Health Care News and Research

RSS

House panel passes protection for drug makers

The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed an amendment to their broad health reform bill giving drug makers 12 years of exclusive rights to market new biologic drugs, "a setback" to the administration and consumer advocates who hoped to make generic drugs more widely available, the Wall Street Journal reports.

3 Aug 2009

AFP examines debate over H1N1 spending, resource allocation

There is concern that as developed countries store away antivirals, face masks and vaccines to protect against the H1N1 (swine) flu virus, poor countries are being left empty handed. "Some critics say the spending is so imbalanced that it amounts to health apartheid, protecting rich countries against H1N1 but leaving poor nations to fend for themselves," the news service writes, adding, "Others argue gargantuan sums are being spent on a disease that is no more lethal than seasonal flu, which is grotesquely disproportionate when thousands die each day of less media-friendly diseases."

3 Aug 2009

White House retools message as GOP opposition, public opinion push back

"[T]he White House team is retooling its message and strategy, hoping a more modest approach will reinvigorate Obama's signature domestic policy initiative and give him a first-year victory for Democrats to carry into the 2010 midterm elections," the Washington Post reports.

3 Aug 2009

Health care industry increases lobbying spending

Drug companies "boosted their lobbying in Washington during the three months (that) ended June 30 amid a flurry of congressional action on health care," while overall, "Washington's lobbying business continued to slump as the economy pinched budgets at some big companies and trade associations," The Wall Street Journal reports.

3 Aug 2009

Number of uninsured California kids may double

A new deal to balance California's budget may have serious repercussions for the health of the state's children, while South Carolina grapples with health cuts of its own. Meanwhile, New Jersey may become one of the first states to publically disclose hospital errors.

3 Aug 2009

California's struggle with insurance exchanges offers lesson for national reform

California's experience with insurance exchanges could prove a valuable lesson for the nation's flirtation with such pools for covering large numbers of people, The Wall Street Journal reports.

3 Aug 2009

Tanzania drug audit; WFP might suspend flights; acute HIV; HIV/AIDS in China

Global Fund audit reveals expired, missing drugs in Tanzania, funding shortfall may ground some WFP flights transporting aid workers, UNAIDS China Coordinator reflects on HIV/AIDS in China present, future.

3 Aug 2009

Breastfeeding can save 1.3 million children annually, WHO says

About 1.3 million children's lives could be saved each year by teaching new mothers how to breastfeed, but many women do not receive help and stop trying, the WHO said on Friday ahead of the start of World Breastfeeding Week, which runs from August 1 through August 7, Reuters reports.

3 Aug 2009

Democrats hone August health care message, Republicans plan counter-offensive

Democrats are finding points they agree on in a tenuous accord for the message they want to relay to constituents during the August recess: The health insurance industry is the bad guy, The Washington Post reports.

3 Aug 2009

Washington Post examines health toll of Congo conflict

The Washington Post examines the devastating toll the conflict in the Congo has had on the health of the country's displaced civilians, as told through the death of a 36-year-old farmer, who succumbed to typhoid fever far away from the home he abandoned.

3 Aug 2009

Nigeria, UNICEF launch first national child health week

UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman, who visited Nigeria to launch the country's first ever National Child Health Week, said an unacceptably high number of children in the country are dying from preventable diseases, and she called on Nigerian government officials to provide integrated healthcare, Xinhua reports (8/3).

3 Aug 2009

Hillary Clinton embarks on African tour

"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads this week on a seven-nation tour of Africa aiming to prove U.S. commitment to the continent after the administration's early focus elsewhere," AFP/ABS-CBN News reports.

3 Aug 2009

Divisions over future Medicare spending surface in house

"A week-old agreement among House Democrats to smooth out disparities in the way Medicare reimburses rural and urban health providers is in danger of crumbling, as disputes erupted Friday over what actually was agreed to," The Wall Street Journal reports.

3 Aug 2009

Sleep heart health study

A study in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Sleep indicates that self-reported worsening in initiating and maintaining sleep over a five-year period was significantly associated with poorer mental quality of life, and increasing daytime sleepiness symptoms were associated with both poorer physical and mental quality of life.

3 Aug 2009

Sibling risk of pediatric obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and adenotonsillar hypertrophy

A study in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal SLEEP indicates that children have an increased risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) if they have at least one sibling who has been diagnosed with the sleep disorder.

3 Aug 2009

Ethical ramifications of H1N1 vaccine priority groups

Pregnant women are among the groups that should receive H1N1 (swine) flu vaccinations this fall, according to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel whose recommendations are generally accepted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

31 Jul 2009

IPS examines legislative measures to fight HIV/AIDS

Inter Press Service examines several civil society organizations' argument that legislative measures aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS, "hurt more" than they "help." There are 58 countries with laws in place to "prosecute HIV transmission" and 33 others where such legislation is being considered, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

31 Jul 2009

Lancet examines leishmaniasis in east Africa

A Lancet world report examines the growing threat of visceral leishmaniasis on populations in eastern Africa. Each year, the parasitic disease affects around 500,000 people worldwide, killing roughly 50,000. Though "[t]wo-thirds of [leishmaniasis] patients are in southeast Asia … the second largest foci is east Africa: perhaps as many as 40,000 cases every year, and incidence is on the rise," according to the article.

31 Jul 2009

CNN examines efforts to prevent nursing shortages in Malawi

CNN examines Malawi's efforts to address its shortage of nurses. Though in the past, health workers "have been lured abroad by the promise of higher wages and better working conditions," the country has succeeded in putting a stop to "its crippling brain drain of nurses" by expanding "educational opportunities for nurses at all levels" and by "paying modestly more money," CNN writes.

31 Jul 2009

U.S. decision on use of adjuvants could reduce world supply of H1N1 vaccine, says Lancet editorial

"A U.S. plan to rely on swine flu vaccines without ingredients to stretch the supply [known as adjuvants] would reduce the number of available shots just when other countries need them most, the British journal Lancet said in an editorial," Bloomberg writes.

31 Jul 2009