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Lower drug prices could eliminate coverage gap in Medicare Prescription Drug Plan

Medicare could eliminate the coverage gap in its prescription drug benefit if it paid pharmaceutical prices comparable to those paid by citizens of Canada, the United Kingdom and France, according to a report by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Pennsylvania State University

21 Jul 2004

Caulking found to be unrecognized source of PCB contamination

They conclude that a survey of masonry buildings from that era is necessary to determine where in the U.S. these materials had been used, and that caulking should be routinely analyzed for PCBs and managed appropriately to reduce potentially significant health risks.

21 Jul 2004

Roche files for application with FDA to market hepatitis C medication Pegasys(R) for chronic hepatitis B treatment

Roche announced today the submission of a supplemental new biologics license application (sBLA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market Pegasys(R) (peginterferon alfa-2a) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB).

21 Jul 2004

Study finds that 94% of air travelers would want health authorities to contact them if they have been exposed to a serious contagious disease on an airplane

A new study by the Harvard School of Public Health Project on the Public and Biological Security finds that the vast majority (94%) of air travelers would want public health authorities to contact them if they might have been exposed to a serious contagious disease on an airplane.

21 Jul 2004

New book predicts a "vaccine century"

A new book published by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) predicts that the 21st century will become the "century of vaccines" thanks to rapid developments in the field of immunization.

21 Jul 2004

Regional initiative targets syphilis

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) launched a new regional plan of action to eliminate congenital syphilis from the Americas during the Global Health Council conference "Youth and Health: Generation on the Edge," held June 1 to 4 in Washington, D.C.

21 Jul 2004

Experts, activists call for safer roads

Experts and advocates on traffic safety who participated in World Health Day celebrations at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) detailed the enormous public health costs of traffic crashes around the world and called for new and sustained efforts to reduce them.

21 Jul 2004

PAHO, University of Geneva cooperate on emergency preparedness, disaster relief

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the University of Geneva have signed an agreement to increase and facilitate cooperation on emergency preparedness and disaster relief programs.

21 Jul 2004

FDA is proposing to change the new and generic drug review process

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to change the new and generic drug review processes by replacing "approvable letters" and "not approvable letters" with "complete response letters" that provide companies with specific information about what needs to be done before their drugs can be approved for marketing.

20 Jul 2004

Young children capable of reporting on their own health

One of the most perplexing things about children’s health is that parents and children do not agree about it. The importance of obtaining children’s perspectives of their own health is the subject of a major debate among pediatricians and child health researchers.

20 Jul 2004

Mustard greens, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts help to preserve cognitive abilities in ageing women

Harvard Medical School researchers have found that women who eat lots of mustard greens, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower or brussels sprouts in middle age preserved more of their cognitive abilities as they entered their 70s.

20 Jul 2004

West Nile Virus in South Dakota

West Nile virus (WNV) was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 in New York City. The virus spread west across the continent, reaching South Dakota in 2002.

19 Jul 2004

Virginia mans dies from Hantavirus disease

The Virginia Department of Health announced last week that a man from the New River Health District in Southwest Virginia has died from Hantavirus disease.

19 Jul 2004

New JCAHO helps consumers to choose a hospital that best suits their needs

Consumers can now check the performance of local hospitals, allowing them to determine the hospital that best suits their needs.

19 Jul 2004

CancerVax may increase the survival of patients with advanced stage non-small-cell lung cancer

CancerVax Corporation has announced that its wholly owned subsidiaries, Tarcanta, Inc., and Tarcanta, Ltd. (Ireland), have obtained the exclusive rights to complete the clinical development of three specific active immunotherapeutic (SAI) product candidates that target the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway for the treatment of cancer.

19 Jul 2004

Call for original research papers and other works dealing with primary health care

Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health is seeking original research papers and other works dealing with primary health care.

19 Jul 2004

Two-thirds of the nearly 40 million people living with HIV today are workers

At the XVth International AIDS Conference (Bangkok 11-16 July), the AIDS programme of the International Labour Office (ILO) is launching a new report on "HIV/AIDS and work: global estimates, impact and response". Franklyn Lisk, Director of the ILO Global Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work talks about the ILO report and the expanded response of the ILO to AIDS in the workplace.

17 Jul 2004

HHS recognizes obesity as a major public health problem

The HHS has announced a new Medicare coverage policy that would remove barriers to covering anti-obesity interventions if scientific and medical evidence demonstrate their effectiveness in improving Medicare beneficiaries' health outcomes.

17 Jul 2004

Outreach boosts disease prevention at U.S./Mexico border

Personal contact by community health outreach workers increased Mexican-American women’s adherence to annual preventive medical exams by 35 percent, a new study finds.

17 Jul 2004

School-based programs are unable to decrease the long-term smoking prevalence among adolescents

Slapping a $1-a-pack tax on cigarettes and putting the money into antismoking campaigns could cut the number of young smokers by 26 percent and avoid more than 108,000 smoking-related deaths by the time their generation reaches age 85, new research suggests.

16 Jul 2004