Latest KFF Health News Stories
Secrets And Electronic Health Records: A Privacy Concern
Does your orthodontist or opthamologist need to know what you tell your psychotherapist in order to provide you with quality care? In the age of electronic medical records, a whole range of health care providers may have access to this information whether you want them to or not. The issue of how to ensure that […]
3 Large Insurers Promise To Keep Many Popular Features Of Health Law If High Court Strikes It Down
UnitedHealthcare, Aetna and Humana said no matter how the Supreme Court rules on the health law, they would continue to allow young adults coverage on their parents’ plans and offer no-copayment preventive services.
Health Care Decision Hinges On A Crucial Clause
The case could be a turning point in the Supreme Court’s 200-year history with the Commerce Clause.
GlobalPost Launches New Special Reporting Series On Fight Against AIDS
GlobalPost on Monday launched a new special reporting series called “AIDS: A Turning Point,” according to an email alert from the new service. “In the lead up to July’s International AIDS Conference in Washington — the first such conference on U.S. soil in 22 years — the world news site GlobalPost presents a deep look at both the global struggle to reduce HIV infection rates as well as some surprising lessons on the effective approaches that Southern Africa has to teach America,” the email alert reports (6/11).
Today’s Headlines – June 11, 2012
Good morning! Here are your headlines: NPR: Health Care Decision Hinges On A Crucial Clause All of Washington is breathlessly awaiting the Supreme Court’s imminent decision on the Obama health care overhaul. Rumors circulate almost daily that the decision is ready for release. As usual, those rumors are perpetrated by people who know nothing, but […]
Agence France-Presse Reports On Efforts To Eradicate Sleeping Sickness In Sub-Saharan Africa
Agence France-Presse reports on human African trypanosomiasis, “commonly known as sleeping sickness, which is transmitted by tsetse flies found in 36 sub-Saharan African countries,” writing, “Without treatment in four months to a year, ‘the parasite penetrates into the brain, causing serious neurological symptoms, until death,’ said Doctor Benedict Blaynay, head of neglected tropical diseases at French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.” The news service highlights efforts to control the disease in Chad, noting, “For the people living in Chad’s rural communities, the strange symptoms of sleeping sickness have long been shrouded in superstition about witchcraft and demonic possession. But the World Health Organization says it is not a losing battle.”
VOA Reports On Polio Vaccination Efforts
“International health experts say the global campaign to eradicate polio has reached a critical stage, with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria the only countries where the crippling and potentially deadly virus is still prevalent,” VOA News reports. “Health officials in Pakistan say they are redoubling efforts to vaccinate every child against polio after 198 new cases were reported in the country last year, the largest number anywhere in the world,” the news service notes. It goes on to highlight several challenges to the efforts, including “an ongoing insurgency and the influx of millions of Pakistani and Afghan refugees” and public opposition to the vaccinations resulting from misperceptions and concerns about safety (Padden, 6/9).
MSF Report Examines Past, Present, Future Management Of Neglected Tropical Diseases
“In order to break the vicious cycle that leaves tropical diseases neglected, existing programs that diagnose and treat patients need to be expanded and medical research to develop simpler, more effective tools needs to be supported, according to a new report, Fighting Neglect [.pdf], released [Monday] by Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF),” the organization reports on its webpage. “Charting the organization’s 25 years of experience in diagnosing and treating Chagas disease, sleeping sickness, and kala azar in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Caucasus, the report examines past, present, and future management of the diseases and notes that access to quality life-saving treatment requires much greater political will among major international donors and national governments of endemic countries,” MSF writes (6/11).
Journalists, Policy Experts, Bloggers Discuss Hunger Situation In Africa’s Sahel
“Journalists, policy experts, bloggers (including myself) and World Food Programme staff joined in a robust discussion last week about the current hunger situation in Africa’s Sahel region, including its causes and what can be done moving forward,” Jennifer James, founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, writes in this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog, noting, “In the Google+ hangout, streamed on YouTube, Denise Brown, the World Food Programme’s country director for Niger, logged on from the capital, Niamey, to report precisely what is happening in the region and how people are faring in the wake of no rains, failed crops, and increased food prices.” She continues, “One of the primary points that Brown emphasized was about early warning systems and data propelled early intervention,” and concludes, “The state of the hunger crisis in the Sahel dictates that aid must happen now. But those who are working in the region, like Brown, understand that to prevent another food shortage next year ideas to combat another hunger season have to be employed” (6/8).
The following are summaries of several opinion pieces published in anticipation of the Child Survival Call to Action event to be held on June 14-15 in Washington, D.C. Convened by the governments of the United States, Ethiopia and India, and organized in close collaboration with UNICEF, the event will focus on ending preventable child death through the survival of newborns, children and mothers and will convene 700 prominent leaders from government, the private sector, faith-based organizations and civil society to kick off a long-term, focused effort to save children’s lives.
New Data On Individuals With Natural Ability To Fight Off AIDS
“Scientists on Sunday said they had found a key piece in the puzzle as to why a tiny minority of individuals infected with HIV have a natural ability to fight off the deadly AIDS virus,” Agence France-Presse reports. “In a study they said holds promise for an HIV vaccine, researchers from four countries reported the secret lies not in the number of infection-killing cells a person has, but in how well they work,” AFP writes. “Only about one person in 300 has the ability to control the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) without drugs” the news service notes (6/10).
India To Host Parallel Conference For Those Who Can’t Attend International AIDS Conference In U.S.
“When stakeholders from across the world converge at Washington next month to participate in the International AIDS Conference (IAC) to share their experience and evaluations and to influence both popular and official perceptions and practices for curbing HIV/AIDS, India will host a parallel event for those who cannot make it there,” the Hindu reports. “The event will be organized in Kolkata by Durbar Mahila Samanway Samiti (DMSS) — an umbrella organization of over 65,000 sex workers of West Bengal in collaboration with the Global Network of Sex Work Project (NSWP),” the newspaper adds.
UnitedHealthcare To Keep Some Health Law Provisions Regardless Of Ruling
One of the nation’s largest insurance companies announced early Monday that it planned to continue offering some of health law’s most popular provisions — no matter what the Supreme Court decides.
Key Dynamics In Play In Long-Awaited Health Law Decision
News outlets report on the key issues and underlying statutes that might shape the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on the health law, and how stakeholders and politicians are planning their next steps.
GlobalPost Reports On Cuba’s Medical Outreach To Africa
GlobalPost reports on Cuba’s medical outreach to Africa, writing, “A generation ago, Fidel Castro sent Cuban soldiers to intervene in African civil conflicts and fight the Cold War against U.S. proxies. Now, Cuba’s doctors are fanning out across the continent as the island expands its role in administering medical services to some of the world’s most ailing countries.” The news service continues, “Some 5,500 Cubans are already working in 35 of Africa’s 54 countries, Cuban Foreign Ministry official Marcos Rodriguez told reporters this week at a press conference in Havana,” noting, “Of those, 3,000 are health professionals, and 2,000 are doctors, he said.”
International Summit To Be Held In London Aims To Provide 120M Women With Family Planning Services
The Guardian reports on a “major summit” to be held in London on July 11, which “aims to provide access to family planning to 120 million women at an estimated cost of $4 billion.” According to the newspaper, the summit “is being organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the British government’s department for international development (DFID),” and “[b]etween 20 and 25 countries are scheduled to attend, including the U.S., India, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.”
China Amends Intellectual Property Laws To Allow For Issuance Of Compulsory Licenses
“China has overhauled parts of its intellectual property laws to allow its drug makers to make cheap copies of medicines still under patent protection in an initiative likely to unnerve foreign pharmaceutical companies,” Reuters reports (Lyn, 6/8). “The amended patent law allows Beijing to issue compulsory licenses to eligible companies to produce generic versions of patented drugs during state emergencies, unusual circumstances, or in the interests of the public,” Al Jazeera writes, adding, “For ‘reasons of public health,’ eligible drug makers can also ask to export these medicines to other countries, including members of the World Trade Organization (WTO)” (6/9).
African Journalists Announce First Continent-Wide Health Journalism Network
“Journalists from across Africa announced the creation of the first continent-wide professional association of health journalists,” South Africa’s Health-e reports. “The new organization, the African Health Journalists Association, aims to improve the quality and quantity of reporting on health issues so that people across the continent can make healthy choices for their lives,” the news agency writes, adding, “The group’s media coverage will encourage the best possible public health programs and policies throughout the continent.” “‘This network will take health journalism to a new level of professionalism and cooperation in Africa,’ said Joyce Barnathan, president of the International Center for Journalists, which organized the meeting at the request of African journalists,” according to Health-e (7/6).
Seeking More Primary Care Physicians
As policymakers and medical experts scramble to find ways to increase the number of primary care physicians, issues related to payment and health care value draw attention.