Public/Global Health

The Senate reauthorized federal research and intervention activities on premature births in a voice vote Thursday night.

The PREEMIE Reauthorization Act continues programs established by the 2006 bill, which made the study and prevention of premature births an explicit federal priority.

"The PREEMIE Reauthorization Act will save infants’ lives," said Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes, in a statement. 

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is planning a hearing later this month on rising autism rates and the federal government's response.

Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) requested a meeting with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss their concerns about energy drinks.

The request for a meeting with FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg came after the FDA received reports of 18 adverse events and deaths following the consumption of 5-Hour Energy and Monster energy drinks.

The Obama administration is urging students to learn the history of U.S.-backed medical experiments in Guatemala, which deliberately exposed patients to sexually-transmitted diseases.

Smoking bans have exploded in large U.S. cities over the last decade, according to a review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Laws that prohibit smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces now exist in 30 of the 50 largest U.S. cities, up from one such ban in 2000, the CDC found.

The trend echoes an overall decline in smoking among Americans, and points to the failure of business interests that have fought bans, arguing they turn away customers from bars and restaurants. 

Doctors in the United States were more likely to report problems with the country's healthcare system than were their international peers in a new 2012 survey.

The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research foundation, found that just 15 percent of U.S. primary-care physicians say the healthcare system works well and only needs minor changes.

Doctors in nine other developed countries reported higher satisfaction, meanwhile, with 61 percent in Norway, 54 percent in the Netherlands and 37 percent in France saying the healthcare system works well. Closest to the United States was Germany, with only 22 percent of doctors saying their system does not need major changes.

A broad coalition of states agreed Monday to fight cigarette smuggling by requiring manufacturers to be licensed and tobacco products to be trackable.

The agreement came after more than five years of negotiations between parties to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

It will not apply to the United States, however, because U.S. officials have not ratified the larger framework. 

A drug compounder linked to the firm behind a national outbreak of meningitis has cut 90 percent of its staff.

Ameridose is a sister company of the New England Compounding Center (NECC), whose tainted steroid injections appear to be responsible for 32 deaths in 19 states.

Both firms have recalled their products, while the NECC also shuttered amid a range of investigations. Ameridose said its layoffs — expected to hit at least 650 employees — were a response to federal and state probes that have shut down operations temporarily. 

A coalition of groups is launching a campaign to emphasize federal funding for medical research ahead of negotiations on the "fiscal cliff."

Research!America and several dozen patient, industry and other health organizations have planned a week of advocacy starting Monday to convince lawmakers to "champion medical innovation."

"With so much at stake, research advocates must join forces to fight for lifesaving research, which is also a fight for American innovation and American jobs," said Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America, in a statement.

San Francisco is slated to become the first U.S. city to offer sex-reassignment surgeries to transgender residents who are uninsured.

The move responds to transgender advocates who say the hormones and counseling now offered under the city's universal health plan are not enough for people who suffer from a disparity between their bodies and their gender identities.