Latest KFF Health News Stories
Research Roundup: New Ethics Guidelines For Doctors; HIV Testing In Teens
Today’s research comes from the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, George Washington University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Illegal Drug Use May Be Affecting Health, Death Rates Worldwide, Lancet Report Says
“About 200 million people around the world use illegal drugs every year, and that may be taking a toll on health and death rates in various countries, says a report released Thursday in the Lancet,” the Los Angeles Times’ “Booster Shots” blog reports. According to the blog, “[t]he study, part of a series the journal is doing on addiction, offers a plethora of information about [the] use of opioids, amphetamines, cocaine and marijuana worldwide” (Stein, 1/5).
WHO Confirms Bird Flu Cases In Egypt, China
The WHO on Thursday “announced the deaths of two men from H5N1 avian influenza, one from Egypt and another from China whose death was reported earlier in the media,” CIDRAP News reports. Both men are suspected to have contracted the virus from avian sources, although an investigation into the man from China’s exposure to the virus is ongoing, according to news service. “The two infections and deaths push the WHO global H5N1 count to 576 cases and 339 deaths. According to WHO records, the number of H5N1 cases and deaths reported in 2011 so far are modestly higher than 2010 (60 cases versus 48, and 33 deaths versus 24),” CIDRAP writes (Schnirring, 1/5).
Moving FAO Forward With Sights On Hunger Eradication
Jose Graziano da Silva, director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece, “My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push towards [achieving the first millennium development goal of halving the proportion of people living in hunger and extreme poverty by 2015], but also to look beyond it, to the final, total eradication of hunger from this planet. Obviously, it is not something that FAO can do alone. It needs a new international mobilization, the support of decision-makers everywhere, and a concerted effort by the entire U.N. family and other development partners.”
Governments Must Rethink Policies Surrounding Biosecurity, Not Resort To Censorship
Author Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in this Foreign Policy opinion piece that the announcement that researchers from Norway and the U.S. have developed a supercontagious variety of bird flu “has highlighted a dilemma: How do you balance the universal mandate for scientific openness against the fear that terrorists or rogue states might follow the researchers’ work — using it as catastrophic cookbooks for global influenza contagion?” She continues, “Along with several older studies that are now garnering fresh attention, [the research] has revealed that the political world is completely unprepared for the synthetic-biology revolution” and notes “there are no consistent, internationally agreed-upon regulations governing synthetic biology, the extraordinarily popular and fruitful 21st-century field of genetic manipulation of microorganisms.”
CBC News Examines Canadian Aid Agencies’, Government’s Roles In Post-Earthquake Haiti
CBC News examines the roles of Canadian humanitarian organizations and the government in helping Haiti rebuild nearly two years after a massive earthquake rocked the country. “Haiti needs long-term solutions, says Nicolas Moyer, a spokesman for the Humanitarian Coalition,” which includes Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec, CARE Canada, Plan Canada and Save the Children, the news service notes.
First Edition: January 6, 2012
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports from the campaign trail and details about how nine states have asked the federal government for more funding to make sure their high-risk pools don’t run out of cash before 2014.
NFIB Seeks To Add Two Plaintiffs To The Health Law SCOTUS Case
The National Federation of Independent Business asked the Supreme Court to add two additional plaintiffs to its health law challenge after the initial plaintiff in the case filed for bankruptcy.
HHS Denies MLR Waiver Requests From Two More States
The Department of Health and Human Services denied requests from Kansas and Oklahoma to allow them to adjust the health law’s medical-loss ratio provisions. That brings to eight the number of states who will not receive such exemptions.
U.N. Receives Reports Of Malnutrition In Sudanese Border States
The U.N. “has received alarming reports of malnutrition in two Sudanese border states where the army is fighting insurgents,” according to Valerie Amos, U.N. under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Reuters reports. Since fighting broke out in June in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states near the border of the newly independent South Sudan, “U.N. agencies and aid groups have only been able to keep small teams of local staff on the ground and the government has stopped any aid workers visiting areas where there has been fighting,” the news service writes. Amos “urged Sudan to lift a ban on international U.N. staff traveling to both border states” so the agency could ensure it has staff with the correct skills on the ground, according to Reuters (Laessing, 1/4).
Candidates Jockey For Position, Messages In Post-Iowa Landscape
News outlets report on how GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is being targeted by Republican rivals and the Obama campaign. Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann exits the primary race, and Rick Santorum, fresh from his Iowa caucus finish, draws headlines.
British Columbia’s ‘Treatment-As-Prevention Strategy’ Helping To Reduce HIV/AIDS Cases, Deaths
“New HIV cases and AIDS deaths are both going steadily down in British Columbia, according to data released last week,” the New York Times reports. Julio Montaner, director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said, “We’re particularly pleased to see that our treatment-as-prevention strategy has taken off big-time,” the newspaper notes, adding that the strategy, which aggressively identifies and treats people with HIV, “lowers by 96 percent the chances that they will infect others.” The New York Times writes, “Montaner said he is frustrated that rich countries will not donate enough money to roll out the strategy in poor countries with huge HIV epidemics” (McNeil, 1/2).
India Looks To Design Science Policy To Address Poverty, Development Challenges
Speaking this week at “the 99th Indian Science Congress, the country’s largest annual gathering of scientists,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “said the occasion demanded looking anew at the role of science in a country ‘grappling with the challenges of poverty and development'” and “emphasized that ‘the overriding objective of a comprehensive and well-considered policy for science, technology and innovation should be to support the national objective of faster, sustainable and inclusive development,'” SciDev.Net reports. “Singh also underscored the need to use innovations creatively for social benefit,” the news service writes.
Major Health Insurers Prosper With Expanding Roles In Medicare, Medicaid
Meanwhile, a California study shows health care costs in that state are rising, while benefits are shrinking. Another study finds that coverage gaps can be disruptive to preventive care.
Viewpoints: Protecting Home Health Workers; Minn. Plans Cuts In Health Safety Net
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
U.S. Cancer Death Rates Drop, New Report Says
In a new report from the American Cancer Society, researchers indicate that cancer death rates in the United States fell 1.8 percent in men and 1.6 percent in women each year between 2004 and 2008, but those gains weren’t as pronounced in young adults.
Aid Agencies Express Concern Over Child Malnutrition In Nepal, AFP Reports
In Nepal, “a child malnutrition epidemic described by humanitarian organizations as a ‘silent emergency’ is claiming the lives of thousands of infants each year,” Agence France-Presse reports. “According to government statistics 1.7 million children — nearly half of all under-fives — suffer from chronic malnutrition, a long-term condition also known as stunting,” the news service writes, adding, “Acute malnutrition, a condition known as ‘wasting’ blamed for half of Nepal’s infant deaths, is thought to affect 18 percent.”
State Roundup: Colo. Reports ‘Record’ Number Of Medicaid Recipients
A selection of health care stories from Connecticut, California, Colorado, Texas and New York.
Longer Looks: The Body’s Fight Against Losing Weight
This week’s selections come from The New York Times Magazine, National Review, Salon and American Medical News.
N.Y. Prosecutor Investigates Hospital Practices
Kaiser Health News reports that a lawsuit unsealed this week alleges that a national hospice company committed Medicare fraud by improperly cycling patients through nursing homes. In the meantime, a N.Y. prosecutor is investigating a hospital’s management practices.
