Health Care News and Research

RSS

Blog examines success of community-led sanitation program in Afghanistan

In this post in Management Sciences for Health's (MSH) "Global Health Impact" blog, Abdul Qawi Qadiri, WASH coordinator for Baghlan Province in Afghanistan, writes about how a community-led program in the village of Baghalak has helped to reduce the incidence of infectious illnesses, particularly diarrheal diseases.

10 Aug 2012

VOA examines impacts of U.S. drought on global food security

VOA News examines the impacts of drought in the U.S. on global food security. "More than half the United States is experiencing the dual problems of too little rain and temperatures that are too high," the news service writes, adding, "Shenggen Fan, head of the International Food Policy Research Institute [IFPRI], said that's not only driving up prices, but contributing to price volatility as well."

10 Aug 2012

Sustaining focus on global hunger critical to improving transparency, accountability in fight against malnutrition

"Malnutrition is easily neglected by parents, communities and governments," Lawrence Haddad, director of the Institute of Development Studies, writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog," adding, "The signs are not visible until very acute, the impacts are felt long after the food and infection cycle has played out -- and far beyond electoral cycles -- and the causes are often mistakenly attributed to something else."

10 Aug 2012

Philippines appeals for aid following widespread flooding in Manila

"Philippine authorities appealed Thursday for help in getting relief to two million people affected by deadly floods in and around the capital, warning that evacuation centers were overwhelmed," Agence France-Presse reports (Morella, 8/9).

10 Aug 2012

New technology for healthcare based on aviation security system

Researchers in the North West are investigating whether tools pioneered in aviation security can be used to help prevent complications after surgery.

10 Aug 2012

New York Times blog examines gap in surgical care in developing world

In this post in the New York Times' "Opinionator" blog, journalist Sarika Bansal reports on a gap in surgical care in developing countries, writing, "It is conservatively estimated that 56 million people in sub-Saharan Africa -- over twice the number living with HIV/AIDS -- need a surgery today," but, "across the developing world, surgical care often does not reach those who need it."

10 Aug 2012

African leaders, international community must act on commitments made at London family planning summit

In this UNFPA opinion piece, Babatunde Osotimehin, U.N. under-secretary-general and UNFPA executive director, and Sharon Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, reflect on last month's London Summit on Family Planning, where "leaders from 18 African countries made unprecedented commitments -- financially and politically -- to strengthen their family planning programs,"

10 Aug 2012

In Colorado, Obama focuses on women's health issues

Campaigning in the western swing state, President Barack Obama said his opponent, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, would take women's health care back to the 1950s.

10 Aug 2012

Even during August break, congressional health policy concerns draw headlines

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., is working to build support for new legislation to expand Medicare's nursing home coverage while Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., notes problems within the Indian Health Service. All the while, the health law's contraception coverage mandate continues to trigger disputes.

10 Aug 2012

IOM panel examines the promise and reality of telemedicine

Institute of Medicine experts find that the continued integration of telemedicine into the health care system will face challenges in the years ahead.

10 Aug 2012

BMJ authors challenge pharma's concerns about 'innovation crisis'

For the past decade or so, we've been hearing repeatedly about an "innovation" crisis in pharmaceuticals. Big Pharma and its friends in government and elsewhere have claimed that research into new drugs is slowing down, primarily, they say, because of onerous regulatory demands

10 Aug 2012

FDA approved drug to treat Ph- acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Marqibo (vincristine sulfate liposome injection) to treat adults with a rare type of leukemia called Philadelphia chromosome negative (Ph-) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). ALL is a rapidly progressing form of blood and bone marrow cancer that is more commonly diagnosed in children than adults.

10 Aug 2012

Senegal working to improve contraceptive supply

In a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Perri Sutton, an associate program officer on the family planning team at the foundation, discusses Senegal's history of contraceptive stock-outs and Minister of Health Awa Marie Coll-Seck's plan to "fix the problems that result in stock-outs and ensure that women have access to the full range of contraceptive options."

10 Aug 2012

NGOs call for full implementation of human right to water, sanitation in letter to U.N. member states

At the end of last month, the international community commemorated the second anniversary of a July 2010 U.N. General Assembly resolution declaring water and sanitation a basic human right, but "there was hardly any political rejoicing either inside or outside the U.N.," Inter Press Service/Guardian reports.

10 Aug 2012

As flap continues over pro-Obama PAC's ad, Romney aide praises Mass. health law

The ad, which highlights the death of a steelworker's wife after Bain closed his plant, triggered criticism from Republicans. But a Romney aide's comments about how that family would have benefited from the Massachusetts health reforms signed into law by then-Gov. Mitt Romney was not well received in conservative circles.

10 Aug 2012

First Edition: August 10, 2012

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, in collaboration with The Washington Post, Susan Jaffe writes: "Concerned that a growing number of seniors have been unexpectedly forced to pay thousands of dollars for nursing home care after a stay in a hospital, Medicare has launched a pilot project to test whether relaxing its hospital payment rules could help beneficiaries".

10 Aug 2012

Protecting human rights of women living with HIV

"Women who are living with HIV remain particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses, including unlawful breaches of confidentiality, denial of health services, compulsory HIV testing and in some cases forced sterilization," a UNAIDS feature story reports

10 Aug 2012

IRIN examines administration of methadone as treatment for people who inject drugs in Bangladesh

"Methadone treatment is proving to be the most efficient way to wean people in Bangladesh from addiction to buprenorphine, a pharmaceutical drug, and health experts say it should be expanded to reach thousands more drug users to prevent the spread of HIV," IRIN reports.

10 Aug 2012

Longer looks: Waking up to the need for sleep

Among the more than 11,000 dearly departed inhabitants of Southeast Portland's Multnomah Park Cemetery, friends Eric Cordingley and David Anderson have their favorites: a reputed French madam, a young Norwegian institutionalized for being gay, and Louis Napoleon Lepley -- or, as they call him, "Louis the cannibal." Intriguing as their individual stories may be, together they help tell a bigger, darker tale

10 Aug 2012

Access to care in Mass. improves, but many docs still don't accept new patients

The survey by the Massachusetts Medical Society says access to primary care is slowly improving, but that it can still take a month or longer to get an appointment. In addition, only about half of internal and family medicine practices are accepting new patients.

10 Aug 2012