Archives: Morning Breakouts

"The first human antibody that can knock out all influenza A viruses has been shown effective in lab mice, an exciting step forward in the hunt for a universal vaccine, researchers said Friday," Agence France-Presse reports (Sheridan, 7/30).

"Officials in Nigeria's northern Kano state say parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated against polio may be prosecuted," VOA News reports. "Officials began a four-day immunization campaign in Kano on Thursday, with the goal of immunizing six million children," according to the news service (7/29).

An advisory group offered criticism of the Food and Drug Administration's review system for medical devices. But the FDA's reaction appears dismissive.

News outlets report on a range of issues related to the health law, from efforts to repeal the measure's tax on insurance policies to competing claims about its costs.

CQ HealthBeat reports on how there is increasing skepticism, especially from members of the GOP, that the National Institutes of Health should be protected from budget cuts.

"The first field trial for a 'lab on a chip' accurately detected both HIV and syphilis among a Rwandan population, researchers reported Sunday" in an online report published by Nature Medicine, the Washington Post reports (Torres, 7/31).

"Half of the 340,000 deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes each year occur in Africa, almost all in anonymity," the New York Times writes in an article profiling several cases of women who have died during childbirth in Ugandan hospitals.

"The U.S. should improve coordination among its more than two dozen government departments to promote coherence in its multibillion-dollar foreign aid program and avoid duplication," according to a peer review from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Guardian reports.