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Crime and violence overshadowing malnutrition in Guatemalan presidential campaign

"Malnutrition, one of the leading killers of children under five in the Central American nation of Guatemala, is receiving scant attention on the campaign trail" ahead of the country's presidential elections scheduled for September, AlertNet reports.

25 Aug 2011

More than eight out of 10 homeless people have at least one chronic health condition

More than eight out of 10 homeless people surveyed by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and elsewhere have at least one chronic health condition and more than half have a mental health problem.

25 Aug 2011

Loss of job and health insurance threatens family's health and financial stability

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of people who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs over the last two years said that they skipped needed health care or did not fill prescriptions because of cost, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. The same proportion is also struggling with medical bills or medical debt, compared to about half (49%) who lost jobs but not their health insurance.

24 Aug 2011

Only 20.6% of Medicaid-covered Ohio youths complete full six month antidepressant treatment

About half of Medicaid-covered children and adolescents in Ohio who are in treatment for depression complete their first three months of prescribed antidepressants, and only one-fifth complete the recommended minimum six-month course of drugs to treat depression, new research suggests.

24 Aug 2011

Millennium Promise, SapientNitro launch anti-poverty campaign

SapientNitro, part of Sapient, today announced the launch of Spokes of Change, an anti-poverty campaign and fundraising effort initiated by the eminent international non-profit organization, Millennium Promise.

23 Aug 2011

Gains against malaria recognized on World Mosquito Day

Sarah Kline, executive director of Malaria No More UK, writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog" about World Mosquito Day, which is recognized annually on August 20 to commemorate the discovery 114 years ago that female mosquitoes transmit malaria among humans.

23 Aug 2011

Food aid aystem 'needs an overhaul'

The cost of addressing the effects of drought and famine in the Horn of Africa "has soared to $2.5 billion, just to keep malnourished children alive, and the number of people requiring humanitarian aid has doubled" since "November last year, when it would have cost $500 million to prevent the situation from deteriorating," Jo Khinmaung, a food security policy adviser for Tearfund, writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

23 Aug 2011

Stable communities see no influence of alcohol outlets on neighborhood violence

The density of businesses that sell alcohol in a community has been tied to local levels of violence, but new research has found that the influence depends on the nature of the community. More stable communities can see little to no influence but more disorganized communities are not so fortunate.

22 Aug 2011

Marital transitions can increase risk of large weight gain in men, women

Both marriage and divorce can act as "weight shocks," leading people to add a few extra pounds - especially among those over age 30 - according to a new study.

22 Aug 2011

High cigarette price, economic factors appear to reduce smoking rates among African-American youth

A new report in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that increasing cigarette prices combined with other social and economic factors appear to be behind the steep decline in smoking rates among African-American youth that occurred between 1970s and the mid-1990s.

20 Aug 2011

Philadelphia program promotes health services and insurance across cultural barriers

Promotoras — volunteer "health promoters" … carry messages of health and wellness to their peers, mostly Spanish-speaking Mexicans in South Philadelphia. As the minority group least likely to have a primary-care doctor and with nearly half living beneath the poverty line, Latinos, especially recent immigrants, have challenged doctors for decades.

18 Aug 2011

Roundup: Rx discounts for Medicaid programs are increasing; deadline extended for Mich. Medigap verifications

Governors have complained repeatedly in recent months that spiraling Medicaid costs are crushing their budgets. But there's good news on at least one line item in the $370 billion program — prescription drug discounts are getting more generous. According to a new report from the Inspector General of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, discounts under the federal-state Medicaid program have been growing since 2006, adding up to a 45 percent rebate for most brand name drugs by 2009.

18 Aug 2011

WFP investigating fraud allegations in Somalia; U.N., Oxfam call for increased assistance

The World Food Programme (WFP) does not plan "to reduce aid to Somalia following allegations that international food shipments there are being diverted," the Associated Press reports.

17 Aug 2011

HIV prevention must include economic empowerment of women

"Transactional sex, sexual intercourse driven by material exchanges," occurs worldwide, but "[i]n poor regions with high HIV prevalence rates like sub-Saharan Africa … transactional sex poses an even higher threat to one's wellbeing and health because the chance of HIV infection is greater," Daniella Choi, staff member at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, writes in CSIS' Commission on Smart Global Health Policy blog.

12 Aug 2011

Elderly individuals with higher BMI have shorter life expectancy

While some past studies have shown that persons carrying a few extra pounds in their 70s live longer than their thinner counterparts, a new study that measured subjects' weight at multiple points over a longer period of time reveals the opposite.

12 Aug 2011

State roundup: Debt deal and states; Ariz. judge appoves Medicaid plan

Many expensive programs are exempt from the trigger cuts, including most that are considered "mandatory," which means that some of the largest joint state-federal programs aren't vulnerable. Those include Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (welfare) and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.

12 Aug 2011

Aeras, OETC announce initiation of new TB vaccine Phase IIb trial in patients with HIV

Aeras and the Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium (OETC) announce today the start of a Phase IIb proof-of-concept efficacy trial of a new investigational tuberculosis (TB) vaccine that involves people living with the human immunodeficiency virus.

11 Aug 2011

Roundup: Report finds Calif. fails to discipline 710 doctors; GOP takes 4 of 6 races in Wis.; obesity and poverty in Miss.

California's medical board failed to discipline 710 troubled doctors even as they were disciplined by hospitals, surgical centers and other health care organizations in the state, according to a report released Tuesday.

11 Aug 2011

UNICEF-funded study shows extent of violence against children in Tanzania

According to a study published Tuesday by Muhimbili University in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in collaboration with the CDC and funded by UNICEF, "nearly three out of every 10 girls and nearly three out of every 20 boys in Tanzania claim to have experienced sexual violence," the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog" reports.

10 Aug 2011

Report highlights issues that affect Aboriginal maternal, child health in various regions

Today, the Health Council of Canada released Understanding and Improving Aboriginal Maternal and Child Health in Canada, a commentary highlighting the continuing health inequities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians as well as promising practices for change.

10 Aug 2011

Poverty News and Research

Crime and violence overshadowing malnutrition in Guatemalan presidential campaign

More than eight out of 10 homeless people have at least one chronic health condition

Loss of job and health insurance threatens family's health and financial stability

Only 20.6% of Medicaid-covered Ohio youths complete full six month antidepressant treatment

Millennium Promise, SapientNitro launch anti-poverty campaign

Gains against malaria recognized on World Mosquito Day

Food aid aystem 'needs an overhaul'

Stable communities see no influence of alcohol outlets on neighborhood violence

Marital transitions can increase risk of large weight gain in men, women

High cigarette price, economic factors appear to reduce smoking rates among African-American youth

Philadelphia program promotes health services and insurance across cultural barriers

Roundup: Rx discounts for Medicaid programs are increasing; deadline extended for Mich. Medigap verifications

WFP investigating fraud allegations in Somalia; U.N., Oxfam call for increased assistance

HIV prevention must include economic empowerment of women

Elderly individuals with higher BMI have shorter life expectancy

State roundup: Debt deal and states; Ariz. judge appoves Medicaid plan

Aeras, OETC announce initiation of new TB vaccine Phase IIb trial in patients with HIV

Roundup: Report finds Calif. fails to discipline 710 doctors; GOP takes 4 of 6 races in Wis.; obesity and poverty in Miss.

UNICEF-funded study shows extent of violence against children in Tanzania

Report highlights issues that affect Aboriginal maternal, child health in various regions

Industry Focus eBook - Analytical Chemistry (2nd Edition) eBook

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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