Public/Global Health

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.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is stepping up oversight of the cantaloupe industry following a pair of illness outbreaks linked to more than 400 illnesses and three dozen deaths.

In a letter issued this week to industry groups, FDA announced plans to initiate inspections at packinghouses during the 2013 growing season.

“The aim of these inspections is in part, to assess the current practices by this segment of the produce industry and to identify insanitary conditions that may affect the safety of cantaloupe destined for distribution to consumers,” wrote Michael Landa, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

The United States must maintain its investments in global health despite the threat of sequestration and calls for deficit reduction, advocates said Tuesday.

A coalition of global health nonprofit organizations said U.S. funding has spurred a marked increase in the number of global health products over the last ten years.

These developments place the movement at a critical point, particularly as U.S. policymakers face a variety of fiscal deadlines, the advocates said in a new report.

Looming federal budget cuts will force 900,000 community health center patients into emergency rooms, advocates for the centers said Friday.

The cuts, known as budget "sequestration," are likely to hit March 1 as the White House remains at an impasse with congressional Republicans.

The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) said the sequester could disrupt or eliminate community healthcare for patients with few options apart from emergency rooms.