Health Buzz: Fighting Tuberculosis and Other Health News

WHO: More Needs to Be Done to Fight Tuberculosis

Stronger healthcare systems and improved medications and tests for tuberculosis infections are needed to fight a "potentially explosive" increase in difficult-to-treat TB strains, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan said today. Speaking to health ministers and senior officials from 27 nations at the start of a three-day meeting in Beijing about drug-resistant TB, Chan said that more must be done to fight the illness, the Associated Press reports. "I urge you to make the right policy decisions with appropriate urgency," Chan said. "At a time of economic downturn, the world simply cannot afford to let a threat of this magnitude, complexity, and cost spiral out of control."

Getting treated for drug-resistant TB infection can be a complex, grueling process. TB is also one of 12 diseases that have altered history.

Why Choosing to Get Your Child Vaccinated Against HPV Is a Tough Call

The decision to vaccinate a child with Gardasil, which protects against the cervical cancer-causing human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a very complex one. Parents certainly need to be told about the known risks—including allergic reactions and fainting—and may be justified in using caution if their daughter previously had a bad reaction (like spiked fevers or seizures) to a different vaccine, Deborah Kotz reports. What's more, all parents need to understand that Gardasil protects against the strains that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers, not all. So vaccinated women still need Pap smears for early detection.

Choosing whether to use the HPV vaccine can be a difficult decision, both for parents of teens and preteens and for older women. The mother and father of one teen, who recently died after becoming ill with a degenerative muscle disease, say they think the HPV vaccine played a role in their daughter's illness. Also, explore whether parents should get their sons circumcised in order to prevent HPV infections.

COBRA Basics: Temporary Health Insurance Is Now More Affordable

In this era of large-scale layoffs, most people know all too well what COBRA stands for: expensive health insurance. Workers who leave their jobs can generally continue coverage under their former employer's group health insurance plan for 18 months, but only if they pay the entire premium themselves, plus a 2 percent administrative fee that the employer can and usually does add on, Michelle Andrews reports. Its high cost explains at least in part why only about a quarter of people who are eligible for COBRA coverage generally take it. However, with February's passage of an economic stimulus plan that subsidizes 65 percent of COBRA costs for up to nine months, an additional 7 million people are expected to sign on.

Confused about COBRA? Learn some of the basics and browse these 8 questions you may have about the new COBRA subsidy.

—January W. Payne

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