Genitourinary Injuries Added To VA Traumatic Injury Benefits WASHINGTON—VA has expanded traumatic injury benefits to include troops who suffered injuries in the genitourinary organs during their service. These servicemembers will now be eligible for Servicemember Group Life Insurance Traumatic Injury Protection. According to VA, military physicians are reporting seeing an increase in these types of injuries in correlation with the increased use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan and previously in Iraq. More
TRICARE Mail Order Pharmacy Incentives Alarm Community Pharmacies An Obama administration proposal that affects drug co-pays in TRICARE has raised concerns from trade groups representing community pharmacies, which, in 2010, filled 40% of TRICARE prescriptions.The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) joined together to send letters to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, asking members to turn away a proposal that would charge TRICARE beneficiaries higher prices if they used community pharmacies instead of mail-order services.More
Lax Oversight of Outside Care Busts Phoenix VA's Budget PHOENIX — Extremely lax oversight of the use of outside care was blamed for a budget crisis at the Phoenix VA Healthcare System, according to a recently-released report from the VA Inspector General. The Arizona health system was forced to cut its budget by $11.4 million after it spent more for non-VA care at other nearby hospitals than it had anticipated in 2010. More
Specialty Update: Hepatitis
Hepatitis E Threatens Military Forces but U.S. Has Kept It Well-Controlled Since its discovery in the early 1980s, hepatitis E has been a potent threat to military forces around the world. At one point, the U.S. military was concerned enough to fund intensive research on a vaccine to protect against Hepevirus, most often transmitted by fecal contamination of drinking water. The threat has never really materialized for U.S. troops, however, because it is effectively controlled by strict guidelines for food and drinking water, even in areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan where the disease is a problem. More
VA Looks to New Treatments to Combat Alarming Rise in HCV-Related Cancer Alarmed by a near tripling of the number of veterans developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) during the past five years, VA has strengthened its programs for the prevention, screening and treatment of veterans with hepatitis C (HCV), which is a major risk for developing the cancer. VA also is revamping practice guidelines for the use of promising new drugs. More
Specialty Update: Sleep
Adequate Sleep Matters for Soldiers at Risk for Suicide WASHINGTON — Insomnia symptoms may be an important predictor of suicidal ideation in military troops, a recent study found. For the study, researchers evaluated 311 soldiers (255 men and 56 women) who were recruited as part of a treatment study for severe suicidality from two outpatient clinics, an inpatient facility and an emergency department. They found that self-reported insomnia symptoms were cross-sectionally associated with suicidal ideation, even after accounting for symptoms of depression, hopelessness, PTSD diagnosis, anxiety symptoms and drug and alcohol abuse. More
Specialty Update: Infectious Disease
HIV Drug Helps Block Herpes Virus A recent discovery by NIH researchers has shown the mechanism by which an anti-HIV drug can stop the spread of the virus that causes genital herpes. Tenofovir, when applied as a vaginal gel, damages a key enzyme in the herpes virus, short-circuiting its ability to replicate. The study, published recently, showed that tenofovir gel, an antiretroviral microbicide, reduced HIV infection by between 39% and 54% overall, depending on adherence. More
Brenda L. Mooney Editorial Director, U.S. Medicine mooney@usmedicine.com 39 York Street Lambertville, NJ 08530
