Latest KFF Health News Stories
PrEP Raises Questions Regarding ‘Risk Disinhibition’ And Drug Resistance
Nature News reports on “the possibility of unintended public-health consequences” of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV and pharmaceutical company Gilead’s plan to ask the FDA to evaluate its combination antiretroviral (ARV) drug Truvada for use in healthy people.
World Must Invest Equally In Bird Flu Prevention And Response
The “reports during the past two weeks of two recent infections and another death” from H5N1 (avian) influenza “raised little concern except among public health officials,” Robert Gatter, co-director of the Center for Health Law Studies and professor of law at Saint Louis University, writes in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece, adding that “[t]he fact that bird flu in developing nations receives little public attention reveals that the world has become complacent about this threat.”
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Interests Line Up To Guide ‘Super Committee’ Decisions
The American Medical Association is among the groups taking a message to Congress – but it goes beyond trying to avoid the 2 percent cut that would be triggered if the deficit reduction panel doesn’t meet its savings target. The AMA hopes to link fixing the scheduled Medicare physician payment cut to what it terms “any serious proposal” to address the nation’s fiscal challenges.
How The Medco-Express Scripts Merger Could Impact Consumer Pocketbooks
NPR reports on the joining of these two health care giants.
Timing For Supreme Court’s Health Law Review Unclear
The Wall Street Journal reports that the high court is likely to decide by January whether a ruling on the health law will come before or after the 2012 election. Meanwhile, Politico reports that a “conservative gadfly” has won a round in his battle against the Obama administration’s health overhaul effort.
Philadelphia Program Promotes Health Services Across Cultural Barriers
But in Connecticut an initiative designed to extend insurance coverage of face-to-face interpreters for Medicaid patients remains unfunded.
MSF Warns Global Shortage Of Drug-Resistant TB Treatment Likely
As countries increase the use of the GeneXpert test, a two-hour molecular TB test released in 2010, “enabl[ing] them to diagnose more patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), a worldwide shortage of the drugs to treat these patients is likely, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warns,” according to PlusNews.
National Campaign In China Aims To Rectify Gender Imbalance
Authorities in China “have begun a national campaign to crack down on procedures used to determine a fetus’ sex for anything other than medical purposes and abortions performed because a fetus is of a certain sex” in an effort to curb the country’s growing gender ratio imbalance, China Daily reports (Juan, 8/17). During the campaign, which will run until March 2012, “efforts will be made to raise awareness of gender equality, to severely punish those involved in cases of non-medical sex determinations and sex-selective abortions, and to strengthen monitoring,” according to Xinhua.
Making Sense Of Maternal Mortality Statistics
Referring to a Maternal Health Task Force infographic depicting maternal mortality worldwide, Jen Quraishi, editorial coordinator for Mother Jones, writes in a post on Mother Jones’ “Blue Marble” blog that “there are lots of ways to juggle [maternal mortality] numbers, and ultimately I find the death rate per capita more useful than the total number of deaths
Humanitarian Agencies Stand By In Pakistan As Floods Kill Up To 25, Displace Estimated 50,000 Others
“Predictions by Pakistan’s Meteorological Department of more rain in the days ahead have raised flood fears, especially in Sindh Province, as the monsoon season peaks,” IRIN reports (8/17). “United Nations humanitarian agencies in Pakistan are on standby after sustained rains have reportedly affected up to 750,000 people in Punjab and Sindh provinces, killing up to 25 and displacing some 50,000 others,” the U.N. News Centre reports. “The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) conducted informal assessments last week in some areas where there had been a significant loss of homes, and district authorities were already relocating families to shelters,” the news agency writes.
First Edition: August 17, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including a report about how the timing of the Supreme Court’s health law review is in play — will it happen before or after the 2012 election?
Global AIDS Funding In 2010 Down Nearly 10% From Previous Year, Kaiser/UNAIDS Report Says
“Spending on the global fight against AIDS fell significantly in 2010 for the first time since the U.S. and other governments began making major donations,” according to an annual funding analysis released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS, the Wall Street Journal reports. “All told, governments donated about $6.9 billion in 2010, down 9.7 percent from about $7.6 billion in the prior year, the report said,” the newspaper writes (McKay, 8/16).
Washington Post Examines History, Future Of Mosquito Control Efforts
The Washington Post looks at the history and future of disease-carrying mosquitoes, “the most deadly non-human animal on the planet.” The newspaper describes several mosquito-control methods, and poses the question, “If scientists could find a way to wipe out all mosquitoes
Emotions Hinder Disease Eradication
In a New York Times essay, journalist Donald McNeil writes, “To a doctor, all epidemics are objectively different
WFP Investigating Fraud Allegations In Somalia; U.N., Oxfam Call For Increased Assistance
The World Food Programme (WFP) does not plan “to reduce aid to Somalia following allegations that international food shipments there are being diverted,” the Associated Press reports. WFP spokesperson Christiane Berthiaume “told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the WFP investigation so far has no evidence of a large-scale fraud scheme,” the news agency writes (8/16). Noting it has “strong controls
U.S. ‘Can Be Proud’ Of Past, Future Investments To Improve Food Security
“Outside of immediate crisis relief,” such as the administration of measles vaccinations or oral rehydration therapy for children affected by diarrheal diseases, the U.S. government’s “past investments clearly are paying off” in the fight against drought and famine the Horn of Africa, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. “U.S.-supported early-warning networks identified the famine threat a year ago,” the government is working with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the U.N. to lessen the risk of corruption and looting of food aid, and “the multi-year, multi-agency Feed the Future program [is] stimulat[ing] research into making plants more nutritious and crops more drought-resistant,” he notes.
