Health Care News and Research

RSS

Efforts to reach fiscal deal gain momentum

Some Capitol Hill lawmakers are increasingly pushing to find a way to avert a fiscal crisis. Also in the news from Congress, Republicans continue their investigation of the White House's negotiations with health care interest groups during the health law debate in 2009.

12 Jun 2012

New data on individuals with natural ability to fight off AIDS

"Scientists on Sunday said they had found a key piece in the puzzle as to why a tiny minority of individuals infected with HIV have a natural ability to fight off the deadly AIDS virus," Agence France-Presse reports.

12 Jun 2012

GlobalPost reports on Cuba's medical outreach to Africa

GlobalPost reports on Cuba's medical outreach to Africa, writing, "A generation ago, Fidel Castro sent Cuban soldiers to intervene in African civil conflicts and fight the Cold War against U.S. proxies. Now, Cuba's doctors are fanning out across the continent as the island expands its role in administering medical services to some of the world's most ailing countries."

12 Jun 2012

Key dynamics in play in long-awaited health law decision

News outlets report on the key issues and underlying statutes that might shape the Supreme Court's upcoming ruling on the health law, and how stakeholders and politicians are planning their next steps.

12 Jun 2012

Organized rallies around U.S. decry contraception coverage mandate

More than 100 organized rallies in states around the nation this weekend decried the Obama administration decision to require insurers and employers to cover contraception in their health plans as an attack on their religious freedom.

12 Jun 2012

Medicaid: Managed care contracts, copay proposals make state news

State Medicaid programs -- including both managed care contracts and new copay proposals -- are making news in Ohio, California, Florida and Arizona.

12 Jun 2012

GlobalPost launches new special reporting series on fight against AIDS

GlobalPost on Monday launched a new special reporting series called "AIDS: A Turning Point," according to an email alert from the new service. "In the lead up to July's International AIDS Conference in Washington -- the first such conference on U.S. soil in 22 years -- the world news site GlobalPost presents a deep look at both the global struggle to reduce HIV infection rates as well as some surprising lessons on the effective approaches that Southern Africa has to teach America," the email alert reports.

12 Jun 2012

Presidential campaigns jockey for support from seniors, Hispanic voters

Press reports detail how both the Romney and Obama campaigns are taking steps to attract these voting blocs.

12 Jun 2012

ST Blood & Tissue Center, Saneron sign clinical supply and research collaboration agreement

Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc. of Tampa, Florida, and South Texas Blood & Tissue Center of San Antonio, have signed a clinical supply and research collaboration agreement. Under the agreement, the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center will research approaches for recovering and processing proprietary mononuclear cells from umbilical cord blood.

12 Jun 2012

Consequences of female genital mutilation could be reduced by reconstructive surgery

Reconstructive surgery after female genital mutilation (FGM) appears to reduce pain and restore sexual pleasure in women, according to the first large prospective trial to assess long-term outcomes of a new surgical technique published Online First in The Lancet. Over the past 10 years, between 130 and 140 million women worldwide have been subject to FGM.

12 Jun 2012

African journalists announce first continent-wide health journalism network

"Journalists from across Africa announced the creation of the first continent-wide professional association of health journalists," South Africa's Health-e reports. "The new organization, the African Health Journalists Association, aims to improve the quality and quantity of reporting on health issues so that people across the continent can make healthy choices for their lives," the news agency writes.

12 Jun 2012

Health exchange progress pending in some states ... along with court decision

Meanwhile, implementation issues related to health exchanges, such as the importance of a state's insurance market, are emerging. Also, a model for exchange development has been unveiled.

12 Jun 2012

Journalists, policy experts, bloggers discuss hunger situation in Africa's Sahel

"Journalists, policy experts, bloggers including myself and World Food Programme staff joined in a robust discussion last week about the current hunger situation in Africa's Sahel region, including its causes and what can be done moving forward," Jennifer James, founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, writes in this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

12 Jun 2012

MSF report examines past, present, future management of neglected tropical diseases

"In order to break the vicious cycle that leaves tropical diseases neglected, existing programs that diagnose and treat patients need to be expanded and medical research to develop simpler, more effective tools needs to be supported, according to a new report, Fighting Neglect, released Monday by Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)," the organization reports on its webpage.

12 Jun 2012

Chagas disease – ‘the AIDS of the Americas’

A recent editorial published in the Public Library of Science's Neglected Tropical Diseases called Chagas disease, a parasite which kills about 20,000 people a year, "the AIDS of the Americas." The disease can be transferred to a child from its mother or by blood transfusions. About 20 percent of those infected can develop life-threatening illness that includes enlarged hearts or intestines, and the drugs used today to treat the disease can take months to work.

12 Jun 2012

China amends intellectual property laws to allow for issuance of compulsory licenses

"China has overhauled parts of its intellectual property laws to allow its drug makers to make cheap copies of medicines still under patent protection in an initiative likely to unnerve foreign pharmaceutical companies," Reuters reports.

12 Jun 2012

No link between alcohol consumption and disclosure of HIV status in Russians

Disclosure of HIV positive serostatus to sexual partners is considered an important public health goal to prevent new infections. Disclosure can motivate sex partners to make informed choices and change behavior through negotiation of safer sex practices. It might also prompt partner testing and counseling.

12 Jun 2012

Agence France-Presse reports on efforts to eradicate sleeping sickness in sub-Saharan Africa

Agence France-Presse reports on Human African trypanosomiasis, "commonly known as sleeping sickness, which is transmitted by tsetse flies found in 36 sub-Saharan African countries," writing, "Without treatment in four months to a year, 'the parasite penetrates into the brain, causing serious neurological symptoms, until death,' said Doctor Benedict Blaynay, head of neglected tropical diseases at French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi."

12 Jun 2012

UNAIDS governing body calls for range of recommendations to strengthen global HIV response

"The Programme Coordinating Board -- governing body of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) -- concluded its 30th session on 7 June calling for a range of recommendations to strengthen the global HIV response," a UNAIDS press release reports.

12 Jun 2012

African-American survivors of prostate cancer have unmet psychosocial needs

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have found that in African-American families where men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, they have unmet psychosocial needs that affect their survivorship, as well as family and social relationships.

12 Jun 2012