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Report Looks At HIV Prevalence Among Chicago Gay Men
In Chicago, 17.4 percent of gay men are estimated to be HIV-positive, compared with 1.2 percent of the general male population, according to a new report by the Chicago Public Health Department, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The report is based on data collected from 570 Chicago men through the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system, and found that half of the men with HIV were unaware they were infected (Thomas, 7/25). "Health officials said Friday, information in the report on HIV infection mark the first time Chicago health officials have used blood-testing to determine infection rates among men," the AP/Chicago Tribune reports. In the past, estimates have relied on interviews with gay and bisexual men, according to Christopher Brown, the Public Health Department assistant commissioner. The report also found that "black men who have sex with other men have double the HIV infection rates of white and Hispanic men," the AP/Tribune reports (7/24).

Eversheds Comment: NHS Told To Tighten Data Security
Following calls from the information commissioner for the NHS to improve its data security, after breaches involving the loss of thousands of personal medical records, Bill Gilliam, head of the health sector group at international law firm Eversheds comments:
News of the day
Leading Health Organizations Launch New Accreditation Process For Laboratories Across Africa
Government health officials from 13 African countries today launched the first-ever push for accreditation of the continent"s medical laboratories, starting a process that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Government believe will be an historic step to strengthen health systems and lead to better care for patients.
Nutrition

Nursing Shortage Eases With Recession's Help

"The nation"s deep recession is helping to alleviate the decade-long nursing shortage, as workers who had left the field in better times are returning in droves," the Wall Street Journal reports. The paper quotes a study, one of six papers on the nursing workforce published today in the journal Health Affairs, that found "nearly a quarter-million nurses entered the work force in 2007-08, an 18% surge that was the largest two-year increase in at least three decades." Many of them had left nursing, but "re-entered the work force to compensate for a spouse"s lost income or health benefits, the study said." The increase is "particularly remarkable at a time when the U.S. economy has shed more than six million jobs, helping to solidify the profession"s "recession-proof" image." The study found that the surge in new nurses is due to "efforts to expand nursing schools, attract more young people into the field and improve working conditions," along with an increase in the number of foreign-born nurses. "But long-term projections still indicate that the nursing shortage will widen over the next decade as the economy improves and the current, aging work force retires." The study estimates a shortage of about 260,000 nurses by 2020 (Evans in the WSJ, 6/12, Buerhaus, Auerbach, Staiger in Health Affairs, 6/12). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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