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Nurses File Cal-OSHA Complaint After Hospital Refuses To Supply Swine Flu Masks For Units With Infected Patients
RNs from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) have filed an urgent plea with the state of California to step in and force Sutter Solano Hospital to provide nurses with proper safety equipment when they care for patients infected with the H1N1 "swine flu" virus. The nurses fear that the unsafe procedures at the hospital create a danger of infection for every patient at the facility, as well as for the surrounding community.
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Health Care Reform Debate Renews Focus On Insurance Coverage Of Abortion Care
The issue of whether government-subsidized health care programs should include coverage for abortion procedures is gaining attention as Congress continues drafting health care reform legislation, Time reports. Currently, the Hyde Amendment -- a legislative provision attached annually to major spending bills since 1976 -- prohibits states from using federal Medicaid funds to pay for abortion. All but 17 states have similar restrictions on their own funds. Although current versions of health reform legislation do not yet address the issue of abortion, congressional s involved in the process say that an explicit ban on abortion coverage could have "much further-reaching implications" than the Hyde Amendment. According to Time, the restrictions could deny abortion coverage to women whose private insurance plans currently cover the procedure. A 2002 Guttmacher Institute survey found that nearly 90% of private insurers cover abortion procedures. Under the legislation being worked on in three House committees, U.S. residents with incomes up to 400% of the poverty level -- about $88,000 annually for a family of four, or $43,000 for an individual -- would be eligible for government subsidies to help purchase coverage. However, antiabortion-rights lawmakers are pushing to prohibit those subsidies from being used to purchase health insurance policies that include abortion coverage, Time reports. Such restrictions would mean that women who currently have abortion coverage in their private plans would have to give up the benefit. According to Time, such a provision also "would raise all sorts of other questions if insurers were allowed to discriminate among their customers based on whether or not they are using federal dollars to pay for their policies."Pelosi Negotiating With House Dems Over ConcernsLast week, 19 House Democrats sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stating that they "cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan." They also said that abortion "must be addressed clearly in the bill text" of the legislation. The signers of the letter include Reps. Bart Stupak (Mich.) and Charlie Melancon (La.), both members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the three panels with jurisdiction over health care reform. According to Time, Pelosi"s office is attempting to address the concerns through negotiations.Poll Shows Support for Reproductive Health CoverageMeanwhile, abortion-rights advocates are "pushing back" against those seeking to specifically exclude abortion coverage in health care reform legislation, Time reports. The National Women"s Law Center on Monday released results of a nationwide poll of 1,000 likely voters showing that 71% of respondents favor including reproductive services like birth control and abortion in health care reform (Tumulty, Time, 7/8). The poll also found that 72% would oppose exclusion of abortion coverage from any national health care plan (Eaton, Plain Dealer, 7/7). In addition, 75% of respondents said that an independent commission, not Congress, should determine what medical services are included in the basic benefits offered under health reform. Congress also is weighing giving that power to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (Time, 7/8).Judy Waxman, NWLC vice president, said that 80% of employer-based insurance plans provide coverage for abortion services, adding that "people will be angry if they don"t get to keep what they already have" under any public insurance option (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/7). Waxman said Congress should "refrain from practicing medicine and instead let medical professionals determine what health care services will be included in a benefits package" (Time, 7/8).
News of the day
Many U.S. Residents Test Positive For HIV Late In Illness, Few High School Students
Many people who test positive for HIV are diagnosed late in the course of their infection when treatment might be less effective, according to a report published Thursday in CDC"s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Reuters Health reports. The report looked at data on people who were diagnosed with HIV from 1996 to 2005 and found that 45 percent had developed AIDS within three years of their initial HIV diagnosis, 38.3 percent within one year and an additional 6.7 percent within the next two years (Reuters Health 6/25). R. Luke Shouse of CDC"s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention in the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said, "This means that they may have unknowingly transmitted HIV. It also means that there is a time when they had HIV when they were not under appropriate medical care, so there are missed opportunities for prevention and care." A separate CDC report also published yesterday found that 22.3 percent of high school students who are sexually active and 12.9 percent of all students have been tested for HIV (Reinberg, HealthDay/KATC.com, 6/25).
Nutrition

Novel Discovery In Dendritic Cell Signalling Pathways Pave The Way For New Therapeutic Targets

Scientists from A*STAR"s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) and the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, have discovered another signaling pathway for the activation and apoptosis, or programmed cell death, of dendritic cells[1] . This discovery was published in the advanced online publication of Nature on 15 Jun 2009. Led by Prof Paola Castagnoli, Scientific Director of SIgN and Associate Prof Francesca Granucci of the University of Milano-Bicocca, the team discovered that the well-studied immune receptor called CD14 in dendritic cells could be independently activated by bacterial fragments called liposaccharides or LPS. Once activated, the CD14 would initiate the NFAT[2] or nuclear factor of activated T-cells pathway, which would then activate the dendritic cells to trigger off the body"s immune response. The scientists also discovered that the entire activation by CD14 was necessary to cause apoptosis. Dendritic cells are the frontline sentinels in the body"s defence mechanisms and they are potent inducers of an immune response against invading pathogens. Activated dendritic cells have a short life span, and scientists have observed that they undergo apoptosis in order to protect the body from the over-stimulation of the immune system, which could result in autoimmunity. This behaviour is supported by Prof Castagnoli and Associate Prof Granucci"s findings. "What is exciting is the link between CD14 activation and the NFAT pathway," explained Prof Castagnoli. "These findings have identified novel potential targets for the development of therapeutics against diseases that are involved with the CD14-NFAT pathway. For example, overexpression of CD14 has been associated with sepsis and chronic heart failure. New drugs that can modulate the CD14-NFAT pathway could provide treatments for such serious medical conditions." Said Prof Philippe Kourilsky, Chairman of SIgN, "Prof Castagnoli has been contributing greatly to the area of dendritic cell regulation and this latest finding has contributed towards the growing body of knowledge on immunology. I am confident that the continued efforts by the team in SIgN and their partners in the University of Milano-Bicocca would spawn more innovative discoveries in the field of dendritic cell immunology." The knowledge gleaned through the findings could also contribute to the creation of immunosuppressive agents that target NFAT activity. Currently, drugs[3] such as cyclosporine A and FK506, which are widely used in organ transplantation, work by shutting off a protein called calcineurin, which is needed for triggering the immune response and activating the NFAT pathway. However, these drugs also cause adverse side effects such as kidney damage. Agents that interfere with NFAT specifically in lymphocytes but not in dendritic cells could potentially have yield immunosuppressive activity but with reduced side effects leading to prolonged graft survival. Notes: About the publication: The research findings described in the press release can be found in the article "CD14 regulates the dendritic cell life cycle after LPS exposure through NFAT activation", as an advanced online publication in Nature, 15 June 2009. Authors: Ivan Zanoni1, Renato Ostuni1, Giusy Capuano1, Maddalena Collini2, Michele Caccia2, Antonella Ellena Ronchi1, Marcella Rocchetti1, Francesca Mingozzi1, Maria Foti1, Giuseppe Chirico2, Barbara Costa1, Antonio Zaza1, Paola Ricciardi-Castagnoli1,& & Francesca Granucci1 1: Department of Biotechnology and Bioscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, 20126 Milan, Italy. 2: Department of Physics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milan, Italy. &: Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Biomedical Sciences Institutes, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 8A Biomedical Grove, Immunos, 138648, Singapore. [1] Dendritic cells (DCs) are immune cells and form part of the mammalian immune system. Their main function is to process antigen material and present it on the surface to other cells of the immune system, thus functioning as antigen-presenting cells. [2] NFATs are a family of transcription factors that have been shown to be the effectors in the immune response. They are involved in activities such as cell expansion and the release of immunological-related molecules from immune cells. [3] Datamonitor report (2006): Market value for immunosuppressants used in transplantation is set to grow to US$4.3 billion by 2015. Joshua Woo Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore


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