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WHO launches Decade of Action for Road Safety

The WHO on Wednesday in Geneva officially launched the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 to raise awareness of and reduce the number of traffic-related deaths and injuries worldwide, the Washington Post reports (Brown, 5/11).

13 May 2011

Research roundup: Medicare costs in nursing homes; Docs reluctant to adopt EHRs; Health law to improve access to care

Medicare Expenditures Among Nursing Home Residents With Advanced Dementia -- Researchers followed 323 dementia patients in 22 nursing homes for up to 18 months and found that over an 18-month period, "total mean Medicare expenditures were $2303 per 90 days but were highly skewed; expenditures were less than $500 for 77.1% of the 90-day assessment periods and more than $12 000 for 5.5% of these periods.

13 May 2011

New data shows high sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo

A new study based on examination of government-collected and nationally representative data from the Democratic Republic of Congo shows that levels of rape and sexual violence against women in the country are 26 times higher than official United Nations estimates.

13 May 2011

Boehner's support for budget cuts to Medicare, Medicaid draws criticism from Catholic U. faculty

The letter writers criticize Mr. Boehner's support for a budget that cut financing for Medicare, Medicaid and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, while granting tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. They call such policies "anti-life," a particularly biting reference because the phrase is usually applied to politicians and others who support the right to abortion.

13 May 2011

First Edition: May 12, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about the upcoming speech by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, during which he is expected to confront what many say is his main vulnerability: his home state's health reform.

12 May 2011

Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries continues to examine development possibilities for LDCs

"More than 8,000 people - representatives of governments, international agencies, development partners and civil society - are attending the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV), outlining a plan to lessen the burden of poverty, hunger and disease on the world's most vulnerable people," Inter Press Service reports.

12 May 2011

Viewpoints: Tea Party on entitlement reform; Boehner's 'trillions' demand; California's silver tsunami

In a speech on Monday, the speaker of the House said that Republicans would insist on trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for votes to raise the debt limit. He did not mention a time frame. He also did not offer specifics on how he planned to make those cuts. After the beating Republicans took for their plan to slash Medicare, he clearly decided generalities were politically safer. There is no way to solve the country's fiscal ills without an accurate diagnosis and rigorous prescriptions for a cure. Mr. Boehner's speech was devoid of both.

12 May 2011

Analysis: Ryan's GOP budget plan would cause deep reductions in Medicaid coverage

The analysis, advanced by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute, could lead to as many as 44 million people being cut from the rolls in the next decade. Meanwhile, Politico reports that, in the background, some states are fast-tracking their efforts to expand coverage — in keeping with the requirements of the health law.

11 May 2011

USA Today: Uninsured hospitalizations result in a hefty unpaid tab

Uninsured Americans — including those with incomes well above the poverty line — leave hospitals with unpaid tabs of up to $49 billion a year, according to a government study released today. On average, uninsured families pay only about 12 percent of their hospital bills in full.

11 May 2011

Opinions: U.S. child survival programs; global family planning; impact of nuclear fallout; success in global health

"Over my 22 years in Congress, programs that support child survival around the world have enjoyed bipartisan support and have saved millions of young lives worldwide. Unfortunately, funding for these lifesaving programs is at risk now. ... We should not give up now on a great American achievement: helping more of the world's mothers and children survive," Rep. Donald Payne writes in Star-Ledger opinion piece that highlights the successes of U.S. global health programs.

11 May 2011

HHS: Few families without health insurance have financial assets to pay hospital bills

A new report released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows that few families without health insurance have the financial assets to pay potential hospital bills.

10 May 2011

Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries opens in Istanbul

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday in Istanbul opened the Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries "to discuss a new 10-year aid plan to help lift nations out of poverty," Agence France-Presse reports.

10 May 2011

Opinions: Democracy needed in epidemic outbreaks; U.S. food aid; development partnerships in Africa

After mentioning the riots that broke out in Haiti after the start of the cholera epidemic last year, Richard Evans, a professor of history and president of Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge, writes in a Guardian opinion piece that "popular disturbances during epidemics are nothing new." He goes on to provide several other examples.

10 May 2011

Uganda: First vaccination for GMZ2 malaria vaccine trial

Today, the EDCTP-funded GMZ2 consortium starts volunteer enrolment for the phase IIb clinical trial of the candidate malaria vaccine GMZ2 in Uganda. This is the third trial site to initiate volunteer recruitment for this multi-country study. Vaccination is already underway at trial sites in Gabon (November 2010) and Burkina Faso (April 2011). The Uganda site is in the peri-urban area of Iganga/Mayuge, at the Iganga Hospital. Akin to most areas in Uganda, malaria is one of the major health problems in this district. A team from Makerere University (Kampala) is conducting the trial.

9 May 2011

Massachusetts patients face long wait times for doctor appointments

A survey conducted by the Massachusetts Medical Society found patients can wait as a long as a month and a half for non-urgent physicians' appointments.

9 May 2011

African Progress Panel report highlights status of African economies at World Economic Forum on Africa

Africa's economies are expanding, but the continent is still too dependent on the export of raw materials and trade between African nations needs to be increased, the African Progress Panel said in a report released Thursday at the World Economic Forum on Africa, which is taking place this week in Cape Town, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

7 May 2011

Recent releases in Global Health

"In 25 countries across Asia, from Kazakhstan to Papua New Guinea, we work to support the success of emerging economies and help address the challenges of hunger and poverty. We do this not just by extending a helping hand, but sharing the hope of the American Dream to people around the world - the mother who eats less so her children can eat more, the girl who risks her life to get an education, the entrepreneur who beats the odds to create a small business that employs his neighbors," Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator, writes in a post on the agency's "Impact blog".

7 May 2011

Viewpoints: Basic benefits package budget buster?; Colorado CHIP cuts; pharma's public image

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims for a delicate balance that even its champions acknowledge as highly challenging: Making medical services affordable for tens of millions of uninsured Americans, and yet restraining the expenditures needed to vastly expand coverage. To grasp why the reform bill risks missing both goals -- and why the measure's margin for error is so perilously narrow -- it's crucial to follow the debate over its central provision, what it calls the "Essential Health Benefits" package.

5 May 2011

Opinions: U.S. development aid, commitment to women; R&D partnerships and development

Once again, Save the Children's State of the World's Mothers report has ranked Afghanistan, where one in 11 women die of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, the worst place in the world to be a mother, which "is not surprising," Ret. Army Col. John Agoglia, who served as director of the Counterinsurgency Training Center-Afghanistan in Kabul from 2008-2010, writes in a Politico opinion piece.

4 May 2011

iOWH, Center for World Health and Medicine partner to combat childhood diarrhea

The Center for World Health and Medicine at Saint Louis University and the Institute for OneWorld Health have established a joint research agreement to develop new drugs to combat diarrhea, which is the second leading cause of death worldwide in children under age 5.

4 May 2011

Poverty News and Research

WHO launches Decade of Action for Road Safety

Research roundup: Medicare costs in nursing homes; Docs reluctant to adopt EHRs; Health law to improve access to care

New data shows high sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Boehner's support for budget cuts to Medicare, Medicaid draws criticism from Catholic U. faculty

First Edition: May 12, 2011

Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries continues to examine development possibilities for LDCs

Viewpoints: Tea Party on entitlement reform; Boehner's 'trillions' demand; California's silver tsunami

Analysis: Ryan's GOP budget plan would cause deep reductions in Medicaid coverage

USA Today: Uninsured hospitalizations result in a hefty unpaid tab

Opinions: U.S. child survival programs; global family planning; impact of nuclear fallout; success in global health

HHS: Few families without health insurance have financial assets to pay hospital bills

Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries opens in Istanbul

Opinions: Democracy needed in epidemic outbreaks; U.S. food aid; development partnerships in Africa

Uganda: First vaccination for GMZ2 malaria vaccine trial

Massachusetts patients face long wait times for doctor appointments

African Progress Panel report highlights status of African economies at World Economic Forum on Africa

Recent releases in Global Health

Viewpoints: Basic benefits package budget buster?; Colorado CHIP cuts; pharma's public image

Opinions: U.S. development aid, commitment to women; R&D partnerships and development

iOWH, Center for World Health and Medicine partner to combat childhood diarrhea

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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