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Popular Articles

With Shrinking Budgets, States Cutting Health Services
As state revenues continue their downturn due to the recession, 16 states are trying to find ways to deal with increased health care costs, The New York Times reports: "The carnage in state budgets is getting worse, a report said Thursday, with places like Arizona being hurt by falling revenue on multiple fronts, like personal income and sales taxes. Other states are having mixed experiences, with some tax categories stable, or even rising, even as others fall off the map."

Microbicide Under Research For HIV Prevention Examined
A team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Missouri and Japan has been studying a compound they believe might prevent HIV transmission, the Columbia Tribune reports. According to the Tribune, "Tests show the microbicide, known as EFdA, stops HIV from replicating or spreading when applied to human cells." Stefan Sarafianos, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri"s School of Medicine, and a researcher working on the compound, said, "Women would be able to apply it to themselves and have control over the situation, unlike other forms of protection," adding that although the compound is in an early stage of research, "hopefully companies will eventually license and develop it as a product." The article also discusses findings from a study by an Indiana University School of Medicine researcher that "found that students who know their lifestyle puts them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases would be more likely to receive an HIV vaccination" if it were available, but that they would be less likely to get a vaccine if they are worried about what others might think of them (Heavin, 8/3).
News of the day
Nottingham University Selects Simplexo Enterprise For Five Year Clinical Trial, UK
Simplexo Enterprise, an enterprise search tool, has been selected by Nottingham University to enable the retrieval of information across a five-year clinical trial by its Division of Stroke Medicine into the causes and effects of strokes. The trial team is gathering and analysing information from more than 500 patients and several governing bodies in over 20 countries, including the UK, the United States, China, India and Australia.
Sexual Health

Editorial Calls Supreme Court's Pregnancy Leave Decision 'Not Just'

"The Supreme Court keeps finding ways to deny women equal pay and benefits," a New York Times editorial states in response to the court"s 7-2 ruling on Monday that employers are not required to award women credit toward pension benefits for pregnancy leave taken before Congress passed the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act. According to the Times, the ruling reflects reasoning similar to the court"s 2007 decision in which it denied former Goodyear employee Lilly Ledbetter"s "claim for equal pay because it thought she waited too long to file it." In Monday"s decision, the majority "reasoned mainly that the pregnancy leaves predated the 1978 law, and since the law was not retroactive, the discrepancy in benefits was the product of "past completed events that were entirely lawful at the time they occurred,"" the editorial states. It notes that the majority included "two generally reliable votes for equality, Justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter." The editorial continues, "This may sound logical, but it is not just." The editorial says that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in writing the dissent, "quite correctly" recognized a company"s "ongoing denial of equal benefits not as past discriminatory behavior that started and ended decades ago, but as a current violation of the act." In a similar way, "Goodyear discriminated against Lilly Ledbetter by maintaining her unequal pay for years, not merely the first time the company underpaid her." The Times calls on Congress to "write corrective legislation" on pregnancy leave (New York Times, 5/21). Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women"s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women"s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company. © 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.


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