Latest KFF Health News Stories
In New Hampshire, Romney’s Comments Draw Fire From Rivals
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is under the microscope for his comments during a campaign appearance in which he said he liked “being able to fire people.” Romney made the comments while he was talking about why he wants people to be able to choose their own health insurance.
Questions Continue About The Health Law’s Future
CQ HealthBeat reports on the courses available for the law’s implementation as stakeholders await the Supreme Court’s rulings. Politico Pro reports that the recent denials by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding state medical-loss ratio adjustment requests is very different than earlier experiences.
Social Media Faster Than Traditional Sources In Tracking Cholera In Haiti, Study Says
“Internet-based news and Twitter feeds were faster than traditional sources at detecting the onset and progression of the cholera epidemic in post-earthquake Haiti …, according to a new study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH),” an AJTMH press release states. “The study is the first to demonstrate the use of data from ‘informal’ media sources in monitoring an outbreak of a neglected tropical disease in a resource-limited setting, and shows that these sources can yield reliable decision-making data during deadly disease outbreaks almost in real-time, often far earlier than traditional surveillance methods that include surveys of hospitals and health clinics,” the press release adds (1/9).
Aid Group Tracks Down Likely First Case In Haiti’s Cholera Outbreak
“A mentally ill man who bathed in and drank from a contaminated river most likely was the first person to be infected” with cholera in the outbreak that began in Haiti in October 2010, researchers from Partners in Health said in a study published Monday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports (1/9). “‘This patient’s case is the first in the community’s collective memory to have had symptoms that are recognizable, in retrospect, to be those of cholera,’ according to the study,” CNN’s “The Chart” notes, adding, “There is no lab method to confirm that this was the first patient to start the epidemic, wrote the authors” (Park, 1/9).
Examining GOP Presidential Candidates’ Global Health Positions
In this article in the online journal Global Health Governance, David Fidler, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, writes about the Republican presidential candidates’ positions on global health, saying, “I doubt whether many votes in subsequent GOP primaries will be cast because of global health considerations.” However, “thinking about American conservatism and global health serves as a reminder of the political significance of the nature of U.S. participation as a factor in the vibrancy of global health governance,” Fidler writes, concluding that the positions of the candidates are “interesting to ponder because what President Bush wrought [in creating PEPFAR] forces conservatives to confront global health more seriously than this American tradition of political thought has done before” (1/9).
India On Verge Of Recording Polio-Free Year
If India does not record a new polio case through January 13, “produc[ing] 12 straight months of polio-free surveillance data, it will be removed from the list of countries where polio is considered endemic, leaving only the other three,” Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, Scientific American reports (Branswell, 1/9). “Asking other countries to draw inspiration from India in their polio eradication drive, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said the country not reporting a single polio case over the last year is a major milestone in the global health sector,” the Economic Times writes (1/10).
Rwanda Working To Meet 2013 Goal To Medically Circumcise 50% Of Men For HIV Prevention
Rwanda is expanding its medical male circumcision program this year, “as the country attempts to reach its goal of medically circumcising 50 percent of men by June 2013 as part of HIV prevention efforts,” PlusNews reports. “The free male circumcision program began in October 2011, and officials at the Ministry of Health say demand is growing,” according to the news service. However, with only 15 percent of men circumcised and a shortage of qualified health care workers, “the goal is unlikely to be met unless lower cadre health workers are involved in the campaign,” PlusNews writes.
TB Screening, Treatment Program Working To Decrease Caseload In Kenya
Al Jazeera examines how “[a] series of public-health campaigns, including more aggressive screening, have been credited with a drop in tuberculosis [TB] cases in Kenya” in this video report. “The screening and treatment program, regarded as one of the best in the developing world, is credited with taking the rate of TB infections in the East African country from a high of 116,000 in 2006 to 106,000 last year,” but not without “an economic and political price,” the news service reports. “For TB screening and treatment programs to be effective, supply chains for drugs and equipment and proper training for staff and administrative back-up must be in place,” Al Jazeera reports (Greste, 1/9).
First Edition: January, 10, 2012
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including new reports that the recession has held down health spending.
Walgreens-Express Scripts Split Has Consumers Checking Their Insurance Cards
News outlets report on the consumer impact of the split between Walgreens and Express Scripts.
DOJ Lays Out Health Law Defense In SCOTUS Brief
Just as the Justice Department reiterated its main argument supporting the health law’s individual mandate, briefs offering an opposing view were filed by the case’s plaintiffs and by 36 Republican senators.
Health Law Implementation: What’s Ahead In 2012?
Fox Business reports on what it sees as the five major health law elements in the pipeline this year. Meanwhile, other coverage focuses on the final round of health plan waivers issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, more about accountable care organizations, explanations of why private exchanges might catch on and details of the health law’s contraception policies.
VOA News Examines Maternal Mortality In Somalia
“The World Health Organization says Somalia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world,” VOA News reports, adding, “In southern Somalia, the situation is grave, and the recent famine has made the health crisis for mothers and infants even worse.” The news service says challenges facing the health care system include a lack of medical supplies and neonatal facilities, poor retention of health care workers in local hospitals, and “the Somali custom rooted in Islam that requires a man’s consent to treat female patients.”
Nutrition, Agricultural Development Programs Improving Lives Of Poor Hondurans
In this post in the Department of State’s “DipNote” blog, Ertharin Cousin, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies in Rome, examines how improved nutrition and agricultural development are helping to bring Hondurans out of poverty and hunger. Reflecting on a recent trip to the country with “five journalists from Central and South America to see the work the United States and the U.N. Food and Agriculture agencies are doing in the field,” Cousin highlights a number of projects “improving the lives of poor and hungry rural families in the region” and concludes, “All the projects we saw are making a difference. Now we must scale them up, so more people can participate and benefit, and ultimately break free of assistance” (1/6).
Fallujah Doctors Say Chemicals From U.S. Weapons To Blame For High Levels Of Birth Defects
“While the U.S. military has formally withdrawn from Iraq, doctors and residents of Fallujah are blaming weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorous used during two devastating U.S. attacks on Fallujah in 2004 for what are being described as ‘catastrophic’ levels of birth defects and abnormalities,” Al Jazeera reports. Samira Alani, a pediatric specialist at Fallujah General Hospital, “told Al Jazeera she had personally logged 677 cases of birth defects since October 2009,” the news service notes, adding, “Just eight days later when Al Jazeera visited the city on December 29, that number had already risen to 699.”
Congressional Delegation Visits Africa To Assess Impact Of U.S.-Sponsored Projects
A Congressional delegation consisting of six senators and one representative arrived in Africa on Thursday for an eight-day trip that “includes oversight of Department of Defense, Department of State, and USAID activities in Africa,” the Daily Republic reports (Lawrence, 1/8). “According to [Sen. Lindsay Graham’s (R-S.C.)] office, the delegation assessed ‘the impact of U.S. sponsored counter-terrorism programs and projects relating to health, economic development, and strengthened trade relationships with African nations,'” the ONE blog writes.
China Considering Loosening Family Planning Policy, Al Jazeera’s ‘101 East’ Reports
Al Jazeera’s “101 East” reports on how, “[a]s China faces social dilemmas such as a widening gender imbalance, it is considering loosening its [so-called] one-child policy.” According to the 25-minute video program, “China’s fertility rate is below the replacement level, providing fewer workers to support a rapidly growing elderly population,” and “with a cultural preference for boys, China faces an alarming gender imbalance with projections of 30 million more men than women by 2020” (Nettleton, 1/5).
Haiti Faces ‘Largest’ Cholera Epidemic In Modern History, PAHO Says
“Almost two years after the devastating 7.0 earthquake destroyed much of Port-au-Prince, full recovery appears to be years away,” the Miami Herald reports, noting that “[t]housands of people continue to live in makeshift shelters and tents [and] rubble from dilapidated buildings still line some streets” (Lee, 1/7). In addition, “[t]he cholera outbreak in Haiti is ‘one of the largest epidemics of the disease in modern history to affect a single country,’ the U.N. World Health Organization’s Pan-American Health Organization [PAHO] said in a news release,” according to United Press International (1/7).
Calif. Discloses Hospital Infection Rates; Kansas City Health Center Gets Facelift
Also, California Watch reports on a continuing investigation into alleged Medicare fraud.
State Governments Trying New Ways To Cope With Medicaid Costs
A selection of Medicaid news from around the country.
