Archives: Morning Breakouts

The House on Thursday voted down a bill that would have banned abortions based on the sex of a fetus. Republicans, however, said they achieved a strategic goal of forcing Democrats to vote against it.

A plan by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to limit the sale of large sugary drinks is being met by apprehension by the food industry as other states' leaders consider what example the restrictions could provide for them.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted to eliminate a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices and to end a ban on the use of pretax flexible spending accounts to buy nonprescription medicines. These measures, though, are not expected to advance in the Senate even if they pass the full House.

But the measure's supporters have not yet identified how they would make up for the lost revenue.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes to hold a meeting late this fall to discuss 'dual-use' research issues raised in the controversy over publication of two studies involving lab-modified H5N1 viruses with increased transmissibility, a WHO official said," CIDRAP News reports. "The WHO hosted a closed meeting of disease experts and government officials Feb 16 and 17 to discuss the two H5N1 studies," CIDRAP notes, adding that "the WHO [on Wednesday] released a brief statement about its activities related to the H5N1 research controversy since the February meeting in Geneva." Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director-general for health security and environment, said, "We hope to hold a second meeting to discuss the broader concerns related to potential dual [use] research in the late fall, if resources are available," the news service notes.

"In a newly released clinical study, conducted in India" and published in the Lancet on Thursday, "hundreds of seriously ill infants who received zinc -- an essential micronutrient for the immune system and human growth -- as well as antibiotics, responded better and more quickly to treatment than those who did not," IRIN reports, adding, "This finding is the first proof that zinc supplements may boost infant survival from infections." According to the news service, "More than 300 infants no older than 120 days (four months), hospitalized in New Delhi, the capital, for suspected meningitis (an infection of the brain or spinal cord lining), pneumonia (a lung infection) or sepsis (blood poisoning), were given zinc in addition to antibiotics" and "were found to be 40 percent less likely to experience 'treatment failure' -- needing a second antibiotic within one week of the first treatment, or intensive care or death within 21 days -- than those given a placebo."

Officials report accords with public employees restricting pension increases in order to keep the programs solvent. Both deals also involve changes to retiree health care programs.

The Massachusetts House has revised its health care cost containment bill, leaving several provisions intact -- including one directing the industry to cut spending growth in half by 2016.