Latest KFF Health News Stories
Supreme Court Refuses To Enforce Texas Sonogram Law
The legal wrangling comes as both cases continue in court. Meanwhile, groups supporting abortion rights filed suit to overturn a new North Carolina law restricting access.
First Edition: September 30, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about how new and old health policy positions are playing on the campaign trail.
“The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria approved an action plan Monday in response to recommendations made recently by the High-Level Independent Review Panel on Fiduciary Controls and Oversight Mechanism (HLP),” the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports, adding, “The board stated that it accepts the underlying analysis made by the panel and that it ‘presents a compelling case for a rapid and urgent transformation of the Global Fund.'”
NGOs, Government Face Challenges In Preventing Fistula In DRC
Inter Press Service examines the challenges that non-governmental organizations and the government face in trying to prevent fistula among women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an estimated 12,000 cases are recorded annually because of sexual violence, early marriage and complications in childbirth, according to the Ministry of Public Health. Poverty, early pregnancy and marriage, sexual violence, and a lack of education and knowledge about the condition contribute to its prevalence, IPS reports (Chaco, 9/27).
GlobalPost Examines How Indian City Of Surat Cleaned Up After 1994 Plague Outbreak
GlobalPost reports how, spurred by an outbreak of the pneumonic plague in 1994, the Indian city of Surat “successfully went from one of the country’s dirtiest cities to one of its cleanest in 18 short months.” The news service writes that “after 54 residents died and some 300,000 fled to escape a possible quarantine, the people who stuck around were willing to get with the program — working to eliminate the tons of garbage and overflowing sewers that had inundated the city with disease-carrying rats.”
Increased Focus On Vaccine For Dengue Fever Is Critical To Curb Spread Of Disease
In this GlobalPost opinion piece, Zulfiqar Bhutta, Husein Laljee Dewraj professor and head of the Division of Maternal and Child Health at the Aga Khan University Medical Center in Karachi, Pakistan, and Ciro de Quadros, executive vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and former director of the Division of Vaccines and Immunization at PAHO, examine the need for a dengue fever vaccine as Pakistan struggles to curb an outbreak of the disease that to date has killed 60 people and has infected more than 8,000. “The need for a dengue vaccine is clear,” and “[w]ithout a vaccine to prevent dengue, we must redouble our efforts to effectively treat this infectious threat, starting with improving diagnostics,” they write.
Food Aid Reaches Almost Half Of Somalis In Need But Threat Of Disease Looms, U.N. Agency Says
“The U.N. on Wednesday said food assistance has reached nearly half the Somalis in need, [and] it warned cases of diarrhea and cholera could spike with the seasonal rains expected in October,” the Associated Press reports (9/28). “However, the report released Tuesday by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that four million Somalis remain in crisis nationwide, and that 750,000 people risk death in the Horn of Africa nation within the next four months,” according to VOA News.
“The Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), which is funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, [on Wednesday] announced that it decided to stop one arm of a study involving more than 5,000 women in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda” after “an interim review of the ongoing trial by an independent monitoring board … found that the drug tenofovir when used as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) had less effect in protecting women than anticipated,” Science Magazine’s “Science Insider” blog reports. “Although the board did not offer any specifics on how many women became infected on the drug versus placebo, they said continuing with the tenofovir arm was ‘futile’ as it would not yield meaningful results,” the blog writes.
Obama Administration Asks High Court To Rule On Health Law
The Justice Department’s formal appeal puts to rest speculation about the administration’s legal strategy. In addition, Republican state attorneys general separately asked the Supreme Court for a verdict early next year. Many observers say the new timeline will make the court’s ultimate finding a factor in the presidential election.
Analyzing The Health Law’s Tax Credits And The CLASS Act’s Future
This round-up of health law implementation news also includes a report that the comment period for state health exchanges has been extended and news that Catholic organizations have stepped-up their opposition to the measure’s requirement that contraceptive services be covered.
Small Phase I Trial Shows HIV Vaccine Candidate Is Most Powerful To Date
Researchers at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have successfully completed a small Phase I human clinical trial of an HIV vaccine candidate that granted 90 percent of 30 study participants an immunological response against the virus, Gizmag reports. “The MVA-B vaccine draws on the natural capabilities of the human immune system and ‘has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more,’ says Mariano Esteban, head researcher from CSIC’s National Biotech Centre,” the magazine writes (Borgobello, 9/28).
Adult Male Circumcision Not A Cost Effective Anti-HIV Tactic, Panel Of Economists Says
A panel of economists commissioned by the Copenhagen Consensus Centre who “conducted a first-ever cost-benefit analysis of the top AIDS-fighting approaches by comparing the costs of prevention and treatment options per lives saved … said Wednesday that adult male circumcision, a global priority for preventing HIV infection, is not nearly as cost-effective as other methods of prevention,” USA Today reports. “The World Bank and the U.S. State Department support a major push for adult male circumcision,” however the panel said that “more cost-effective ways to prevent the spread of the disease are an HIV vaccine, infant male circumcision, preventing mother-to-child transmission of the disease and making blood transfusions safe,” the newspaper writes.
Longer Looks: A Surgeon Examines His Professional Development
This week’s articles comes from The New Yorker, MedPage, the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, American Medical News and Columbia Journalism Review.
Hospital Readmission Rates Reflect Problem In Addressing Hospital Failures
News outlets continue their coverage of a report by the Dartmouth Atlas Project.
States Join Forces To Fend Off Medicaid Cuts
Red and blue states alike are lobbying with a common message: They oppose federal cuts to Medicaid that could create even more red ink for already-stretched state budgets.
Military Benefits Face Same Cost Challenges As Social Security, Medicare
Last year the federal government spent a record amount on benefit costs for military retirees.
Gingrich Issues New ‘Contract With America’; Includes Health Insurance Proposal
GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, who seeks to cast himself as his party’s “idea guy,” has issued his “21st Century Contract with America,” which includes a proposal that people either choose a tax credit or the ability to deduct the cost of their health insurance.
IOM Offers Additional Ideas To Revamp System Of Geographic Adjustments To Medicare Payments
Modern Healthcare reports that this round of recommendations focuses on ways to set the work adjustment, calculate the labor portion of practice expense and use cost-sharing weights.
