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Paper calls for strong steps to control global crisis of antibiotic-resistant infections

Shahriar Mobashery, a University of Notre Dame researcher, is one of the coauthors of a new paper by a group of the world's leading scientists in academia and industry that calls for strong steps to be taken to control the global crisis of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. The group issued a priority list of steps that need to be taken on a global scale to resolve the crisis.

9 Dec 2011

Critical access: Hospitals that face budget traumas

Kaiser Health News examines the concept of "critical access hospitals." Meanwhile, a related story examines how the hospital district in Harris County, Texas, is key to the Houston area's safety net.

9 Dec 2011

VDF, CDC and VDC to educate women about gender-specific DVT risks

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a blood clot in the deep veins in the legs. These clots can break loose and travel to the lungs, causing a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism (PE). Even when they don't, they can cause permanent damage to the leg veins that results in long-term pain, swelling, and disability of the leg.

9 Dec 2011

CSIS publishes reports on immunization and global health

The Center for Strategic & International Studies on Wednesday released two reports on immunizations and global health. "The Future of Global Immunization: Will the Promise Be Fulfilled?," by Stephen Cochi of the CDC, "outlines 10 important issues facing the global vaccine and immunization agenda."

9 Dec 2011

Study may help personalize pain medication management for sickle cell disease patients

A study that may help personalize pain medication management for sickle cell disease patients is underway at Georgia Health Sciences University.

9 Dec 2011

Goal of AIDS-free generation achievable through 'AIDS transition'

In this Foreign Affairs opinion piece, Mead Over, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, says the goal of an "AIDS-free generation" is attainable, "[b]ut not if treatment continues to take precedence over prevention."

9 Dec 2011

Supreme Court hears arguments related to patent dispute

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the question is whether patents can be applied to concepts drawn from nature and notes that the case could redefine ownership of technological or scientific innovations.

9 Dec 2011

Perry makes brief GOP health care caucus visit

In other campaign trail news, media outlets examine who is supporting and opposing GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's run, and how health policies are playing into their decisions.

9 Dec 2011

Conn. wants insurers to pay more of children's mental health costs

Officials in Connecticut say insurers and families should pick up more bills for mental and developmental health services. In other news, California officials release details for new department of state hospitals and Colorado gets a new assessment of mental health services.

9 Dec 2011

HHS to widen access to Medicare data

The Wall Street Journal reports that, in a change of policy, the Department of Health and Human Services will make claims information available to help consumers make decisions about medical care.

9 Dec 2011

Gilead Sciences to donate $8M in visceral leishmaniasis drug to WHO

Gilead Sciences, Inc. "will donate 445,000 vials of AmBisome over five years to help the World Health Organization (WHO) treat more than 50,000 patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar," a Gilead press release states, adding, "If sold at Gilead's no-profit access price, today's donation would cost more than $8 million."

9 Dec 2011

Spreading the word about the health law

The Washington Post offers a compelling example of the challenges the White House faces in its efforts to get its message out about the benefits of the health law. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe offers insights from former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick about what the administration needs to do in order to have more success with this message.

9 Dec 2011

MSU researcher uses MRI to unlock how cerebral malaria damages brain

Building on a quarter century of work in Malawi, a Michigan State University researcher is traveling to neighboring Zambia to perform MRI scans on children newly diagnosed with cerebral malaria in hopes of unlocking how it damages the brain.

9 Dec 2011

State health spending gap widens

A government report released Wednesday offers the first snapshot of state-by-state health care spending since the recession, as well as a look at where provisions of the 2010 health law could have their greatest effect.

9 Dec 2011

Innovative taxes can be used to fill AIDS funding gap, UNAIDS head says

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that donors looking to fund the fight against AIDS "could raise funds through taxes," according to the news agency.

9 Dec 2011

Children in Yemen at increased risk as rebel group restricts aid access

IRIN examines how a ban on aid by an armed rebel group in northern Yemen is putting children's health at risk, writing, "Thousands of people under 'siege' by armed rebels in northern Yemen lack food and health care, which has already resulted in deaths and risks killing many more, local leaders and aid workers say."

9 Dec 2011

Longer looks: Romney and abortion politics

The heart attacks never came. Four days later, Chris woke up. It was not the awakening of Hollywood movies in which the patient comes to, just as he was, speaking full sentences and completely mobile. Three years later, Chris still cannot talk. Although he breathes on his own, his lungs battle a steady barrage of infections; a feeding tube provides all his sustenance, and his muscles have contracted into short, twisted knots. He can move only the slightest bit. … Still, Wayne and Judy say that his cognition is improving.

9 Dec 2011

Roundup: Ohio lawmakers consider abortion bill; Aetna sues Mich. Blues

An Ohio lawmaker on Wednesday touted the importance of the fetal heartbeat as an indicator of life as he urged a legislative panel to support a bill that would impose the nation's most stringent abortion limit. The measure would outlaw abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat. That's sometimes as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

9 Dec 2011

Nurses report symptoms of burnout, job dissatisfaction

Nurses working in hospitals around the world are reporting they are burned out and dissatisfied with their jobs, reported researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research in a study of 100,000 nurses in nine countries.

9 Dec 2011

Forbes interviews Sarah Brown about her work in maternal, child health advocacy

Sarah Brown, international advocate for global maternal and newborn health and wife of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, answers questions about her work from Forbes contributor Rahim Kanani in this interview excerpt.

9 Dec 2011