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Participation in Connecticut Charter Oak Health Plan off to slow start

Fewer than 3,000 primary care physicians and one hospital are currently participating in Connecticut's Charter Oak Health Plan for uninsured adults, which began accepting applications in July, the Hartford Courant reports.

3 Aug 2008

Kaiser roundup of health policy-related blog posts

While mainstream news coverage is still a primary source of information for the latest in policy debates and the health care marketplace, online blogs have become a significant part of the media landscape, often presenting new perspectives on policy issues and drawing attention to under-reported topics.

3 Aug 2008

Advocates say expanding Utah's health care subsidy program could push children out of SCHIP

Utah advocates for children and low-income residents on Tuesday said that a federal waiver sought by the state that would allow more low-income families into the state's premium subsidy plan will, in effect, push out children now covered by SCHIP, the Salt Lake City Deseret News reports.

3 Aug 2008

Presidential candidate Nader promotes single-payer health care plan

Presidential candidate Ralph Nader (I) on Thursday criticized the U.S.'s two-party political system, which he says has been beholden to corporate interests that are preventing residents from accessing health care through a universal health care system, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

3 Aug 2008

Vietnam should prioritize HIV/AIDS prevention programs, Deputy Prime Minister says

Vietnamese local governments should prioritize HIV/AIDS prevention measures, particularly education and communication programs that target injection drug use among young people, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong said on Tuesday at a symposium on HIV prevention and drug detoxification in Hanoi, Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reports.

3 Aug 2008

NPR's 'Tell Me More' examines U.S. Hispanics, HIV/AIDS

NPR's "Tell Me More" on Monday featured a discussion about Hispanics and HIV/AIDS (Corley [1], "Tell Me More," NPR, 7/28). Hispanics account for about 14% of the U.S. population but represented 22% of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 2006, according to data reported last week by the Washington Post (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/23).

3 Aug 2008

New campaign aims to raise HIV awareness among migrant workers in China

Chinese groups and the International Labour Organization on Monday launched a three-year campaign that aims to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention among the country's migrant worker population in the provinces of Anhui, Guangdong and Yunnan, as well as the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, China Daily reports (Guan, China Daily, 7/29).

3 Aug 2008

New HIV infections, deaths from AIDS-related causes down; epidemic not over

The number of deaths worldwide from AIDS-related causes decreased by 10% in 2007 to two million, compared with 2.2 million in 2006, according to UNAIDS' 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, which was released Tuesday ahead of the XVII International AIDS Conference, the Los Angeles Times reports (Maugh, Los Angeles Times, 7/30).

3 Aug 2008

HIV in Kenya - 7.8% increase in 2007

HIV prevalence in Kenya increased to 7.8% in 2007, a slight increase from the 6.7% prevalence recorded in 2003, according to a survey released by the government on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. According to the Associated Press, the increase in the percentage of the population living with HIV likely is because of wider access to antiretroviral drugs.

3 Aug 2008

HIV/AIDS advocates protest stigma, discrimination ahead of AIDS conference

HIV/AIDS advocates in Mexico City have begun protesting the problems of stigma, discrimination and a lack of access to antiretroviral drugs in Latin America ahead of next week's XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Agence France-Presse reports (Rosenthal, Agence France-Presse, 7/29).

3 Aug 2008

Eliminating funds for HIV/AIDS vaccine research, shifting funds to treatment 'dangerous sentiment,' opinion piece says

The call to eliminate all funding for HIV/AIDS vaccine research and prevention programs and "shifting" those funds to the expansion of HIV/AIDS treatment is a "dangerous sentiment" that is "sweeping over the AIDS establishment," Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in an International Herald Tribune opinion piece.

3 Aug 2008

Reuters examines how laws, conservative attitudes are hampering efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in Malaysia

Reuters on Thursday examined how some laws and widespread conservative attitudes are hindering efforts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country where high-risk groups are driven "deeper underground" because of the situation.

3 Aug 2008

Federal health plan, Medicare do not cover routine HIV screening as recommended by CDC

Medicare and federal health care plans that provide coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan do not offer payment for routine HIV screening of people ages 13 to 64 -- a practice that was recommended by CDC in 2006 -- Bloomberg reports.

3 Aug 2008

Editorials respond to PEPFAR reauthorization

President Bush on Wednesday signed into law legislation (HR 5501) that reauthorizes the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief at $48 billion through 2013. Two newspapers have published editorials in response to the bill.

3 Aug 2008

Abbott Labs agrees to settle lawsuit over antiretroviral Norvir pricing

Abbott Laboratories on Wednesday agreed to pay between $10 million and $27.5 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by HIV/AIDS advocates and other drug companies over an increase in the price of the company's antiretroviral drug Norvir, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports (AP/International Herald Tribune, 7/31).

3 Aug 2008

Chronic exposure to estrogen impairs some cognitive functions

University of Illinois researchers report this week that chronic exposure to estradiol, the main estrogen in the body, diminishes some cognitive functions. Rats exposed to a steady dose of estradiol were impaired on tasks involving working memory and response inhibition, the researchers found.

3 Aug 2008

Methadone shows promise against leukemia

Researchers in Germany have discovered that methadone, an agent used to break addiction to opioid drugs, has surprising killing power against leukemia cells, including treatment resistant forms of the cancer.

3 Aug 2008

Desmopressin for bed-wetting linked to convulsions in children

Australian authorities have issued a warning regarding a drug sometimes used to treat primary nocturnal enuresis (bed-wetting) in children.

3 Aug 2008

Disparities in prostate cancer treatment suggest ways to improve care

Quality of care varies greatly for the treatment of men with early-stage prostate cancer by region of the country and category of health care facility, suggesting the potential for improved patient outcomes with more standard treatment protocols, according to a new study that was published in the Aug. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (2008: Vol. 26, Issue 22).

3 Aug 2008

Survival of the fittest: even cancer cells follow the laws of evolution

Scientists from The Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton and the University of California discovered that the underlying process in tumor formation is the same as for life itself-evolution.

3 Aug 2008