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UM launches campaign on medication adherence in Baltimore

Months before U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA, came to Baltimore on Nov. 2 to officially launch the city's leg of a three-year national campaign to raise awareness about medication adherence, pharmacy students had already taken up the challenge, said Cherokee Layson-Wolf, PharmD, CGP, associate professor of pharmacy practice and science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

8 Nov 2011

ACS's initiative can help smokers to kick their habit

Thousands of smokers will quit on Thursday, November 17th, with the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout. But many will be puffing away by Christmas and will need to quit several times before quitting for good.

8 Nov 2011

Socioeconomic status may affect people's physical functioning

A new national study shows that wealthier Americans and those with private health insurance fare better than others on one important measure of health - and this health gap only grows wider as they age.

8 Nov 2011

Live virus used in polio vaccine can evolve and infect, warns TAU researcher

Health professionals and researchers across the globe believe they are on the verge of eradicating polio, a devastating virus which can lead to paralysis and death. Despite successful eradication in most countries, there are still four countries where the virus is considered endemic -- and many more in which the virus still lurks.

8 Nov 2011

Viewpoints: Weighing the ballot measures in Miss. and Ohio; the super committee's task

For all their sincerity and fervor, proponents of the personhood movement represent a small minority nationwide. In Gallup polls, support for a total abortion ban is almost exactly where it was in 1973 - at just over 20%, despite a rise in backing for limitations. Most people certainly don't want homicide charges brought against women who choose to have abortions or doctors who perform them.

8 Nov 2011

First public health study to examine a state-level approach to fire safety

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy finds fire and life safety programs in Delaware offer a strategic, comprehensive and coordinated approach to fire prevention.

8 Nov 2011

Patient and nurse safety may be related by common causes

A safe working environment for nurses is also a safe environment for the patients in their care, according to a new study led by public health researchers at Drexel University. Researchers, led by Dr. Jennifer Taylor, an assistant professor in Drexel's School of Public Health, found that safety climate was associated with both patient and nurse injuries, suggesting that patient and nurse safety may be linked outcomes.

8 Nov 2011

South Africa draws inspiration from Brazil's health care system despite skepticism by some Brazilians, IPS reports

Inter Press Service reports on how the South African government, in setting up its own universal health coverage scheme, was inspired by Brazil's Sistema Unico de Saude or Single Health System (SUS), which was shaped during the 1980s when the system was restructured to make health care a universal right. However, IPS notes that the news may be met with skepticism by Brazilians with a negative opinion of the country's public health care system.

8 Nov 2011

Study: Young adults in the north west of England consume illegal drugs after mephedrone ban

Young adults in the north west of England have turned to unidentified white powders following the ban on former 'legal high' mephedrone and the falling purity of popular street drugs such as cocaine, according to new research published today in the journal Drug and Alcohol Today.

7 Nov 2011

Study shows decline in number of TB cases across America during 2009

The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the U.S. is reported as being on the decrease, however untreated infected people act as a reservoir for disease. Any pool of the world's population harboring this disease gives cause for concern, especially since the BCG vaccine is only 70-80% effective at best. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Public Health, shows that in 2009 the number of cases of TB reported across America was much lower than that recorded in previous years.

7 Nov 2011

New study shows that worksite health promotion may improve health benefits

A workplace program designed to teach employees to act more like consumers when they make health care decisions, for example, by finding and evaluating health information or choosing a benefit plan, also improved exercise, diet and other health habits, according to a new study in the latest issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

5 Nov 2011

State roundup: Puerto Rico settles disability battle with Feds

Puerto Rico has reached an agreement with the U.S. government ending a 12-year legal battle to improve the island's health system for the mentally disabled, local justice officials said Thursday. Federal officials had accused the U.S. territory of abusing and neglecting hundreds of mentally disabled people by not providing food, medication, adequate housing, therapy or mental health care.

5 Nov 2011

States lack policies to curb classroom burden of asthma and severe allergies

For over 7 million children with asthma, and 13 million with food allergy or other severe allergies, going to school is a daily risk affecting how well they can – or can't – manage their diseases. Now for the fourth year, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America has released its annual report assessing all 50 states and the District of Columbia on their leadership and progress on school-based policies that address student asthma and allergy health in more than 100,000 elementary, middle and high schools across the U.S.

5 Nov 2011

AAPM announces new plans for Safe Opioid Prescribing program

On the cusp of the recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report about the growing death toll from prescription drug deaths, the physician leadership of the American Academy of Pain Medicine announced its plans to roll-out a new education initiative: Safe Opioid Prescribing: Reversing the Trends.

5 Nov 2011

Study: Birth cohort screening for HCV is cost effective in primary care setting

According to a new study being published early online in Annals of Internal Medicine, the flagship journal of the American College of Physicians, birth cohort screening for hepatitis C is cost effective in the primary care setting.

5 Nov 2011

Roundup: Mental health hospital woes; N.Y. Medicare scam bust

A Miami Herald series "Neglected to Death," focused this spring on critical breakdowns in Florida's enforcement system, including failures by the state's Agency on Health Care Administration to fully investigate deaths or to shut down some of the worst offenders among Florida's 2,850 assisted-living facilities. Although more states are using Medicaid money to pay for some portion of assisted living care for the poor, the federal government has a limited role in the facilities their oversight has been and will likely continue to be a state duty.

4 Nov 2011

NEJM publishes 'The 2010 Dietary Guidelines -- The Best Recipe for Health?'

USDA's interest protects that of Industry -- not the American public, conclude leading researchers Water C. Willett, MD, PhD, and David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD in their article, "The 2010 Dietary Guidelines -- The Best Recipe for Health?" published in the prestigious peer-reviewed The New England Journal of Medicine.

4 Nov 2011

New link between obesity, SDB and cognition among elementary school children

Researchers at the University of Chicago have found important new relationships between obesity, sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and cognitive processing among elementary school children.

4 Nov 2011

VOA News program examines international humanitarian aid in Horn of Africa

The VOA News audio program "Explorations" on Tuesday discussed international humanitarian aid in the Horn of Africa.

3 Nov 2011

Reduced diversity of intestinal microbiota associated with increased risk of allergic disease

Oversensitivity diseases, or allergies, now affect 25 per cent of the population of Denmark. The figure has been on the increase in recent decades and now researchers at the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC), University of Copenhagen, are at last able to partly explain the reasons.

3 Nov 2011