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A health insurance plan President Gingrich might support

KHN's Marilyn Werber Serafini reports on a health insurance plan Newt Gingrich might support: "The lesser known proposal would encourage people to purchase insurance by giving them tax credits or deductions.

23 Dec 2011

ARV drugs can prevent transmission of HIV

The finding of a team of researchers - including several members from Johns Hopkins - that HIV treatment with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) can actually prevent transmission of the virus from an infected person to his or her uninfected partner has been named "Breakthrough of the Year" for 2011 by the journal Science.

23 Dec 2011

Scientific journal retracts study that linked mouse virus to human chronic fatigue syndrome

Editors at the journal Science have retracted a study that linked a virus in mice to chronic fatigue syndrome in humans after the Cleveland Clinic said some data came from a contaminated lab.

23 Dec 2011

House GOP leaders accept short-term payroll tax cut extension

In an abrupt about-face, House Republican leaders agreed Thursday to a Senate proposal to extend the payroll tax cut and avert a scheduled payment cut to Medicare doctors for two months to allow lawmakers time to hammer out a longer-term agreement after the holidays.

23 Dec 2011

Harkin blasts South Carolina over exchange grant

The chairman of the Senate HELP Committee wants the HHS inspector general to investigate whether a $1 million federal grant was misused.

23 Dec 2011

Potential new strategy against bacteria with multi-drug resistant organisms

Vaccines with broader reach might be made by stimulating specialized immune cells to recognize foreign cell membrane proteins that are shared across bacterial species, say researchers from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in a report published online today in Immunity.

23 Dec 2011

GOP pauses 'doc fix' fight, averts 27 percent Medicare pay cut

The House GOP leadership's agreement to a Senate proposal averts a 27 percent paycut to doctors scheduled to take effect in January. The deal delays the cut until March 1, and lawmakers hope to hammer out an agreement on a longer-term fix to the payment formula before then.

23 Dec 2011

MSF publishes list of top 10 stories of 2011 about access to medicine

This Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) special report highlights the top 10 stories of 2011 regarding access to essential medicines, according to MSF.

23 Dec 2011

Acceleron Pharma raises $30 million through private financing

Acceleron Pharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing protein therapeutics for cancer and orphan diseases, today announced it raised a $30M private financing.

23 Dec 2011

Republicans widen probe of AARP tax status

House Republicans sent new details to the Internal Revenue Service as part of an ongoing challenge to AARP's not-for-profit tax status, following the group's leading role in pushing for enactment of the 2010 federal healthcare overhaul.

23 Dec 2011

N.Y. Times review finds misuse of psychotropic drugs in disabled patients

Tens of thousands of powerful pills created to treat serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia are given to developmentally disabled people in the care of New York State every day.

23 Dec 2011

Center for Global Development blog responds to NPR report on health in Afghanistan

This post in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a research fellow at CGD, responds to an NPR Morning Edition report on USAID's work in Afghanistan, recapping the progress the agency has made in improving health care in the country.

23 Dec 2011

Experts' debate over how trade affects food security focusing attention on Doha talks, IRIN reports

IRIN reports how "[a]n exchange between two leading world officials on how trade affects food insecurity in countries has helped focus attention on the stalled Doha trade talks."

23 Dec 2011

Federal officials seek to keep details on bird flu study secret

A federal board has asked two scientific journals to restrict access to details of a genetic study of the bird flu in which researchers altered the virus to be more easily transmittable between humans.

23 Dec 2011

Investigation finds shell companies stealing millions from Medicare

Reuters reports on rampant Medicare fraud and the development of new technologies that can be used to fight it.

23 Dec 2011

Declined consent affects organ donation rates

Research published today in the British Journal of Anaesthesia suggests that organ donation rates in the UK could be increased if the current issues affecting declined consent are improved. At present, only 30% of the UK population are registered on the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR). From 2003 to 2005, the overall consent rate for donation after brain death (DBD) was 59%.

23 Dec 2011

Employment issues: A hot topic among health care workers

In Connecticut, the issue of unionizing home care attendants has sparked charged debate. Meanwhile in California, nurses -; in the midst of contract negotiations -; plan to picket at Sutter Health's Sacramento headquarters and nine of its hospitals; and, in Texas, nurses filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board regarding Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center's sick leave policy.

23 Dec 2011

WHO researchers release critique of methods to estimate global malaria incidence

"Richard Cibulskis and colleagues at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland present a critique of different estimation methods of the worldwide incidence of malaria in this week's PLoS Medicine," according to a post in the PLoS Medicine "Community Blog."

23 Dec 2011

Obama administration should provide food aid to N. Korea 'as soon as is practical'

Recounting the factors that led to and conditions that persisted during the North Korean famine between 1995 and 1998, New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll says in this opinion piece in the magazine, "Better harvests and international food aid ended the worst suffering by 1998. Yet chronic food insecurity and shortages persist to this day."

23 Dec 2011

Injected meth users at greater risk of attempting suicide

The dire physical and mental health effects of injecting methamphetamine are well known, but there's been little research about suicidal behavior and injecting meth.

23 Dec 2011