January-February News
Health spending a winner in Obama budget (AEGiS)
http://www.aegis.org/news/re/2010/RE100202.html
* Budget focuses on taking basic research to patients
* Analyzing DNA for new treatments gets priority
* Building foreign health systems get a nod
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Health research is a potential winner in the new
U.S. budget proposed on Monday, with the National Institutes of Health in line
for an extra $1 billion -- the largest increase for the agency in eight years.
President Barack Obama has put a heavy emphasis on medical research since he
took office in January 2009, including an easing of restrictions on the use of
stem cells imposed by his predecessor George W. Bush.
Obama's budget plan for 2011 would provide $25.5 billion for six months to help
prop up Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance plan for the poor, $1.4
billion for food safety efforts, an increase of 30 percent, and $3 billion for
AIDS prevention.
President's Budget
for Global Health Far Short of What's Needed
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- President Obama's budget, transmitted to Congress this morning, includes $8.5
billion for a Global Health Initiative. Based on projections to continue
supporting robust U.S. programs to fight AIDS, TB and malaria and implement GHI
priorities -- $16.4 billion is required in FY2011.
http://www.aegis.org/news/pr/2010/PR100203.html
"White House Proposes 9 Percent Increase in Global Health Funding"
Wall Street Journal , (02.01.2010) Betsy McKay CDC NPIN Summary
Under the Obama administration’s proposed fiscal year 2011 budget, global health
programs, including those for HIV/AIDS, would receive a 9 percent increase, from
about $8.8 billion in FY2010 to $9.6 billion. About $7 billion would be
allocated to the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Other
health initiatives to get a boost include efforts to fight malaria and childhood
mortality.
Some AIDS and health advocates say the sums requested are insufficient for the
administration’s stated goals, which include placing 1.6 million more HIV
patients on antiretroviral drugs, with a target of more than 4 million by 2014.
By that year, the administration aims to prevent more than 12 million HIV
infections.
The proposed allocation for PEPFAR includes a slight increase for bilateral
HIV/AIDS programs, from $5.54 billion in FY2010 to $5.74 billion FY2011. The
request for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria declined from $1.05
billion in FY2010 to $1 billion in FY2011. Funds proposed for bilateral TB
programs increased from $246 million last year to $251 million.
Other targets of the government’s new global health initiative include reducing
TB prevalence in partner countries by 50 percent, malaria by 50 percent,
maternal mortality by 30 percent, and deaths in children under age five by 35
percent. In April, the administration will select up to 10 countries to receive
additional funding for the initiative. A major focus will be integrating health
efforts and partnering with the countries to help them improve their own health
care systems.
“We are trying to integrate programs. There’s a lot of stovepiping, as it’s
called,” said a White House official. “There’s the PEPFAR program separate from
the malaria program separate from maternal and child health separate from
neglected tropical diseases separate from water. That is quite duplicative and
inefficient in all sorts of ways.”
Secretary Sebelius
Announces Members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
WASHINGTON - Health and
Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today the appointment of 24
new members to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). The
PACHA's chair, Dr. Helene Gayle, was appointed in August 2009. This council of
HIV/AIDS experts is composed of a diverse group of researchers, service
providers, and community leaders from around the country, including people
living with HIV. The Council also includes people who are from community-based
organizations that cater to the medical, legal, or mental health needs of people
living with HIV and AIDS.
The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS provides advice, information, and
recommendations to the President through the Secretary of Health and Human
Services on domestic and global HIV/AIDS policy issues. PACHA also serves to
further the policy goals of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP)
and will play an important role in providing input for the National HIV/AIDS
Strategy. See list of members at:
http://webboard.aegis.org/WB/threadview.aspx?threadid=2640&fid=15&boardid=2
Click here: Blog.AIDS.gov: Secretary Sebelius Welcomes Members of the
Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
GLOBAL: US
AIDS Chief Sees New Goals in Global Battle
Andrew Quinn
Reuters (01.05.10) - AEGIS report Tuesday,
January 19, 2010
Dr. Eric Goosby, head of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has
announced changes to the multibillion-dollar program. PEPFAR needs to address
the current and future underlying health care problems in target countries, he
said recently.
2010 APHA Annual Meeting
Call for Abstracts - Now Open
The American Public
Health Association is announcing the Call for Abstracts for the 2010 Annual
Meeting to be held November 6-10, in Denver, CO. The theme of the meeting is
"Social Justice: A Public Health Imperative." We encourage abstracts in all
areas of public health and are also interested in abstracts that focus on the
Annual Meeting theme. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words and must
include a measurable learning objective. All abstracts must be submitted online
and an easy to use online form will walk you through the process step-by-step.
The site is now opened so you may link directly to the abstract submission form
through the APHA website at:http://www.apha.org/meetings
"Ignorance Adding to HIV in the Middle-Aged"
United Press International , (01.18.2010) CDC NPIN Summary
Persons age 50 and older now represent 19 percent of US HIV/AIDS cases - the
result both of patients living longer and of more older people being diagnosed.
"Historically, when you looked at AIDS diagnoses, people 50 and older accounted
for 10 percent of all diagnoses," said Diane Sublets, an associate professor of
sociology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Older people who resume
dating after long marriages may be uneducated about sex and about HIV, she said,
having come through school at a time when sex education was not offered.
Medicare to Help with Screening for HIV in Older
Americans
Abstract CDC NPIN
Medicare has extended coverage to include HIV testing, a move that advocates say
may boost testing among the program’s beneficiaries and potentially other
groups. “When Medicare covers something, it’s also not just a signal to the
population that this is something that’s important and needs to be done, but it
often becomes a standard that private insurance follows,” said Judith Stein,
executive director of the Mansfield, Conn.-based Center for Medicare Advocacy.
Those 50 and older accounted for about one-quarter of HIV-infected adults in
2007, and the proportion may rise to 50 percent by 2015. The older HIV-positive
population consists primarily of those who contracted the disease when young and
are living longer with the help of effective HIV treatments. In addition, people
are contracting HIV or being diagnosed in their later years. “HIV was very much
a disease of young individuals, particularly those who are homosexual or
intravenous drug abusers, and as a geriatrician, it was a problem that we very,
very rarely saw,” said Dr. George Kuchel, director of the University of
Connecticut Center on Aging. “But that has changed a great deal.” Figures from
the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicate that 53 percent of
people ages 65 to 74, as well as 26 percent of those 75 to 85, are sexually
active. The statistics contradict the stereotype of older adults as not sexually
active and therefore protected from one of the common routes of HIV
transmission. Federal guidelines suggest broad screening for those ages 13-64,
but not for older adults. According to 2009 Kaiser Family Foundation statistics,
the incidence of HIV testing is generally lower among older adults: 16 percent
of those 65 and older have ever tested, compared to 61 percent of those 30 to
49.
Source http://www.ctnow.com/ (1.4.10)
Steve Ralls: Come As You Are: The End of America's HIV
Ban
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-ralls/come-as-you-are-the-end-o_b_410298.html
See December News Archives
Across the Nation
Local AIDS Agencies Use Their Network to Help Quake
Victims
CDC NPIN
Abstract (1.21.10)
In the days following the earthquake in Haiti, two Massachusetts-based
organizations that manage an AIDS drug supply chain in the island nation have
used that capacity for emergency medical assistance. “We converted what stock we
had in the warehouse into emergency relief, and we basically put them into kits
and got them out into hospitals,” said Dr. Jonathan D. Quick, CEO of the
Management for Health in Cambridge. “I was amazed how fast it happened - the
first deliveries left the warehouse in 48 hours.” The group has four buildings
in Port-au-Prince; the warehouse was the only one that escaped damage. All of
its 187 employees in Haiti survived. The nonprofit, together with the South
Boston-based JSI Research and Training Institute, co-manages the Partnership for
Supply Chain Management, which provides more than 1 million people worldwide
with antiretroviral drugs. In Haiti, partnership staff members are responsible
for securing adequate drugs at the right prices and delivering them through a
network of more than 100 sites, including some in very remote areas. Some 7,500
Haitians died of AIDS in 2007, making it the leading cause of death among
persons ages 15 to 44. The supply chain made its first routine resupply of
antiretroviral drugs since the quake on Tuesday; it also delivered emergency
medical supplies such as bandages and antibiotics. At press time, the
organization had provided about 40,000 pounds of medicine and other supplies to
16 hospitals and 14 clinics around Port-au-Prince. The Haiti staffers already
had experience in dealing with natural disasters. In 2008, they worked through a
series of hurricanes that battered the island, Quick said. “Through that, the
team hardly skipped a beat,” he said. “And the same thing is
happening this time.”
Source
http://www.boston.com/globe
NIH and D.C. Department of Health Team up to Combat
District’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic
NIH Press Release (1.12.10)
Officials from the National Institutes of Health and the city of
Washington, D.C. today announced the new D.C. Partnership for HIV/AIDS Progress,
a collaborative research initiative between NIH and the D.C. Department of
Health designed to decrease the rate of new HIV infections in the city, improve
the health of district residents living with HIV infection, and strengthen the
city’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The partnership is being co-led by the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, and
the D.C. Department of Health.
NIH has allocated $26.4 million for the first two years of the partnership
through funding from NIAID and the NIH Office of AIDS Research.
“Tragically, our nation’s capital has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS,
where about 3 percent of adults and adolescents are infected with the virus,”
says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “By collaborating with Mayor Fenty’s
administration to establish the new D.C. Partnership for HIV/AIDS Progress, NIH
will seek to answer critical HIV research questions that could positively affect
the district’s HIV/AIDS problem and serve as a model for programs in other U.S.
cities as well.”
The D.C. Partnership centers on four research efforts:
-
Identifying
populations at high risk for HIV acquisition and developing effective
interventions for reducing their risk
-
Establishing
a D.C.-wide data analysis mechanism to identify and address health issues
and outcomes for people receiving HIV care and treatment
-
Augmenting
the city’s HIV-related subspecialty medical care and enhancing access to
research studies
-
Conducting a
pilot program to study the voluntary test-and-treat concept aimed at
stemming new cases of HIV infection
“As the nation’s capital
and a national leader in the fight against HIV, the District of Columbia is
excited to launch a new, innovative partnership for HIV/AIDS progress with NIH,”
says Washington Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. “This comprehensive collaboration will
generate fresh ideas, new services and technical knowledge to enable the city
and NIH to prevent new infections and improve health care services for all
residents living with HIV/AIDS.”
TEXAS:
"New State Laws Take Effect with New Year"
Fort Worth Star Telegram , (12.30.2009) Anna M. Tinsley CDC NPIN Summary
Among the more than two dozen new state laws taking effect as of January 1 is
one dealing with prenatal care and disease prevention. According to information
posted on the Web site of the Texas Department of State Health Services, the law
“requires any health care provider allowed to care for a pregnant woman to test
her for [HIV], syphilis, and hepatitis B virus (HBV), unless she objects. These
tests must take place during the pregnant woman’s first prenatal visit. A second
HIV test must be conducted during the third trimester, and upon admission for
delivery, if no record of the third trimester HIV test is available. The law
also provides for the expedited HIV testing of infants at delivery, if a
mother’s results are not available. These tests apply to each pregnancy.” For
more information, visit
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/hivstd/info/edmat/TestingandPregnancy.pdf
OREGON:
"New Laws Take Effect in Oregon"
Associated Press , (12.31.2009) CDC NPIN Summary
Under a measure passed by the 2009 Oregon Legislature and effective on Jan. 1,
health care benefit plans offered in the state are required to include coverage
of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for females ages 11-26. The STD is
responsible for virtually all cases of cervical cancer.
