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Economist examines schistosomiasis in China

The Economist examines schistosomiasis in China. The disease, which is also called snail-fever, is the "world’s second-most prevalent tropical disease after malaria, affecting 207 million people of whom 726,000 are Chinese, according to the most recent official figures, from 2004," the Economist reports.

21 Jun 2009

Reproductive health bill could reduce maternal mortality in Philippines

The number of Filipino "women who die yearly due to childbirth and pregnancy complications has doubled in the last four years," and a reproductive health bill opposed by some lawmakers and stalled in Congress could address this rise in maternal mortality, health groups say, ABS-CBN News reports.

21 Jun 2009

Some call for more action at conclusion of Pacific Health Summit

Some Pacific Health Summit attendees said more action should have come from the tuberculosis-focused conference, which ended on Thursday in Seattle, Seattle Times' "Business of Giving" blog reports.

21 Jun 2009

BBC examines river blindness program in sub-Saharan Africa

BBC examines a campaign in sub-Saharan Africa that is helping to distribute drugs to prevent onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness - a disease "caused by a parasite that is spread from human to human by the black fly, which once flourished along river beds where there is fast-flowing water."

21 Jun 2009

U.S. flu funds; South Africa confirms first case; EU encouraged to coordinate pandemic vaccine policy

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a $105.9 billion war-funding bill that "includes $7.7 billion to prepare for pandemic flu," the Washington Post reports (Bacon, Washington Post, 6/19).

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

Lancet studies examine aspects of global health funding

"Global health funding boosted by private donors has quadrupled since 1990, but the extra money has not always gone to the right countries and diseases, according to a pair of studies released Friday," in the journal Lancet, AFP/Google.com reports (Hood, AFP/Google.com, 6/18).

21 Jun 2009

New theory for global diabetes epidemic

A new "fertility first" hypothesis published this week by a group of international experts in the American Journal of Human Biology, proposes that the global epidemic of Type 2 diabetes has its origins in the struggle, over millennia, to sustain human fertility in environments defined by famine.

19 Jun 2009

Doctors cautiously signal they'll work with Obama

The American Medical Association voted yesterday to support "health reform alternatives that are consistent with AMA principles," although the group fell short of specifically supporting a public plan, the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

Prosposed budget cuts worry hospitals

The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires reports on reaction to the Obama administration's proposed cuts that may acutely affect hospitals. It notes: "President Obama last weekend called for $313 billion in savings over 10 years through adjustments in Medicare and Medicaid payments - a plan that a 'deeply disappointed' American Hospital Association said would mean $220 billion in payment cuts to hospitals, on top of billions in other proposed Medicare cuts."

18 Jun 2009

EPA declares first-ever public health emergency in Montana

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday declared its first-ever "public health emergency," asbestos contamination near Libby and Troy, Mont., northwestern mining towns, the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

Bingaman, Wyden among key health reform lawmakers in the news

Newspapers highlight a few of the key congressional players in the health care debate. Politico: "There's a little bit of Gary Cooper in Jeff Bingaman, and that's not bad for President Barack Obama if health care becomes the political High Noon this year that so many expect."

18 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

Free clinics affected by primary care physician shortage

In the face of growing numbers of uninsured and low-income patients due to the economy, some free clinics are having difficulty meeting the increased demand, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

18 Jun 2009

Next year's rising health costs may not be slowed by reform

"Employers who offer health insurance coverage could see a 9 percent cost increase next year, and their workers may face an even bigger hit, according to a report Thursday from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers," the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

New polls find support for health reform, fear of costs

A series of new polls this week show support for major health care reform, but trepidation about certain policy proposals, and anxiety about quickly growing health care costs, the possibility of losing coverage, and the federal budget deficit in general.

18 Jun 2009

Republicans scold HELP Democrats over reform bill's price tag, government control

"It was particularly devastating on Wednesday when [Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah]" – a longtime friend of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., – "warned Democrats on the panel that they have already made some grave errors in their effort to write legislation overhauling the health care system," reports the New York Times in The Caucus Blog.

18 Jun 2009

Timeline for health legislation slips as HELP, Finance Committees hit snags

Senators delayed work Wednesday on one health care reform bill and hit partisan roadblocks on another as key lawmakers insisted they are still on track to have a bill on the floor by the middle of summer, The Washington Post reports.

18 Jun 2009

Senate Health Committee begins amending reform bill

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began amending their version of sweeping health overhaul legislation Thursday, days after a Congressional Budget Office report found the bill would cost $1 trillion over ten years, leaving 37 million people uninsured and Senate Republicans skeptical, the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline will donate influenza vaccines to WHO

The drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis will donate millions of doses of a vaccine that offers protection against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus to the WHO once the vaccine is ready, the company's chief executive officer announced Tuesday, Reuters reports (Elsner, Reuters, 6/17).

18 Jun 2009