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Main topics can be
found within the left column; sub-topics and/or
research reports can be found near the bottom of this
page. Thank you |
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Healthcare professionals work within a
high-risk occupational group for exposure to many infectious
diseases. There are over 30 different bloodborne illnesses
that can be transmitted with an exchange of bodily fluids. In some areas of the
world, if a health care worker is positive for an infectious
disease, (s)he may be denied employment in a specific or for
the total healthcare environment. Laws have been enacted
that will deny employment to a health care worker if this worker
is positive. (This action gives the general public a false
sense of security.) Some hospitals are currently requiring
health care professionals to pass a pre-employment medical
tests to determine the health care status of this potential new
hire.
Needle stick injuries are not uncommon. Thousands
of health care workers each year are injected with patients'
blood when needles that have been used to perform often life-saving
procedures suddenly become virulent projectiles penetrating
a palm, a wrist, a finger, a thigh. Approximately 800,000
U.S. health care workers will be injured by patient needles
this year, according to estimates used by the federal Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Combined estimates from the CDC and EPINet-a
computer-based standardized injury tracking system used by
about 1,500 U.S. hospitals-suggest that more than 2,000 of
those workers will test positive for new infections of hepatitis
C, another 400 will get hepatitis B and 35 will contract the
AIDS virus.
While AIDS is the most feared infection, hepatitis
B and C are also serious and life threatening. Both diseases
can lead to liver damage, cirrhosis and cancer. A vaccine
is available for hepatitis B, which has helped reduce the
number of health care workers infected each year from a high
of 17,000 in 1983.
"Every year up to a million health-care
workers receive a needle stick, and for many it is a death
sentence," says Andrew Stern, international president
of Service Employees International Union, the largest health
care workers' union in the country, which is campaigning to
have all workers use specially designed safety needles. "It's
an outrage. This is a preventable crisis. More die of needle
sticks than died in the ValuJet crash, but ValuJet sparked
all kinds of investigation."
The Hepatitis C Virus epidemic brings large risks to workers' compensation
programs and requires new risk management techniques. The
workers' compensation industry has generally not recognized
these risks, although it is becoming aware of the new challenges
that the Hepatitis C Virus epidemic brings. There is much uncertainty about
employers' and insurers' liabilities for Hepatitis C Virus-infected workers.
The authors intend that, by presenting the results of our
actuarial analysis, this report will help define the issues
and that our recommendations will reduce the industry's long-term
financial exposure.
For those who serve us in a time of need, many healthcare
professionals will become infected because they helped a
sick or dying patient. The crime is that many are
coverage under some type of occupational injury insurance
carrier-but proving that this exposure took place in the
work environment is almost impossible. The question is how
can anyone prove that at specific point in time, I became
infected--the insurance industry has known of this problem
for years and has created methods to protect their
stake-holders of this monetary loss. While this
strategic plan is good for the short run, it is devastating
for the long term.
There is a shortage of healthcare professionals and the
need is growing. This shortage is also created by the
laws of various countries because if you are infected, you
cannot practice in your profession. Even though there
are positions within that area that puts no one at risk.
This created shortage in the coming years will have a
devastating impact on all of health care.
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Document Name & Link to Document
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Description
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File Size /Type
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A Portrait of the HIV+ Population in America |
Despite the dramatic growth in our knowledge about
HIV/AIDS treatment over the past 15 years, several
fundamental questions about HIV care still exist: How
many persons in the United States receive regular care
for HIV infection? What are the characteristics of that
population? How much care do HIV-infected individuals
use, how much does it cost, and who pays for it?
Policymakers, researchers, and the national community
depend upon reliable answers to these questions to help
guide their decisions in allocating future resources to
HIV treatment and research. |
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President George W. Bush's 2007 State of Disunion Speech
proposed non-solutions to America's healthcare access,
cost, and quality crises. At best, they are delusional.
At worst, the 2007 State of Disunion perpetuates
deceptions and misrepresentations of the root causes of
our most adversely consequential domestic challenge ---
structuring a cost-effective, high quality healthcare
system accessible to all Americans. Either way, our
national disgrace --- the prioritization of insurance
and other corporate interests over the public interest,
lack of access to affordable healthcare for all, and
failure to develop an infrastructure to ensure
consistently high quality care for all Americans ---
remain unresolved by impotent activities long after the
President's speech. President Bush's State of the Union
2007 is primarily happy talk, spin, and ... tax breaks.
Tax breaks are meaningless to people who cannot afford
to pay for expensive monthlly premimums, high
deductibles, and co-pays. . |
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An International Comparison of
Cancer Survival: Metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, and
Honolulu, Hawaii |
A recent study of cancer survival in Toronto, Ontario,
and in Detroit, Michigan, compared their ecologically
defined poor and found advantaged survival among
Canadians for 13 of 15 cancer sites (weighted mean
5-year survival rate ratio [SRR]=1.55).1,2 This
consistent pattern of Canadian cancer survival advantage
was then systematically replicated with 3 more
economically resourceful US metropolitan areas (Seattle,
Wash; San Francisco, Calif; and Hartford, Conn).3 Again,
significantly better 5-year survival rates were observed
for 13 of 15 common types of cancer among the relatively
poor of Toronto compared with similarly poor US subjects
(SRR=1.35). |
Pdf 107 kb
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Are Vaccines Causing More
Disease Than They Are Curing? |
Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine
Information Center, a consumer's group based in Vienna,
Virginia, claims vaccines are responsible for the
increasing numbers of children and adults who suffer
from immune system and neurologic disorders,
hyperactivity, learning disabilities, asthma, chronic
fatigue syndrome, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple
sclerosis, and seizure disorders. She calls for studies
to monitor the long-term effects of mass vaccination and
Fisher wants physicians to be absolutely sure these
vaccines are safe and not harming people. |
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This article reviews information on discriminatory
attitudes and behaviors against obese
individuals, integrates this to show whether
systematic discrimination occurs and why, and discusses
needed work in the field. Clear and consistent
stigmatization, and in some cases
discrimination, can be documented in three
important areas of living: employment, education, and
health care. Among the findings are that 28%
of teachers in one study said that becoming
obese is the worst thing that can happen to a
person; 24% of nurses said that they are "repulsed" by
obese persons; and, controlling for income and
grades, parents provide less college support
for their overweight than for their thin
children. There are also suggestions but not yet
documentation of discrimination occurring in
adoption proceedings, jury selection,
housing, and other areas. Given the vast numbers of
people potentially affected, it is important
to consider the research-related,
educational, and social policy implications of these
findings. |
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Chronic fatigue syndrome finally
gains official respect |
But the syndrome is now finally gaining some official
respect. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, which in 1999 acknowledged that it had
diverted millions of dollars allocated by Congress for
chronic fatigue syndrome research to other programs, has
released studies that linked the condition to genetic
mutations and abnormalities in gene expression involved
in key physiological processes. The centers have also
sponsored a $6 million public awareness campaign about
the illness. And last month, the CDC released survey
data suggesting that the prevalence of the syndrome is
far higher than previously thought, although these
findings have stirred controversy among patients and
scientists. Some scientists and many patients remain
highly critical of the CDC's record on chronic fatigue
syndrome, or CFS. But nearly everyone now agrees that
the syndrome is real. |
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Colorado
House Committee Passes Bill Requiring Coverage for Hepatitis
C Treatment for Emergency Services Workers
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Colorado House Business Affairs and
Labor Committee on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill that would allow firefighters, police officers
and emergency services workers to receive workers' compensation
coverage for hepatitis C treatment
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Continuation
of article re: Needle Stick Risk
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Hundreds of medical workers become infected
with the AIDS or hepatitis viruses from accidental punctures
each year
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Direct
cost of needle sticks and blood exposures
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Approximately 800,000 U.S. health care
workers will be injured by patient needles this year,
according to estimates used by the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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PDF 48KB
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Economic status and health in
childhood: the origins of the gradient |
That wealthy people live longer and have lower
morbidity, on average, than do poor people has been well
documented across countries, within countries at a point
in time, and over time with economic growth. The
positive correlation between income and health is not
limited to the bottom end of the income distribution
(Adler et al 1994). Indeed, the gradient in health
status—the phenomenon that relatively wealthier people
have better health and longevity—is evident throughout
the income distribution. In this paper we present
evidence that the income gradients observed in adult
health have antecedents in childhood, and suggest that
part of the intergenerational transmission of
socioeconomic status may work through the impact of
parents’ long run average income on children’s health. |
Pdf 226 |
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Effect of Tying Eligibility for
Health Insurance Subsidies to the Federal Poverty Level |
Less attention has been given to the disconnection
between the growing cost of health insurance and
eligibility for health care subsidies in public
programs. It is clear that lower income people cannot
afford health insurance without some assistance, and
various federal and state programs exist to provide or
subsidize health insurance for people with limited
means. In many cases eligibility for subsidized coverage
is based on the relationship of a person's or family's
income to the federal poverty level (FPL). For example,
children in families with incomes below 200 percent of
FPL are generally eligible for subsidized coverage
through state Medicaid or SCHIP programs. Another
example is a new program in Massachusetts, which
requires people to purchase health insurance |
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Ethical Challenges in the Care
of Persons With Hepatitis C Infection |
Psychiatric and addictive disorders are often considered
contraindications to hepatitis C virus (HCV)
treatment. In this pilot study, the ability
of 30 veterans to provide informed consent for combined
antiviral HCV therapy was examined with a mental
health assessment protocol specifically
geared to evaluate capacity in this area. The
results showed that subjects lacked essential knowledge
regarding the course of the disease and the nature
of antiviral treatment despite receiving
prior counseling. Informed consent
assessments of candidates for HCV treatment may identify
deficits that are responsive to intervention,
thereby allowing patients with comorbid
psychiatric and addictive disorders to receive
effective HCV treatment. |
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Health
care exposure
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Exposure to toxins and infectious diseases
from occupations
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PDF 471KB
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Health
care fraud
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Insurance Magazine report-mid way is report
about Healthcare fraud
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PDF 346KB
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Health care workers and AIDS: a
differential study of beliefs and affects associated
with accidental exposure to blood |
This study aimed to analyze affective and cognitive
determinants of the professional work of individuals
caring for patients with HIV/AIDS, in view of the risk
and/or experience of accidental exposure to blood. We
drew on the theoretical-methodological references of
Fishbein & Ajzen and Maslow's theory. Fifty health care
workers were evaluated using an attitudes questionnaire
and a needs and motivations instrument. The research
verified differences between answers by health care
workers who had never suffered accidents and those who
had already experienced accidental exposure to blood.
Health care workers did their work activities motivated
by the need for self-fulfillment and valued their own
performance when they were able to meet the patients'
emotional needs. Among health professionals who had
never experienced accidental exposure to blood, the
predominant beliefs was that patients feel remorse over
having expose themselves to HIV. Accidental exposure to
blood raises difficulties in personal life. Technical
aspects are also associated with the possibility of
accidental exposure to blood. |
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Health Spending
Projections Through 2013 |
The rate of growth in national health expenditures is
projected to fall to 7.8 percent in 2003 because of
slower private and public spending growth. However,
during the next ten years health spending growth is
expected to outpace economic growth. As a result, the
health share of gross domestic product (GDP) is
projected to increase from 14.9 percent in 2002 to 18.4
percent in 2013. The recently passed Medicare drug
benefit legislation (not included in these projections)
is not anticipated to have a large impact on overall
national health spending, but it can be expected to
cause sizable shifts in payment sources. |
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HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE OF Southeast Asian American
Elders
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While Southeast Asian refugees and immigrants have the
Vietnam War, refugee experiences and acculturation
issues in common, there is wide diversity within and
across the ethnic groups that comprise the Southeast
Asian population. These include: degree of
Westernization and acculturation, education and literacy
in the home country; migration history; social class and
social backgrounds; English and other linguistic skills;
social supports; age at immigration, and years in the
United States. |
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HEALTHCARE
WORKERS SORE OVER NEEDLES FDA WON’T BAN
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A nursing safety expert asked how many
hundreds of medical workers need to die from contaminated
needle sticks before the agency bans standard needles
and syringes that are causing the injuries.
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Insurance
Personnel |
Within the private
sector, the insurance industry has been at the forefront
of the societal response to HIV/AIDS, often in the
‘firing-line’ from AIDS activists resulting from the
industry’s HIV testing policies.
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Pdf 372 kb
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Principles Oral Health
Management for the HIV/AIDS Patient
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Power Point Presentation |
213 kb |
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State Secret: Thousands
Secretly Sterilized |
From the early 1900s to the 1970s, some 65,000 men and
women were sterilized in this country, many without
their knowledge, as part of a government eugenics
program to keep so-called undesirables from reproducing.
"The procedures that were done here were done to poor
folks," said Steven Selden, professor at the University
of Maryland. "They were thought to be poor because they
had bad genes or bad inheritance, if you will. And so
they would be the focus of the sterilization." |
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The attitude of nurses to HIV/AIDS
patients in a Nigerian University Teaching Hospital |
“The revelation that perhaps up to four million
Nigerians might have contracted (the) AIDS virus should
spur the country into some form of coordinated action.
Despite the havoc which HIV/AIDS has caused throughout
the world, particularly Africa, Nigerians have,
regrettably, continued to carry on as if nothing is
happening. Many people still maintain multiple sex
partners and engage in casual and unprotected sex. Our
AIDS control strategy remains, at best, unstructured,
without direction. If the report that some people have
received blood infected with the virus is true, then
there is danger on the horizon. It only goes to show
that AIDS screening is not properly carried out in the
country. Sadly, the problem has been compounded by the
fact that the disease is still being treated with a less
than honest approach by many Nigerians” (Daily Times
1997) |
Pdf 152 kb |
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The Dentist, HIV and the Law: Duty
to Treat, Need to Understand |
The advent of the AIDS epidemic marked the end of a
brief "golden age" of infectious disease control that
began with the first polio vaccine in 1954, and ended in
1981 with the first AIDS case reports. That brief golden
age was when many professionals were trained in their
fields. It was a time when everyone - dentists,
infectious disease specialists and the public alike -
came to believe that the eternal threat of epidemics had
been vanquished forever, at least for those nations
wealthy enough to afford the latest technology |
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The Privacy of Genetic Information |
Persons being tested (or, in the case of an embryo,
fetus or child, the parents) aren't the only people with
an interest in the test results. Family members and
potential mates, employers, insurers, the press (in the
case of a celebrity) and the government all may desire
information about a person's genetic endowment, and
their interests may have nothing to do with -- or be
antithetical to -- the welfare of the proband. |
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Tip
of iceberg
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Insurance Report warning looming Hepatitis C Virus crisis
to the Health Care Industry
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PDF 445KB
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To What Extent the Socio-economic
Changes Affect the Health Status of Children? |
This study aims to investigate the causal-effect
relationships, which could potentially explain the
changes in the health status of children as a
consequence of the economic crisis. In order to broaden
the perspectives in which to look at these inherent
characteristics, two types of outcome indicators
representing the health status of children are employed
in this study. They include self-reported child
morbidity indicator, which is represented by the
occurrence of child illness during the time span of the
study, and a measured anthropometric indicator related
to the prevalence cases of wasting in children. The
inclusions of both indicators are deliberate, so as to
highlight and discuss any differences that might arise
due to the issues of reliability and systematic bias
involved in the data being utilised. |
Pdf 316 kb |
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Trends in Access to Routine Care and Experiences with
Care-2001 |
The
quality of the health care received by Americans is an
issue of public policy concern for several reasons.
First, the level of quality of the health care delivery
system affects the capacity to provide timely,
accessible, effective and efficient medical care to the
population in need of services. Secondly, estimates of
quality of health care are vital to evaluate the costs
and outcomes of health care delivery and to help
identify potential areas where improvements are
necessary. Finally, all components of the population
may not be receiving care equally. |
Pdf
513 kb |
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Withholding and Withdrawing Life-prolonging Treatments:
Good Practice in Decision-making |
This
guidance develops the advice in Good Medical
Practice and Seeking Patients' Consent:
The Ethical Considerations It sets out the
standards of practice expected of doctors when they
consider whether to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging
treatments. |
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Workers
Compensation Report
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Insurance Report- The Hepatitis C Epidemic:
A Significant Risk for Workers’ Compensation
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