Archives: Morning Breakouts

General Electric Healthcare raises its growth projection as China, other emerging markets, spend more on health equipment and system improvement.

The mHealth Alliance on Monday at its summit in Washington, D.C. "announced a two-year $1 million aggregate donation from HP" aimed at furthering the alliance's goal of delivering quality health care "at the furthest reaches of wireless networks and mobile devices," mobihealthnews reports. HP now joins the U.N. Foundation, the Vodafone Foundation, PEPFAR and the GSM Association as a founding partner of the alliance (Dolan, 11/8). mHealth Alliance Executive Director David Aylward said of the donation in a press release: "HP's financial, technical and project support to mHealth Alliance initiatives significantly expands our ability to catalyze the partnerships, solutions, and sustainable deployments of mobile technology that can enable healthier lives for all, especially in the developing world" (11/8).

On his final day in India as part of his 10-day Asia-Pacific tour, President Barack Obama on Monday addressed the joint session of the Indian Parliament in New Dehli, where he emphasized the importance of U.S.-Indian partnerships to tackle disease and improve education, Indo-Asian News Service/Hindustan Times reports (11/8). "Because the wealth of a nation also depends on the health of its people, we'll continue to support India's effort against diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and as global partners, we'll work to improve global health by preventing the spread of pandemic flu," Obama said, according to a White House transcript from his address (11/8).

The New York Times examines several products being studied in clinical trials that researchers hope will one day prevent sexual transmission of HIV. The newspaper describes the ongoing trials of a vaginal microbicide gel containing the antiretroviral tenofovir which was found to reduce the risk of HIV infection in women by 39 percent, writing, "[o]ther clinical trials will report their results in 2011 and 2012 and, if all goes well, researchers hope to have a product or two ready to enter the market by 2013."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday voiced her "support for the inclusion of women's issues on the agenda of the G20 Seoul Summit slated for Thursday and Friday in a video message to a parliamentary seminar," the Korea Times reports.

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs)

Haiti's cholera outbreak appears to have spread to its capital, "imperiling nearly 3 million people living in Port-au-Prince, nearly half of them in unsanitary tent camps for the homeless from the Jan. 12 earthquake," the Associated Press/KIRO reports.

Republicans, who are getting ready to take positions as chairmen of powerful House committees after their sweep of Congressional seats, are eyeing what they'll do to roll back the health law and make life miserable for the Democrats who back it.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an early opportunity to review the health care law on Monday, a decision that was not surprising given that lower courts are still in litigation over the law.

Researchers found that the death rate among children diagnosed with severe falciparum malaria was almost one-fourth lower when they received the drug artesunate rather than the standard treatment of quinine, according to research which was presented at the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene over the weekend and published Monday in the Lancet, HealthDay News/U.S. News and World Report writes. The results have the potential to change the WHO's malaria treatment recommendations for children, according to the article (11/6).