Latest KFF Health News Stories
A selection of opinions and editorials – some quite strong – from news organizations today.
WHO Warns Drug-Resistant TB Spreading In Europe At ‘Alarming’ Rate, Releases Plan To Fight Disease
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) “are spreading at an alarming rate in Europe and will kill thousands unless health authorities halt the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday” during the launch of “a new regional plan to find, diagnose and treat cases of the airborne infectious disease more effectively,” Reuters reports. “The WHO said that if the plan is fully implemented — at an estimated cost of $5 billion — 127,000 people will be successfully treated for drug-resistant TB and 120,000 deaths will be averted by 2015,” according to the news agency (Kelland, 9/13).
Obama’s Jobs Bill Pay-For: Taxing Health Benefits Of The Wealthy
The Obama administration request for a tax on top earners’ health insurance benefits is stirring Democratic opposition.
State Roundup: Mass. Health System, Insurer Near Reimbursement Deal
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Without Action To Curb Antibiotic Resistance, Some Diseases May Once Again Become Untreatable
In this Atlantic Magazine opinion piece, Megan McArdle, senior editor at the Atlantic, echoes a warning by the FDA issued in 2001 which stated, “Unless antibiotic resistance problems are detected as they emerge, and actions are taken to contain them, the world could be faced with previously treatable diseases that have again become untreatable, as in the days before antibiotics were developed,” .
Pakistan’s Punjab Province Reports Growing Dengue Outbreak
“The government in Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab is struggling to control a growing dengue fever epidemic, officials say,” and they “have warned that it threatens to affect other parts of the country,” BBC News reports. “Punjab Health Secretary Jehanzeb Khan said that this year more than 4,000 cases of dengue fever had been reported, a significant increase over previous years,” and at least eight people have died of the disease, according to the news service. Officials “say that the illness is thriving because of poor hygiene, an absence of control measures and the fact that recent heavy monsoon rainfall has lowered temperatures and provided lots of water — ideal conditions for dengue-carrying mosquitoes,” the news service writes (Khan, 9/13).
Fighting NCDs Can Be Achieved With Low-Cost Interventions
In this Atlantic opinion piece, Amanda Glassman, director of Global Health Policy at the Center for Global Development (CGD), and Denizhan Duran, a research assistant at CGD, outline the macro- and microeconomic effects non-communicable diseases (NCDs) can have on countries and families, noting that “80 percent of NCD deaths occur in developing countries, mostly the middle-income countries.” However, they write that NCDs “can be substantially reduced with simple, low or no-cost interventions,” but “middle-income countries are not implementing these simple interventions at scale” for reasons that “have little to do with money.”
Gates Foundation Names Novartis AG Executive To Head Global Health Program
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday announced that Trevor Mundel, a senior executive at the pharmaceutical company Novartis AG, will join the foundation on December 1 “as president of the philanthropy’s global health group, a position that can influence the health of millions of people worldwide,” the Wall Street Journal reports (Guth, 9/14). “He succeeds Tadataka ‘Tachi’ Yamada, who left the foundation in June after five years as head of the global health program,” according to the Associated Press/Washington Post (9/13).
E.U. Announces Launch Of 126M Euro Program To Fight AIDS, TB In South Africa
European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs announced during a visit to South Africa on Monday that the European Union (E.U.) “will contribute 126 million euros to South Africa’s fight against AIDS and tuberculosis (TB),” money that “will be used to improve South Africa’s primary health care system, increasing access for patients,” Reuters reports (9/12).
Presidential Commission Report Calls 1940s STD Experiments In Guatemala ‘Gross Violations Of Ethics’
“Sexually transmitted disease experiments conducted by federal researchers from 1946 to 1948 in Guatemala involved ‘gross violations of ethics,'” according to a report published Tuesday by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, USA Today’s “ScienceFair” blog reports (Vergano, 9/13).
Eli Lilly Announces $30M, Five-Year Commitment To Fight NCDs In Developing Countries
U.S.-based pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company on Tuesday announced it will spend $30 million over five years to fight the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in developing nations, the Indianapolis Star reports (Swiatek, 9/13). According to a Lilly press release, the company is launching the Lilly NCD Partnership “to identify new models of patient care that increase treatment access and improve outcomes for underserved people” (9/13).
First Edition: September 14, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including lots of talk about the ‘super committee’ and about the new census numbers regarding the uninsured as well as the second-day analysis regarding some of the controversial comments made during Monday night’s GOP presidential primary debate.
Capsules: Squeezed States Embrace Even More Medicaid Managed Care
As of October 2010, about 66 percent of Medicaid enrollees were in managed-care plans of some type.
Capsules: Census Changes How It Estimates The Uninsured
For years, researchers have complained that the Census Bureau overestimates the number of uninsured.
Census Bureau: Americans On Medicaid Steady As Poverty Rises
In an annual report released today, Census Bureau data indicated that the number of Americans without health insurance coverage rose to 49.9 million in 2010 from 49 million in 2009.
Rwanda To Treat HIV-Positive People In Discordant Relationships As Soon As They Test Positive
After a landmark study published in May “showed major reductions in HIV transmission among discordant couples due to early treatment,” Rwanda has decided to begin treating people in discordant relationships with antiretroviral therapy as soon as they test HIV-positive “as part of a plan to boost national HIV prevention and treatment efforts,” PlusNews reports. “According to the government, an estimated 7.1 percent of cohabiting couples seeking voluntary counseling and testing services in the capital, Kigali, are HIV discordant,” and “[i]nfections within stable relationships have been identified as one of the main sources of new cases in Rwanda,” according to the news agency.
In Debate, GOP Hopefuls Clash On Health Reform, Medicare
One of the questions emerging in this primary contest is whether entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security will continue to be a political “third rail,” or if public concerns about government spending have overcome this conventional wisdom.
