Photo by ktpupp via Flickr.
Overall, across America, about 15% of children and one-third of adults have gone longer than a year without a dental visit, federal data show.
But rates of children and adults getting oral health services, and factors that can represent barriers to access – including provider shortages and the cost of care – vary from state to state.
Photo: Ian Iott via Flickr
The Federal Trade Commission and State of New York late last month filed a lawsuit against Martin Shkreli, charging that Shkreli and Vyera Pharmaceuticals raised the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim by more than 4,000% and worked to corner the market for such drugs.
“The joint action accused Shkreli and Vyera Pharmaceuticals, formerly known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, of scheming to ‘illegally’ prevent would-be generic competitors from selling a version of Daraprim,” as Stat’s Ed Silverman reported on Jan. 27. After acquiring the drug in 2015, Shkreli, dubbed the “Pharma Bro,” and Turing raised the list price of the medication from $17.50 per tablet to $750, he added. Continue reading
Photo by Sean Stayte via flickr
Independent contractor legislation continues to shift quickly at both the state and national levels — with writers and editors waiting to see what happens next.
First, California legislators may ease restrictions against writers and photographers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Feb. 6.
Assembly Bill 5, which went into effect in California on Jan. 1, established a cap that limits freelancers to 35 submissions per publication per year. The law has already affected freelancers and publications, including several AHCJ members. Continue reading
Al-hadji Kudra Maliro
In August 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo declared its 10th outbreak of Ebola in 40 years. The number of cases has now surpassed 3,000 and more than 2,000 have died, making it the second biggest and deadliest Ebola epidemic after the West Africa outbreak of 2014-16.
One of the local journalists on the ground is Al-hadji Kudra Maliro. He is the eastern Congo correspondent for the Associated Press and also has contributed stories to the Christian Science Monitor, Daily Mail, Le Monde, France 24, Yahoo and Stars and Stripes. On his Facebook page, Maliro describes himself as a photojournalist, fixer, reporter, activist, writer and video producer. Continue reading
Photo: U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur via Flickr
At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, those with the disease typically only lived a few years beyond diagnosis. Today, breakthrough drugs, earlier diagnosis and more evidence-based treatment mean those with HIV or AIDS can live longer, healthier lives. But with these advances come new challenges associated with aging.
With this longer life expectancy, individuals living with long-term HIV infection exhibit many clinical characteristics commonly observed in aging: multiple chronic diseases or conditions, the use of multiple medications, changes in physical and cognitive abilities, and increased vulnerability to stressors. Continue reading
Photo: Tracy Ann C. Ball via Flickr
It’s well recognized that health care costs more in the United States than anywhere else in the world. There are myriad of complex reasons, but one aspect of health care costs that often gets lost in the conversation is how much Americans are paying for services they don’t need. Overuse of antibiotics is an often go-to example of this, but it happens with screening tests as well, especially when guidelines aren’t clear or are frequently evolving.
A recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine highlighted an excellent example of patients receiving interventions they don’t need, cost money and can cause harm. Studies like these are worth reporting on their own, but also can inspire larger stories that go deeper or look more broadly at a particular field, geographic region or population of patients. (Disclosure: I reported on this particular study for a news publication.) Continue reading