Latest KFF Health News Stories
Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNPFA), said in an interview with the Guardian that “efforts to expand family planning services in the developing world stalled for a decade while global health organizations turned their energies to fighting HIV/AIDS. ‘We made a mistake. We disconnected HIV from reproductive health. We should never have done that because it is part and parcel,’ he said.” The newspaper adds, “Osotimehin said the international community was regaining momentum in its efforts to make family planning services available to women in all countries” and “argued it was crucial for developing countries to devote a larger share of their own resources to family planning and health.”
UNICEF Issues Statement Clarifying Reports Of Polio Cases In Madagascar
UNICEF released a statement on Tuesday correcting an October 21 report by its office in Madagascar “expressing concern over a resurgence of polio in Madagascar after a routine health survey identified vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) in several healthy children.” According to the statement, “there was no re-emergence of polio in Madagascar,” and “[t]he last wild poliovirus case in Madagascar was detected in 1997.”
Perry Unveils New Economic Plan
Media outlets analyze GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry’s new plan, which would cut discretionary funding by at least $100 billion per year, and would overhaul Medicare and Medicaid. In other news, a new poll uncovers deep distrust of the government, with about a quarter of the public in favor of repealing the entire health law.
As High Court Considers Health Law Challenges, Key Legal Issues Take Shape
Reuters details a number of the key questions that have surfaced in legal briefs related to the Supreme Court consideration of challenges to the health law. Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in its brief, took a nuanced approach regarding the individual mandate.
Al Jazeera Examines Maternal Mortality In Afghanistan
Al Jazeera examines maternal mortality in Afghanistan, which “remains one of the worst places to be a mother,” 10 years after the beginning of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and “[d]espite billions of dollars in aid and considerable progress.” In an accompanying video, the news service reports, “One in five children born in Afghanistan dies by the age of five, and the statistics for mothers aren’t good either.”
Cholera Epidemic Hits Western, Central Africa
“Western and central Africa are facing one of the biggest cholera epidemics in their history, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said last month, in reporting that more than 85,000 cases of cholera have been registered since the beginning of the year, with nearly 2,500 deaths,” according to Le Monde/Guardian. The newspaper writes, “UNICEF has identified three main cholera epidemic outbreaks in the Lake Chad basin, the West Congo basin and Lake Tanganyika,” and “[f]ive countries — Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC) and Chad — account for 90 percent of the reported cases and fatalities.”
U.N. Officials Warn Yemen Facing Humanitarian, Health Disasters
High-level officials from UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) this week warned that “[r]outine immunization of children has dropped by 40 percent in some areas of Yemen, leading to outbreaks of polio and measles and reflecting a growing collapse of public services in a country that is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster,” IRIN reports. Earlier this month, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos cited “conflict, poverty, drought, soaring food prices and collapsing state services” as reasons for widespread suffering of millions of people in the country, according to IRIN.
South Sudan, UNFPA Program Works To Deploy More Midwives Throughout Country
The Ministry of Health of South Sudan and UNFPA, working through the Capacity Placement of International United Nations Volunteer Midwives Project, has deployed 18 midwives throughout South Sudan since December 2010, when the program began, the Sudan Tribune reports. South Sudan, where 2,054 per 100,000 women die during labor, according to figures from the health ministry, has fewer than 100 midwives for a population of more than eight million people, Minister of Health Michael Milli Hussein said, the newspaper notes. Midwives and others involved in the project are meeting in Juba this week to discuss progress and goals, the Tribune writes (10/25).
Denver-Based Dialysis Operator Is Target Of Federal Probe
DaVita Inc., which is the biggest operator of dialysis clinics in the nation, announced that it is the subject of a government probe into payments for drugs it used in the N.Y. Medicaid program.
Immunizations can be a cost-effective means of disease prevention, but “[t]o reach the fully realized stage of cost-effectiveness, … it is vital to acknowledge — and more importantly, address — the barriers that often prevent them from either being as cheap or as widely used as needed,” Forbes contributor Sarika Bansal writes in a Forbes opinion piece. She cites costs associated with vaccines, such as shipping and refrigeration; time and monetary commitments from potential vaccine recipients; a lack of medical professionals in rural areas; and the implementation of public awareness campaigns as barriers to successful immunization campaigns.
Venture Capitalists Focus On Medical Device Rules
As Congress considers legislation that sets fees for medical device makers, venture capitalists are taking a position on what they see as regulatory roadblocks.
NPR’s Tell Me More Examines Cholera In Haiti
NPR’s Tell Me More host Michel Martin on Monday spoke with Christine Ivers of Partners In Health (PIH) in Haiti and journalist Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald about the ongoing cholera outbreak in Haiti. The guests discuss the origins of the epidemic, ongoing public education campaigns, and PIH’s plans to rollout a cholera vaccine (10/24).
Survey Investigates Provider-Beneficiary Ratio In Medicaid Managed Care Plans
Modern Healthcare reports on a survey of members of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans.
Abortion: Federal Court Blocks N.C. Ultrasound Requirement
Federal court’s injunction affects new N.C. law which takes effect today. In addition, the New York Times examines state “personhood” amendments.
Federal Panel Recommends HPV Vaccine For Boys
The organization that helps set vaccination standards for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted overwhelmingly to immunize boys; girls have been getting the vaccine for several years to help guard against cervical cancer.
