Public/Global Health

The federal government is buying 2 million doses of a smallpox medicine to have in reserve in case of a bioterrorist attack, according to a report.

The antiviral drug Arestvyr costs the government more than $200 for each course of treatment, a price some have criticized as too high. Following Sept. 11, when officials discussed amassing smallpox medicine, the price was expected to be $5 or $10 per course, The New York Times reported.

Smallpox has not been a global health threat since the 1970s, but some worry that laboratory strains could be imitated or stolen by terrorists. 

A trade group for pharmacies is pushing back on calls for more federal regulations after a “60 Minutes” report on a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) on Monday said there are already “adequate” regulations in place to protect consumers who visit small-batch pharmacies that mix custom prescriptions.

The group said the New England Compounding Center (NECC), which manufactured hundreds of injectable pain medications contaminated with fungal meningitis, is a “rogue entity.” B. Douglas Hoey, the chief executive of the NCPA, said the company passed itself off as a compound pharmacy while producing drugs en masse.

“As a country, we must strike the right balance to go after rogue entities like NECC while preserving patients’ access to the safe and essential compounded medications that their physicians prescribe,” Hoey said, pledging that the organization would “continue to work with health officials” on the issue.

A judge called the ban "arbitrary and capricious," halting it a day before it went into effect.

The House on Monday evening passed legislation that would reauthorize several programs meant to help develop medical countermeasures and take other steps to prepare for public health emergencies and biohazards, including possible terrorist attacks.

Members approved H.R. 307, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act, in a 370-28 vote. All of of the "no" votes came from Republicans.

Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) proposes a five-year federal "risk avoidance education" grant program to stop premarital sex. 

Cancer patients and survivors are calling on Congress to restore medical research funds that will be cut under sequestration, the automatic federal budget cuts that hit Friday.

The reduction in funding will disrupt or end important scientific efforts to understand cancer and cut screenings for vulnerable patients, the American Cancer Society's advocacy arm (ACS CAN) said Monday.

"Sequestration is a mindless cut with the potential to seriously impact progress in the detection and treatment of the deadliest cancers," said ACS CAN CEO John Seffrin in a statement. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers to be on the lookout for fraudulent drugs promising a “miracle cure” for weight loss or sexual performance.

The world's oldest association of public-health workers is warning the sequestration cuts that hit Friday will threaten the well-being of the United States.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) released a statement Friday expressing "grave concerns" about the across-the-board budget cuts that resulted from Washington's inability to reach a long-term deficit-reduction deal.

"Sequester means 424,000 fewer HIV tests conducted by CDC's health department grantees, 7,400 fewer patients having access to HRSA's AIDS Drug Assistance Program that provides life-saving HIV medications and about 25,000 fewer breast and cervical cancer screenings for poor, high-risk women," APHA executive director Georges Benjamin said. 

Model Christy Turlington Burns traded the catwalk for Capitol Hill on Thursday as she pushed for high quality maternal and child healthcare while meeting with Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.).

Turlington Burns, the former face of Calvin Klein, is the founder of Every Mother Counts, which works to end preventable deaths caused by pregnancy and childbirth. 

The five-year expansion of the program will have Obama involved with anti-obesity issues long after she leaves the White House.