Archives: Morning Breakouts

In other news related to health reform politics, a coalition of health insurers and small businesses is launching a new assault on the law.

David Stuckler of the University of Cambridge, Sanjay Basu of the University of California, San Francisco, and Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, write in a BMJ commentary that misconceptions and fallacies "have led to serious under-budgeting for non-communicable diseases" (NCDs). The authors question whether food companies, or lobbying groups and non-governmental organizations that are influenced by food corporations, should "be viewed as trusted partners and have a seat at the table during public health negotiations" leading up to the U.N. High-level Meeting on NCDs.

Speaking at a breastfeeding conference on Tuesday in Johannesburg, South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that "reducing child mortality is one of the most important priorities in our country and central to this is breastfeeding as a child survival strategy," Agence France-Presse reports.

"[M]alnutrition, one of the leading killers of children under five in the Central American nation [of Guatemala], is receiving scant attention on the campaign trail" ahead of the country's presidential elections scheduled for September, AlertNet reports. "Organized crime and rising drug-fuelled violence" are overshadowing many issues, according to the news service.

JAMA discusses "a recent report from the Pew Health Group about the growing risks of substandard and counterfeit medications resulting from the increasing overseas production of pharmaceuticals and their ingredients." According to JAMA, "The report notes that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now estimates that as much as 40 percent of pharmaceuticals used by U.S. consumers are made in other countries, and 80 percent of active ingredients and bulk chemicals used in drug manufacturing come from foreign countries." The report "recommends that pharmaceutical companies exert tighter control over their international suppliers, that Congress provide the FDA with more resources and greater authority to oversee foreign drug production, and that a universal system be created to track drugs from production to the pharmacy," the journal writes (Kuehn, 8/24).

"According to the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), continued transmission of polio is a 'global health emergency,' and plans to interrupt transmission by the end of 2012 are 'at risk,'" the Lancet Infectious Diseases reports, adding, "With a US$590 million funding gap and weak political leadership in some countries, the engagement of communities to plan and implement local approaches is paramount."

HIV-positive women across Africa are facing discrimination, with many "say[ing] they have been pressured

"Dominican hospitals and clinics are being overwhelmed by Haitian women