Latest KFF Health News Stories
Vaccines Among Most Successful, Cost-Effective Health Investments In History
“Vaccines are among the most successful and cost-effective health investments in history,” Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, writes in this post in the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog. Because vaccines have saved millions of lives, “donors, the global health community and developing countries themselves [must] stay focused on immunization,” he writes.
The Guardian Interviews GlaxoSmithKline Lead Researcher About New Malaria Vaccine
The Guardian features an interview with Moncef Slaoui, now chair of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline, who discusses his 23-year involvement in the research leading to the RTS,S malaria vaccine that has shown to halve the risk of malaria among African children. Slaoui said cellular immunity is the key to the vaccine’s success and research on the vaccine has advanced the company’s knowledge of adjuvants, substances that stimulate the immune system, which has allowed the development of other vaccines (Boseley, 10/19).
India Must Stay The Course In Efforts To Eradicate Polio
“Clearly, there is no room for complacency” in India’s efforts to eradicate polio, defined by the WHO as no recorded case of the disease for three years, because “[t]he goal of complete eradication is within reach,” Deepak Gupta, a senior U.N. professional in Strategic Health/Development Communication, writes in an Asia Sentinel opinion piece. “[T]he next three years — till 2014 — will be crucial,” he writes, meaning experts should focus on “intense communication and preventive work, especially with regard to critical risk-factors like poor routine immunization and lack of proper sanitation,” he states, concluding, “The challenge is to ensure the sustainability of the success achieved so far” (10/19).
First Edition: October 20, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports analyzing the super committee’s progress, and detailing how Republican rivals’ stabs at ‘Romneycare’ are starting to gaining traction.
ACO Rule Relaxes Requirements For Doctors, Hospitals
The Obama administration today released much-awaited final rules on Medicare accountable care organizations that make it easier health care providers to participate.
Deficit Panel Hears Advice, Ideas From All Sides
Much of the input the super committee receives is familiar and expected. For instance, Democratic lawmakers are urging the panelists to protect the 2010 health law, Medicare and Medicaid. Republicans are pushing for the health law’s repeal and cuts to federal health programs.
Romney Faces Health Policy Attacks In Tuesday’s GOP Presidential Debate
Again on the defensive about the Massachusetts health law he signed while governor, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney reiterated that he didn’t think the federal government should have used the state’s measure as a model and acknowledged that he didn’t finish the job in terms of reducing health care costs.
Despite Progress In Malaria Vaccine Development, Funding Remains Potential ‘Stumbling Block’
In this Guardian opinion piece, the newspaper’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, responds to the positive results of a large-scale clinical trial of an experimental malaria vaccine reported on Tuesday and recaps other strides made against the disease in recent years, writing that “there is a way to go yet, with more results from the trial to come, and many uncertainties, including how much this vaccine will cost and who will be persuaded to pay.”
Emergency Humanitarian Response In Horn Of Africa Must Shift To Community Development
Though emergency humanitarian assistance has helped keep people alive in the Horn of Africa, “this effort is not sustainable,” David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada, writes in a Globe and Mail opinion piece. “Trucking in water and flying in food and medicine save lives, but we must rethink the way aid agencies operate in the region. We need to blend the immediate life-saving effort with creative longer-term community development … and involve everyone affected by the crisis. Farmers, herders, refugees and displaced people, local communities and government officials have valuable insights that a massive humanitarian response all too often overlooks,” he continues.
Bill, Melinda Gates Speak At Malaria Forum, Laud Progress In Fight Against Disease
“Eradicating malaria is not a vague, unrealistic aspiration but a tough, ambitious goal that can be reached within the next few decades,” Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said on Tuesday at the international Malaria Forum in Seattle, Reuters reports. “Gates said a renewed focus and substantial increases in funding for malaria … was steadily ‘shrinking the malaria map’ and would continue to do so,” and he “pointed to Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia as ‘likely early candidates’ for being able to eliminate the disease from within their borders in the near future,” according to the news service (Kelland, 10/19).
IRIN Examines Improvements In Maternal, Infant Mortality Indicators In Myanmar
IRIN examines maternal and child health in “conflict-afflicted eastern Myanmar, [where] until recently obstetric care was often crude, unsterile and dangerous for both mother and child, health experts say.” To address high rates of maternal and infant mortality in the region, “in 2005 several CBOs, the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins University, and the Global Health Access Program launched the Mobile Obstetric Medics (MOM) project — dramatically boosting access to care,” IRIN writes.
Lancet Series Revisits Issue Of Global Mental Health Four Years After First Examination
Four years after the Lancet “published a special series on global mental health, highlighting the gap in provision between rich countries and the rest of the world,” the journal has published a new series, including an “editorial accompanying the series, welcom[ing] the initiatives in global mental health in the past four years, but [saying] ‘there is still a long way to go and many challenges to face,'” IRIN reports (10/18).
NPR Blog Examines Challenges In Delivering Cleaner Cookstoves, Fuel To Millions Who Need Them
NPR’s food blog “The Salt” reports on the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves’ efforts to “bring in celebrities, chefs and politicians to help create awareness for the need for cleaner fuels and better cookstoves,” the smoke and gases from which contribute to nearly two million deaths a year — more than malaria — according to a study released by the WHO last week. “The technology is easy, but getting the stoves and cleaner fuels to impoverished millions is not,” the blog writes.
Kenya Aims To Reduce Preventable Deaths By 50% By December 2012
GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog examines how Kenya is working to decrease the number of preventable deaths under a “recently launched … campaign called ‘Let’s Live,’ which sets a target of reducing preventable deaths in Kenya by 50 percent by December 2012.” Achieving that goal “would be an historic feat. But the country could seriously decrease numbers of preventable deaths if it used currently available health tools, such as the rotavirus vaccine,” the blog writes (Donnelly, 10/18).
