Archives: Morning Breakouts

Federal court's injunction affects new N.C. law which takes effect today. In addition, the New York Times examines state "personhood" amendments.

Some Democrats have concerns that defense budget cuts are no longer being considered by the super committee. If this is true, it would force deep cuts to health programs and other discretionary spending.

Several opinion pieces respond to a report (.pdf) presented on Monday to the U.N. General Assembly by Arnand Grover, U.N. special rapporteur for the Right to Health, that "considers the impact of criminal and other legal restrictions on abortion; conduct during pregnancy; contraception and family planning; and the provision of sexual and reproductive education and information," according to the report summary. The report also states, "Realization of the right to health requires the removal of barriers that interfere with individual decision-making on health-related issues and with access to health services, education and information, in particular on health conditions that only affect women and girls. In cases where a barrier is created by a criminal law or other legal restriction, it is the obligation of the State to remove it" (8/3).

A new report from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) "has concluded that the major obstacle to eradication is not political or scientific or monetary, but something seemingly mundane -- bad management," health reporter Andre Picard writes in his Globe and Mail column, adding that "the panel offers concrete proposals for what needs to be done to close the deal." He continues, "The fundamental problem though, according to the expert panel, is that the global eradication effort is overeager to celebrate the successes (like India) and ignore the failures (like Pakistan)."

The WHO on Saturday said hundreds of thousands of flood victims in Thailand are at risk of water-borne diseases and infections, though no major outbreaks have been reported, Agence France-Presse reports. "The spread of communicable diseases such as diarrhea, respiratory illness and conjunctivitis among displaced flood victims in shelters was a key concern, the country's WHO representative Maureen Birmingham told AFP," adding, "Flood-affected people also faced an increased risk of skin fungal infections and leptospirosis, a bacterial infection spread through contaminated water," according to the news service (10/23).

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Tido von Schoen-Angerer, executive director of the Doctors Without Borders Access to Essential Medicines Campaign, responds to the results of the RTS,S malaria vaccine clinical trial announced last week, writing, "A malaria vaccine that works would be a major breakthrough. But while the latest advance toward the development is scientifically important, there are several reasons to be cautious about the difference this vaccine could make, on the basis of current results."

Universal HIV screening in the ER is not a practical option, researchers from France's Emergency Department HIV-Screening Group write in a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday, Reuters reports. According to the study, "[m]ore than 1,100 people would have to be offered HIV tests in the emergency room to find just one new infection," Reuters notes.