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2005 Medicaid and Medicare Cutbacks |
Federal
legislation & state responses to Hurricanes Katrina & Rita were
still pending on 9/30 & aren’t addressed in this issue.
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2001-04—State Medicaid Eligibility Cutbacks & Exclusions-Proposed &
Recently-Enacted |
During 2001-2004, many states lowered income eligibility levels,
raised copays and premiums, frozen new enrollments or adopted
other red tape barriers to coverage for the State Children's Health
Insurance (S-CHIP) program. In fact, AL, CO, FL, MD, MA, MT,
TX, UT and other states at least temporarily froze new CHIP
enrollments and CA’s Governor once suggested doing so too.
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2005 State Medicaid
Eligibility Cutbacks: Proposed & Recently-Enacted |
July 5, 2005
Report on the changes in the eligibility cutbacks that are
occurring within the US |
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A CONSUMER’S GUIDE TO HEALTH INSURANCE |
This booklet,
developed by the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance,
Securities and Health Care Administration, helps you understand
health insurance and how it works. It explains the different types
of insurance policies available to you and what to expect once you
have health insurance. With a little knowledge, you can choose the
right kind of coverage for you and your family. |
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Action Planning Handbook for States and Communities-Comprehensive
and Integrated Chronic Disease Prevention |
The Handbook is
intended to provide tools for health departments to use in assessing
and identifying improvement strategies for their chronic disease
prevention efforts. Specifically, it is aimed at helping you to
find distinct opportunities for greater comprehensiveness and
integration within a health department’s existing chronic disease
prevention efforts. |
388 kb pdf |
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ADDRESSING HIV TESTING, INFORMED CONSENT AND COUNSELING |
In an effort to
reduce the number of people unaware of their positive status, and in
hope of preventing future transmissions by this population, the CDC
has developed a number of new recommendations to encourage and
increase HIV testing around the country. |
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Addressing the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: A U.S. Global AIDS Strategy for
the Long Term
|
This report
recognizes that PEPFAR is a historic and laudable initiative. But
the administration's plan is too near-term in orientation and too
narrow in scope to achieve its long-term objectives. This report
recommends that the United States adopt a longer-term and
broader-based strategy, addressing, in particular, the basic health
systems that developing countries need and the critical issues that
go beyond health delivery. While this strategy will require more
resources, it will be more likely to enable the United States to
reach its five-year goals for PEPFAR, and it will enhance the
ability of the United States to effect long-term, sustainable
progress against this and other diseases. |
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Administration Targets AIDS Prevention |
The Bush administration has pulled information about the
effectiveness of condoms from a government Web site and is engaged
in a "witch hunt" against those who promote condoms in the fight
against AIDS, several groups charged Monday. Health specialists
charge the administration's domestic AIDS policy has been hijacked
by far right conservatives |
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AIDS takes a
growing toll on Native Americans |
With AIDS
cases increasing in the most remote Native American outposts,
the isolated, insular nature of some of those communities may be
their downfall. Those who thought the isolation would protect
them, that the disease was only found in urban areas, now see it
cropping up in the smallest villages, far from the nearest
clinic, places where the lack of health care means people often
wait until they're very sick to get help. |
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bioterrorism-preparedness-report. |
GAO testimony on
BioTerrorism |
1,205 kb pdf |
|
Bipartisan Legislation to Combat AIDS |
A bipartisan coalition of House members, including the chairman and
ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee,
today introduced a comprehensive five-year response to the growing
worldwide threat from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis |
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Bush Administration "Breaks the Promise" by Expanding Global Gag
Rule to HIV Funding On Eve of World AIDS Day |
In a stealth
move intended to draw little public notice, the Bush Administration
has formally expanded the Global Gag Rule to U.S. global AIDS
funding under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR),
according to the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE). The
restrictions appear as part of a five-year, $193 million call for
proposals for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care in Kenya
released late Friday, November 18th by the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID). |
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Bush's Budget for 2005 Seeks to Rein In
Domestic Costs |
Facing a record
budget deficit, Bush administration officials say they have drafted
an election-year budget that will rein in the growth of domestic
spending without alienating politically influential constituencies. |
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Bush's Drive for global abstinence |
Standing before a hall packed with representatives from over 30
Asian countries, Dewey stated unequivocally that the U.S. would seek
to block the passage of any international family planning policy
that permits abortion or promotes contraception for adolescents.
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Bush Lies and Cuts Aids Funds Again |
One year has passed
since President Bush pledged $15 billion over five years to fight
global AIDS. So far, no funds have been disbursed to the new
bilateral program, and most of the details about program
implementation remain to be worked out |
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Bush Administration Medicaid/SCHIP Proposal |
With states facing their worst fiscal crisis since WORLD WAR II, THE
MEDICAID PROGRAM NOW IS IN A PERIODS OF SIGNIFICANT STRESS. |
55 kb pdf |
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Bush's Secret War |
Chronology of events since
reintroduction of the Global Gag Rule |
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Changes in Final Privacy Rules Welcome by Most Doctors and Hospitals |
Given the sweeping nature of the final privacy rule and its impact
on a physician's practice, compliance should be considered an
important part of the job responsibilities of at least 1 staff
person. |
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Crime, Punishment and the measurement of Poverty in the United
States, 1979-1997 |
Report on this
issue |
400 kb pdf
|
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Debt Management- Insights and Tools
|
Report from the GAO
|
289 kb pdf
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Disease Management: Findings from Leading State Programs |
Disease management programs are designed to contain costs
by improving health among the chronically ill. More than 20
states are now engaged in developing and implementing
Medicaid disease management programs for their primary
care case management and fee-for-service populations
|
378 kb pdf |
|
Federal HIV Testing
Initiatives Can Only Succeed with |
Expanding the
offer of voluntary HIV counseling and testing services in healthcare
settings is good public health policy. Routinely offered HIV testing
will help reachmore individuals who may be unaware of their
HIV-positive status as well as those who are HIV-negative but
engaging in high-risk behaviors. Encouraging individualsto learn
their status will help slow the spread of HIV and assist those who
are HIV positive live healthier, longer lives. |
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Frist Fans Public Fears of Avian Flu to Ram Through Sweeping
Liability Shield for the Drug Industry |
A proposal to
immunize the drug industry from legal accountability for death,
disability or sickness caused by the use of pandemic flu vaccines
and pharmaceuticals would be a gift to industry, but bad medicine
for consumers, Public Citizen said today. The organization’s
comments came after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)
renewed his call for passage of legislation, which is being tacked
on to a must-pass defense spending bill and has never been debated
or voted on in either the House or Senate. |
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Greybook |
Federal OSHA
Bloodborne Pathogen Directive-a resource primer |
509 kb pdf
|
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Global Infectious Disease Threat & Its implications |
CIA report on
infectious diseases |
2,517 kb pdf |
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Guidebook for Resettlement Agencies serving refugees with HIV/AIDS
|
The purpose of the
publication is to assist resettlement agencies in preparing for and
providing care to refugees who are living with HIV/AIDS |
69 kb pdf
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Guideline for National HIV Case Surveillance |
CDC recommends that all states and territories conduct case
surveillance for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection as an
extension of current acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
surveillance activities. The expansion of national surveillance to
include both HIV infection and AIDS cases is a necessary response to the
impact of advances in antiretroviral therapy, the implementation of new
HIV treatment guidelines, and the increased need for epidemiologic data
regarding persons at all stages of HIV disease. |
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HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN AMERICAN
ELDER |
There are many
cross-cutting health risks in the Southeast Asian communities. The
largest amount of empirical research deals with mental health issues and
acute or infectious health conditions. More recently, concerns have
shifted to a discussion of chronic health concerns and risk factors for
cancer, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and diabetes conditions. There
are no national data on health status of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong
and Laotians in the U.S. Most of what we currently know about health
status in these Asian groups comes from smaller studies, state or local
statistics |
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Health Insurance Coverage-2001 |
Reversing two years of falling uninsured rates, the share of the
population without health insurance rose in 2001. An estimated
14.6 percent of the population or 41.2 million people were
without health insurance coverage during the entire year in 2001,
up from 14.2 percent in 2000, an increase of 1.4 million people
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Hepatitis Legislation
|
Proposed Bill for
Hepatitis C Virus awareness |
54 kb pdf
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High Court Declines HIV Disability Case |
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a case brought by
a Georgia dental hygienist who was demoted when his employer
discovered he was HIV-positive. |
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HIPAA Nondiscrimination Requirements
|
Rules for
implementing the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act’s |
50 kb pdf
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HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report |
Tables and Graphs
for this report are included |
2,565 kb pdf
|
|
Human Capital-selected agency actions to integrate Human Capital
approaches to Attain Results |
Successful
strategic human capital management requires the integration of human
capital approaches with strategies for accomplishing organizational
missions and program goals. |
438 kb pdf
|
|
Improving State Law to Prevent and Treat Infectious Disease |
This study
surveys communicable disease statutes in 50 states and two U.S.
territories, examines and evaluates the current state of the law,
and proposes practical, cost-effective reforms to improve public
health responses to infectious disease…Infectious disease law in the
United States has been passed piecemeal, in response to specific
disease threats. This body of law consists of three broad, and often
overlapping, types of statutes: sexually transmitted disease laws,
communicable disease laws, and disease-specific statutes. Most
states have enacted laws under each category, leading to a patchwork
of laws, standards, and procedures within and among the states. |
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Letter from the Surgeon General |
In recognition of
these challenges, promoting responsible sexual behavior is included
among the Surgeon General's Public Health Priorities and is also one
of the Healthy People 2010 Ten Leading Health Indicators for
the Nation. While it is important to acknowledge the many positive
aspects of sexuality, we also need to understand that there are
undesirable consequences as well -- alarmingly high levels of
sexually transmitted disease (STD) and HIV/AIDS infection,
unintended pregnancy, abortion, sexual dysfunction, and sexual
violence. |
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Lifetime Earnings, Social Security Benefits, and the Adequacy of
Retirement Wealth Accumulation |
An important
caveat to our results is that the distributions of observed and
simulated wealth outcomes are compared, but optimal wealth values
cannot be derived for individual households. |
101 kb pdf |
|
Local Government-AIDS Brief
|
Government at all
levels has a critical role to play in responding to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic |
431 kb pdf
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Medicaid |
GAO report
|
323 kb pdf
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Medicare |
GAO report
|
303 kb pdf
|
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Medicare Gaps and Widow Poverty |
There have been
tremendous improvements in the economic status of the elderly during
the past 50 years. The old-age poverty rate is less than one-third
of what it was in the middle of the 20th century. Yet
despite these declines, poverty rates among selected groups remain
high. |
99 kb pdf |
|
NASTAD-Focus on Spousal & Partner Notification |
The provision
requires that states take ‘administrative or legislative action to
require that a good faith effort be made to notify a spouse of a
known HIV-infected patient that such spouse may have been exposed to
the human immunodeficiency virus and should seek testing |
Pdf 52 kb |
|
National Health Interview Surveys 9-2001 |
Report gives data
on the National Health |
974 kb pdf |
|
Native Americans lose out on AIDS funds |
Many cases
are not counted because of racial misidentification, lack of
testing in rural areas with few clinics, concerns about privacy
in the Indian Health Service and denial in communities where
religious stigma has replaced traditional acceptance. |
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Neglected Diseases and Poverty in “The Other America”: The Greatest
Health Disparity in the United States? |
To be
sure, the other America is not impoverished in the same sense as
those poor nations where millions cling to hunger as a defense
against starvation. This country has escaped such extremes. That
does not change the fact that tens of millions of Americans are, at
this very moment, maimed in body and spirit, existing at levels
beneath those necessary for human decency…They are without adequate
housing and education and medical care. |
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New Bill would force Disclosure of HIV Status |
Republican Rep. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is seeking support for a bill
that would require states to alert people to possible contacts with
HIV-infected partners.
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Physical Infrastructure
|
GAO report on
crosscutting issues planning conference Report |
2,648 kb pdf
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Pregnant Drug Users: Scapegoats of the Reagan/Bush and Clinton Era
Economics |
For pregnant
drug users with limited means, these funding decisions created
barriers and denied access to cost effective services that would
enable them to improve their lives. As a result, they were forced to
find alternative resources and to construct survival strategies. The
women we interviewed reported drug use helped them overcome some of
the adversities in their daily lives. It was sometimes a source of
income and usually a source of solace and recreation. Although drug
use helped interviewees survive on a day-to-day basis, in the long
term, women faced severe consequences. In a political context of
social welfare reform, our interviewees' ability to care for
themselves and their children was extremely compromised |
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Present Budget under-funds AIDS projects |
President Bush
today proposed a total of $2.7
billion for programs to fight global AIDS, TB and Malaria in 2005.
Just 7% ($200 million) of the total would go to the Global Fund, a
partnership headed by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services,
Tommy Thompson. The amount for the Fund represents a 63% cut in
funding compared to 2004 ($550 million). |
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President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief |
The Annual Program
Statement (APS) solicits applications from prospective partners to
expand activities in support of abstinence-until-marriage, fidelity
in marriage and monogamous relationships, and avoidance of unhealthy
sexual behaviors among youth aged 10-24. This program will
contribute to the goal of preventing seven million new HIV
infections under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
|
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Project to reduce the Incidence of STI/HIV Among Border Youth |
The purpose of the year-long project was to reduce the incidence of
STI/HIV among border street youth by developing collaborative prevention
strategies. |
|
|
Recommendations for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis C Infection
and Hepatitis C Virus-related Chronic Disease
|
Report from CDC on
Hepatitis C Virus |
490 kb pdf
|
|
Ryan White Care Act |
Complete act with
amendment of 1996 |
143 kb pdf
|
|
STALKING A FURTIVE KILLER: A REVIEW OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S
EFFORTS TO COMBAT HEPATITIS C (Large
report-increase download time) |
Today, we will
hear from NIH whether it’s reasonable to expect availability of a
hepatitis C vaccine in the near future. Pharmaceutical treatments
are available but only successful about 50 percent of the time under
ideal conditions. They are also attended by side effects, sometimes
so devastating they often are not an option for many patients with
hepatitis C infection. Second, infection with hepatitis C virus
generally carries no symptoms but gradually damages the liver over
the course of many years or even decades. It’s discovered only after
a patient exhibits signs of serious liver disease, such as cirrhosis
or liver cancer. Since the virus lasts for such a long period of
time, it is possible for infected persons to disassociate or even
forget about long-ago instances of drug use or other high-risk
behavior. Thus, the individual doesn’t address their own illness,
nor do they take steps to stem the spread of the virus to others. A
final obstacle is that hepatitis C, while a serious public health
issue, remains relatively unknown to the general public. Those
affected often come from marginalized populations, intravenous drug
users and prisoners, for example, lacking the political organization
to effectively raise public awareness about the disease. |
Pdf 6152 kb |
|
State Medicaid Eligibility Cutbacks & Exclusions-Proposed &
Recently-Enacted, 2001-04 |
Nonetheless,
many states dropped coverage of legal aliens; cut
eligibility and benefits for, or even dropped, state-only medical
assistance for the federally-unmatchable poor; added or raised
premiums and copays and cut "optional" services in S-CHIP and
Medicaid; raised Medicaid drug copays; added preferred formularies,
generics requirements and monthly number limits for Medicaid drugs;
stopped “presumptive” eligibility for pregnant women (a clever
back-door way to bar otherwise-federally-mandated coverage of
citizen-to-be fetuses of poor illegal alien mothers) and curtailed
services and enrollment in expensive home and community-based (HCB)
waivers. |
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State Policy and Program Issues |
Listing of several US State Laws concerning infectious
diseases |
|
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Syringe Exchange Programs – United States, 2002 |
Syringe exchange
programs provide sterile syringes in exchange for used syringes to
reduce transmission of human immunodeficiency virus and other
bloodborne infections associated with reuse of contaminated syringes
by injection-drug users. This report summarizes a survey of SEP
activities in the US from Jan.-Dec. 2002 |
242 kb pdf |
|
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AIDS IN THE UNITED STATES |
Because of the
virulence and deadliness of the disease, which has generally
required acute hospital care, serious concerns about its impact on
health care costs were raised almost from the beginning. Yet only in
the past three or four years have some data on its costs become
available from a number of studies that have estimated the economic
impact of AIDS. Even now, serious data gaps remain. Because we
appear to have reached the end of the first phase of the medical
management of AIDS, with its heavy reliance on inpatient hospital
care, it is timely now to review the studies and estimates relating
to the costs of the epidemic and its economic impact that have been
made to date. |
Pdf 137 kb |
|
The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act
|
Legislative
Specifications Table |
18 kb pdf
|
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The New T Visa-is the higher extreme hardship standard too high for
Bona Fide Trafficking Victims? |
Protection of
victims is made nearly impossible if trafficked women first and
foremost are punished as illegal aliens |
Pdf 177 kb |
|
The NIOSH Surveillance Strategic Plan
|
Public health
surveillance is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and
interpretation of health data essential to the planning,
implementation, and evaluation of public health practices, closely
integrated with the timely dissemination of these data to those who
need to know. |
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The Sexual Activity and Birth Control Use of American Teenagers |
This paper
evaluates the evidence regarding teens’ sexual activity and birth
control use with an emphasis on the contribution of economic
analysis. Researchers in other disciplines often view teen sexual
activity as spontaneous and irrational, so that teen pregnancies are
considered “mistakes.” Economists’ focus on the costs and benefits
of alternative actions leads them to view sexual activity and
contraceptive use as “decisions.” After documenting recent trends, I
review the research on these activities from both economists and
other social scientists. I then present the results of two empirical
exercises. The first estimates the relationship between a multitude
of individual and family characteristics and the likelihood that a
teen engages in sexual activity and uses contraception. The second
examines whether changes in the costs of sexual activity and
contraceptive use are related to changes in these behaviors. |
Pdf 200 kb |
|
The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and
Responsible Sexual Behavior |
Society's reluctance to openly confront issues
regarding sexuality results in a number of untoward effects. This
social inhibition impedes the development and implementation of
effective sexual health and HIV/STD education programs, and it
stands in the way of communication between parents and children and
between sex partners. It perpetuates misperceptions about individual
risk and ignorance about the consequences of sexual activities and
may encourage high-risk sexual practices. It also impacts the level
of counseling training given to health care providers to assess
sexual histories, as well as providers' comfort levels in conducting
risk-behavior discussions with clients. In addition, the 'code of
silence' has resulted in missed opportunities to use the mass media
(e.g., television, radio, printed media, and the Internet) to
encourage healthy sexual behaviors |
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Trafficking in Women and Children-The US and International Response |
The trafficking
in people for prostitution and forced labor is one of the fastest
growing areas of international criminal activity and one that is of
increasing concern to the United States and the international
community. The overwhelming majority of those trafficked are women
and children. Between 700,000 and 4 million people are believed to
be trafficked each year worldwide, some 50,000 to the United States. |
Pdf 113 kb |
|
Trends in the HIV and AIDS Epidemic, 1998
|
Turning point in
the epidemic, new treatments have slowed the progression from HIV to
AIDS and from AIDS to death for people infected with HIV.
|
327 kb pdf
|
|
U.S. 37th in Health Care |
The United States,
which spends 14 percent of its national income on health -- more
than any other country -- was ranked 37th in the WHO survey
|
|
|
US Census-IDB Data Access
|
Terminology and
methodology for using their system |
898 kb pdf
|
|
US Grant for fight against AIDS in
Workplace |
The Mozambican
government on Friday received a grant of around 900,000 dollars from
the United States to support actions in workplaces against the
spread of HIV/AIDS. |
|
|
U.S. to Seize State Prison Health System |
A federal judge said Thursday that he would
seize control of prison healthcare from the state and place it
under a receiver, declaring that "extreme measures" were needed
to fix a system that kills one inmate each week through medical
incompetence or neglect. |
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|
USA vs. The American National Red Cross |
Court Ruling
and Actions concerning the US Courts and the American Red Cross
on how they supply blood products |
Pdf 429 kb |
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