Arizona Bill Would Require Hospitals Check Citizenship Status of Patients: Health care not sick care

In news from Arizona, Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that would require doctors and nurses to check on the citizenship status of their patients. Under the bill, hospitals would be required—when admitting non-emergency cases— to confirm that a person seeking care is a U.S. citizen or in the country legally. The bill has sparked outrage in the medical profession.

While warning about Fat; US pushes cheese Sales ( 5.3 million given to push high fat cheese, only 6 given to the center for nutrition policy)

Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign.

Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits. “This partnership is clearly working,” Brandon Solano, the Domino’s vice president for brand innovation, said in a statement to The New York Times.

But as healthy as this pizza has been for Domino’s, one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which has been linked to heart disease and is high in calories.

Binayak Sen: redefining health care in an unjust society. "health care is always Political"

On May 14, 2007, Binayak Sen was arrested by the Chattisgarh police under sections of the Chhatisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (2004) for alleged links with the banned Maoist groups (1). His arrest was the upshot of his attempts to raise issues of human rights violation in government-sponsored violence, both within and outside Chattisgarh, in his capacity as the General Secretary, Chattisgarh People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). What makes this event of particular interest to the readers of IJME is that Binayak Sen is a practising doctor who sees his activism as intrinsic to his work as a health professional. Binayak is a graduate of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, an elite institution known for its exceptional teaching. One of the top students of his batch, Binayak completed his post graduation in paediatrics in the early 1970s. For most of the years since then, he has devoted his life to health care in poor communities. For this, in 2004, he was conferred the college’s prestigious Paul Harrison award “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to society”, as stated on the citation presented with the award. His contribution was not seen so much in his capacity as a physician, but (as the citation notes), for having “... redefined the possible role of the doctor in a broken and unjust society, holding the cause much more precious than personal safety”.

Let Us Count the Ways: How Factory Farms Make You Sick

Factory farms makes you sick.

Let us count the ways.

Just last week, more than half a billion eggs recalled.

Why?

Salmonella poisoning.

More than 1,300 people sick.

Just last week, a recall of more than 380,000 pounds of deli meat products distributed nationwide to Wal-Mart stores.

Why?

Possible contamination with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

The bacteria can cause listeriosis – a rare but potentially deadly disease.

Move over Animal Farm.

Here comes Animal Factory.

And the animal factories are dominating the agricultural landscape.

Making us sick and poisoning the environment.

The Obama administration, which ran on a platform to confront factory farming, has done little to confront the problem.

US Accused of Pressuring India to Drop Bhopal Claims

The Obama administration is being accused of leveraging millions in development aid to pressure the Indian government for leniency on the company responsible the 1984 Bhopal industrial gas disaster that left an estimated 15,000 people dead. The company, Union Carbide, is now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical. Dow has faced calls to clean up the contaminated site, increase compensation for victims, and fund studies to assess damages to the environment and public health. India has also demanded the extradition of former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, who fled India shortly after his arrest in the disaster’s aftermath. In a newly disclosed letter to an Indian government official, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Michael Froman appears to link US support for World Bank loans to India with India’s cooperation in easing up on Dow. Froman writes, "We are hearing a lot of noise about the Dow Chemical issue. I trust that you are monitoring it carefully. I am not familiar with all the details, but I think we want to avoid developments which put a chilling effect on our investment relationship." The White House hasn’t denied the email’s authenticity, but says it sees the two issues as unrelated.

Rich Nations Urged to Meet Pledges at Opening of Global AIDS Conference

A major international conference on global AIDS policy is underway in Austria this week. On Sunday, hundreds of people marched through the conference halls demanding rich nations meet their pledges to ensure universal access to AIDS treatment. Julio Montaner of the International AIDS Society criticized wealthy countries for failing to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

Julio Montaner: "I cannot hide my profound disappointment and deep frustration with the recently concluded GI and G20 meetings in anywhere else but Canada, by failing to take full responsibility for the universal access pledge, and, more importantly, for failing to articulate the next steps to meet not just the six MDGs [Millennium Development Goals], but also all of them, because without universal access (to AIDS treatment), there shall be no MDGs by 2015.

Gulf Coast Workers to Have Cleanup Pay Deducted from Claims

Earlier today, BP said the oil spill cleanup has cost nearly $4 billion so far, including $207 million to settle damage claims. Gulf Coast residents meanwhile are voicing outrage over news the government-administered claim fund will subtract any money they earn by working for the cleanup effort from any future claims. Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg says the ruling will apply to anyone who participates in the Vessels of Opportunity program, which has employed hundreds of Gulf Coast residents left out of work because of the spill. A group of fishermen walked out of a public meeting on Friday after Feinberg announced the decision.