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Enormous Increase In NHS Spending On Management Consultants, UK
The amount of money PCTs (primary care trusts) are spending on management consultants has risen enormously, according to Pulse. In comparison to two years ago, the amount PCTs spend during the last financial year on external consultancy fees has risen threefold, according to figures compiled from 62 trusts.

Infection Prevention Text Updated, Improved - The APIC Text Of Infection Control And Epidemiology
More than 300 infection prevention experts have completed a text that serves as one of the most valuable tools for infection preventionists throughout the world, the APIC Text of Infection Control and Epidemiology. The 1,700-page document, now in its 3rd edition, has been completely revised and is now available, offering a concise information re containing more than 120 expanded and enhanced chapters.
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White House Budget Chief Says Issue Of Abortion Coverage In Health Reform Still Under Debate
In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said that he is "not prepared to say explicitly" whether health care reform legislation would prohibit the use of federal tax revenue to fund abortion coverage, the New York Times reports. Orszag"s statement came in reply to a question asking whether he was prepared to say that "no taxpayer money will go to pay for abortions." Orszag said, "It"s obviously a controversial issue, and it"s one of the questions that is playing out in the debate" (Pear/Liptak, New York Times, 7/20).Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who also appeared on "Fox News Sunday," said, "No matter what your views are on abortion, you shouldn"t ask people to use their tax dollars if they think that abortion is taking a life." Gregg added, "I would hate to see the health care debate go down over that issue. We do really need health care reform, and it has to be substantive. ... So hopefully we won"t get ourselves wrapped around the wheel of abortion in this debate" (FoxNews.com, 7/19). According to the Times, there is an ongoing behind-the-scenes debate over handling abortion coverage in health overhaul legislation. The debate affects both the public insurance plan the legislation would create and private insurers, who would receive tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies to expand coverage for low- and moderate-income U.S. residents. A provision in the House health reform bill (HR 3200) calls for a federal advisory committee to advise the HHS secretary on an "essential benefits package" that most insurers would be required to provide. Abortion-rights opponents want abortion coverage excluded from the package, while abortion-rights advocates say the decision should be left to medical professionals. House committees working on health reform legislation have rejected Republican amendments that would have restricted abortion coverage. The Hyde Amendment, first enacted in 1976, prohibits the use of federal Medicaid money for abortion services. However, abortion-rights opponents argue that federally subsidized coverage of the uninsured would not be subject to the existing restrictions. The National Right to Life Committee issued an analysis of the House bill, stating, "There is no doubt that coverage of abortion will be mandated, unless Congress explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of federal authority to define "essential benefits."" According to the group, even if the HHS secretary did not require abortion coverage, "federal courts would interpret the broadly worded mandatory categories of coverage to include abortion" (New York Times, 7/20).
Oncology

National Survey Looks At HIV/AIDS In South Africa

According to the results of a national survey conducted in 2008 and released Tuesday, HIV prevalence among South Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 dropped from "a high of 10.3 percent in 2005 to 8.7 percent last year, with the decreases most marked among teenagers," AFP/Google.com reports (AFP/Google.com, 6/9). The Telegraph writes, "HIV prevalence in children between 2 and 14 fell from 5.6 per cent in 2002 to 2.5 per cent last year, mainly thanks to the spread of drugs to prevent women passing on the virus to their children" (Telegraph, 6/10). The study also revealed that while youth are continuing to have multiple sex partners, "they are increasingly heeding advice to use a condom," according to the AP/Google.com (Nullis, AP/Google.com, 6/9). Rates of condom use among males between the ages of 15 and 24 rose from 57 percent in 2002 to 87 percent in 2008, and from 46 to 73 percent among females, according to Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Chief Executive Officer Olive Shisana, SAPA/The Times reports (SAPA/The Times, 6/9). "The survey showed that messages that young people should abstain, delay their first sexual encounter and have only one partner, were falling largely on deaf ears," the AP/Google.com writes (AP/Google.com, 6/9). "The good news is that the change in HIV prevalence in children is most likely attributable to the successful implementation of several HIV-prevention interventions," Shisana said (BBC, 6/9). "There is clearly light at the end of the tunnel," said South Africa"s Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, adding, "I am hoping that in the next few years the results will be much more encouraging than this" (Telegraph, 6/10). South Africa"s overall HIV epidemic has stabilized at a prevalence rate of 10.9 percent for people aged two years and older (BBC, 6/9). IRIN reports, "The findings, based on interviews with about 21,000 individuals, 15,000 of whom agreed to anonymous HIV tests, give a fairly detailed picture of South Africa"s mixed success in fighting the largest HIV epidemic in the world" (IRIN, 6/9). AFP/Google.com writes that South Africa"s "situation remains grim" with 5.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS (AFP/Google.com, 6/9). According to VOA News, one in three women living in South Africa between the ages of 25 and 29 are HIV positive (VOA News, 6/9). According to SAPA/The Times, the survey looked at the reach of some HIV/AIDS programs in the country and found that the government program Khomanani "had the lowest reach compared to other programmes such as Soul City and loveLife" (SAPA/The Times, 6/9). The research was conduced by HSRC, Medical Research Council of South Africa, Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation, and National Institute for Communicable Diseases and funded by PEPFAR (HSRC press release, 6/9). 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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