Funds For Zika Could Be Depleted By End Of August, Administration Warns
HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell sends a letter to lawmakers detailing how the money has been spent, while calling for additional resources. Meanwhile, a Zika vaccine is ready for testing on humans and 33 service members have been infected with Zika since January.
The Washington Post:
Obama Administration Is Rapidly Running Out Of Money To Fight Zika
Money set aside to fight the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus is running low, and some funds could run out by the end of August, according to a letter to House Democrats from Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell. Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services shifted $374 million from other programs to fight Zika in the U.S., with $222 million allocated to the Centers for Disease Control. The funds have rapidly been depleted during the summer mosquito season. The National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority are both expected to run out of funds by the end of the month, and other funds will be depleted by the end of the year, Burwell said. (Snell, 8/3)
Reuters:
U.S. Health Researchers Test Zika Vaccine As Funds Run Low
U.S. government researchers said on Wednesday they have begun their first clinical trial of a Zika vaccine while the Obama administration told lawmakers funds to fight the virus would run out in the coming weeks due to congressional inaction. U.S. concerns over Zika, which is spreading rapidly in the Americas and has hit Brazil the hardest, have risen since Florida authorities last week reported the first signs of local transmission in the continental United States in a Miami neighborhood. (Dunham, 8/3)
The New York Times:
33 U.S. Service Members Have Contracted Zika, Pentagon Says
More than 30 active-duty American service members — including a pregnant woman — have contracted the mosquito-borne Zika virus in countries where the disease has been identified, Pentagon officials said on Wednesday. Maj. Ben Sakrisson, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department has been tracking Zika in servicemen and women abroad since January, and that the number had reached 33 this month. (Cooper, 8/3)
In other national health care news —
Stat:
Gilead Fires Back At Medical Journal Report Critical Of Its Pricing
After getting beaten up last week over the pricing of its hepatitis C treatments in the United Kingdom, Gilead Sciences is going on the offensive. The drug maker, which has sustained intense criticism over complaints that its prices have strained payer budgets, fired back at a report in an influential medical journal and declared that “we stand behind our pricing.” Although Gilead has never been entirely mute when confronted with criticism, the drug maker is generally circumspect about addressing specific developments. But the report in BMJ seems to have hit a nerve, since the journal wrote that England’s National Health Service was forced to take several controversial steps to delay coverage of Gilead’s medicines, and it came at the expense of patients. (Silverman, 8/3)
The Washington Post:
Sickle Cell Trait May Not Increase The Risk Of Death
People who carry a gene for sickle cell disease might not have an elevated mortality risk, according to a study released today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Sickle cell disease occurs in 1 out of every 365 black people born in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They carry two copies of a gene for sickle cell disease. Those who carry only one copy of the gene are said to have sickle cell trait. About 1 in 13 black Americans have sickle cell trait. An earlier study found that sickle cell trait may lead to an increased risk of sudden death, but the new study comes to a different conclusion. (Beachum, 8/3)
Stat:
In Cancer, It’s Back To The Future As Old Treatments Make Cutting-Edge Ones More Effective
New cancer drugs that unleash the immune system on tumors are all the rage, getting credit for curing former President Jimmy Carter’s advanced melanoma and inspiring tech billionaire Sean Parker to pledge $250 million to cancer research. Behind the excitement, however, is the hard truth that these therapies work in only a minority of patients. Now scientists are finding hints of a solution in an unexpected place: Older, out-of-favor cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation may make the cutting-edge immune-based drugs effective against more cancers — even hard-to-treat ovarian and pancreatic tumors. (Begley, 8/4)
NPR:
Does A Psychopath Who Kills Get To Use The Insanity Defense?
In December 2012, Jerrod Murray decided he wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone. So the freshman at East Central University in Ada, Okla., offered another freshman, Generro Sanchez, $20 for a ride to Wal-Mart. After climbing into Sanchez's truck, Murray made the freshman drive into the remote countryside at gunpoint. Then Murray shot and killed Sanchez, leaving his body in a ditch. States go decades without updating their definition of insanity. When they do change their definitions, it's often in reaction to an unpopular verdict in a high-profile case. (Jacewicz, 8/3)