Latest KFF Health News Stories
Capsules: Few Doctors Consider Themselves Rich, Survey Says
KHN’s Sarah Barr reports on the annual Medscape survey, which offers insights into what physicians earn, how they view that number, and what they think about coming changes to the health care system.
Ahead Of World Malaria Day, WHO Heralds Gains Against Disease, Calls For Greater Treatment Coverage
“The World Health Organization heralded major gains Tuesday in the fight against malaria, one of the developing world’s biggest killers, but warned universal access to treatment remains elusive,” Agence France-Presse reports, noting, “The assessment came on the eve of World Malaria Day,” observed Wednesday and “designed to shine the light on the mosquito-borne parasite that killed 655,000 people in 2010, including 560,000 children under five” (4/24). “A massive acceleration in the global distribution of mosquito nets, the expansion of programs to spray the insides of buildings with insecticides, and an increase in access to prompt antimalarial treatment has brought down malaria mortality rates by more than a quarter worldwide, and by one-third in Africa since 2000,” but “simply maintaining current rates of progress will not be enough to meet global targets for malaria control,” the agency writes in a news release (4/24).
Draft Farm Bill Includes ‘Promising’ Fixes To U.S. Food Aid System
In this post in the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) “Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Blog,” Connie Veillette, director of CGD’s rethinking U.S. foreign assistance initiative, comments on a draft farm bill released by Congress last week, which she writes “includes some promising fixes to the notoriously inefficient U.S. food aid system.” She continues, “Kudos are definitely in order for a draft bill that advances ideas around improving food aid effectiveness,” including “the reauthorization of local and regional purchase (LRP) to buy food closer to emergencies.” Veillette writes, “I would prefer the nature of the food emergency to determine whether U.S. commodities or LRP is used rather than some formula that makes more sense for Washington politics than for global hunger,” and concludes, “I commend the [Senate Agriculture] Committee for taking a serious look at improving food aid efficiencies and hope that this marks the start of a productive process of policy reform” (4/24).
Aid Agencies Appeal For Additional Funding To Address Food Insecurity In African Sahel
A coalition of “[a]id agencies said on Monday they are facing a multi-million dollar funding shortage to deal with a food crisis in the Sahel,” News24 reports. “Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision said they have raised only $52 million of $250 million needed to provide emergency assistance to six million people in the region,” the news service writes, adding that the groups “have called for a donor pledging conference to rally wealthy governments and donors” (4/23). They also “are calling on G8 leaders to consider the Sahel crisis at their summit next month,” according to VOA News.
PLoS Launches New Collection On Control, Elimination Of Human Helminthiases
“The April 2012 issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases features the launch of a new collection, ‘A research agenda for the control and elimination of human helminthiases,'” the PLoS “Speaking of Medicine” blog reports. According to the blog, “The collection includes a series of eight reviews from the Disease Reference Group on Helminth Infections (DRG4) that, taken together, outline a research and development (R&D) agenda for the control and elimination of helminth diseases of humans” (4/24).
Funding For HIV Programs Among MSM Populations Lacking, Largely Due To Stigma
“[D]espite high prevalence rates of HIV among [men who have sex with men (MSM)], funding for HIV prevention, treatment and care consistently neglects these populations, often due to stigma and discrimination,” Owen Ryan, deputy director of public policy at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, writes in this guest post in the Funders Concerned About AIDS blog. “In our report, ‘Achieving an AIDS-Free Generation for Gay Men and Other MSM,’ we found that MSM are neglected and marginalized by national HIV responses throughout the world, even in countries where MSM are a significant proportion of all HIV infections,” he notes, concluding, “As a funding community, we still have more to do. Our investments can be transformative. Whether establishing best practices, funding civil society advocacy, or investing in program delivery, this funding helps establish a bridge from policy to practice and often creates the kind of pressure that makes neglecting MSM very difficult” (4/24).
Opinion Pieces Recognize World Malaria Day
Wednesday, April 25, marks World Malaria Day, which this year has the theme “Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria.” The following opinion pieces address the fight against malaria.
MSF Says Number Of Annual Malaria Cases Treated In DRC Has Tripled Since 2009
Ahead of World Malaria Day on April 25, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday said the number of malaria cases it has treated in the country “more than tripled to 155,000 last year from two years previous,” Reuters reports (Hogg/Felix, 4/24). “In 2009, MSF’s teams treated more than 45,000 people with malaria” in DRC, with the total increasing to more than 158,000 in 2011, the Guardian notes, adding, “So far this year, more than 85,000 people have been treated.” According to the newspaper, “The agency said the rise was particularly alarming because of a high number of severe malaria patients requiring hospital care and urgent blood transfusions due to anemia. It has deployed additional emergency medical teams in four provinces but is unable to respond in all affected areas.”
Centre For Global Non-Communicable Diseases Launched In London
The Centre for Global Non-Communicable Diseases, which “brings together researchers, policy makers, funders and patient advocacy groups worldwide to focus research and expertise on this growing global health challenge,” was launched Wednesday at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, an LSHTM press release states. According to the press release, LSHTM Director Peter Piot “said: ‘The emerging epidemic of non-communicable diseases has potentially catastrophic consequences for global health. However, with co-ordinated intervention, we can successfully prevent and treat these diseases, saving millions of lives worldwide. This is a vital strategic priority, and we are working with our partners to establish this new center as a focus for research that can translate into effective action'” (4/25).
“PEPFAR has said it will use” nearly $1.5 billion in unspent aid “to invest in commodities (condoms, HIV rapid test kits and voluntary medical male circumcision kits), systems and institutions, and program strengthening,” Suzanne Ehlers, president of Population Action International, writes in this post in the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog. “Here’s one idea that would offer a huge return on investment and save the lives of millions: voluntary contraception for women,” she continues, adding, “Voluntary contraception has been called ‘the best kept secret in HIV prevention’ and has a proven evidence base.”
Dutch Government Rule Export Permit Required To Publish Controversial Bird Flu Study
Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center, “[t]he Dutch scientist at the center of the controversy over recent bird flu experiments, says that his team applied for government permission today to submit a paper describing their research to a science journal,” NPR’s health blog “Shots” reports, adding, “The Dutch government has asserted that the studies, which describe how to make bird flu virus more contagious, fall under regulations that control the export of weapons technology.” According to the news service, “He feels the government’s actions amount to censorship and has previously has said he did not want to apply for an export permit, because it would set a precedent” (Greenfieldboyce, 4/24). “Fouchier says that by conceding to the government’s request while continuing to contest the need for an export permit, he hopes to have found an acceptable compromise,” Nature writes.
‘Global Pulse’ Summarizes Event Launching USAID Child Survival Social Media Campaign
At an event on Monday launching USAID’s “Every Child Deserves a Fifth Birthday” social media campaign, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah described how $30 worth of materials contained in a backpack he carried onto stage, including zinc to prevent diarrhea and vaccines to prevent pneumococcal diseases, “can lead to a massive reduction in preventable child death in the developing world,” GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog reports. Though the backpack and the campaign’s use of 5th birthday photographs from celebrities, lawmakers, and policymakers “made for powerful symbols,” the event “dug a little deeper” to “highligh[t] numerous challenges facing the major U.S. government advocacy effort on child survival, which includes a gathering of world health leaders in Washington in June to push a new plan aimed at reducing preventable child deaths to zero,” the blog says.
“South Africa’s science minister, Naledi Pandor, has called for increased efforts by African nations to build both a greater ability to carry out research relevant to their specific health challenges, and the capacity to put such research to use,” SciDev.Net reports. “‘It is essential that African researchers become involved in finding solutions for the problems of Africa,’ Pandor told the opening of Forum 2012, a three-day meeting on health research which opened in Cape Town” on Tuesday, the news service writes, noting that the forum, “held under the title ‘Beyond Aid,’ … identifies research and innovation as ‘key drivers for health, equity and development.'”
U.S. Government Must Be Prepared To Handle Dual Use Research Of Concern
“This week, a Senate panel is investigating biological security in the wake of” controversial “potentially dangerous research” on H5N1 avian influenza, “with good reason,” Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. He says “the U.S. government should not have been caught by surprise” by the two research papers describing how genetic mutations to the virus could make it transmissible between ferrets, because the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) “was created in 2004 and charged with the specific responsibility of reviewing this type of research and offering guidance to all federal agencies that conduct biological research.” Sensenbrenner says the NSABB’s initial recommendation against publishing the studies and its subsequent reversal of that decision has left him with “suspicions that the U.S. government is woefully unprepared for dealing with dual use research of concern — research that, while conducted for a legitimate scientific purpose, could be dangerous if misused.”
GOP Budget Focuses On Cutting Health Law Funds Rather Than Trimming Medicare, Medicaid
House Republican lawmakers propose big spending cuts to health care, labor and foreign aid programs. Meanwhile, progress on Food and Drug Administration user fee legislation could stall over “key differences” on proposed amendments.
CMS Proposal Would Factor Patient Safety, Efficiency Into Hospital Pay Formula
The draft rule adds measures of patient safety and a financial assessment to determine whether hospitals are careful with Medicare’s money.
Marketplace News: UnitedHealthcare Flexes Its Muscle In Iowa, Nebraska
UnitedHealthcare expands its reach in Iowa and gets the go-ahead to intervene in a Nebraska lawsuit.
Iowa House Approves Mental Health Reforms
The bill would replace the county-by-county system in Iowa. Also in state legislative news, N.H. gubernatorial candidate opposes health care compact proposal and California lawmaker seeks cap on consumers’ prescription drug expenses.
Physicians, Med Schools Fret About Future, But Some See Signs Of Hope
One survey reveals that doctors fear some of the changes due to the health law, while primary care physicians say the law may spur needed change.
Study: Fewer Employers Offer Health Benefits For Workers
The Hill reports on a survy conducted by the Employee Benefits Research Institute.
