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What Are Genital Warts? What Causes Genital Warts?
Genital warts are also called venereal warts or condylomata acuminate. Genital warts are one of the most common kinds of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) or STIs (sexually transmitted infections). According to Medilexicon"s medical dictionary, a genital wart is "a contagious projecting warty growth on the external genitals or at the anus, consisting of fibrous overgrowths covered by thickened epithelium showing koilocytosis, due to sexual contact with infection by human papillomavirus; it is usually benign, although malignant change has been reported, associated with particular types of the virus."
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Office Of The National Alzheimer's Project Act Will Produce A National Strategic Plan For Alzheimer's Research, Care, And Related Supportive Services
U.S. Senators Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) introduced a measure to create a collaborated system for researching, treating and eliminating Alzheimer"s disease. The proposal will create an Office of the National Alzheimer"s Project within the White House, and will coordinate all research, clinical care and service toward the prevention, care, and cure of Alzheimer"s. This office will produce a national strategic plan to help assure that the millions of Americans who now have Alzheimer"s and the millions of potentially at-risk Americans will have a coordinated effort to target the 6th leading cause of death in the United States.
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Shanghai To Relax One-Child Policy As China Faces Aging Population, Shrinking Work Force
Nearly three decades after China implemented its one-child policy, the city of Shanghai is planning to encourage young couples to have a second child in an effort to address the country"s aging population and shrinking work force, the New York Times reports. The city"s plan is the most public effort made by the government to counteract a program that is "considered both a tremendous success and a terrible failure," the Times reports. The policy has managed to keep population growth under control but also has led to forced abortions, according to the Times.The country is not abandoning the one-child policy, which applies mostly to residents in urban areas. Rather, the government is allowing more exceptions to the rule, with Shanghai -- where about 22% of its 20 million residents are older than age 60 -- leading the effort. China as a whole faces a similar problem seen in Shanghai, the Times reports. About 8% of the country"s population was older than age 65 in 2006. That figure is expected to increase threefold by 2050 to about 322 million people, or nearly 25% of the population, according to the United Nations.In Friday"s issue of China Daily, Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, was quoted as saying, "We advocate eligible couples to have two kids because it can help reduce the proportion of the aging people and alleviate a work force shortage in the future." City officials plan to visit homes, pass out leaflets, and offer counseling and financial incentives, the Times reports. Current exceptions to the one-child policy are in place for ethnic minorities and rural residents, who can have a second child if the first child is a girl. Couples made up of two parents who have no siblings have always been allowed to have a second child and are now being encouraged to do so (Barboza, New York Times, 7/24).
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No Shriners Hospitals Closing; Some May Be Outpatient-Only

"All 22 Shriners Hospitals for Children will stay open, but some eventually might become outpatient-only surgery facilities, the system that offers free specialty pediatric care said Thursday," CNN reports. "The system, which has covered all costs of its patients" care throughout its 87-year history, eventually will accept insurance from patients who have it, members of the Shriners fraternity decided in their annual convention in San Antonio, Texas. Accepting money from insurers and finding other ways to cut costs will help Shriners retain their presence in all 22 locations, said Doug Maxwell, the new president and CEO of Shriners Hospitals." Months ago, the Shriners board had "proposed to close six hospitals largely because an $8.5 billion endowment fund lost more than $3 billion as the stock market plummeted last year." The system"s $856 million budget for 2009 also outpaced "the fund"s interest and donations," which caused the hospitals to "take about $1 million per day from the fund." "The hospital system has treated hundreds of thousands of children free of charge -- regardless of patients" ability to pay -- since the first facility opened in 1922. Most offer orthopedic care. Four, including the Galveston hospital, care for children who are burned, and some offer cleft lip and palate repair and spinal cord injury rehabilitation. The system will continue to give care in these areas at no cost to the patients" families, [Maxwell] said. One way to cut costs may be to transform some hospitals to outpatient-only surgery centers, Maxwell said. Many Shriners Hospitals have empty beds, in part because they were built during a time when many of their surgery patients needed to stay overnight" (Hanna, 7/10). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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