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FDA updates Byetta prescribing information following reports of kidney problems

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today acted on new safety information about possible kidney function problems, including kidney failure, in patients taking Byetta (exenatide), a drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes.

3 Nov 2009

Public option might be only a minor player in changing health care

Kaiser Health News staff writers Eric Pianin, Mary Agnes Carey and Julie Appleby combine efforts to provide this analysis of the reach of the public option in terms of its potential impact on the health care system.

3 Nov 2009

With state budgets tight, services are cut; Kansas looks to avoid mandates

California cut program budgets aimed at providing care for the poor while in Wyoming, the programs themselves are forced to close their doors because of a funding shortfall. In Kansas, lawmakers are examining — ahead of final consideration of health care reform in Congress — how they can shield themselves from health care mandates to carry insurance.

3 Nov 2009

NHLBI survey results reveal COPD awareness continues to grow in the United States

Awareness of COPD-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-continues to grow in the United States, according to national survey results released today by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.

3 Nov 2009

WHO, UNICEF launch 6-year $39B plan to prevent, treat pneumonia; World Pneumonia Day coverage

To mark the first World Pneumonia Day on Monday, the WHO and UNICEF launched a $39 billion Global Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia (GAPP) aimed at preventing 5.3 million child deaths from the disease by 2015, the Associated Press reports (Cheng, 11/1).

3 Nov 2009

Senate, House split over taxes to pay for health overhaul

A health care overhaul that would expand health insurance coverage to millions isn't free, and in addition to proposed cuts, bills would raise revenue with taxes and fees. "The typical family would be spared higher taxes from the House Democratic plan to overhaul health care, and their low-income neighbors could come out ahead," the Associated Press/Boston Globe reports.

3 Nov 2009

American College of Physicians sends letter to House leaders voicing support for H.R. 3962 health bill

The American College of Physicians (ACP) today sent a letter to House leaders voicing the College's support for key policies in the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

3 Nov 2009

Washington Post examines how Altman 'revitalized' the Kaiser Family Foundation mission

Drew Altman landed at the Kaiser Family Foundation in 1990 with a huge mandate: Rebuild the sleepy grant-making organization, shake up its staff, and revitalize its mission. Two decades later, the chief executive and president has positioned the nonpartisan operation as a leading voice and vast repository for facts and figures on health-care issues and the reform debate.

3 Nov 2009

Opinions: Obstetric fistula; malaria and climate change

In a New York Times opinion piece, columnist Nicholas Kristof examines a new plan to tackle obstetric fistula, "a childbirth injury, often suffered by a teenager in Africa or Asia whose pelvis is not fully grown." According to Kristof, "Just about the happiest thing that can happen to such a woman is an encounter with Dr. Lewis Wall, an ob-gyn at Washington University in St. Louis.

3 Nov 2009

Swine flu vaccine supply expected to increase 'in short order'

A senior adviser to President Barack Obama says the government "overpromised" with the swine flu vaccine but that the vaccine supply would catch up with the demand within a week. Meanwhile, a health group established to monitor the vaccine's safety will begin work this week.

3 Nov 2009

Malaria conference begins in Nairobi, will highlight outlook for RTS,S experimental malaria vaccine

The 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference "kicked off in Nairobi late Sunday with a call for substantial and sustained support for research to guide evidence-based policies and the development of new malaria tools, which together could save countless lives," Xinhua reports (11/2).

2 Nov 2009

Aetna inks three-year agreement with HHC

Aetna announced today that it has reached an agreement with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) to offer Aetna members in New York City in-network access to in-patient and out-patient services from HHC’s 11 acute care hospitals, six Diagnostic and Treatment Centers and four nursing homes.

2 Nov 2009

U.S. officially ends HIV travel ban

The White House on Friday announced an end to a 22-year-old travel ban on HIV-positive foreigners visiting the U.S. or seeking residency, the New York Times reports. The newspaper writes that President Barack "Obama announced that a rule canceling the ban would be published on Monday and would take effect after a routine 60-day waiting period" (Preston, 10/30).

2 Nov 2009

House Democratic leaders pushing for vote on health reform

Speaker Nancy Pelosi could hold a vote on the final House of Representatives health care reform legislation this week.

2 Nov 2009

GOP is preparing its strategy, version of health overhaul legislation

The Republican Party is set to reveal an alternative health care reform bill to the Democratic ones in Congress just as the House prepares to take up Democratic legislation.

2 Nov 2009

Deaths from H1N1 rise by 700 in one week, WHO reports

The number of deaths from H1N1 (swine flu) rose by 700 in a week, to top 5,700 since the virus was first identified in April, the WHO reported Friday, Agence France-Presse reports (10/30).

2 Nov 2009

Washington Post examines role of USAID's Richard Greene

As part of its ongoing "Federal Player of the Week" series with the Partnership for Public Service, the Washington Post examines the role of Richard Greene, the head of USAID's Office of Health, Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition in the Bureau of Global Health.

2 Nov 2009

Zuma calls for renewed effort in fight against HIV/AIDS

South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday called for a renewed effort in the country's fight against HIV/AIDS, the Star/Independent Online reports. During a speech to South Africa's National Council of Provinces, which also addressed the country's economy, Zuma pointed to what he called "chilling statistics" reflective of the "devastating impact HIV and AIDS" is having on the country (du Plessis, 10/30).

2 Nov 2009

Also in Global Health News: Undernutrition in Afghanistan; Namibia's HIV clinics, outreach programs

A Lancet World Report examines the deadly toll undernutrition is having on the people of Afghanistan, where the "issues of poverty and undernutrition have received curiously little attention: about a third of the population, more than 7 million people, are food insecure, according the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

2 Nov 2009

Individual, employer mandates prove thorny topics for lawmakers

When President Clinton proposed requiring all Americans to buy insurance in the early 1990s, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office called it "an unprecedented form of federal action," adding that "[t]he government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States," the Los Angeles Times reports.

2 Nov 2009