Cold and flu season are once again upon us; these common respiratory infections are the most common reason for asthma attacks in adults and children. Now is the time to…

A wearable hemodialysis device aimed at improving the quality of life of kidney failure patients has had some promising results, according to an article published in The Lancet, this week’s edition. Approximately 1.3 million people globally have chronic kidney failure that requires either renal transplantation or dialysis - for such patients, the established treatment is hemodialysis. [click link for full article]

European Parliament legislation will improve the regulation of pediatric drug treatment, according to an Editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), this week’s issue. Author, Professor Imti Choonara, University of Nottingham, UK, explains that over the past decade studies have indicated that the use of unlicensed and off-label drugs to treat children is widespread. [click link for full article]

Kenya’s dependency on donor funding is hindering the country’s efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, Allan Ragi, executive director of the Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium, said recently, the East African Standard reports. According to KANCO, donor funding accounts for 98% of the resources needed to run HIV/AIDS initiatives in Kenya. [click link for full article]

A new survey from NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health examined parents’ views in light of recent concerns about the safety and effectiveness of giving over-the-counter cold and cough medications to children, NPR’s ” [click link for full article]

An international team of scientists is urging health professionals to adopt a more social approach to tackling the global obesity epidemic.Writing in this week’s issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Sharon Friel, Principal Research Fellow with the Commission on Social Determinants of Health at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK, and colleagues, suggest a different policy agenda is needed. [click link for full article]

Representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans’ groups testified on Wednesday at a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing examining the issue of suicide, CQ Today reports. [click link for full article]

Summaries of news about children’s health coverage in Montana and Pennsylvania appear below.Montana: A proposed state ballot measure that would extend government-sponsored health coverage to thousands of uninsured children will not include a mandate that could require some parents to purchase private health insurance, state Auditor and Insurance Commissioner John Morrison said on Monday, the [click link for full article]

The House on Wednesday decided to delay until next week a vote on a Medicare package that would delay the scheduled 10% reduction to Medicare physician fees, CongressDaily reports. According to CongressDaily, “Democrats are hoping to win support in the Senate for more than the ‘bare-bones’ fix being proposed by House Republicans, but it is unclear if that will be possible” (Johnson/Bourge, CongressDaily, 12/13). [click link for full article]

Many premature babies face serious health challenges, not the least of which is breathing. But now research suggests that even relatively healthy preemies confront deficits in lung function that last into their second year, if not longer. “We have shown that healthy preterm infants have reduced lung function in the first months of life that persists into the second year of life,” said principle investigator of the research, Marcus Herbert Jones, M.D., Ph.D. [click link for full article]