Steve Baragona A dangerous influenza virus spreading in China’s live poultry markets has the potential to become a worldwide pandemic, researchers say. They are calling for these markets to be permanently closed to protect global public health. H7N9 flu has infected roughly 650 people, mostly in China. Almost all of those patients had contact with […]readmore
ISLAMABAD—Authorities in Pakistan have arrested more than 470 parents and issued warrants for hundreds of others for refusing to have their children vaccinated against polio. The crackdown is part of renewed efforts to eradicate the crippling disease from Pakistan, one of only three countries where polio remains endemic. The arrests took place during a fresh […]readmore
he outbreak of measles in the United States — more than 100 cases so far — has just about everyone weighing in, from public health officials to parents to doctors and even the president himself. Health officials are adamant. They say vaccines work and are safe. Top U.S. doctors are urging parents to have their […]readmore
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A 29-year-old terminally ill woman who plans to take her life under Oregon’s death-with-dignity law has fulfilled a wish on her bucket list: She visited the Grand Canyon. Brittany Maynard visited the national park with her family last week. Maynard, who has advanced brain cancer, has said she plans to take […]readmore
A man from Bulgaria, paralyzed from the chest down, has regained feeling in his legs and is able to walk with the aid of parallel bars and leg braces, after nose cells were transplanted into his damaged spinal cord. The man also reportedly can drive a car. Investigators say the former firefighter has recovered some […]readmore
It’s going to be more difficult to refill prescriptions for the most popular painkillers starting today, when new federal rules move products with hydrocodone into a stricter drug class reserved for the most dangerous and addictive substances. In approving the change, the Drug Enforcement Administration cited the 7 million Americans who abuse prescription drugs and the […]readmore
(Picture is the ambulance that transported Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, to the Nebraska Medical Center’s specialized isolation unit in Omaha, Nebraska, Oct. 6, 2014.) WHITE HOUSE—President Barack Obama says the United States is considering additional measures to screen passengers for Ebola. The measures would be taken at airports both in […]readmore
American-British Scientist John O’Keefe and Norwegians May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for their work in discovering the brain’s inner navigation system. The Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said Monday the laureates answered the question of how the brain maps spaces and allows beings to move through complex environments. O’Keefe, […]readmore
BANGKOK—A day after Thai medical scientists claimed they made a breakthrough in the search for a treatment for the Ebola virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health have offered to assist Thailand in vetting and testing the experimental treatment. Thai research scientists at Mahidol University’s Siriraj Hospital, Thursday said […]readmore
The governor of Texas says some school-age children had contact with an Ebola patient now hospitalized in the city of Dallas. Governor Rick Perry says the children are being monitored for signs of Ebola, and that health authorities are seeking out others who came into contact with the man, a Liberian national who is the […]readmore