Latest KFF Health News Stories
Medicaid Advocates Fret Over Plans For Cuts
Politico reports that advocates fear an idea proposed by the Obama administration to change the way federal matching funds work could have very negative results. Meanwhile, groups – including faith-based organizations – opposing Medicaid cuts continue to step forward.
Swaziland’s Supply Of Antiretroviral Drugs Running Low
“Cash-strapped Swaziland’s state hospitals have only two months’ supplies of AIDS drugs, the country’s health minister has told parliament in an assessment that AIDS patients and activists took as a death sentence,” the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports. More than 60,000 Swazis receive antiretroviral medicine at no cost from state-run hospitals.
Global Malaria R&D Funding Has Received Sustained Growth, Report Says
“Annual funding for research and development (R&D) in the fight against malaria has quadrupled over 16 years, generating the strongest pipeline of potential treatments in history, according to a report [.pdf] on Tuesday,” Reuters reports (Kelland, 6/28).
FAO Announces Eradication Of Cattle Plague, Second Disease Since Smallpox Elimination
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Tuesday in Rome announced the eradication of the cattle disease rinderpest, “the only other disease besides smallpox to achieve the gone-for-good status,” HealthKey/Los Angeles Times’ “Booster Shots” blog reports (Cevallos, 6/28).
Goosby Discusses Global AIDS Fight At CSIS Event
Ambassador Eric Goosby, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, said that a recent $75 million pledge from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chevron and Johnson & Johnson could help “eliminate new HIV-infected children by 2015 and keep mothers alive,” McClatchy/News & Observer reports.
Improving Health Vital To Good Governance In Nigeria
In a Daily Independent opinion piece, U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Terence McCulley writes that after “truly historic” elections in April, “[t]he Nigerian Government faces complex challenges in the post-election environment. Security, electricity, good roads, education and reliable health care top most people’s lists of immediate concerns.”
SciDev.Net reports on the 7th World Conference of Science Journalists, taking place this week in Qatar, where participants discussed how the number of clinical trials in developing countries is surging despite legal and ethical frameworks often not being in place.
GlobalPost Examines GHI’s Work To Address Chronic Malnutrition In Guatemala
Guatemala’s “vast inequality” helped it land “on the list of eight ‘plus’ countries in the Global Health Initiative (GHI) that President Barack Obama is focusing on as part of his expansion and revision of how the U.S. is funding and rethinking global aid,” GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog reports in an article examining malnutrition in Guatemala, the wealthiest of nations in the first round of GHI plus countries.
Drug Companies Collaborate With DNDi Support To Develop Drug For African Sleeping Sickness
Researchers from Scynexis Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Anacor Pharmaceuticals in Palo Alto, Calif., sponsored by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, on Tuesday reported in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases that a new experimental drug kills the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness in mice and will enter human clinical trials this year, ScienceNOW reports (Leslie, 6/28).
State Roundup: Minn. Officials Eye Health Cuts To Avert Shutdown
News outlets examine a variety of state health policy issues.
N.C. Gov. Vetoes Abortion Bill; 2 Kansas Doctors File Suit Against Kansas Law
The abortion issue continues to rile politics in Indiana, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Iowa, Texas and North Carolina.
Patients, Scientists In Different Corners For Cancer Drug Fight
The drug, Avastin, will be the subject of an unusual Food and Drug Administration hearing to revisit a panel vote last July that steered many doctors away from prescribing the drug for the treatment of breast cancer.
Interest, Uncertainty Surround Health Exchanges, ACOs
In other news related to health law implementation, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., has co-sponsored legislation to allow states to opt out of the health law until legal challenges related to it are resolved.
Providers And Privacy Groups Confused Over Tentative Security Definition
The Center for Public Integrity reports on why a specific standard is causing this confusion.
Viewpoints: Calif.’s Budget, Supreme Court Drug Rulings, The Avastin Debate
A selection of today’s opinions and editorials from around America.
