Chair of the AMA’s Public Health Committee, Dr John Gullotta, said that Labor’s decision to support the Medicare Safety Net will bring comfort to Australian families who battle with medical bills.Dr Gullotta said bipartisan support for the Safety Net was overdue but welcome. [click link for full article]

The American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) announced that it will contribute $10,000 to Hurricane Katrina-related rebuilding efforts, with $5,000 being donated to the Katrina Outreach Program of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and $5,000 being donated to the Touro Infirmary in Louisiana. The Katrina Outreach Program supports lawyers and counselors in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area who provide counseling to those experiencing depression and post-storm type trauma. [click link for full article]

The Royal College of Physicians welcomes the recognition by the House of Lords of the key role of allergy specialists in providing a comprehensive network of expert services, and the important role of many of its physician specialties in providing the best care for patients with allergic diseases. [click link for full article]

Almost three months after rains began, millions of people across Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan are still affected by the flooding and landslides. Throughout the region, UNICEF and partners have been working to prevent outbreaks of diseases, addressing the health and nutritional status of women and children and making every effort to get children back into school. [click link for full article]

After just three months of smokefree public places in England, research published by ASH (Action on Smoking & Health), Asthma UK and the British Thoracic Society shows 97% of smokers are respecting the ban fully or quitting smoking completely, leaving the rest of us to breathe a sigh of relief. Three quarters (73%) of adults say the new law has been good for their health. [click link for full article]

Proposals to prevent a repeat of this year’s ‘MTAS’* medical training disaster are unsatisfactory, the BMA says yesterday. It warns that any computer system to recruit junior doctors in future must be “tested to destruction”, and says there should be no limit on the number of applications they can make. The English Department of Health is currently consulting on a new system to select junior doctors for specialist training in England in 2008. [click link for full article]

The exceptionally heavy seasonal rains have displaced large populations in the West and Central African regions. The most affected and of immediate concern are Ghana, Togo and Burkina Faso. Since the rains began four weeks ago, UNICEF and other humanitarian agencies have also been assisting people in several other countries, mainly Mauritania, Nigeria and Mali. [click link for full article]

Hormone therapy taken in the first few years after menopause does not appear to affect a woman’s memory, but may lead to increased sexual interest, according to a study published in the September 25, 2007, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. [click link for full article]

A federal program that pays the Medicare Part B premium for low-income people with Medicare will end on September 30 unless Congress extends the program.”Congress must not turn its back on older and disabled Americans with low incomes who depend on Medicare premium support to allow them to afford Medicare,” said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a national consumer group. [click link for full article]

UNICEF expressed its deep concern over the situation of some 300,000 people affected by flooding in eastern and northern Uganda. The large majority of them are children and women. The worst flooding to hit Uganda in decades, the aftermath of steady rains since July, has forced an estimated 200,000 people from their homes and in need of immediate, emergency shelter and household items to ward off disease and stave off further casualties. [click link for full article]