Latest KFF Health News Stories
Support For Global Fund Helps Work Of PEPFAR
In this post on the State Department’s “DipNote” blog, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby provides an update on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, stating, “I am buoyed by the reform that is happening at the Fund under the leadership of new General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo.” He adds, “When PEPFAR and the Fund coordinate, our investments against AIDS are expanded both geographically and programmatically. Simply put, a strong PEPFAR requires a strong Global Fund.” Goosby concludes, “I am proud of the U.S. commitment to the Global Fund, in part because it is a commitment to the work of PEPFAR. We have a unique opportunity in a tight fiscal environment to support the Fund at this critical juncture” (4/9).
Access To Modern Contraceptives, Family Planning Services Is Human Right
“[I]n the developing world, an estimated 215 million women who want to delay or avoid their next pregnancy cannot exercise this right as they lack modern contraceptives, resulting in unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and more than 100,000 maternal deaths,” UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin writes in this Huffington Post “Global Motherhood” blog post. He says that “[t]he United Kingdom government of David Cameron and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced plans for a summit in London in July to raise funds for voluntary family planning” and notes that “UNFPA … fully supports and is a partner in this historic initiative on an often-overlooked human right.”
In this Huffington Post “Global Motherhood” blog post, Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, describes female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), which affects more than 100 million women and girls in Africa and “causes horrific pain and bleeding in the uterus, cervix and lower genital tract, not to mention social stigma and depression.” According to studies, women affected by FGS “have a three- to four-fold increase in the risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS,” but a low-cost drug called praziquantel may prevent FGS “and therefore also serve as a low-cost AIDS prevention strategy if it is administered annually to African girls and women beginning in their school-aged years,” he notes.
Times Of India Examines How Female Health Volunteers Are Improving Maternal, Child Health In India
“In many parts of India, teenagers and housewives are now donning the garb of health volunteers and convincing pregnant women to deliver in hospitals, and not at homes,” the Times of India reports, and profiles Lata Ravikar, “one of the many ordinary women who are leading a silent revolution in urban slums and villages across the country.” The news service writes, “The invisible hand of these women” — called didis — “has already improved maternal and child health indicators, according to a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded initiative that has tracked their impact in two states,” noting, “In Maharashtra, for instance, the proportion of hospital deliveries has gone up from 78 percent to 88 percent in four years in the communities where these workers have been active.”
Participation Of Big Pharma Companies Critical To Success Of Drug Patent Pools
In this post in the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog, David de Ferranti, president of the Results for Development Institute, and Robert Hecht, managing director at the Institute, examine whether patent pools could help increase access to AIDS drugs among the world’s poor, writing, “AIDS program managers and advocates must pursue all measures that can keep the cost of treatment low and affordable. In addition to the actions that are already being taken — like having African governments and donors buy AIDS drugs in bulk from suppliers in order to obtain better prices — could a ‘patent pool’ for new drugs help to make AIDS treatment more accessible?”
Act Now ‘To Prevent Tragedy’ In Africa’s Sahel Food Security Crisis
“The world appears reluctant to open its wallets to relief organizations dedicated to saving the lives of Africa’s children until it’s official. They want the United Nations to declare a famine,” a Globe and Mail editorial states. “UNICEF is to be credited for its preemptive global effort to break this tragic cycle of paralysis and delayed response in the case of the Sahel,” where “[o]ne million children are currently at risk of dying of acute malnutrition,” the editorial continues, and highlights a fundraising campaign launched by the organization last week, called #SahelNOW.
U.S. State Department Fact Sheet Details Bilateral Health Cooperation With Brazil
The State Department on Monday published a fact sheet detailing bilateral health cooperation between the U.S. and Brazil. “For several decades the United States and Brazil have participated in a bilateral dialogue that provides a formal venue for discussing our mutual interests in medical research, disease surveillance, and improving public health,” the fact sheet states, adding, “President Obama and President Rousseff have further advanced our bilateral health cooperation through the U.S.-Brazil Working Group on Public Health, under the U.S.-Brazil Joint Commission on Science and Technology.” The fact sheet details several key collaborations (4/9).
When The Economy Is Tough, Hospitals Woo Well-Insured Patients
A study published in Health Affairs found that during the recession, hospitals have sought to establish themselves in affluent markets.
The Urgency Of Autism: Progress In Combating It, Even As Diagnoses Increase
News outlets examine progress being made in diagnosing autism and understanding its possible causes.
State Roundup: Md. Legislature Approves Health Enterprise Zones
A selection of health policy stories from California, Utah, Maryland, Florida, Missouri and Georgia.
A selection of editorisls and opinions about health care policy from around the country.
Research Explores Power Of Offering Colon Cancer Screening Options
Researchers find that when given a choice of methods, more people will opt to get screened for colon cancer. Meanwhile, a separate study found that insurance coverage of lung cancer screenings for high-risk patients could prevent thousands of deaths annually.
U.S. Spends More On Cancer Care, But Gains Time In Return
A new analysis published in Health Affairs found that American cancer patients lived almost two years longer than those in 10 European countries — leading the researchers to say that the additional expense is worth it.
States Plot Medicaid Managed Care Changes; Kansas Plan Faces Skepticism
In Ohio, Molina Healthcare loses its Medicaid managed care contract. In Texas, a plan to save money by incorporating Medicaid drug benefits into a managed care program gets pushback. And, Kansas counties weigh in on a plan to shift Medicaid beneficiaries to managed care.
HHS Proposes To Push Back ICD-10 — A Billing System Unpopular With Docs
The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would push back for one year the compliance deadline for doctors to convert to the ICD-10 revision of diagnostic and procedural codes.
GAVI Alliance Secures Deal To Purchase Rotavirus Vaccines From GlaxoSmithKline, Merck
The GAVI Alliance “has struck a deal for bulk buying rotavirus shots from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, which cuts the price by two-thirds and will allow poorer countries access to them at around $5 per course,” Reuters reports. The vaccines “combat the main cause of diarrhea — the second-largest killer of children under the age of five worldwide,” according to the news agency. GAVI “said on Tuesday its cut-price deal would allow it ‘to respond to ever-increasing demand from developing countries’ and provide the shots this year for three million children in eight poor countries,” working toward immunizing more than 70 million children in 30 million countries by 2016, Reuters notes (Kelland, 4/10). According to a GAVI press release, “This price drop is the result of an acceleration of GAVI’s market shaping activities and discussions with manufacturers carried out together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Supply Division of UNICEF, key Alliance partners” (4/10).
In Past Campaign, Santorum Played Up Support For Medicare Drug Plan
In 2006, Rick Santorum took a moderate stance on the prescription drug plan — and cast a vote ini the Senate that he has called a mistake in this presidential campaign. Meanwhile, in Maine, a Senate candidate who is running as an independent, is keeping “people guessing” about which political side he would pick.
Advocates Urge Obama To Address Food Security At Upcoming G8 Meeting
“[A]nti-poverty advocates [are] urg[ing] President Obama to ‘find political will to end global hunger’ during the upcoming G8 Summit at Camp David,” Inter Press Service reports. Members of ActionAid last week held signs in front of the White House “that read ‘Obama: Find the Will to be a Hunger Hero at the G8,’ next to a cutout of the president in a superhero suit,” the news service writes (Panagoda, 4/7). And “[a] new report by ONE Campaign said increased donor support for agricultural investment plans in 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Central America could lift about 50 million people out of extreme poverty,” Reuters notes. “ONE said it would launch its ‘Thrive’ campaign in France, Germany, Britain and the United States to highlight the need to tackle the causes of hunger,” the news service notes.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including a report about a new study finding that the health law, which has long been touted as a means to control costs, could add to the nation’s budget difficulties in the next ten years
Study: Higher U.S. Costs For Cancer Care May Be ‘Worth It’
Higher U.S. spending for cancer care pays off in almost two years of additional life for American cancer patients on average compared to their European counterparts — a value that offsets the higher costs –according to a study in the April issue of the journal Health Affairs. While previous studies have suggested U.S. cancer patients […]