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UnitedHealth Group announces lower profit outlook

UnitedHealth Group on Wednesday lowered its earnings guidance because of reduced commercial businesses and higher-than-expected Medicare-related costs and said it would restructure the company with a greater focus on regional coverage, the Chicago Tribune reports (Chicago Tribune, 7/3).

4 Jul 2008

GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis found guilty of overcharging Alabama Medicaid Program

An Alabama state court jury on Tuesday found pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis guilty of defrauding the state Medicaid program by charging artificially high prices for medications and ordered the two companies to pay more than $114 million in restitution, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

4 Jul 2008

Pennsylvania health care cost containment council employees let go after program authorization lapses

Nearly the entire staff of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council has been let go due to a political disagreement between Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and state Senate Republicans over whether a bill to reauthorize the council should also include an extension of a malpractice insurance subsidy for physicians, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports (Goldstein, Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/2).

4 Jul 2008

San Francisco Chronicle examines 'Healthy San Francisco' program enrollment progress

Although city officials estimated in July 2007 that Healthy San Francisco would offer access to health care to all city residents by January, the program one year later remains open only to individuals with incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty level, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

4 Jul 2008

Massachusetts cigarette tax increases by $1 per pack to fund state health insurance law

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) on Tuesday signed into law a bill that increases the state cigarette tax by $1 per pack, the AP/Boston Globe reports. The increase, which brings the tax to $2.51, took effect immediately.

4 Jul 2008

Gene technique that alters CCR5-producing gene increases resistance to HIV in mice

Altering the gene that produces CCR5 protein on the surface of immune cells using a harmless virus was found to significantly increase resistance to HIV in mice, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the Press Trust of India reports (Press Trust of India, 7/1).

4 Jul 2008

Bush calls on congress to reauthorize PEPFAR ahead of G8 summit

President Bush on Wednesday called on Congress to quickly reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ahead of the Group of Eight industrialized nations summit next week in Hokkaido, Japan, Reuters reports.

4 Jul 2008

NGO leader in Angola seeks to mobilize country's youth for HIV prevention

Young people in Angola have a poor record of participation in HIV prevention efforts, including voluntary testing and condom use, according to Antonio Coelho, executive secretary of the Angolan Network of AIDS Service Organisations, Angola Press Agency/AllAfrica.com reports.

4 Jul 2008

Number of abortions decreasing among HIV-positive women in Belarus

The number of HIV-positive women in Belarus who are forgoing abortions is increasing, Svyatlana Shylava, chief ob-gyn for the country's Ministry of Health, said on Tuesday, BelaPAN reports.

4 Jul 2008

DHS Inspector General issues recommendation on reporting procedures of immigrant detainee deaths

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau should promptly report all deaths of immigrants held at federal detention centers in the U.S. to the Department of Homeland Security, as well as to state authorities where required by law, according to recommendations in a report released Tuesday by the DHS Office of Inspector General, the New York Times reports.

4 Jul 2008

Scientists discover way to protect against death following plague infection

Bacteria that cause pneumonic plague can evade our first-line defences, making it difficult for the body to fight infection. In fact, a signature of the plague is the lack of an inflammatory response.

3 Jul 2008

New target for the potential treatment of tuberculosis

Scientists have uncovered a new target for the potential treatment of tuberculosis (TB), finally resolving a long-running debate about how the bacterial cell wall is built.

3 Jul 2008

Cases of malaria increasing in UK

A huge rise in the numbers of UK residents travelling to malaria endemic areas, combined with a failure to use prevention measures, has significantly increased cases of imported falciparum malaria in the UK over the past 20 years, according to a study published on BMJ.com.

3 Jul 2008

Resveratrol mimics the beneficial effects of eating fewer calories

Large doses of a red wine ingredient can ward off many of the vagaries of aging in mice who begin taking it at midlife, according to a new report published online on July 3rd in Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication.

3 Jul 2008

Nanostructures improve bone response to titanium implants

Titanium implants were successfully introduced by P.-I. Branemark and co-workers in 1969 for the rehabilitation of edentulous jaws.

3 Jul 2008

Canadian case of foreign-accent syndrome after stroke

A woman in southern Ontario is one of the first cases in Canada of a rare neurological syndrome in which a person starts speaking with a different accent, McMaster University researchers report in the July issue of the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences.

3 Jul 2008

Fourth edition of the British National Formulary for Children

The fourth edition of the British National Formulary for Children (BNFC) arms health professionals with the information they need to tackle recent controversial health concerns in young people, including rising rates of teenage pregnancy and the increasing incidence of sexually transmitted infections.

3 Jul 2008