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UBC Researchers Develop New Method To Study Gambling Addictions
UBC researchers have created the world"s first animal laboratory experiment to successfully model human gambling. The advance will help scientists develop and test new treatments for gambling addictions, a devastating condition that affects millions worldwide.
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MedImmune Funds Study To Help Gain Insights Into Full Burden Of RSV Disease Among Premature Infants
MedImmune continues to advance its commitment to pediatric research with today"s announcement of the first observational prospective study designed to assess the burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) among preterm infants 32-to-35 weeks gestational age (GA) in outpatient settings during their first year of life.
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Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries
"Blog Watch" offers readers a roundup of health policy-related blog posts.Appropriately, the last of the Senate Finance Committee"s three major public roundtables on health reform issues was on finance. Keith Hennessy lauds economist Kate Baicker"s testimony (.pdf) and says it helps connect reform ideas to a system of third-party payment. Hennessy says the current system leads people to "spend more of other people"s money than they do of their own, and less wisely." Hennessy explores the example of employer-sponsored insurance, which he says makes health insurance appear less expensive to employees than it is.Meanwhile, the New Republic"s Jonathan Cohn, who has been calling attention to potential ways of financing the significant cost of reform, recommends the testimony of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities President Robert Greenstein. Greenstein testified that there are no "painless" ways of raising money for reform, and said, "This leads to my first recommendation, in the form of a plea to the Committee. Please do not take any offset options off the table at this time. I believe you ultimately will need to put together a package that contains an array of spending and revenue offsets." Offsets could include removing or limiting the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored insurance. Bob Lazsewski strenuously disagrees. He illustrates a post titled "Paying for a Big Part of Health Care Reform With New Taxes Would Be a Terrible Mistake!" with a graph of the trends in health insurance premiums over the last 20 years and says, "paying for most of health care reform by raising taxes would be nothing less than cowardly and fiscally irresponsible." He continues, "the Congress is so desperate to find money and so unwilling to anger any powerful health care special interests we better get ready for some interesting rationalizations to promote tax increases in the place of fundamental reforms."After the hearing, ranking member Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) gave a presentation at the Heritage Foundation on his preferences for bipartisan reform legislation and the Foundry"s Marguerite Higgins blogged Enzi"s key points. She says the senator wants to increase affordability, use private plans for coverage and ensure a bill is fully paid for.The White House appears to be initiating additional outreach efforts to mobilize support. Jose Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post"s Daily Dose reports that President Obama"s administration chose to send its first WhiteHouse.gov e-mail on health reform Wednesday. Vargas says, "It"s only fitting that Obama"s first official e-mail from the White House is about health care reform. As early as December, the incoming Obama administration began using new media tools to build grassroots support around the issue."Interesting elsewhere:
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Economist Examines 'Snail-Fever' In China

The Economist examines schistosomiasis in China. The disease, which is also called snail-fever, is the "world"s second-most prevalent tropical disease after malaria, affecting 207 million people of whom 726,000 are Chinese, according to the most recent official figures, from 2004," the Economist reports. Although "Chairman Mao" ordered a "fierce, if rudimentary, campaign in the late 1950s when cases neared 12 millioṇ€¦ subsequent efforts to eradicate the disease failed, despite the arrival in the 1980s of Praziquantel, a drug scientists say is highly effective in controlling the disease but fails to prevent reinfection," the magazine writes. However, earlier this year Chinese researchers said they had reduced infection rates to less than 1 percent in two villages by improving sanitation and using tractors instead of water buffaloes, a parasite host. According to the Economist, "Nine-tenths of the world"s schistosomiasis sufferers live in Africa and studies have shown the disease leaves sufferers more susceptible to HIV infection." China has the potential to take a lead in addressing the disease in Asia and Africa, but first it must get to the bottom of its own problems in tackling the disease, experts say. Some of the challenges of dealing with schistosomiasis in China include: ignorance about the disease and treatment. The Economist writes, "Some people refuse to take Praziquantel because they believing it will hamper their ability to work. Students and migrant workers often miss their chance of treatment. Villagers also rail against the government policy of using molluscides to kill the snails. They pay workers not to scatter the powder in the water as it depletes shrimp stocks and endangers eel farms." In addition, "Deeper flaws are emerging," which include the high costs of tractors, the effect of the economic slowdown on migrant workers and "the impact of that emblem of controversy, the Three Gorges Dam," the Economist writes, adding that scientists are concerned that changes in water levels along the Yangzi river could create new snail habitats in areas where the disease did not exist previously. In the long term, experts say the solution is to find a vaccine (Economist, 6/18). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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