Greis-nn

A quick day off – and then off to the mall or the movies? As of today, Monday, that will be expensive: those who are neither vaccinated nor recovering will still need Quick tests – must reach for it however now into the bag. And possibly also accept significantly longer distances. Because: With the end of the free citizen tests also the offer at test places is likely to reduce clearly.

The prere is on. The end for the state Free offer should not only save costs, but also convince the unvaccinated to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Finally, immunization is free – testing costs, on the other hand, will be based on demand and are expected to rise in the coming weeks.

Corona tests to be charged as of this Monday

"Everyone for whom it is recommended and who wants to, could now be vaccinated. We have kept this promise. Therefore, citizen tests will be free from Monday only for those for whom there is no recommended vaccination," said Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn this editorial office. That are in particular children and young people.

The U.S. presidential election has brought new relevance to an irritant topic: Price excesses for medicines are an excellent way to raise the profile of a company. The fight against "profiteering" in the pharmaceutical sector was written on the banner of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton more than a year ago. Her Republican opponent Donald Trump also picked up on the theme. The industry now needs to rethink and is looking for new approaches to pricing. "The old way of pricing our drugs based on ampoules or milligrams is really no longer appropriate in the current environment. We need more flexible solutions," says Jens Gruger, Head of Global Pricing Market Access at Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche.

Until now, there have been few limits to what pharmaceutical companies can charge for their drugs in the United States. In some cases, this led to astronomically high prices and outright scandals – for example, when it became known at what a premium the drug EpiPen for the treatment of allergic shocks from Mylan was sold, or the drug Daraprim against toxoplasmosis from Turing Pharmaceuticals. Debt-ridden governments, health insurers and patients have been questioning the pricing practices of pharmaceutical companies for some time now. Health systems are reaching their limits, partly because therapies are becoming more complex. Especially in cancer treatment, which is already expensive, two or more drugs are often used at the same time.

No matter who moves into the White House as president, the pharmaceutical industry will be more scrutinized when it comes to pricing in the future. However, stricter rules are likely to make the industry's revenues less abundant. The U.S. is by far the most important market for the one-trillion-dollar industry – it generates 40 percent of its sales there. And the groups earn well, in the operational business remain fast once 30 per cent or more of the conversion. This is difficult to reconcile with the argument that high prices are necessary to fund expensive research and keep reserves for failures.

US doctors say they have succeeded in curing a baby infected with HIV. Virologists presented the case at a professional congress in Atlanta in the US state of Georgia. The HI virus had not completely disappeared from the body of the child. However, he said, the amount of viruses is now so small that the child's immune system can control them on its own. Supportive treatment was no longer needed. "You can consider this case that we've seen as close to a cure, if not a cure," Die Welt quotes Anthony Fauci, immunologist at the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH).

The HI virus had been detected in the child's mother only when she was already in labor. Doctors at the University of Mississippi began antiretroviral therapy on the infant just 30 hours after birth – even though an infection with HIV had not yet been confirmed. Early treatment stopped the disease before the virus could form dormant cells, The World quotes Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins Children's Center as saying. HI viruses can settle in the lymph nodes and remain inactive there for years as dormant cells. If treatment is discontinued because no active pathogens are detected in the blood, it is possible for the viruses to "wake up" again and spread.

This is why experts react skeptically to the sensational news from the U.S. "We have observed so many patients who have received highly active antiretroviral treatment – including children – and we have never seen a cure," says Bernhard Ruf, an AIDS expert at Klinikum St. Georg in Leipzig in an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung. He said it should not be believed that therapy can completely destroy the virus and that an infected person can eventually stop taking their medication. "For me, the state of knowledge is still: once HIV – always HIV, once treatment – lifelong treatment," Ruf says.

Unemployment harms not only one's own psyche, but to an almost equal extent that of one's partner, according to a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). Whether the husband or wife loses his or her job does not make much difference.

"Both partners suffer significantly. However, since calculations have so far only taken into account the negative consequences for the unemployed person himself, but not for his partner, the costs incurred in the health care system are systematically underestimated," says DIW health expert Jan Marcus.

People who lose their jobs live unhealthier lives, smoke more often, divorce more often and die earlier. Many scientific studies have shown that. Almost all of these studies, however, focus on the unemployed person himself and not on his partner living with him in the same household.