International Women’s Day Celebration Taking Place

The public can participate in celebrating International Women’s Day on March 6 by attending the “Celebrating our Power/Building our Skills” event.

The event will take place at the office of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, 400 W. 30th St., Los Angeles. Lunch will be provided.

RSVP information: Martha Dina Arguello, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (and state if you will be bringing children).

First Lady to Governors: Address Child Obesity

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama says child obesity is both a financial and health crisis.

She remarked to governors that nearly one in every three kids in the United States is overweight or obese. The first lady added that many will develop diabetes and other conditions that are costly to treat.

She also remarked to governors at their winter meeting in Washington that states must tackle childhood obesity as part of addressing the overall health care problem.

The first lady is leading a new public awareness campaign against childhood obesity.

Early, Aggressive Therapy Eyed in Blocking AIDS

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Aggressive, early anti-viral therapy might provide a way to derail the spread of AIDS, a battle where a successful vaccine remains elusive.

Called “test-and-treat,” the goal is to catch new AIDS cases early and administer therapy to reduce the amount of virus in patients’ systems in an effort to prevent them from spreading the illness.

While anti-retroviral therapy has increased in the last five years, it has often been given too late in the course of infection. By the time people start therapy, they have infected most of those that they would have infected anyway, Brian Williams of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis told the annual meeting on the American Association for the Advancement of Science Feb. 20.

In America, 20 percent to 25 percent of infected reportedly people don’t know it.

Aggressively testing people for HIV and treating them with anti-retroviral drugs could stop the virus from spreading, Williams said.

Early treatment can reduce the load of virus in the blood to one ten-thousandth of what it would be otherwise. Such a drop makes the carrier just one-twenty-fifth as likely to pass on the infection, Williams said.

Millions of Seniors Face   14 Percent Premium Increase for Popular Medicare Advantage Plans

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of seniors who signed up for popular private health plans through Medicare are facing sharp premium increases this year — another sign that spiraling costs are a problem even for those with solid insurance.

A study released Feb. 19 by a major consulting firm found that premiums for Medicare Advantage plans offering medical and prescription drug coverage jumped 14.2 percent on average in 2010, after an increase of only 5.2 percent the previous year. Some 8.5 million elderly and disabled Americans are in the plans.

“These premium increases fit within a broader trend of increased financial pressure on the insured,” said Lindsey Spindle, a vice president of Avalere Health, the firm that produced the study. “We see very large premium increases and a continued upward creep in how much out-of-pocket expenses beneficiaries are expected to pay.”

The Medicare findings are bad news for President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. That’s because the higher Medicare Advantage premiums for 2010 followed a cut in government payments to the private plans last year. And the Democratic bills pending in Congress call for even more cuts.