Some needle exchange programs are giving heroin addicts prescriptions for naloxone, a drug with the potential to halt an overdose. More than 400 deaths nationwide from heroin laced with the painkiller fentanyl have occurred nationwide, and those who are prescribing the drug, which is sold under the brand name Narcon, say it can save lives.

Prevention Point Philadelphia, a nonprofit that runs the city's needle exchange program, recently began distributing naloxone prescriptions through a physician

The American Medical Association's (AMA) National House Call campaign recently visited Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida to urge senior citizens and military families who reside in the state to contact their Congressional representatives to stop the Medicare physician payment cuts.

The AMA says that if changes aren't made in Congress soon, physicians' Medicare payments will be dramatically cut as of January 1, 2007. This will, in effect, force doctors to limit the acceptance of new Medicare patients

An Indian government-backed report released Thursday says India's economy could suffer if the country fails to check the spread of HIV and Aids. The document said economic growth, which currently stands at 8%, could fall by nearly 1% if the disease is left to spread at its present rate.

A BBC report quotes the report, from the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), as saying, "Economic growth could decline by 0.86 percentage points... and per capita gross domestic product by 0.55 percentage points

New India Assurance Company Limited is introducing a unique insurance plan for people living in rural areas through the local self-government institutions (LSGIs) in the State.

The General Insurance Service Through Local Administrative Bodies (GISLAB) aims are at expanding general insurance coverage to the rural population. This program itself is expected to provide employment for 8,000 individuals

On Monday public health officials said if current trends continue, tobacco will kill a billion people in the 21st century -- 10 times the number of tobacco-related deaths that occurred in the 20th century.

Two new publications were released Monday at an International Union Against Cancer Conference -- The new Cancer Atlas and the updated Tobacco Atlas, both published by the American Cancer Society with help from the Union, WHO and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention