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Nearly 25% of Yemenis face severe hunger, preliminary WFP survey finds

"Almost five million Yemenis are unable to produce or buy the food they need, according to preliminary findings of a United Nations survey," the U.N. News Centre reports (3/14).

16 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 16, 2012

Today's headlines feature reports that the federal government has cut Texas Medicaid funds because of a Planned Parenthood flap.

16 Mar 2012

Warming climate may increase risk from Chagas disease

In the spring of 1835, Charles Darwin was bitten in Argentina by a "great wingless black bug," he wrote in his diary. "It is most disgusting to feel soft wingless insects, about an inch long, crawling over one's body," Darwin wrote, "before sucking they are quite thin, but afterwards round & bloated with blood."

16 Mar 2012

Translating the health law into reality one regulation at a time

Part of implementing the health law includes replacing jargon in health insurance policies with plain English. Meanwhile, the release of a federal mental health parity rule is held up to coordinate it with the overhaul.

16 Mar 2012

Unconscious racial attitudes affect positive interactions leading to the detriment of patient health

Primary care physicians who hold unconscious racial biases tend to dominate conversations with African-American patients during routine visits, paying less attention to patients' social and emotional needs and making these patients feel less involved in decision making related to their health, Johns Hopkins researchers report.

16 Mar 2012

Promoting women's rights, addressing inequalities essential to AIDS fight

"The Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues (S/GWI) and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are committed to advancing the rights and health of women and girls around the world," U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby and Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer write.

16 Mar 2012

Joint initiative to support GBV programs with PEPFAR funding

Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby on Monday "announced a joint initiative to provide $4.65 million in small grants to grassroots organizations to address gender-based violence (GBV) issues" through HIV/AIDS programs, according to a State Department press release.

16 Mar 2012

In Congress, a budget battle is brewing

House GOP lawmakers are pushing cuts in the 2013 budget plan that go much deeper than the outline agreed upon last summer as part of a Republican-Democratic deal to raise the debt ceiling.

16 Mar 2012

Are HIPAA rules impeding medical research?

Health records have been sealed since 1996, when the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed into law to protect the privacy of personal health records. That protection applies not only to the charts of the living or recently deceased, but also to records dating to the 1700s and 1800s.

16 Mar 2012

Guidelines for cervical cancer screening revised

The guidelines say that women between 30 and 65 can wait five years between screenings if they get both a Pap test and an HPV test.

16 Mar 2012

Medicaid cost-shifting measures move forward in Fla., Wisc.

A controversial measure that would shift $300 million in disputed Medicaid bills to counties has been received by Gov. Rick Scott's office ... If Scott does neither by the March 29 deadline, it becomes law automatically. Counties are lobbying the governor to veto HB 5301, arguing that it will put an undue burden on local governments for Medicaid bills they don't believe they owe.

16 Mar 2012

Wis., N.H. advance bills limiting abortion coverage, availability

Wisconsin's measure affects insurance coverage while New Hampshire's would require women to wait 24 hours for an abortion.

16 Mar 2012

Questions continue about Obama birth control coverage compromise

U.S. Roman Catholic bishops called the Obama administration's pledge to soften an employer birth control mandate "dubious," saying Wednesday they would continue fighting for a broader religious exemption to the rule. ... After meeting in Washington, the top committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said they would "continue to accept any invitation to dialogue with the executive branch to protect the religious freedom that is rightly ours."

16 Mar 2012

U.S. must recommit itself to ending AIDS, scientifically and financially

"There is a lot of optimism now in the community of public health officials and advocates who work on AIDS. ... But, even as we know more, there are still disputes about how best to move forward on both prevention and treatment," commentator Richard Socarides, a former White House adviser under President Bill Clinton, writes in the New Yorker's "News Desk" blog.

16 Mar 2012

Kenyan nurses end 2-week strike; Kenyan PM Odinga revokes mass dismissal

"Tens of thousands of Kenyan nurses agreed Wednesday to end a two-week strike after talks with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who revoked their mass dismissal during the standoff," Agence France-Presse reports.

16 Mar 2012

Japan makes largest-ever contribution to Global Fund

Japan on Monday provided a $340 million contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, "the highest amount that Japan has ever made in 10 years of vigorous support for the Global Fund," according to a fund press release.

16 Mar 2012

IPS explores challenges to providing family planning services in Cote d'Ivoire

Inter Press Service explores how patriarchal tradition, cultural values, low government health spending, and a lack of access to supplies and education pose challenges to women who wish to obtain family planning services in Cote d'Ivoire.

16 Mar 2012

What's in store at the Supreme Court

News outlets report on the issues in play when the high court hears the health law oral arguments later this month, how particular justices might form their opinions and lay out the new, all-or-nothing position adopted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

16 Mar 2012

New textbook about child and adolescent behavioral health, primary care

Within the health care system, children and adolescents with mental health and psychiatric conditions often go undiagnosed.

16 Mar 2012

S.C. won't have to refund health insurance exchange grant, other exchange news

South Carolina won't have to refund the federal government a $1 million grant it received even though the state decided to not create a health insurance exchange. Mississippi and California, in the meantime, are moving along on creating such marketplaces, despite differing views on the health law.

16 Mar 2012