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HealthBridge Management issues update on third week of SEIU's strike

HealthBridge Management, which operates five Health Care Centers in Connecticut currently subject to a strike by the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199 SEIU (the Union), today provided an update on events as the strike, which began July 3, continued into its third week.

21 Jul 2012

Washington - Site of global conference - Focuses on testing for HIV, fights stigma

Next week's global AIDS conference marks the first time it's been held in the U.S. in more than two decades.

21 Jul 2012

Recognizing how food, nutrition impact the HIV response

"Ahead of the International AIDS Conference next week in Washington, D.C., Martin Bloem, chief of Nutrition and HIV Policy at the World Food Programme, shares the impact of food and nutrition on the HIV response," in this post in the ONE Blog.

21 Jul 2012

Tool to predict and map hot spots for potential primary care shortages

Vanderbilt researchers have been selected to receive a national grant as part of a push to gauge the coming impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

21 Jul 2012

Investing in global health is in America’s best interest

"Too few people realize that the health of Americans and the health of people around the world are inextricably linked," Kevin De Cock, director of the Center for Global Health of the CDC, writes in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

21 Jul 2012

WHO identifies key actions countries can take to prevent HIV infections among people who inject drugs

WHO has identified four key actions countries can take to prevent viral hepatitis B and C among people who inject drugs. Of the estimated 16 million people who inject drugs worldwide, it is estimated that 10 million are infected with hepatitis C. An additional 1.2 million are infected with hepatitis B.

21 Jul 2012

Obama missing 'historic opportunity' by not appearing in person at AIDS 2012

"President Barack Obama has a standing invitation to speak at the [XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., next week], and he likely would be welcomed with loud cheers given his progressive HIV/AIDS policies," journalist Jon Cohen writes in a Slate opinion piece.

21 Jul 2012

IAS releases 'road map' to find HIV cure ahead of AIDS 2012 Conference

The International AIDS Society (IAS) on Thursday in Washington, D.C., "released what they call a road map for research toward a cure for HIV -- a strategy for global teams of scientists to explore a number of intriguing leads that just might, years from now, pan out," the Associated Press reports (Neergaard, 7/20).

21 Jul 2012

FDA warns against shellfish consumption from Oyster Bay Harbor

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat raw or partially cooked oysters and clams (shellfish) with tags listing Oyster Bay Harbor, in Nassau County, N.Y., as the harvest area, following illnesses reported in several states caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria.

21 Jul 2012

HHS report: Hospitals fall short in meeting error reporting requirements

The government report says the failure to report medical errors hampers providers' ability to identify and fix preventable problems. Meanwhile, new Medicare data shows hospitals are making little progress in reducing preventable readmissions.

21 Jul 2012

International HIV/AIDS funding to African nations inadequate, MSF says

"African nations are not receiving adequate international funding to fight HIV/AIDS, leaving them to face catastrophic consequences without enough medication, an independent, global medical and humanitarian organization said Thursday," the Associated Press reports.

21 Jul 2012

Guardian examines U.S. food aid program

The Guardian has analyzed "hundreds of food aid contracts awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2010-11 to show where the money goes," the newspaper reports.

21 Jul 2012

New CHAIT initiative on development of novel immunological therapeutic interventions

The CHAIT initiative is a public-private partnership focusing on the development of novel immunological therapeutic interventions to achieve a 'functional HIV cure' with the ultimate goal of HIV eradication.

21 Jul 2012

U.S. travel restrictions on sex workers inhibit effective HIV/AIDS response

"[D]isappointingly, one group that will be absent [from the XIX International AIDS Conference next week] due to U.S. travel restrictions is sex workers," a Lancet editorial states.

21 Jul 2012

State roundup: Texas Medicaid fraud probes use controversial tool

When it comes to finding cost savings in the state's unwieldy Medicaid program, the Health and Human Services Commission's Office of Inspector General gets high marks. … But OIG's dollar-recovery strategy -- which includes an increased reliance on a rule that allows investigators to freeze financing for any health provider accused of overbilling -- has enraged doctors, dentists and other providers who treat Medicaid patients.

21 Jul 2012

DPC in charge of preparing Haiti for natural disasters becomes a success story

Not all stories associated with natural disasters in Haiti are filled with tales of gloom and doom. Barely two years following the catastrophic earthquake that leveled portions of Port-au-Prince, the Civil Protection Agency (DPC) in charge of preparing Haiti for natural disasters, has become a success story that is now being examined as a role model for other disaster prone nations.

21 Jul 2012

When checks and balances in the pharmaceutical marketplace fall short

The Washington Post explores how a trio of very expensive anemia drugs became "superstars" in the marketplace. Also, The Wall Street Journal tracks the process by which certain fake cancer drugs found their way into the United States.

21 Jul 2012

Menu labeling at chain restaurants has some benefits

The recent Supreme Court decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has cleared the way for national requirements about posting nutritional information at chain restaurants. Listing calories, fat content, and sodium levels of menu items at the point of purchase has been promoted as a way to address the obesity epidemic.

21 Jul 2012

Domestic PEPFAR program would increase coordination, improve AIDS response in U.S.

"Urban America continues to suffer high rates of HIV despite successes of antiretroviral treatment that can suppress the virus, decrease transmission, prevent progression to AIDS, and lower death rates," Gregory Pappas, senior deputy director of the Washington, D.C., Department of Health's HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration (HAHSTA), writes in a Washington Blade opinion piece.

21 Jul 2012

Training EMS to interpret ECGs can expedite treatment for severe heart attacks

A new program that trains emergency medical service technicians (EMS) to read electrocardiograms so that they can evaluate patients with chest pain, and expedite treatment for the severe heart condition known as ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), a serious form of heart attack, has excellent results and should become the standard of care, according to two studies published in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

21 Jul 2012