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Yellow fever kills more than 100 people in Darfur; WHO, health ministry to provide immunizations

"More than two million people in Sudan's Darfur region will be vaccinated against a rare yellow fever outbreak suspected of killing 107 people since late September, health officials said on Tuesday," Agence France-Presse/France 24 reports (11/13). In a joint statement, the WHO and the Sudanese Ministry of Health said the mosquito-borne disease has spread throughout the western territory, which "has been plagued by conflict since rebels took up arms in 2003," Reuters notes.

15 Nov 2012

Greece faces return of malaria, other public health issues since 2009 economic crash

The Wall Street Journal examines how "Greece has seen decades of advances in public health rolled back, as a flood of illegal immigrants, a dysfunctional government and budget cuts ravage a once proud health-care system."

15 Nov 2012

Pharmaceutical compounding problems spread under lax regulation

News outlets report that congressional oversight was lacking and the Boston Globe uncovers documents about the company that started the meningitis outbreak.

15 Nov 2012

Obama, congressional leaders stake out positions in 'fiscal cliff' face-off

President Barack Obama and GOP congressional leaders signal what they're looking for in a budget deal to avert the looming "fiscal cliff," offering their respective takes on tax increases, spending cuts and changes to entitlement programs.

15 Nov 2012

Hospitals directed to step up protections for kidney donors

Addressing long-held concerns about whether organ donors have adequate protections, the country's transplant regulators acted late Monday to require that hospitals thoroughly inform living kidney donors of the risks they face, fully evaluate their medical and psychological suitability, and then track their health for two years after donation.

15 Nov 2012

Demand growing for female condoms despite myths

Mary Beth Hastings, vice president of the Center for Health and Gender Equality (CHANGE), writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog that despite "the pervasive myth that no one wants female condoms," "[d]emand is increasing because female condoms provide men and women with something they want: more options when it comes to protecting themselves."

15 Nov 2012

UTHealth awarded $1.9M AHRQ grant to enhance care in hospital emergency departments

Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have been awarded a four-year, $1.9 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to enhance the care in hospital emergency departments.

15 Nov 2012

Despite modest improvement, premature birth rates cause concern

A new report from the March of Dimes gives the U.S. a 'C' in preterm birth rate reductions.

15 Nov 2012

Colorado's new element in exchange plan: Certainty

Colorado Public Radio's Eric Whitney, working in partnership with Kaiser Health News and NPR, reports: "Most states - especially those with Republican governors and legislatures - have opted to have the federal government create and run their exchanges, which are supposed to start enrolling customers in October 2013 for policies that kick in January 2014.

15 Nov 2012

Global health community should save AMFm because it saves lives

The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria began as a pilot program in 2010 to "provide a 'co-payment' to the manufacturers of [artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs)], thereby allowing commercial wholesalers and private or government health services to purchase the drugs at a fraction of the already low negotiated price," Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel laureate in economic sciences in 1972 and an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

15 Nov 2012

Disclosure of PEPFAR data would improve program's efficiency, quality, accountability

The U.S. government, and in particular U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby, the head of PEPFAR, "have a unique opportunity to make [the program's] money stretch farther and do more good, at very little cost to U.S. taxpayers: release the reams of data that PEPFAR and its contractors have already collected, at substantial cost -- perhaps as much as $500 million each year," Mead Over, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the Center's "Global Health Policy" blog.

15 Nov 2012

As health law's fate becomes more clear, insurers, medical device makers try to stem new taxes

Insurers and medical device makers are planning ad campaigns and intense lobbying to try to stop taxes in the health law from cutting at their bottom lines.

15 Nov 2012

Antibody-coated stents carry increased risk of myocardial infarction and re-operation

If narrowed or blocked coronary vessels have to be widened or opened, a vascular support (stent) is usually inserted. Drug-coated stents are preferred for patients at high risk of renewed narrowing of vessels (restenosis). However, the use of antibody-coated stents has been increasing in recent years. Current studies provide indications that these new antibody-coated stents more frequently lead to myocardial infarction and make re-operation necessary.

15 Nov 2012

Alliance of Medicare providers urge link between payment changes, quality

The Premier healthcare alliance is urging that, if scheduled 2 percent cuts take effect, they not apply to hospitals that have already reduced costs.

15 Nov 2012

MRSA outbreak tracked and contained using DNA sequencing

Scientists have used DNA sequencing for the first time to effectively track the spread of, and ultimately contain, an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to new research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

14 Nov 2012

UTA researchers to examine cognition, mortality, economic outcomes from high school and beyond

University of Texas at Austin sociologist Chandra Muller and economist Sandra Black have received a $3.2 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study the effects of cognition on health, mortality, education and employment from high school and beyond.

14 Nov 2012

CSIS video discusses global health and national security

A recent video from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) on global health and national security discusses the importance of military and non-military health partnerships with middle- and low-income countries, the American Public Health Association's "IH-Blog" reports.

14 Nov 2012

U.N. has 'moral responsibility' to address cholera outbreak in Haiti

Sometimes "[w]hen the international aid community descends on a vulnerable place ... good intentions make a bad situation even worse," a Boston Globe editorial states, adding that is "what happened two years ago, when United Nations peacekeepers arrived in Haiti in the wake of a devastating earthquake, bringing the deadly disease cholera with them."

14 Nov 2012

Obesity and dental cavities increase and become epidemic as homeless children age

Obesity and dental cavities increase and become epidemic as children living below the poverty level age, according to nurse researchers from the Case Western Reserve University and the University of Akron.

14 Nov 2012

LA Times investigates doctors' connection to prescription drug abuse

Prescription overdoses kill more people than heroin and cocaine. An L.A. Times review of coroners' records finds that drugs prescribed by a small number of doctors caused or contributed to a disproportionate number of deaths.

14 Nov 2012

Health Care News and Research

Yellow fever kills more than 100 people in Darfur; WHO, health ministry to provide immunizations

Greece faces return of malaria, other public health issues since 2009 economic crash

Pharmaceutical compounding problems spread under lax regulation

Obama, congressional leaders stake out positions in 'fiscal cliff' face-off

Hospitals directed to step up protections for kidney donors

Demand growing for female condoms despite myths

UTHealth awarded $1.9M AHRQ grant to enhance care in hospital emergency departments

Despite modest improvement, premature birth rates cause concern

Colorado's new element in exchange plan: Certainty

Global health community should save AMFm because it saves lives

Disclosure of PEPFAR data would improve program's efficiency, quality, accountability

As health law's fate becomes more clear, insurers, medical device makers try to stem new taxes

Antibody-coated stents carry increased risk of myocardial infarction and re-operation

Alliance of Medicare providers urge link between payment changes, quality

MRSA outbreak tracked and contained using DNA sequencing

UTA researchers to examine cognition, mortality, economic outcomes from high school and beyond

CSIS video discusses global health and national security

U.N. has 'moral responsibility' to address cholera outbreak in Haiti

Obesity and dental cavities increase and become epidemic as homeless children age

LA Times investigates doctors' connection to prescription drug abuse

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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