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USAID responding to Horn of Africa drought

USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg writes in a post on the agency's "IMPACTblog," This week, USAID activated a disaster assistance response team operating out of Ethiopia and Kenya to work with the World Food Program, UNICEF, and over a dozen other organizations to coordinate emergency efforts to relieve the crisis.

12 Jul 2011

News outlets report on health landscape in South Sudan

Al Jazeera reports on the public health situation in South Sudan, which gained its independence on Saturday, and profiles Juba Teaching Hospital, the new country's largest medical center.

12 Jul 2011

U.N. FAO, WFP, Oxfam launch joint appeal for Horn of Africa drought aid

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program and Oxfam issued a joint appeal on Friday asking the international community to provide the "political, moral and financial means" necessary to fight the severe drought affecting more than 10 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Uganda, the Associated Press reports.

12 Jul 2011

HHS unveils much-anticipated health exchange proposed rule

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the release of proposed regulations that will govern how states are to set up and run new marketplaces where individuals and small businesses can shop for health insurance.

12 Jul 2011

Health IT could give seniors independence, consumers more control

In this pair of articles, news outlets report on how technology is playing a role in health care.

12 Jul 2011

Haiti passed up cholera vaccine offer, Crucell CEO says

Ronald Brus, CEO of the Dutch vaccine maker Crucell, said Haiti did not accept an offer of tens of thousands of cholera vaccine doses late last year, the Financial Times reports.

12 Jul 2011

USAID, NSF launch science research grant program to support development goals

USAID and the National Science Foundation on Thursday launched the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research initiative to "provide grants to developing world partners of NSF U.S. grantees," with the goal of supporting "applied research - science in support of development - in areas of global concern such as climate change, biodiversity, water issues, agriculture, seismic hazards and deforestation," SciDev.Net reports.

12 Jul 2011

Sevocity's EHR v11.1 achieves CCHIT 2011 certification

Sevocity, the leader in cloud-based Electronic Health Records, today announced that Sevocity v11.1 has achieved full certification through the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) and is a CCHIT Certified 2011 Ambulatory EHR.

12 Jul 2011

Type-3 polio virus case in Pakistan raises concerns of disease spreading, WHO says

Pakistan has reported the first case of the type-3 wild polio virus in six months, raising concerns that the disease may spread to other parts of Asia and beyond, the WHO said on Thursday, Bloomberg/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

12 Jul 2011

Factors leading to drought are varied

In addition to "ecological factors," "long and recurrent conflicts, poor infrastructure, misguided policy options, weak market system and seasonal migration patterns account to the ever-increasing drought problems" in the Horn of Africa, Abeje Chumo, an international law expert and editor of the Horn of Africa blog for the Foreign Policy Association, writes in a post on the Foreign Policy Blogs Network.

12 Jul 2011

NY Times: Medical schools are adjusting their interest in 'people skills'

Doctors save lives, but they can sometimes be insufferable know-it-alls who bully nurses and do not listen to patients. Medical schools have traditionally done little to screen out such flawed applicants or to train them to behave better, but that is changing.

12 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: N.Y. health exchange stalemate; Dick Cheney's heart; vaccine debate refuses to die

Just in case you hadn't noticed, no one has elected Grover Norquist to anything. Still, he looms as a major obstacle to Congress reaching a deficit-reduction agreement needed to raise the federal debt ceiling. … what's revealing about Norquist's passionate advocacy against taxes is that it virtually ignores the main causes of bigger government: Social Security and Medicare.

12 Jul 2011

Drug makers seek to block deficit-talk demands for discounts

Also, The Wall Street Journal reports that the pharmaceutical industry's pipeline is showing a reinvigorated level of energy.

11 Jul 2011

Opponents ask Colo. Attorney General to intervene on hospital sale

Opponents mount a challenge to the planned sale of Denver's largest hospital group to a for-profit chain while hospitals in Massachusetts report difficult economic conditions and a California facility is expanding.

11 Jul 2011

Parallels, Microsoft partner to deliver complete cloud automation solution for health community

At the Microsoft World Wide Partner conference, Parallels today announced a two-year strategic relationship with Microsoft to deliver a complete cloud automation solution focused on meeting the needs of the health industry around the world.

11 Jul 2011

New gonorrhea strain resistant to all antibiotics isolated in Japanese woman

A new strain of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea that is resistant to all known antibiotic treatments has been isolated from a female sex worker in Japan, according to Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, Reuters reports. Unemo is set to present his findings at a conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research in Quebec on Monday.

11 Jul 2011

Deal in debt talks still elusive as Aug. 2 deadline looms

Issues related to trimming entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, as well as revamping the tax code, continue to be difficult to tackle.

11 Jul 2011

Different hunger calculation approach could help use resources more effectively

In a New York Times opinion piece, Robert Jensen, an associate professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Nolan Miller, a professor of finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, suggest an alternate strategy for measuring hunger, called the "staple-calorie-share approach," which "can give us a radically different view of who is hungry and who is not."

11 Jul 2011

RyMed's InVision-Plus Intraluminal Protection System effective against catheter-related bloodstream infections

Denise Macklin, BSN, RNC, representing the research team of Dr. Cynthia C. Chernecky Ph.D., RN, AOCN, FAAN, Dr. Jennifer Waller, Ph.D., both from Georgia Health Sciences University; and Dr. William Jarvis M.D., Jason & Jarvis Associates, exhibited a poster at the recent APIC 2011 (Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology) conference in Baltimore, titled "Clinical Comparisons of Split Septum, Positive and Negative Mechanical Valve Intravenous Connectors to an Intraluminal Protection Connector on Infection Rates."

11 Jul 2011

Governors oppose Medicaid cuts in debt-ceiling efforts

One approach being discussed would lower federal payments to states for Medicaid and the CHIP program — which as analysis says would lead to even more budget burdens for already cash-strapped states.

11 Jul 2011