Houston’s Riverside General Hospital will receive a $1 million grant from the Department of Defense to treat active-duty troops and veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, officials announced Monday. The historically black facility will accept TRICARE, the health plan for military personnel and their families. “Our commitment will be ongoing and forever,” said Riverside President Earnest Gibson III, speaking to veterans who attended a ceremony in the hospital’s lobby Monday afternoon. “You are the true heroes. How do you treat your…

In 2004, a New Mexico Department of Health report urged “prompt action now” on the development of a stroke prevention and treatment program. Since then, more than 3,000 New Mexicans have died and 7,500 have been disabled because of stroke. Hundreds have been institutionalized. The report also recommended that a minimum of four hospitals in the state – including one in Las Cruces – become certified primary stroke centers Six years later, the state has one such center. The lack…

Only two years ago, San Antonio’s medical community was embarrassed and frustrated that the city had no hospital certified to provide emergency care for stroke patients — unlike other large Texas cities that had several and many small cities with at least one. That was then. As of last week, San Antonio was home to more stroke centers — eight — than any other Texas city except Houston, which also has eight. And with two more Methodist Healthcare System hospitals…

Loretta Bobb, 51, woke up at 5 a.m., sweating and gasping for a breath. She stumbled outside her South Dallas home for fresh air. Bobb figured she was having a heart attack. Emergency room physicians concluded she was suffering a stroke from untreated diabetes. She had no idea she had diabetes. That was 11 months ago. She hasn’t seen a doctor since then. Because of too many cases like Bobb’s, Baylor Health Care System is investing $15 million to address…

By Richard Simon and Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times House Democrats kill a $24-billion fund to help cash-strapped states cover costs. States are lobbying hard to have it restored, warning of further devastating cuts to healthcare and social services. Reporting from Washington and Sacramento — With the federal deficit a growing political liability, lawmakers in Congress are backing off plans to send more aid to financially strapped states, putting in jeopardy billions of dollars that California and others were counting…

Stop TB USA partner the Migrant Clinicians Network’s (MCN) TBNet project has been selected as the 2010 Border Models of Excellence in Tuberculosis Surveillance and Control recipient by the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission (USMBHC). TBNet is a transborder patient navigation project that has transferred more than 4,000 individuals under treatment for TB from the US to 60 different countries across the globe. “TBNet is to be recognized as a vital and integral part of tuberculosis work along the U.S.-Mexico border.”…

Cancer could claim 13.3 million lives a year by 2030, the World Health Organisation’s cancer research agency said Tuesday, almost double the 7.6 million deaths from the illness in 2008. A new calculation tool by the International Agency for Research on Cancer forecast that in 2030, new cases of cancer would soar to 21.3 million, and that 13.3 million people would die from the disease. Freddie Bray, a scientist in charge of the study on 27 types of cancer, said…

Many Americans do not think twice about taking medicines to prevent heart disease and stroke. But cancer is different. Much of what Americans do in the name of warding off cancer has not been shown to matter, and some things are actually harmful. Yet the few medicines proved to deter cancer are widely ignored. Take prostate cancer, the second-most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, surpassed only by easily treated skin cancers. More than 192,000 cases of it will…

For those in line midday at the fourth H1N1 vaccination clinic hosted by the county, it took less than 10 minutes to receive a vaccine. From the car, to waiting in line, to actually receiving the vaccination, it didn’t take long Thursday as workers with the Yuma County Public Health Services District held the fourth vaccination clinic in Yuma County. There was a line when the clinic first began at 10 a.m., said Mike Lebrun, who helps coordinate logistics for…

Health Net of California yesterday launched a cross-border health insurance plan in San Diego County targeting Latino workers in the region who want to receive medical services from doctors in both the United States and Mexico. Salud HMO y Ma?s, which translates to “Health HMO and More,” will be marketed primarily to small businesses in the county that employ Latino workers who live just across the border or have immediate family members there. “Salud HMO y Ma?s is a product…