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IPS profiles maternal shelter in Kenya's North Eastern province

Inter Press Service profiles the Garissa Maternal Shelter in North Eastern Province, Kenya, "the only such facility in an area with the country's highest maternal mortality rate."

21 Dec 2011

Global Fund Board must 'sound alarm' to renew funding commitments

In an opinion piece on the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) website, MSF International President Unni Karunakara writes that with the cancellation of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's Round 11 grants, "The Board of the Global Fund must raise the alarm. Instead of accepting rationing, and cancelling ambitions, we urge the Global Fund Board to organize an emergency donor conference to renew commitment and allow countries where the diseases are endemic to apply for funding in 2012."

21 Dec 2011

What 2012 holds for state reform efforts, health law implementation

Vermont, Oregon and Georgia are considering what the new year will bring for their efforts to implement health reforms, including formation of insurance exchanges. In California, the state's pool of money for the pre-existing health condition plan is getting a new infusion of funds.

21 Dec 2011

State roundup: Ariz. high court to hear Medicaid funding challenge

The Arizona Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider a challenge to state Medicaid cuts. The court put the matter on its Feb. 15 agenda and will decide then whether to take the case and hear oral arguments. Three public-interest law groups challenged an enrollment freeze for childless adults in the state's Medicaid program, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. A lower-court judge and an Arizona appeals-court panel upheld the cuts.

21 Dec 2011

'Money well spent today means less money spent tomorrow' on HIV/AIDS

This Lancet Infectious Diseases editorial responds to the Global HIV/AIDS Response 2011 progress report (.pdf) launched by WHO, UNICEF, and UNAIDS on November 30, writing that the report "contains much good news on treatment and prevention, but the gains made by past efforts are jeopardized by the ongoing global financial crisis and dwindling funds."

21 Dec 2011

Early intervention mitigates risk of substance abuse among pregnant women

A program for women at risk of substance abuse during pregnancy could save nearly $2 billion annually in health care costs if implemented nationwide, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' journal, Obstetrics & Gynecology.

21 Dec 2011

Coordinated efforts needed to eliminate blinding trachoma

Elizabeth Kurylo, communications manager with the International Trachoma Initiative, describes the International Coalition for Trachoma Control's plan "to eliminate blinding trachoma, one of the seven neglected tropical diseases targeted by END7, ... called 2020 INSight: The End in Sight," in this post on the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog.

21 Dec 2011

Examining the impact of USAID-funded Sudan Health Transformation Project

In this post in Management Sciences for Health's (MSH) "Global Health Impact" blog, Erin Polich, a communications consultant with the USAID-funded Sudan Health Transformation Project (SHTP II) working in South Sudan, examines the impact of the project, which is led by MSH in partnership with the International Rescue Committee.

21 Dec 2011

Cholera education campaign launched in Somali capital

Health ministry officials on Friday launched a cholera education campaign in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, "which aims to educate at least one person in every household on preventing the disease and what to do when symptoms occur," Agence France-Presse reports.

21 Dec 2011

Public-private partnerships exponentially expand effects of USAID aid to Jamaica

Public-private partnerships "will boost small enterprises, bring technology to schools and improve sanitation and clean water in Jamaica," a VOA News editorial states and highlights three such partnerships created by USAID.

21 Dec 2011

HHS denies Michigan's health law waiver request

The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday denied a request from Michigan to waive the health law's limits on insurer profits and administrative costs. Michigan becomes the second state to have its request denied following a denial of Florida's waiver request earlier this month.

21 Dec 2011

Siemens Medical pledges $200,000 to SIR Foundation's Discovery Campaign

The Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation's Discovery Campaign, which seeks to further the growth of minimally invasive medicine into new areas of discovery, announced a major corporate pledge to that initiative. Siemens Medical Solutions, a provider of imaging and laboratory diagnostic equipment and information technology and management consulting and services to health care customers, pledged $200,000, as a "Pioneer" Supporter.

From Siemens Healthineers 21 Dec 2011

Viewpoints: If not the health law, then what?; Shifting Medicare costs isn't enough

When President Barack Obama's health care reform was making its way through Congress, Republicans and other opponents registered plenty of criticisms: It was too generous, too inflexible and too centralized. But such concerns were brushed aside in the push to get a bill passed. Today, it's harder to ignore those flaws. Implementation of the program has brought tougher challenges than the administration led Americans to expect. So it has been obliged to make some major concessions to reality.

21 Dec 2011

CNN examines HIV clinic in Myanmar

CNN examines an HIV clinic in Myanmar, where the disease "is little understood" and "many of the patients here have nowhere else to go after being ostracized by their families."

21 Dec 2011

Vacc-4x nasal vaccine can effectively treat HIV

Thirty years after AIDS was first described, there is still no effective vaccine against the HIV virus. Worldwide, roughly 33 million people are HIV-positive. Researchers are working to find out whether a HIV vaccine developed by a Norwegian biotech company can be administered nasally.

21 Dec 2011

Despite improvements, disparities in diagnosis and treatment of depression remain

Despite improvements to diagnostic tools and therapies in the two last decades, significant disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of depression remain, according to Rutgers research published online by the American Journal of Public Health; print, February 2012.

21 Dec 2011

Fate of India's Food Security Bill unknown; Analysts say it may harm country's economy

"Though approved by the Cabinet Sunday, the fate of the much-anticipated Food Security Bill, which will guarantee cheap food for India's masses, is far from sealed," the Wall Street Journal's "India Real Time" blog reports, noting that the "bill is to be tabled in Parliament this week."

21 Dec 2011

Guardian examines efforts to bring therapeutic food production into developing countries

The Guardian examines how ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) -- "small packets of a sticky, peanut butter-like paste, fortified with minerals and vitamins, that can reverse severe malnutrition within six weeks" -- "have revolutionized famine relief in Africa," and asks whether these products could be produced in the countries in which they are being distributed.

21 Dec 2011

Early aquatic therapy after TKA may improve quality of life

Despite increased use of total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA), there is a notable lack of consensus about optimal postoperative treatment. Aquatic therapy has been shown to have a beneficial effect, and it is typically begun two weeks after surgery, after the wound has healed.

21 Dec 2011

Opinion pieces address federal funding ban on domestic, global health spending for needle-exchange programs

The FY12 Appropriations Agreement recently passed by Congress includes reinstatements of bans on the domestic and international use of federal funds for needle-exchange programs, the Haiwai'i News Daily reports.

21 Dec 2011