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Toronto Star Columnist Examines Polio Eradication In India
According a Toronto Star column, it is an "enormous challenge" for India"s government to try to get all of its citizens immunized against polio. "It has used everything from elephants and camels to rickety boats and bikes to ferry the vaccine to remote regions where temperatures have topped 40C the past three months. The polio serum needs to be kept at a temperature below 8C. Its efforts have not all been in vain: the number of new cases in the country last year was 559, down from 200,000 in the early 1980s," writes columnist Rick Westhead.
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Coverage Of Abortion Services In Federal Health Plan Remains Controversial
Advocates on both sides of the abortion-rights debate are "preparing for a renewed battle" over insurance coverage of abortion services in health care reform efforts, the AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Abortion-rights opponents say that current restrictions on federal funding for abortion services should carry over to any insurance sold under new health insurance exchanges proposed under reform legislation. However, abortion-rights supporters say that carrying over the restrictions would deny abortion coverage to millions of women who currently have it through employer-sponsored coverage and are likely to join the exchanges.A variation in how the questions were asked yielded different results but significant proportions of private plans were found to cover abortion services. A Guttmacher Institute study found that 87% of typical employer-sponsored health plans covered abortion services in 2002, and a 2003 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 46% of workers covered by employer-sponsored plans had coverage for abortion services.A Congressionally imposed provision of law known as the Hyde Amendment currently prevents the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion services except in cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. States that choose to cover abortion services for low-income women through Medicaid must use their own funding to do so. Other Congressionally imposed restrictions prohibit abortion coverage for federal employees, women in the military and other women who rely on the federal government for their health care coverage. An overhaul of the health care system would "create a stream of federal funding not covered by the restrictions," including federal subsidies to offset the cost of health insurance for low- and middle-income people purchasing public or private health insurance though an exchange, the AP/Journal-Constitution reports.Congressional Proposals The plan passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is "still largely silent" on the issue of coverage for abortion services, the AP/Journal-Constitution reports. Both the House and Senate bills leave the decision on whether the public plan would include abortion coverage to the HHS secretary.In the House Energy and Commerce Committee, members approved an amendment that would allow the public plan to cover abortion services through the use of beneficiary premiums but not federal funds. In addition, the amendment says that private plans in the insurance exchanges could choose whether to cover abortion services, but no federal subsidies could be used to pay for the procedure. The amendment -- proposed by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), who supports abortion rights -- also would allow plans that do not cover abortions under any circumstances to be offered through insurance exchanges. Capps said that her amendment aims to appease both sides of the abortion-rights debate, adding, "Our country allows for both sides, and our health plan should reflect that as well."Comments Abortion-rights opponents say that they cannot accept a public insurance plan that would cover abortion services and that private plans in insurance exchanges should offer coverage for abortion services as a separate option, the AP/Journal-Constitution reports. Richard Doerflinger, associate director of antiabortion activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the group "want[s] to see people who have no health insurance get it," but coverage for abortion is "a sticking point." He said that there can be a "result where nobody has to pay for other people"s abortions," adding, "We don"t want health care reform to be the vehicle for mandating abortion."However, abortion-rights supporters argue that prohibiting coverage for abortion services would deny health care to women who have abortion services coverage through their private plans. Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women"s Policy Research, said that applying current restrictions for low-income women and federal employees to a program meant for the middle cla
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Frankenman International Ltd Secures FDA Clearance For Its Entire CHEX Range Of Surgical Staplers
Frankenman International Ltd, the manufacturer and supplier of surgical instruments, announced that its entire CHEX™ range of surgical staplers had been granted FDA approval. This development complements the CE and ISO accreditation it has already acquired. FDA approval endorses Frankenman"s commitment to total quality in surgical stapling and wound closure devices, and further validates its position as a trusted alternative supplier in these markets.
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Employing People With Autism Could Save The UK Economy Billions Each Year

A unique event to discuss Autism and employment was held at Goldsmiths, University of London this week. For the first time charities, researchers, business and government were brought together to look at how people with Autism, and related disorders, can be supported effectively into employment. It is estimated that within the UK there are around 535,000 people with Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD), including with Autism or Asperger syndrome. According to Professor Martin Knapp from the London School of Economics, who spoke at the event, this represents a potential cost to the UK economy of ÷£28 billion a year for supporting both adults and children. [1] The event was organised by Dr Elisabeth Hill and Dr Joanna Yarker from the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, in partnership with the National Autistic Society. Dr Hill said: "The workshop was a real success. This was the first time that so many individuals and organisations with an active interest in supporting adults with ASD into and in employment joined together for a day of discussion and presentations. Not only were we able to share the aims and outcomes of our work with one another, but we were able to spend quite a lot of time discussing the key challenges that adults with ASD face on a daily basis, how we might reduce these challenges and what our priorities must be for the future." "Our interest in this area came about after a chance discussion over coffee when we realised that we could combine my interest in understanding the experiences of adults with neurodevelopmental disorders, including ASD, with Jo"s interest in health and employment. No-one appeared to have done any research into Autism and Employment, so we started doing some research. "After setting up an on-line survey to scope and then evaluate people"s experiences, we were actually approached by policy and campaign teams, the voluntary sector and government departments, as well as researchers and later a team from the National Audit Office. Each contact was made because the organisation was focusing on an employment related issue with respect to ASD, but very limited data were available. Our survey came up at the top of a Google search, so we quickly realised that this topic has really not been well studied, that it is important to people with ASD and that there was therefore overwhelming need for research in this area. "Now a whole raft of documents relating in some way to this issue will be published in the coming months, and this provided a basis for the presentations at the workshop. "Our own research so far has shown that employment is beneficial for adults with ASD. Appropriate work based supports, such as that provided by supported employment consultancies such as Prospects [2] and Employ-Ability [3] who participated in the event, and workplace adjustments can make a huge difference to both the employee, members of their team and their employers. These should all be considered on an individual basis but might include a quiet place to go at lunchtime, clear rules about when and how to respond to phone calls and emails, and changes to the ambient lighting or temperature in an individual"s office space. "Shockingly our work has also shown that many of those adults with ASD who do have employment are forced to change their job (within and outside organisations) frequently as well as taking on roles far beneath their ability levels. This is not a sensible use of any individual"s skills and has a direct, negative consequence for the employee as well as for the employer. "We had also looked at indicators of depression and anxiety in our survey. Rates of these were higher than we would have expected in a non-ASD group, and similar to rates reported in other research studies. It is likely that being in well-supported, gainful employment will have a long-term impact in reducing levels of depression and anxiety in this group. This is something that we must look into further." It is expected that the findings of the workshop will feed into policy and campaign work, to partnerships with supported employment agencies and employers as well as to successful funding bids to pursue further in depth, and evaluative research. References: [1] Knapp et al. paper with the most recent economic costing of ASD to the UK economy (see reference below), National Audit Office"s Value for Money report on adult autism services, National Autistic Society"s report on awareness of and access to work related benefits among people with ASD, Department of Health"s Adult Autism Strategy. [2] http://www.autism.org.uk/prospects/london [3] http://www.employ-ability.org.uk/ 1. Professor Martin Knapp"s findings were published in a special issue of the journal Autism which focuses specifically on adults with ASD. Link to paper. National Autistic Society


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