting the decision came “after a week-long meeting of international experts, and [the agency] based its decision on sufficient evidence that exposure is associated with an increased risk for lung cancer” (6/12). “IARC said large populations all over the world are exposed to diesel exhaust every day,” Reuters notes. “‘People are exposed not only to motor vehicle exhausts but also to exhausts from other diesel engines … (such as diesel trains and ships) and from power generators,’ it said,” according to the news service (Kelland, 6/12).
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about new government projections for the nation’s health care spending and the latest from the campaign trail.
Report: Health Spending Will Climb To Nearly One-Fifth Of GDP
National health spending will account for nearly one-fifth of the U.S. economy in 2021, according to updated estimates from the federal government. Actuaries from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported their annual projections in the journal Health Affairs on Tuesday. The actuaries estimate that health spending will account for 19.6 percent of the […]
Medicare Drug Discounts At Risk If Court Strikes Health Law
The pharmaceutical industry agreed in the health debate to reduce brand-name drug costs by 50 percent for Medicare beneficiaries who reach the coverage gap known as the doughnut hole.
Kaiser Permanente’s Ross: There’s No Effective Substitute For The Mandate
Murray Ross, a vice president in the part of the company that sells health plans, says the law’s individual mandate is needed to attract healthier participants, which balances risks and costs.
Taking A Risk To Secure Health Insurance
A southern California writer explains why he chose to go without coverage for six months so he could secure a better health plan for 18 months. But his strategy is not a sure thing.
Medicaid Costs Loom Over States’ Tepid Economic Recovery
Updated at 4:45 p.m. on June 13. States continue to struggle with Medicaid costs, a factor that looms over their tepid economic recovery, according to a report released Tuesday. The economic outlook for the states is starting to brighten, but growth is slow and budgets still are tight, said the National Governors Association and the […]
CMS Predicts Modest Health Spending Growth, Then Acceleration
News organizations reported that as the nation’s economy improves and baby boomers join Medicare, spending will continue to outpace inflation.
Report: Health Spending Will Climb To Nearly One-Fifth Of GDP
Much of the increased spending will come after 2014, when the health law’s insurance coverage expansion begins.
Medicaid Costs Loom Over States’ Tepid Economic Recovery
A new report says that Medicaid costs — though slated to grow more slowly next year — are still a burden on states.
Today’s Headlines – June 12, 2012
Good morning! Here are your morning headlines: The Wall Street Journal: Insurers Stand Firm On Benefits Three of the biggest U.S. health insurers said they plan to keep offering some benefits now required under the federal health overhaul legislation, even if the Supreme Court strikes down the entire law. Humana Inc., Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealth […]
If Health Continues To Wane On G8 Agenda, A Serious Void Will Be Left
In this post in the Global Health Governance blog, Jenilee Guebert, director of research for the global health diplomacy program and G8 research group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, writes that, “for the second year in a row, the amount of attention devoted to global health” at the annual G8 summit, which took place at Camp David in Maryland in May, has declined. “Global health was not completely absent from the summit,” she continues, highlighting several health initiatives discussed at the meeting, including the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, launched “to accelerate the flow of private capital to African agriculture” with an aim of “lift[ing] 50 million people out of poverty over the next decade.”