Poverty News and Research

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World poverty gains reduced, countries unlikely to achieve most MDGs, U.N. report says

The global economic downturn has "reversed a 20-year decline in world poverty" and could "add up to 90 million to the ranks of the hungry in 2009, an increase of six percent over current totals," according to a U.N. report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched in Geneva on Monday, Reuters reports (Evans, 7/6).

7 Jul 2009

Finance Committee Senators: Reform bill trimmed to less than $1 trillion

Some senators on the Finance Committee said Thursday they've moved closer to cutting their health reform bill's cost to under $1 trillion.

29 Jun 2009

Recent trends in breast cancer incidence in U.S. white women by urban/rural and poverty status

The recent decline in invasive breast cancer in the US was significantly less pronounced in the poor and those who live in rural areas. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medicine suggest this may be due to varying reductions in the numbers of women taking hormone therapy (HT).

28 Jun 2009

Counting of uninsured Americans a difficult task

Estimates of the total number of uninsured Americans may be based on "faulty assumptions" that are "inflating the projections," The Wall Street Journal says in its "Numbers Guy" blog.

25 Jun 2009

Namibia close to reaching some MDGs

Namibia's recently released second MDG Report 2008 finds that the country is making progress toward achieving some of the U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. However, the Prime Minister says the global economic situation could reverse progress and notes that the country is behind on some health-related targets, New Era reports.

24 Jun 2009

Swine flu tally has U.S. top and Australia 6th

The latest update, # 52, from the World Health Organisation on the influenza A H1N1 pandemic (swine flu), says as of the 22nd of June the grand total of those infected is now 52,160 including 231 deaths.

23 Jun 2009

Some Governors oppose Medicaid expansion proposals

"Some governors are pushing to scale back or kill proposals to expand Medicaid to provide health-care coverage to the uninsured, raising a new challenge to President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul the system," The Wall Street Journal reports.

23 Jun 2009

H1N1 spread continues worldwide; first death in Asia confirmed

The H1N1 (swine flu) virus has now infected more than 52,000 people, leaving 231 dead, the WHO said Monday, AFP/Washington Post reports.

23 Jun 2009

Children in Afghanistan suffering from post traumatic stress

Children who live in Afghanistan are particularly affected every day by a multitude of war time stressors which increase the likelihood of developing PTSD: trauma, child labor, and family and military violence. On a daily basis they are first-hand witnesses to the bombings, abuse, and the general upheaval of their home life and society as a result of war, including the effects of long-term poverty and familial turmoil.

23 Jun 2009

House Democrats push their health reform plan

House Democrats' health care bill draft released Friday is likely to survive relatively intact, "including a robust new Medicare-like public health plan that would compete with private companies in a national health insurance exchange," Roll Call reports.

22 Jun 2009

U.N. calls for increased commitment to help vulnerable countries prepare for natural disaster

Instead of responding to natural disasters after they happen, aid should be dedicated to helping countries prepare for future disasters, John Holmes, the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, said Friday, Reuters reports.

22 Jun 2009

House reform outline includes public insurance option

"House Democrats released the outline of their health care reform bill Friday - a proposal that would create a public insurance option, expand Medicaid, and require employers to provide coverage or pay a tax," Politico reports. "The outline did not include details on how Democrats would pay for the plan."

21 Jun 2009

Finance Committee seeks to trim cost of bill

"A draft proposal in the Senate to overhaul the nation's health-care system would require most people to buy health insurance, authorize an expansion of Medicaid coverage and create consumer-owned cooperative plans instead of the government coverage that President Obama is seeking," the Washington Post reports.

21 Jun 2009

PEPFAR and IDUs; economic crisis and health; human-rights and pharmaceutical companies

Although PEPFAR has helped to provide "antiretroviral therapy to 2.1 million people with HIV, almost all of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, and has spent more than US$18 billion on the continent" it has failed to reach "thousands of injecting drug users in PEPFAR countries in Africa, many of whom have HIV," according to the authors of a recent comment in the journal Lancet.

21 Jun 2009

Former Senate majority leaders outline health care compromise

Three former Senate majority leaders unveiled a health care reform plan Wednesday that would tax health benefits with value over what members of Congress are given and would mandate that both employers and individuals carry insurance, Kaiser Health News reports.

18 Jun 2009

Tibotec, TB Alliance join to expedite development of promising tuberculosis drug

The pharmaceutical company Tibotec said it will join with the non-profit Global Alliance for Tuberculosis Development (TB Alliance) to speed up the development of the experimental TB drug TMC207, Health-e/IOL reports (Thom, Health-e/IOL, 6/18). Tibotec, which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, announced the news on Wednesday at the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle (Doughton, Seattle Times, 6/18).

18 Jun 2009

Call to protect hospitals, schools from impact of disasters

WHO and UNICEF today called on governments to strengthen risk reduction measures in four key areas so that health and education systems are able to cope with disasters, including the risks from climate change. These areas are:

18 Jun 2009

Former Senators unveil bipartisan health proposal, would tax benefits, mandate coverage

Three former Senate majority leaders today unveiled a bipartisan health care reform package that would tax health benefits and includes individual and employer mandates.

18 Jun 2009

Senate Health Committee to begin reform mark up today, finance to follow next week

Senate Democrats are scrambling to reduce the price tag of reform proposals, which initial estimates place at $1.6 trillion, The Wall Street Journal reports.

18 Jun 2009

Opinion: World must work together to stop human trafficking

"To some, human trafficking may seem like a problem limited to other parts of the world," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton writes in a Washington Post opinion piece, but "it occurs in every country, including the U.S., and we have a responsibility to fight it just as others do."

18 Jun 2009