United States government

2007 Surveillance Report-Cases of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States and Dependent Areas (Large file-Increase download time)	The HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report is published annually by the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia.	Pdf 3472 kb
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Almanac of Chronic Disease-2008 (Large file-Increase download time)	The United States is experiencing an unsustainable disease burden – 130 million people today suffer from chronic diseases – taking a tremendous toll on individuals, families, and communities. In addition to lives lost and quality of life lost, we are also a nation in crisis – an economic crisis. We spend over $2 trillion a year – about 16 percent of our gross domestic product – on health care. Seventy-five cents of every health care dollar we spend is on treatment of chronic disease, most of which is preventable. If we do not reverse this trend, chronic disease will continue to devastate Americans’ health, lead to millions more preventable deaths and will ultimately bankrupt our health care system.	Pdf 4592 kb
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
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.
Crime, Punishment and the measurement of Poverty in the United States, 1979-1997	Report on this issue	400 kb pdf
Debt Management- Insights and Tools	Report from the GAO	289 kb pdf
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.
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.
GOP lawmakers cringe at colleagues' words on sexuality	"We do things continually to remove the consequences of poor behavior, unacceptable behavior, quite frankly. I'm not convinced that part of the role of government should be to protect individuals from the negative consequences of their actions."
Greybook	Federal OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Directive-a resource primer	509 kb pdf
Global Infectious Disease Threat & Its implications	CIA report on infectious diseases	2,517 kb pdf
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
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.
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
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
Hepatitis Legislation	Proposed Bill for Hepatitis C Virus awareness	54 kb pdf
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.
HIPAA Nondiscrimination Requirements	Rules for implementing the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s	50 kb pdf
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.
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.
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
Medicaid	GAO report	323 kb pdf
Medicare	GAO report	303 kb pdf
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.
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.
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.
Physical Infrastructure	GAO report on crosscutting issues planning conference Report	2,648 kb pdf
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
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).
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.
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
Revised Surveillance Case Definitions for HIV Infection Among Adults, Adolescents, and Children Aged <18 Months and for HIV Infection and AIDS Among Children Aged 18 Months to <13 Years --- United States, 2008	For adults and adolescents (i.e., persons aged >13 years), the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection classification system and the surveillance case definitions for HIV infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have been revised and combined into a single case definition for HIV infection . In addition, the HIV infection case definition for children aged <13 years and the AIDS case definition for children aged 18 months to <13 years have been revised. No changes have been made to the HIV infection classification system (4), the 24 AIDS-defining conditions for children aged <13 years, or the AIDS case definition for children aged <18 months. These case definitions are intended for public health surveillance only and not as a guide for clinical diagnosis. Public health surveillance data are used primarily for monitoring the HIV epidemic and for planning on a population level, not for making clinical decisions for individual patients. CDC and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists recommend that all states and territories conduct case surveillance of HIV infection and AIDS using the 2008 surveillance case definitions, effective immediately.
Ryan White Care Act	Complete act with amendment of 1996	143 kb pdf
Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2008 (Large file-Increase download time)	STDs are hidden epidemics of enormous health and economic consequence in the United States. They are hidden because many Americans are reluctant to address sexual health issues in an open way and because of the biologic and social characteristics of these diseases. All Americans have an interest in STD prevention because all communities are impacted by STDs and all individuals directly or indirectly pay for the costs of these diseases. STDs are public health problems that lack easy solutions because they are rooted in human behavior and fundamental societal problems. Indeed, there are many obstacles to effective prevention efforts. The first hurdle will be to confront the reluctance of American society to openly confront issues surrounding sexuality and STDs. Despite the barriers, there are existing individual- and community-based interventions that are effective and can be implemented immediately. That is why a multifaceted approach is necessary to both the individual and community levels.	Pdf 6624 kb
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 Policy and Program Issues	Listing of several US State Laws concerning infectious diseases
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
Testimony on Global Health: the United States Response to Infectious Diseases	Many serious infections are becoming increasingly resistant to standard antibiotics, making treatment difficult and in some cases impossible. For example, drug-resistant tuberculosis has now been found in virtually every country surveyed. Worldwide, more than ten percent of TB cases are resistant to one or more of the four first-line anti-TB drugs. In the United States, more than one-third of hospital-acquired infections with Staphylococcus aureus are resistant to penicillin-like drugs, leaving vancomycin as the only available drug that reliably eradicates them. We were given pause in recent months when S. aureus isolates with increased resistance to vancomycin were identified for the first time in Japan and the United States. Many other diseases, including enterococcal infections and pneumococcal pneumonia, are increasingly problematic because of the development of drug resistance.
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
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.
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
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.
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
Women and HIV/AIDS in the United States	The HIV/AIDS epidemic is taking an increasing toll on women and girls in the United States. Women of color, particularly Black women, have been especially hard hit and represent the majority of new HIV and AIDS cases among women, and the majority of women living with the disease. Many women with HIV/AIDS are low-income and most have important family responsibilities, potentially complicating the management of their illness. Research suggests that women with HIV face limited access to care and experience disparities in access, relative to men.4,5,6,7 Women are also more biologically susceptible to HIV infection during sex, and experience different clinical symptoms and complications. Given these trends and issues, efforts to stem the tide of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic will increasingly depend on how and to what extent its effect on women and girls is addressed.	Pdf 241 kb

** In order to view PDF files, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Many computers already have this software; however, if you need it, a free copy is available for download at this site: Click here to get Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Email: