Latest KFF Health News Stories
Unexplained Kidney Disease Affecting Rural Workers Across Central America, PRI’s ‘The World’ Reports
PRI’s “The World” reports on an epidemic of an unexplained kidney disease that is affecting rural workers across Central America, writing, “[I]t’s the second biggest cause of death among men in El Salvador, and in Nicaragua it’s a bigger killer of men than HIV and diabetes combined,” and “the latest theory is that the victims are literally working themselves to death.” According to the news service, “El Salvador’s health minister recently called on the international community for help,” stating that “the epidemic is ‘wasting away our populations.'”
Early Warning Systems Helping Aid Agencies Respond To Potential ‘Food Crisis’ In Sahel Region
Africa’s Sahel region is facing a potential “food crisis,” “[b]ut the good news is that the world’s Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) is giving West African countries and donor nations a period of time to prepare, says the aid group Oxfam,” the Christian Science Monitor reports. “Early reports suggest that as many as six million people in Niger and 2.9 million people in Mali live in vulnerable areas, where low rainfall, falling groundwater levels, poor harvests, lack of pastureland, rising food prices, and a drop in remittances from family members living abroad are starting to take their toll,” according to the newspaper.
Use Of Rapid Male Circumcision Tool Will Help Africa Reach HIV Prevention Goals
In order for Rwanda to reach its HIV prevention goals, the country “need[s] to reach two million men in two years to benefit from the protective effect of [voluntary medical male circumcision] in order to achieve this as part of a comprehensive, combination HIV prevention strategy,” Agnes Binagwahois, Rwanda’s minister of health, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. However, “the only method widely approved for funding is the surgical method, which is expensive and impractical for countries lacking physicians and surgical infrastructure,” and it would take more than 12 years to reach the country’s goal, she says.
Canadian Researchers Develop Portable Device To Monitor HIV In Rural Areas
A team of Canadian researchers has “created a portable device that uses a computer chip with software capable of analyzing blood tests outside the lab … that could make it easier, faster and cheaper to track the progression of HIV in patients living in the developing world,” Postmedia News/Vancouver Sun reports. According to the news service, “The team’s portable cell analyzer makes it possible for health care workers to monitor HIV patients in remote areas by testing their blood on the spot and receiving results within minutes, [University of Toronto lead researcher Rakesh] Nayyar explained.”
U.S. Investments In HIV Treatment Internationally, Domestically ‘Should Pay Off’
“We welcome the Obama administration’s announcement of a farsighted effort to treat millions more [people living with HIV] abroad, especially in sub-Saharan Africa,” a New York Times editorial writes. “The administration expects that the expanded treatments can be paid for with existing resources, by pushing for greater efficiencies and more financing from recipient nations. But if that effort stalls, the administration should re-evaluate quickly whether to ask Congress for money,” the editorial states.
First Edition: December 13, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including details about various provisions included in the payroll tax extension measure being considered today by the House.
USAID Administrator Urges Journalists To Cover Important World Issues, Including Global Health
“Journalists have a responsibility to cover important world issues and stories, urged Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of USAID, while speaking at an event at Harvard University on Thursday evening,” GlobalPost reports. “He was welling with emotion as he told this story” of a Somali mother fleeing to Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp “to a gathering of journalists and experts on global health at a forum sponsored by GlobalPost, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism,” the news service writes.
Only With Universal Access Will Power Of Vaccines Be Fully Harnessed
In this post in Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog, Orin Levine of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) recounts recent progress in expanding vaccine access to the world’s poor, writing, “From rolling out the first diarrhea vaccines in Africa, to doubling the number of low-income countries approved for vaccines against pneumonia, to announcing they will now assist countries [to] introduce vaccines for that prevent cervical cancer, the GAVI Alliance and its partners are tearing down the barriers to vaccine access that have historically divided rich from poor on our planet. To appreciate how far we’ve come you need to remember where we started.”
Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad To Introduce New Meningitis Vaccine
“The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said that Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, who are in the ‘meningitis belt’ stretching across Africa, will this month introduce a new vaccine designed to eliminate a particular strain of the often deadly disease,” Afrique en ligne reports (12/10). “Alison Brunier, a spokesperson for WHO, told journalists in Geneva that the three countries plan to vaccinate about 22 million people [among] them, focusing on the highest-risk demographic category — those aged between one and 29 years” and that “the immunization campaign should be completed within a couple of weeks,” the U.N. News Centre writes (12/9).
Reuters Examines Maternal Mortality In Afghanistan
“An Afghan woman can expect to have an average 5.1 babies in her lifetime, the highest fertility rate in Asia,” Reuters writes in the first of two articles examining childbirth and maternal mortality in Afghanistan. The news service adds that “giving birth a common, and frequent experience — but mothers say it is too often also hard, lonely and frightening.” The article recounts the experiences of several mothers giving birth in hospitals throughout the country (Kearney/Harvey, 12/12).
Malawi To Review Laws Banning Homosexuality, According To News Reports
“Malawi is to review laws banning homosexuality in response to public opinion, according to reports,” the Guardian writes. “The move comes just days after the U.S. announced it would” promote and protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people through foreign aid and diplomacy, the newspaper notes, adding that the U.S. provides “Malawi about $200 million (
Iowa: GOP Presidential Debate Turns Up Campaign Heat
With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, new political ads are hitting the airwaves, and Saturday night’s debate draws lots of fact-checking by news organzations.
State Roundup: Iowans And Wellmark Premium Hikes; Fla. Medicare Audit
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Fla. Squeezes Medicaid Spending; Colo. Dispute Threatens Budget
Medicaid spending is a key part of budget deliberations in Florida and Colorado.
Globe And Mail Reports On Potential Factors Leading To Increasing HIV Incidence In Uganda
After experiencing a decline in the number of new HIV infections in the 1990s, Uganda’s “HIV [incidence] rate is creeping back up again. New infections are increasing, and the sense of urgency has vanished,” the Globe and Mail reports, adding that the country “has become an early warning signal to the rest of the world: If the fight against AIDS fades into complacency and neglect, the disease can roar back again.” The article discusses how complacency among the general population, as well as government policies of Uganda and the U.S., “have contributed to the rise in HIV infections here, analysts say” (York, 12/9).
U.N. Seeks Aid Money For Zimbabwe, Half For Food; WHO Says Country Must Spend More On Health
“The United Nations said on Friday it was seeking $268 million for aid efforts in Zimbabwe next year, with half the money to be used to buy food for more than 1.4 million people facing shortages” in 2012, Reuters reports. “The humanitarian situation in the country has continued to improve over the past couple of years. However, challenges still exist such as food insecurity” and lack of access to safe water, which has led to cholera and typhoid outbreaks, Alain Noudehou, country head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said, the news service notes (12/9).
Poll Investigates The Impact Of Unemployment
A poll by NPR and the Kaiser Family Foundation examines the repercussions of unemployment, including the impact this state has on insurance and health.
