Latest KFF Health News Stories
President, Party Leaders Offer ‘Super Committee’ Conflicting Advice
The GOP leaders say new taxes should be unacceptable. The president says any cuts to Medicare without also increasing revenue would trigger a veto. And the House Majority Leader advises the panel to “think small.”
Four Insurers May Help Provide Answers To Health Cost Puzzle
Four major health insurers announced plans yesterrday to pool their health care claims data into a single database to enable researchers to mine for information about trends in costs, utilization and intensity of care.
Rockefeller: ‘Blended Rate’ Proposal Could Be End Of CHIP
Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Tuesday that the deficit plan announced this week by President Barack Obama would take a significant toll on states’ CHIP programs.
State-Federal Tensions Surround Plans For Health Exchanges
At a meeting this week, state regulators offered their objections to the Obama administration’s plans. One focus was the partnership model which would utilize joint state-federal operation of some exchanges. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, GOP lawmakers step-up their criticism of the state’s efforts.
Archbishop Tutu Calls On Obama To Lead The World In Expansion Of HIV Treatment
Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights advocate Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes in a Washington Post opinion piece that President Barack Obama “is in a position to make a game-changing impact on the war against AIDS” and he “should lead the world in a massive effort to expand access to treatment and rid humanity of AIDS — the most devastating disease of our time.” However, “just as the end of AIDS has finally come within reach, we are witnessing an unprecedented drop in financial and political support for the cause,” he adds.
UNFPA Working To Ensure Health Of Future Generations In Dadaab Refugee Camps
The health care system in the refugee camps in Dadaab, Kenya, which were established “long ago,” are “currently challenged and stretched by the recent influx of refugees,” UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimihen writes in this BMJ Group Blogs entry, noting that efforts are underway “to strengthen the existing system with supplies [and] human resources at clinic and outreach levels” to increase access. UNFPA is working “to improve reproductive health care in Dadaab and in accessible parts of Somalia through the provision of related life-saving medical supplies and equipment, which will lead to a reduction in adult and child morbidity and death,” he writes.
Celebrating Partnerships That Lead To Sustainable, Locally Managed HIV/AIDS Response Efforts
Mary Fanning, South Africa’s country coordinator for PEPFAR, writes in a New Age guest column, “In the fight against HIV/AIDS, this is a time of hope. It’s also a time to celebrate the partnerships that are advancing this work and to recommit to a plan to ensure prevention, treatment and care for those infected and affected is sustainable and locally managed,” adding, “Ultimately, whether it’s putting more people on treatment, supporting HIV testing campaigns or leveraging mass media to drive the prevention message, the partnership between the U.S. and South African governments saves lives.”
Leaders Address Nutrition On Sidelines Of U.N. NCD Meeting
On the sidelines of the U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) on Tuesday, “[r]epresentatives of governments, civil society and the private sector joined United Nations agencies … to emphasize the importance of good nutrition, which is vital not only for human health but also for national economic and social development,” the U.N. News Centre reports. The event “took place one year after the launch of the Scale Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, a global initiative that aims to improve maternal and child nutrition,” the news service reports (9/20).
Health Officials In Africa Address NCDs In Addition To HIV/AIDS Epidemic
PlusNews examines how health officials are addressing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa, where “[c]ountries grappling with HIV prevalence are now faced with rising epidemics of chronic diseases.”
USAID Launches ‘FWD’ Campaign To Raise Awareness Of Famine, Drought In Horn Of Africa
The PBS NewsHour blog “The Rundown” features an interview with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, in which he discusses a new website initiative called “FWD,” “aimed at giving viewers a better sense of the scope of the famine in the Horn of Africa — its worst in more than 60 years.” The site includes infographics and data maps “intended to contextualize the problem by showing the recent increase in food prices, where internally displaced peoples camps are located, and where various aid groups are operating,” according to the blog (Epatko, 9/20).
Indian Government Responds To New Avian Flu Outbreak
“Authorities in eastern India will start culling chickens and destroying eggs to contain a new outbreak of H5 bird flu, the government said in a statement on Tuesday, as a mutant strain of the virus is spreading elsewhere in Asia,” Reuters reports (Williams, 9/20). “A mutant strain of avian influenza — for which there is no vaccine — appeared recently in China and Vietnam. But Indian authorities did not specify which strain of the H5N1 virus had been detected in the West Bengal region, which has been a hot spot for avian flu in the past,” the Los Angeles Times’ “Booster Shots” blog reports. The blog provides a link to track the movement of bird flu on the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s avian influenza pages and a link for additional information on the virus from the CDC (9/20).
Polio Spreads From Pakistan To China; WHO Warns Of Further Spread
“Polio has broken out in China for the first time since 1999 after being imported from Pakistan, and there is a high risk of the crippling virus spreading further during the annual Haj pilgrimage, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday,” Reuters reports (9/20). Nine cases of wild poliovirus type 1 have been recorded in China’s western province of Xinjiang, which borders Pakistan, WHO spokesperson Oliver Rosenbauer said, according to Daily News and Analysis, GlobalPost notes (9/21). A genetic link has been confirmed between the virus detected in China and a strain circulating in Pakistan, according to the Associated Press/USA Today (9/20). BBC News reports that “Chinese authorities are now investigating the cases, and a mass vaccination campaign has been launched in the region” (9/20).
U.N. Meeting On NCDs Concludes With Pledges To Fight Chronic Diseases
World leaders on Tuesday “pledged to take wide-ranging action to prevent millions of deaths from cancer, diabetes, and heart and lung disease by tackling the key causes — smoking, excessive drinking, lack of exercise and unhealthy diets dominated by fast food,” but the “declaration approved at the first-ever General Assembly meeting on chronic diseases which ended Tuesday left unanswered the question of coordinating an international response to what the leaders called “a challenge of epidemic proportions,” the Associated Press/CBS News reports.
First Edition: September 21, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including additional anaylsis of President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction plan and how it could impact patients.
Capsules: A Special Kind Of Health Care Fantasy Fulfilled?
Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare have agreed to provide their claims data to a new nonprofit research initiative.
Three Reports Evaluate Global Progress To Meet MDGs 4 And 5
Three recent reports — a one-year assessment released by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) of the WHO on Tuesday, an analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington published on Tuesday in the Lancet, and a Save the Children report released on Monday entitled “No Child out of Reach” — examine the progress of the global campaign to save mothers and children under five in developing nations and evaluate whether Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5, reducing child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 and maternal deaths by three-quarters over the same period, can be met.
Pakistan Officials Move To Contain Dengue Epidemic That Has Infected Thousands
“On top of a raging insurgency and devastating seasonal floods, Pakistan is reeling from a particularly acute outbreak of dengue fever that has left local authorities scrambling to contain the epidemic” and has put a strain on the health care system, the Washington Post reports, adding that the disease “has already infected thousands across the country and killed as many as two dozen people.” Local government officials have “reacted frantically to the daily increase of cases with a series of measures including school closures, free treatment for dengue patients and large fumigation drives. But some say the response is inadequate and authorities should have focused more efforts on prevention,” the newspaper writes.
