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Revised standards for four ingredients widely used in prescription and over-the-counter drugs announced

To further protect patients from adulterated medicines, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) today announced revised standards for four ingredients widely used in prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

31 Oct 2009

MedImpact to provide a suite of free, online flu self-assessment tools

MedImpact has collaborated with the American Medical Association (AMA) and other health care organizations to provide a suite of free, online flu self-assessment tools to MedImpact clients and to the 32 million individual members they serve.

31 Oct 2009

Genetic susceptibility study for Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma awarded $7.9M grant

Thomas Vaughan, M.D., head of the Epidemiology Program in the Public Health Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has received a three-year, $7.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study genetic susceptibility for Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma, a rapidly fatal cancer whose incidence has increased more than 500 percent in the past 30 years, faster than any other cancer in the United States.

31 Oct 2009

Tufts University receives $185M grant as part of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats program

Tufts University has been tapped by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a multidisciplinary team that will receive a grant of up to $185-million to create better synergies among veterinarians, doctors, and public health officials in responding to emerging infectious diseases.

31 Oct 2009

Women may need smaller dose of H1N1 vaccine

THE emergence of the H1N1 swine flu has added urgency to what has become an annual ritual for millions of Americans: getting a flu shot. The good news is that scientists have developed a vaccine against the H1N1 virus. But it is taking much longer than expected to produce the hundreds of millions of doses the government had planned to distribute. And it is still too soon to know how effective the vaccine will be in preventing swine flu.

31 Oct 2009

BHGI's approach to cancer treatment guidelines for low- and moderate-income countries

When the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet Oncology this week published six cancer treatment guideline papers aimed at the resource-diverse nations of Asia, it used as its model the economic template developed by the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) based at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

31 Oct 2009

Administration officially ends HIV travel ban

The Washington Post reports: "President Obama called the 22-year ban on travel and immigration by HIV-positive individuals a decision 'rooted in fear rather than fact' and announced the end of the rule-making process lifting the ban.

31 Oct 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

"Action always leads to reaction, a fundamental law of nature," write the authors of an introduction appearing in a Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS) supplemental issue that focuses on global health systems.

30 Oct 2009

New York Times examines debate over U.S. global health spending priorities

The New York Times examines the "debate over whether the United States and other rich nations spend too much on AIDS, which requires lifelong medications, compared with diarrhea and the other leading killer of children, pneumonia, both of which can be treated inexpensively."

30 Oct 2009

Study: Lack of insurance may have caused 17,000 child deaths over 20 years

"An estimated 17,000 children in the United States might have died unnecessarily over nearly two decades because they didn't have health insurance, according to a report from researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore," reports U.S. News and World Report.

30 Oct 2009

House Democrats hail, grumble about health reform bill

News outlets detailed the House health care reform bill and reaction from members. The Congressional Budget Office estimated its net cost to be $894 billion over 10 years.

30 Oct 2009

Cosmetic pesticides cause cancer, CCSBCY calls for government action

The Canadian Cancer Society B.C. and Yukon is calling on the provincial government to accelerate its plans and initiate a defined and timely public consultation on the use of cosmetic chemical pesticides to protect public health and the environment by the end of this year.

30 Oct 2009

Mollen Immunization Clinics sets US record for administering 14,000 vaccinations in a single event

With just 36 hours notice from the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, Mollen Immunization Clinics administered over 14,000 vaccinations to high-risk groups throughout the county, one of the nation's largest with a population of four million residents.

30 Oct 2009

Smartphones for diabetic patients

Cellular phones - once a luxury used strictly for talking - have taken on many new roles in recent years. Now researchers at Saint Louis University and Old Dominion University in Virginia say smartphones can be used to help elderly diabetics manage their health and learn more about their condition.

30 Oct 2009

Mobile phones on the verge of becoming powerful tools

Computer scientists at the University of Washington have used Android, the open-source mobile operating system championed by Google, to turn a cell phone into a versatile data-collection device. Organizations that want a fully customizable way to, say, snap pictures of a deforested area, add the location coordinates and instantly submit that information to a global environmental database now have a flexible and free way to do it.

30 Oct 2009

The Netherlands Antilles Public Health Inspectorate issues importation approval for TNS' ImmuSANO and GlucoSANO

Total Nutraceutical Solutions, Inc., announced today that it has received approval for importation of ImmuSANO™ and GlucoSANO™ from the Inspectorate of Public Health, Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs in Curacao, The Netherlands Antilles.

30 Oct 2009

TGen to secure emergency FDA approval for 2009 H1N1 flu test

The Phoenix-based non-profit Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) announced today that, along with a business collaborator, it will submit a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use of a new test to diagnose the 2009 H1N1 swine flu virus.

30 Oct 2009

All Canadians need to be immunized against H1N1: CPHA

The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) announced today that it is encouraging Canadians to get the H1N1 vaccination. To help people make an informed choice, it is launching a new online portal of information.

30 Oct 2009

UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center expands to eliminate health disparities

The UCLA School of Public Health has received a $5.2 million gift from Kaiser Permanente to endow the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. The center, formerly known as the Center to Eliminate Health Disparities, is dedicated to improving the health of underserved populations through research, community collaboration and leadership development.

30 Oct 2009

Study shows how differing Asian cultures and attitudes impact cancer screening rates

The Asian continent has nearly four billion people living in 47 different countries, and each of these groups has their own unique set of health issues. But when they come to the United States, they're often lumped into one large demographic: "Asian/Pacific Islander."

30 Oct 2009