ACA Repeal Would Mean Massive Cuts To Public Health, Leaving Cities And States At Risk
When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed a little over six years ago, it brought with it the promise of health insurance for all Americans. It also sought to begin to shift the paradigm for health care in this country, emphasizing value over volume, and recognizing the importance of prevention coupled with appropriate access to care.
By now, it is well known that repealing the ACA could leave nearly 20 million Americans uninsured and simultaneously result in millions of job losses across the country. An associated cost that has been less discussed, but no less relevant, is what repeal could mean for the nation’s alr...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 7, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Chrissie Juliano Tags: Costs and Spending Following the ACA Public Health Big Cities Health Coalition Community Health Prevention and Public Health Fund. Source Type: blogs
A virus that controls reproduction
The obligate intracellular bacteria Wolbachia (pictured), which infects 40% of arthropods, can manipulate its host to ensure its maintenance in the population. An example is cytoplasmic incompatibility, which occurs when infected males mate with uninfected females, and causes embryonic lethality (mating with an infected female produces viable offspring). Two Wolbachia genes responsible for this phenotype have been identified, and they are viral (link to paper).
A comparison of genome sequences of different Wolbachia strains that do or do not cause cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) revealed two genes that were candidates f...
Source: virology blog - March 3, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information arthropod bacteriophage cytoplasmic incompatibility lysogen prophage viral virus WO wolbachia Source Type: blogs
TWiV 430: The persistence of herpesvirus
The TWiX cabal discuss sexual transmission of Zika virus in mice, and how immune escape enables herpes simplex virus escape from latency.
You can find TWiV #430 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below.
Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 430 (63 MB .mp3, 104 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email
Become a patron of TWiV! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - February 26, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology chromatin herpes simplex virus immune escape interferon latency methyl-phospho switch persistence sexual transmission viral viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
The Public Health Enemy at the Gate
By ARTHUR CAPLAN
President Donald Trump keeps getting kicked around in court when challenges are brought against his ban on travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations. Trump says he wants to halt the flow of people who might be planning attacks. What we cannot forget is that the kind of attack he has in mind is not confined to bombs and shootings. Trump is terrified that immigrants bring diseases with them. If racism fails, public health will likely afford Trump the rationale he seeks for making it difficult for those he does not like to enter our country.
The president is a self-described germaphobe. He has doubts a...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 19, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Art Caplan Ebola Pandemic Zika Source Type: blogs
TWiV 429: Zika Experimental Science Team
Vincent meets with members of team ZEST at the University of Wisconsin Madison to discuss their macaque model for Zika virus pathogenesis.
You can find TWiV #429 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen/watch right here.
Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 429 (48 MB .mp3, 78 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email
Become a patron of TWiV! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - February 19, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology macaque microcephaly mosquito pathogenesis rhesus sexual transmission viral virus viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
Viral RNA is not infectious virus!
A study of sexual transmission of Zika virus among mice (link to paper) demonstrates beautifully that viral nucleic acid detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is not the same as infectious virus.
Male mice were infected with Zika virus and then mated with female mice. Efficient sexual transmission of the virus from males to females was observed. This observation in itself is very interesting but is not the focus of my comments.
To understand the dynamics of sexual transmission, the authors measured Zika virus shedding in seminal fluid – by both PCR, to detect viral RNA, and by plaque assay, to detect infec...
Source: virology blog - February 17, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information PCR plaque assay semen sexual transmission viral viral infectivity viral RNA virus viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
What Three Decades Of Pandemic Threats Can Teach Us About The Future
Editor’s Note: This post reflects on a speech on pandemic preparedness Dr. Fauci gave on January 10, 2017 in Washington, DC, hosted by The Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, the Harvard Global Health Institute, and Health Affairs.
One of the most important challenges facing the new Administration is preparedness for the pandemic outbreak of an infectious disease. Infectious diseases will continue to pose a significant threat to public health and the economies of countries worldwide. The U.S. government will need to continue its investment to combat these diseases whe...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 9, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Anthony S. Fauci Tags: Featured Global Health Policy Ebola HIV/AIDS NIH pandemic preparedness Zika Source Type: blogs
Global impact
Sorry for the absence. Frankly, I ' ve felt that writing about quotidian subjects is somehow futile or beside the point. Truth and logic no longer matter in the making of policy. But, I suppose life must go on.We Americans are often too self-obsessed and don ' t bother to know or understand much about the rest of the world. On the other hand, the U.S. does matter, a lot. Reading the new BMJ (British Medical Journal) illustrates the point. It ' s as much about the U.S. as it is about Britain.For example, there ' sTravel ban threatens medical research and access to care in the US, medical groups warn. This tells the story of...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 7, 2017 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
What Experts in Law and Medicine Have to Say About the Cost of Drugs
By ANDY ORAM
Pharmaceutical drug costs impinge heavily on consumers’ consciousness, often on a monthly basis, and have become such a stress on the public that they came up repeatedly among both major parties during the U.S. presidential campaign–and remain a bipartisan rallying cry. A good deal of the recent conference named Health Law Year in P/Review, at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, covered issues with a bearing on drug costs. It’s interesting to take the academic expertise from that conference–and combine it with a bit of commo...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 2, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Andy Oram Drug Pricing Pharma Source Type: blogs
TWiV 426: I ’ m Axl, and I ’ ll be your cervid today
The sages of TWiV explain how chronic wasting disease of cervids could be caused by spontaneous misfolding of prion protein, and the role of the membrane protein Axl in Zika virus entry into cells.
You can find TWiV #426 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below.
Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 426 (66 MB .mp3, 110 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email
Become a patron of TWiV! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - January 29, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology AXL cervid chronic wasting disease Gas6 innate immunity interferon PMCA prion protein misfolding SOCS-1 viral virus virus entry virus receptor viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
December blogs digest: the health benefits of nuts, sequencing the Iberian lynx genome, the importance of pets and more
How can we measure health behavior theories mathematically?
William Riley looks at whether Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) could be expressed mathematically. He reports on his article published in Translational Behavioral Medicine in which he and co-authors developed a dynamic computational model for SCT.
Magnesium deficiency and its multiple health outcomes
Getting enough magnesium in your diet? A study published in BMC Medicine last month found that increased dietary magnesium is associated with a reduced risk of heart failure, stroke, diabetes, and all-cause mortality. The study was the largest of its kind to date, using ...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - January 6, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Davy Falkner Tags: Biology Health Medicine Open Access blogs digest Source Type: blogs
The Best-Laid Plans For Health Care
Editor’s note: These issues and more will be discussed at the 5th Annual Health Law Year in P/Review conference, to be held on January 23, 2017, at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Conference presenters will participate in a blog series to follow here on Health Affairs Blog. Stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check out last year’s Health Law Year in P/Review blog series here.
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” This phrase, adapted from the 1785 Robert Burns Poem “To a Mouse” and made as the source of the title o...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - January 5, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: I. Glenn Cohen Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Following the ACA Health Policy Lab Organization and Delivery Payment Policy Public Health 21st Century Cures Act Supreme Court The Health Law Year in P/Review Source Type: blogs
Areas to watch in 2017
Science23 Dec 2016 : 1524Science's picks for Areas to watch in 2017 are human embryo research, Zika vaccine trials, the search for Planet Nine, and the impacts on research of the U.S. election and "Brexit" vote. (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 2, 2017 Category: Chemistry Tags: news Source Type: blogs
TWiV 422: Watching the icosahedron drop
The TWiVestigators wrap up 2016 with a discussion of the year’s ten compelling virology stories.
You can find TWiV #422 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below.
Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 422 (71 MB .mp3, 117 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email
Become a patron of TWiV! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - January 1, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology 2016 in review animal model ebolavirus evolution Harold Varmus mosquito mutualism vaccine vector viral viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
Happy New Year!
As I sit to write this blog, 2016 is nearing its end. It seems like many people are quite happy about this prospect. I must admit, the year became rather wearying at points with all of its ups and downs. I took a few moments to reflect upon my blogs from the past year. Zika, physician-assisted death, and pharmaceutical prices were some of things I... // Read More » (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - January 1, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Neil Skjoldal Tags: Health Care bioethics human dignity syndicated Source Type: blogs
