One of the Obama administration's top doctors on Wednesday said that state governments should be doing more to boost vaccination rates to halt the spread of highly contagious diseases like the measles. "I'm totally in agreement that we should be putting pressure on people," Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a health forum hosted by The Atlantic. "It's just got to be at the state level." Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pointed to effective state laws such as requiring vaccination for children entering public school. But he said it shouldn't be in the federal government's power to make that policy nationwide.
The FDA will publish its long-awaited guidance on abuse-deterrent opioids by the end of June, in order to avoid a $20 million cut in funds to the commissioner's office threatened by Congress.
The nation's cancer care system risks slipping into a socioeconomic vortex that threatens the ability to meet a growing demand for care, according to a report from a leading organization of cancer professionals.
The electrocardiogram you got at your most recent physical may have been a waste of time and money. A guideline from the American College of Physicians published Monday in The Annals of Internal Medicine concludes that routine cardiac testing of adults without symptoms has not been shown to improve patient outcomes, and can lead to potential harms. There is no evidence that stress tests, electrocardiograms or myocardial perfusion imaging (the so-called nuclear stress test that involves exposure to radiation) have any advantages over routine risk assessment in asymptomatic people. All the tests commonly produce false positives that lead to further unnecessary testing, and all involve extra expense.
Ten American clinicians working in Sierra Leone with the Boston-based charity Partners In Health are being flown to the U.S. from West Africa after going to the aid of an American clinician who was diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus disease, the group said. Four Americans arrived Saturday at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Another American health-care worker was flown to the Atlanta area on Friday to be near Emory University Hospital. None of the 10 clinicians has Ebola symptoms, Partners In Health said Saturday, and they have agreed to self-isolate while being monitored during the 21-day Ebola incubation period. [Subscription Required]