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WHO Recommends Global Use Of Rotavirus Vaccines
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that rotavirus vaccination be included in all national immunization programmes in order to provide protection against a virus that is responsible for more than 500,000 diarrheal deaths and two million hospitalizations annually among children. More than 85 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia. This new policy will help ensure access to rotavirus vaccines in the world"s poorest countries.
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Clinton Heads To Kenya As Africa Visit Begins
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off a seven country, 11-day trip - "her longest overseas journey to date as the top U.S. diplomat - by flying Monday night to Kenya where she will address an African trade and development forum, meet top Kenyan officials and see the beleaguered president of lawless Somalia"s interim government," the Associated Press reports. During the trip, Clinton is expected to "underscore the importance of efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and pledge continuing U.S. backing for health care initiatives in Africa," the AP writes (Lee, 8/3).
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Des Moines Register Examines Planned Parenthood Of Greater Iowa 75 Years After Founding
The Des Moines Register on Friday profiled Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, which marks its 75th anniversary this year. Established in 1934 as the Iowa Maternal Health League, PPGI now includes 17 clinics offering a range of reproductive health services, as well as an education and re center. The organization originally was founded by four women with a mission of providing birth control for low-income married women. Over the years, it frequently "has been on the forefront of advances in reproductive history," according to the Register. For example, in the early 1960s, PPGI became the first provider in the Midwest to offer the oral contraceptive Ortho-Novum, leading to a more than 350% increase in its number of patients.Although antiabortion-rights advocates often discuss Planned Parenthood in relation to abortion services, the vast majority of its services are not abortion-related. Jill June, president and CEO of PPGI, said that although the organization"s services have greatly expanded since its founding, the "needs people have for the services we provide and the challenges we face in meeting those needs haven"t changed." She added, "People still face unintended pregnancies despite great technological advances in birth control and efforts to make contraception more available and to normalize contraception use" (Challender, Des Moines Register, 5/22).
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Americans Living With No Insurance, Or Less Insurance, During Recession

Decisions about forgoing care because of the cost for the long-term uninsured have been a way of life, "but for a sizable group, being without a job and insurance is a new, deeply distressing condition," The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. "About half of those are the long-term uninsured, including those with jobs that simply don"t offer insurance, said Len Nichols, a health economist who directs the health policy program for the New America Foundation. "They"re literally an underclass." The number of Americans who went through 2008 without insurance probably won"t be available until August or September, but Nichols estimated that the 45.7 million figure has now risen "well into the 50s."" ""I would say in general, I"ve seen a huge number of people who have lost their medical insurance who are not coming in for a lot of conditions they would have in the past," said Fred DeBoe, a family doctor for 26 years who works with the Aurora Medical Group. ò€¦ The pressure of trying to survive without insurance or with high co-pays and deductibles appears to be affecting a great variety of health care decisions, changing the behaviors of both blue- and white-collar workers" (Johnson, 7/19). In Canada, everyone is insured, but they have higher taxes, the St. Petersburg Times reports: "Canadians pay higher sales taxes - 13 percent in Ontario compared with 7 percent in Tampa - but all 33 million are entitled to hospital and physician services at government expense. No Canadian ever goes bankrupt because of medical bills. Across the border, where Americans are declaring bankruptcy in near-record numbers, 62 percent of filings are at least partly because of health care costs. Some 46 million have no insurance. Millions more are underinsured. And while the United States spends more per person on health care than any other country, Americans aren"t even the world"s healthiest. Canadians, Britons and residents of 27 other nations all live longer." "Canadians freely admit that their system is not perfect, citing shortages of doctors in many places, often long waits for elective procedures like cataract surgery, too few nursing homes so the elderly often stay in hospitals far longer than they should, tying up beds. But Canadians say that everyone who needs care gets it. And they say their single-payer system - doctors bill one payer, the government - is inherently more efficient than the U.S. system, in which payment might come from Medicare, Medicaid or countless private insurance plans, none of which cover exactly the same services or pay exactly the same amounts" (Taylor Martin, 7/19). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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