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National News Briefs  Across the Nation

 

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.

 

 

 


Los Angeles County declines to force condom use in porn films (AEGiS)
Health department officials say such a requirement, sought by an AIDS activist group, must come from the California Legislature. And no lawmaker has stepped up. http://www.aegis.org/news/lt/2010/LT100202.html
 

"Merck Reps Banned from US AIDS Clinics over Drug Costs"
Agence France Presse , (01.25.2010)
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the of the largest providers of HIV/AIDS care in the United States, announced Monday it will no longer allow sales representatives from Merck & Co. in its clinics.

“We’ve banned representatives from Merck Pharmaceuticals from calling on our physicians in our clinics, which is a common marketing strategy,” said Ged Kinslea, communications director for AHF. “We are instituting this ban largely because of the egregious pricing policies for their key AIDS drug, Isentress.”

According to AHF, the annual cost of Isentress for a US patient is $12,870. In Africa, the drug costs “about $1,100 per patient, per year and that’s about 20 times more than other AIDS drugs in Africa,” said Kinslea.

“The drug is a good drug, it has fewer side effects, but it is the single most expensive first-line antiretroviral treatment for AIDS available in the United States and the developing world,” Kinslea noted.

Isentress was approved for sale on the US market in 2007 as a salvage - or second-line - therapy, for patients for whom other drugs have failed or those who have sought medical care in the late stages of the disease, said AHF. The Food and Drug Administration approved it last year as a first-line AIDS treatment, “but the pricing remains at the expensive, salvage-therapy price,” said Kinslea.

In a statement, Merck called AHF’s accusations false and said it has priced Isentress “responsibly after consultation with respected leaders in the HIV community.”

More News Across the Nation
 

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