Generate an explanation for the given claim using the provided supporting material from the paragraph. Please consider the following points while generating an output. 1) The claim will always have supporting proof in the paragraph, and the paragraph will have a clear point of view supporting the claim. 2) There can be instances where direct correlation to the claim is not available. Make use of the sentences in the paragraph to provide a corresponding output supporting the claim. 3) The explanation should be at least one and at most twelve sentences long.

Q: Paragraph: The release makes no mention of the cost of the drug in question, Tenofovir. A web search found that the cost for a month’s supply of the antiviral drug averages just over $1,000. For some patients, that cost may be prohibitive. The cost is an issue of particular concern for developing countries, but it is also true that the price may be much lower for them than in the United States. Many pharmaceutical companies offer their drugs at steeply discounted rates in poorer countries to expand access to life-saving medicines. The release clearly says that 68 percent of women receiving the drug reduced their viral load while only 2 percent of the women in the control group had that success. It also says that the transmission of hepatitis B from mother to newborn dropped from 18 percent to 5 percent, an important clinical outcome. The release includes a discussion of harms. It states that “tenofovir was well tolerated; only one participant treated with tenofovir voluntarily withdrew from the study due to nausea.”  It also says that researchers “found no significant differences between the tenofovir-treated group and the control group with regard to fetal development and infant growth.”  Lastly, it calls for longer term, observational studies to confirm the safety of fetal exposure to tenofovir treatment. The release provides a good overview of the randomized, placebo-controlled trial which was undertaken to gauge the efficacy of the drug in both reducing the viral load of hepatitis-B-positive mothers and reducing the rate of transmission of the disease from mother to newborn. It offers solid, numerical evidence of both outcomes. It describes the number of patients (200 pregnant women), defined what constituted a “high” viral load, and described the approximate length of treatment. It did omit a mention of whether the trial was blinded. This release does not commit disease mongering. The release notes that the research is funded by Gilead Sciences. It should also have mentioned that a corresponding author disclosed speaking and advising fees from Gilead, according to the published study. The release is comparing the use of an antiviral drug given to pregnant women versus the normal procedure of giving both a vaccine and immune globulin. The release doesn’t mention that tenofovir (marketed as Viread), the drug being tested, is already an FDA approved drug so many readers may not know that it’s available. It was approved by the FDA in 2001 for HIV and in 2008 for chronic hepatitis B. The release just barely implies novelty with this statement which suggests a change in treating infected women who are pregnant: “Based on the findings, the investigators recommend that women be tested for HBV viral load at week 28 of pregnancy. Those with a high viral load should receive tenofovir treatment starting at gestational week 30 until delivery to reduce the risk of transmission to their infants.” While the drug itself isn’t novel, positive outcomes from a controlled trial on pregnant women carrying the virus does seem to introduce a new treatment approach. This release does not use any unjustifiable language. Claim: Antiviral Treatment During Pregnancy Reduces Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B

A: This news release describes a clinical trial testing whether an antiviral drug given to pregnant women in their third trimester reduces their hepatitis B viral load. The study also examined whether the drug limits the transmission of the virus from mother to baby. The answers to both questions are yes, suggesting a new strategy for dealing with the spread of this disease. The release does a good job describing harms, quantifying benefits and describing the study protocol. Because the cost of hepatitis drugs has been widely debated for the past few years, a mention of the drug’s cost would have made the release stronger. Almost 240 million people are infected with hepatitis B virus and about 780,000 die each year from the disease, according to the World Health Organization. The hepatitis B virus infects the liver and while many recover with treatment, it can become a chronic infection. Babies and young children infected with the virus are more likely to develop chronic hepatitis B. If administering a drug to infected mothers reduces the proportion of newborns getting the disease, it would be a considerable improvement in public health.
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Q: Paragraph: Honor, a 10-month-old colt with Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses, trotted into the hearts of dozens of children and teens being treated at the Manhattan hospital. Just a handful of young patients were well enough to secure their doctors’ permission to meet Honor in person in a hospital playroom, while others watched him from their beds, viewing an internal television broadcast in their rooms and isolation units. Maria Benitez, who is 19 but looks much younger, broke into a smile when Honor pranced into the playroom. The hospital declined to elaborate on details of Benitez’s medical condition, saying only she is currently being treated as an outpatient. While Maria said her favorite animal is a horse, this one was quite different from what she expected. “He’s smaller,” Maria whispered, staring at the chestnut horse with black eyes. “They are little horses, but they have big jobs,” said Jorge Garcia-Bengochea, co-founder of Gentle Carousel. Miniature horses have comforted trauma victims after such tragedies as the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the 2013 tornadoes that devastated Oklahoma and the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. They also work with families of police officers who have died in the line of duty. “They are herd animals, so they are very intuitive of what other horses are doing, needing. And they treat people that same way. They sense different emotions, different feelings that children have,” Garcia-Bengochea said. “Children have been through very traumatic situations and they’ve shut down. Just being around the animal, they get animated, they start talking and they actually sometimes tell the horse things that they haven’t told other people,” he said. In the hospital, the tiny equines serve as a symbol of hope and beauty, conjuring up an image of outdoor activities, running and strength, said Diane Rode, who heads up the hospital’s child creative arts therapy unit. “When you’re in the hospital, you’re dealing with pain, anxiety, isolation, and it’s easy to get stuck in that. Focusing on the miniature horses creates a relationship back to the world and an interest and pleasure in the world we are working to foster,” she said. “Children need more than medicine to get better,” Rode added. (This version of the story corrects the last name in paragraph four to Benitez) Claim: For New York hospital's patients, miniature horses are a strong medicine.

A: Some of the most powerful medicine delivered to young patients at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on Wednesday came in a package less than 32 inches tall and with a tail.
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Q: Paragraph: Since the De Queen Medical Center Inc. closed, residents have had to travel at least 30 miles (50 kilometers) for medical care at hospitals in Howard and Little River counties or McCurtain County in Oklahoma. Dr. Steve Cole, the county’s Rural Development Authority chairman, said Thursday that building a hospital would ensure the community has access to health care, the Texarkana Gazette reported. “We want a hospital to be run by people who care,” said Cole. “We want to make sure people receive proper health care.” De Queen Mayor Jeff Brown said that he backs the proposed sale tax increase. It remains uncertain how much the sales tax would need to be hiked or when it would be put on the ballot, according to the county’s officials. An online sales tax handbook guide shows that the current sales tax rate in De Queen, Arkansas, is 9.625%, with Sevier County receiving slightly more than 2%. The De Queen Medical Center was recently put into receivership to prevent owners Jorge Perez and Ricardo Perez from spending or transferring the facility’s assets. Sevier County Circuit Judge Tom Cooper chose director of nursing Rachel Matheson as the medical center’s receiver. “DMCI is insolvent and unable to pay its debts as they become due. Employees of DMCI have either been laid off or have quit their employment because they have not been paid. Further, health care professionals essential to the operation of DMCI and to continued licensure of the hospital have discontinued providing medical services,” according to an order that Cooper signed last month. Cole said he admires the hospital’s 34 employees who worked without being compensated prior to the facility closing. “They were the 34 heroes. Few people would do what they did and not get paid,” said Cole. ___ Information from: Texarkana Gazette, http://www.texarkanagazette.com Claim: Sevier County may consider sales tax hike to build hospital.

A:
Voters in Sevier County could be asked to approve a higher sales tax to subsidize the construction of a hospital after the county’s lone facility shut down last month, officials said.
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