Latest KFF Health News Stories
Clinical Trials Can Benefit Under-Represented Populations In Developing Countries
While conducting more clinical trials in developing countries can help under-represented populations benefit from new medical developments, trials in low-income settings face challenges such as complicated regulations, Trudie Lang of the Centre for Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford and Sisira Siribaddana of the University of Rajarata and the Institute of Research & Development in Sri Lanka write in an essay published Tuesday in PLoS Medicine (6/12). According to a PLoS press release, “The authors conclude: ‘the globalization of clinical trials should not be about running inexpensive trial sites to benefit distant people, but should focus on bringing research to populations who have previously been under-represented in clinical trials, and enabling these same communities the benefits resulting from new drugs, vaccines, and improvements in managing health'” (6/12).
Cervical Cancer Vaccine, Increased Awareness Could Help Lower Disease Rate In Kenya
AllAfrica.com/Guardian examine efforts to prevent and treat cervical cancer among women in Kenya, where an estimated 3,400 women die of the disease each year and only five percent receive screening. “Kenya’s national reproductive health strategic plan has addressed cervical cancer largely through the roll-out of a low-cost screening tool known as VIA (visual inspection of the cervix using ascetic acid),” but experts agree that more widespread use of cervical cancer vaccines and public education campaigns about the disease would be more effective at preventing and catching cases earlier, the news service reports. “Once the public owns this problem and pushes for it, … then the government would be forced to implement [a vaccine] strategy in full,” Lucy Muchiri, a pathologist specializing in cervical cancer at Kenyatta National Hospital and the University of Nairobi, said, the news service notes (Njoroge, 6/12).
OAS Members Must Assist U.S. Efforts To Ensure Food Security In Americas
“Together with international partners, the United States has launched an unprecedented effort over the past three years to reverse a decades-long decline in agricultural investments,” with a goal of “alleviat[ing] the chronic hunger that afflicts nearly one billion people around the world, including an estimated 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean,” a VOA editorial states. “In the Americas, Feed the Future invests in rural areas of three focus countries: Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti,” the editorial continues, noting, “Over five years, investments and programs involving the entire agricultural value chain from seeds to farms to markets will assist one million vulnerable women, children and family members, mostly smallholder farmers, to escape hunger and poverty in these countries.” The editorial states, “By working together, the United States believes [Organization of American States (OAS)] members can contribute collectively to food security at both the hemispheric and global levels. To achieve that goal, OAS members must safeguard the political and economic progress that has been made to date” (6/12).
WHO Agency Classifies Diesel Exhaust As ‘Carcinogenic’
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the WHO’s cancer arm, on Tuesday announced it has reclassified diesel engine exhaust from “probably carcinogenic” to “carcinogenic,” the U.N. News Centre reports, noting the decision came “after a week-long meeting of international experts, and [the agency] based its decision on sufficient evidence that exposure is associated with an increased risk for lung cancer” (6/12). “IARC said large populations all over the world are exposed to diesel exhaust every day,” Reuters notes. “‘People are exposed not only to motor vehicle exhausts but also to exhausts from other diesel engines … (such as diesel trains and ships) and from power generators,’ it said,” according to the news service (Kelland, 6/12).
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about new government projections for the nation’s health care spending and the latest from the campaign trail.
CMS Predicts Modest Health Spending Growth, Then Acceleration
News organizations reported that as the nation’s economy improves and baby boomers join Medicare, spending will continue to outpace inflation.
Report: Health Spending Will Climb To Nearly One-Fifth Of GDP
Much of the increased spending will come after 2014, when the health law’s insurance coverage expansion begins.
Medicaid Costs Loom Over States’ Tepid Economic Recovery
A new report says that Medicaid costs — though slated to grow more slowly next year — are still a burden on states.
If Health Continues To Wane On G8 Agenda, A Serious Void Will Be Left
In this post in the Global Health Governance blog, Jenilee Guebert, director of research for the global health diplomacy program and G8 research group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, writes that, “for the second year in a row, the amount of attention devoted to global health” at the annual G8 summit, which took place at Camp David in Maryland in May, has declined. “Global health was not completely absent from the summit,” she continues, highlighting several health initiatives discussed at the meeting, including the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, launched “to accelerate the flow of private capital to African agriculture” with an aim of “lift[ing] 50 million people out of poverty over the next decade.”
Child Survival Call To Action Event Signals A ‘Hopeful Moment’ In Global Health
“Helping mothers give birth to HIV-free children is an essential piece of the puzzle of ending preventable child deaths,” U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby writes in this post in the AIDS.gov blog, adding, “Yet 390,000 infants around the globe were born with the virus in 2010.” He continues, “Science has long established that providing mothers with antiretroviral drugs can prevent them from transmitting the virus to their children — as well as keeping the mothers alive themselves,” and writes, “What is needed is to take this intervention, available in affluent nations to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and make it available in the developing world.”
African-Led Innovation ‘Imperative’ To Overcoming Health Issues On The Continent
In this post in the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters” blog, Carel IJsselmuiden, executive director of the Council on Health for Development Group, writes that “Africa must turn its health research into treatments for African people,” noting, “Despite large investments being made by donors in health products and delivery of health services, a large percentage of Africans still have limited access to sufficient and quality healthcare — especially in rural areas.” He notes that a “recent report, Investing in health for Africa — released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank and USAID to name a few of the partners — says average additional spending in sub-Saharan Africa of $21 to $36 could in 2015 alone save more than three million lives, 90 percent of which would be women and children.”
“Newborns now account for 40 percent of preventable child deaths worldwide, but only a tiny fraction of international aid targets newborns, according to” Save the Children’s new report on newborn survival, to be published in the medical journal Health Policy and Planning Tuesday, USA Today reports (Madhani, 6/11). “The world has achieved remarkable progress on reducing child deaths — from 12.4 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010 — but that progress isn’t reaching newborn babies at the same pace, the report shows,” a Save the Children press release states (6/12).
Millions Suffer Chronic Food Shortages In North Korea, U.N. Report Says
“Millions of North Koreans suffer chronic food shortages and dire health care …, and there are no immediate signs of reforms to spur economic growth, the United Nations says” in a report released Thursday, Agence France-Presse reports (6/12). “The U.N. described serious humanitarian conditions in North Korea in its report, saying 16 million people continue to suffer from chronic food insecurity, high malnutrition rates, and deep-rooted economic problems,” VOA News writes, adding that the U.N. “is calling for the international community to put aside political differences and boost funding to help address what it says are the dire humanitarian needs of North Koreans” (6/12).
Relief Groups Appeal For Aid To Tackle Worsening Food Crisis In West Africa
“Relief groups are stepping up their appeals for aid to tackle the worsening food crisis in West Africa, where more than 18 million people face hunger,” the Guardian reports. “Relief agencies have been sounding the alarm for months about the effects of drought on the Sahel — a region stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea,” the newspaper writes, adding, “The situation has been made worse by the knock-on effect of the Libyan uprising that has destabilized Mali” (Tran, 6/12). UNICEF “forecasts that, over the course of 2012, at least 1.1 million children would need to be treated and 5,200 specialist treatment centers will need to be established to cope with the crisis,” the U.N. News Centre notes (6/11).
White House Warns About What’s At Stake In Health Law Decision
Federal officials and health policy experts forecast what the future might hold if the Supreme Court overturns, or upholds the health law. Also, surveys highlight how employers plan to react to the decision, and how the law might help stabilize certain aspects of the insurance market.
Medicaid Still Taking Toll On State Budgets
Even as state revenues are showing signs of recovering, health costs remain a budget drain, according to a new report.
