In Europe, most swine flu shots by invitation only
LONDON (AP) -- In Britain, there are no long lines of people seeking swine flu vaccine. Doctor's offices aren't swamped with desperate calls. And there are no cries of injustice that the vaccine is going to wealthy corporations or healthy people who don't really need it....
Poll: One-third able to get swine flu vaccine
ATLANTA (AP) -- Only about a third of adults who have tried to get a swine flu vaccine have been able to get it, according to a new national poll released Friday....
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup got swine flu vaccine
NEW YORK (AP) -- Some of New York's biggest companies, including Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, received doses of swine flu vaccine for at-risk employees, drawing criticism that the hard-to-find vaccine is going first to the privileged....
New gene therapy halts 2 boys' rare brain disease
WASHINGTON (AP) -- French scientists mixed gene therapy and bone marrow transplants in two boys to seemingly halt a brain disease that can kill by adolescence. The surprise ingredient: They disabled the HIV virus so it couldn't cause AIDS, and then used it to carry in the healthy new gene....
WHO: Swine flu virus is top strain worldwide
LONDON (AP) -- The World Health Organization's flu chief said the swine flu virus has now become the predominant flu strain worldwide....
Genetic tests for UK asylum seekers draw criticism
LONDON (AP) -- Britain is using genetic tests on some African asylum seekers in an effort to catch those who are lying about their nationality, drawing criticism from scientists and provoking outrage from rights groups....
Officials: Swine flu confirmed in Iowa cat
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A 13-year-old Iowa cat has been infected with swine flu, veterinary and federal officials said Wednesday, and it is believed to be the first case of the H1N1 virus in a feline....
Smart Rx: Drugs that work and won't break the bank
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Last year pharmaceutical companies spent more than $4 billion urging patients like you to "ask your doctor" about their drugs. But if you want a prescription that won't empty your wallet, while still keeping you well, you might start asking your doctor about drugs you don't see on TV....
Premature births worsen US infant death rate
ATLANTA (AP) -- Premature births, often due to poor care of low-income pregnant women, are the main reason the U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than in most European countries, a government report said Tuesday....
Swine flu scare tightens borders around Ukraine
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Russia and Slovakia tightened their borders with Ukraine on Tuesday as the World Health Organization began investigating a suspected swine flu outbreak....
New vaccine offers hope in Africa's malaria battle
SIAYA, Kenya (AP) -- A mother watched with dread as a nurse inserted a tube in her baby's head. Blood streamed into the anemic 4-month-old who already has malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills a million African children every year....
Poor countries see troubling rise in breast cancer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nurses were training women in rural Mexico to examine their breasts for cancer when one raised her hand to object. If she lost her breast, Harvard public health specialist Felicia Knaul recalls the woman saying, "My man would leave me" - and with him, the family's income....
More insurers are paying for alternative remedies
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional Associated Press series on their use and potential risks....
Half of US kids will get food stamps, study says
CHICAGO (AP) -- Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say....
Study ties common antibiotics with birth defects
CHICAGO (AP) -- Researchers studying antibiotics in pregnancy have found a surprising link between common drugs used to treat urinary infections and birth defects. Reassuringly, the most-used antibiotics in early pregnancy - penicillins - appear to be the safest....
Med, nursing schools teaching alternative remedies
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional Associated Press series on their use and potential risks....
Govt says swine flu vaccine catching up to demand
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior adviser to President Barack Obama says the government will catch up to the demand for swine flu vaccine within a week....
Castro: more US visitors mean more Cuban swine flu
HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro has found something to sneeze at in Washington's decision to ease visits by Cuban-Americans to his island: He says more Americans mean more swine flu....
Study finds stroke risk from anemia drug Aranesp
A new study raises fresh safety concerns about widely used anemia medicines, finding that the drug Aranesp nearly doubled the risk of stroke in people with diabetes and chronic kidney problems who are not yet sick enough to need dialysis....
Side effects not always due to swine flu shot
LONDON (AP) -- Hundreds of people on any given day will die, develop the paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome or have spontaneous abortions, and that doesn't necessarily mean that their swine flu vaccination shot was to blame, a new study says....
WHO experts: Single dose swine flu vaccine enough
GENEVA (AP) -- A single dose of swine flu vaccine is enough to immunize adults and children over 10 against the pandemic strain, the World Health Organization said Friday....
Some who get vaccine not in high-risk groups
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It was bound to happen: Some people who aren't at high risk for swine flu complications got the much-in-demand vaccine....
Getting enough sleep? They aren't in West Virginia
ATLANTA (AP) -- Sleepless in Seattle? Hardly. West Virginia is where people are really staying awake, according to the first government study to monitor state-by-state differences in sleeplessness. West Virginians' lack of sleep was about double the national rate, perhaps a side effect of health problems such as obesity, experts said....
Health experts: Kids should get seasonal flu shot
LONDON (AP) -- Dutch scientists made a controversial suggestion Friday that children might be better off skipping the seasonal flu vaccine this year - a proposal flatly rejected by other health experts....
Fight erupts in line at Nevada swine flu clinic
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A fight broke out Thursday at a Reno, Nev., clinic giving shots for swine flu when someone reportedly tried to cut in line....
Obama girls' vaccine: Favoritism or good example?
With Dad a world leader and Nobel Prize winner, Malia and Sasha Obama surely could have been first in line when vaccinations began for swine flu. They weren't, the White House says. But that hasn't stopped complaints that President Barack Obama's daughters got preferential treatment....
Tracking how flu evolves _ it has sticky tricks
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vaccinating more children might help slow the evolution of the constantly changing flu virus, government scientists reported Thursday....
Mecca-bound pilgrims prompt swine flu precautions
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some of the millions who travel to Saudi Arabia next month for the annual hajj will be greeted with face masks, hand sanitizer and fever checks as health officials strive to stem the spread of swine flu during the world's largest pilgrimage....
Novartis says on track to deliver US vaccine order
BASEL, Switzerland (AP) -- Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG said Thursday it is on track to meet its U.S. government order for swine flu vaccine, seeking to calm fears in recent weeks that shipments and vaccination programs may be delayed....
Swine flu prompts hundreds of schools to close
CHICAGO (AP) -- The number of students staying home sick with the flu is multiplying nationwide and normally quiet school nurses' offices suddenly look like big city emergency rooms, packed with students too ill to finish the day....
Scientists patch damaged lungs for transplanting
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Call it a genetic patch job for worn lungs: Canadian researchers took donated lungs deemed too damaged to transplant and repaired them with outside-the-body gene therapy....
As flu shots arrive, government hopes delays fixed
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With more than 23 million doses of swine flu vaccine now available, health officials are visiting vaccine plants to check for any more pending interruptions to what appears to be a slowly but steadily growing supply....
Medicare reverses billing change on Genentech drug
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Medicare officials are backing off a policy that pushed many doctors to use a $2,000 injectable drug for a potentially blinding eye disorder, over a similar treatment that costs about $50....
Swiss gov't wants restrictions on assisted suicide
GENEVA (AP) -- The Swiss government proposed Wednesday to restrict or even ban assisted suicide groups such as Dignitas in a bid to cut down on 'suicide tourism.'...
AIDS experts say Russia needs new HIV strategy
MOSCOW (AP) -- AIDS experts urged Russian officials on Wednesday to scrap their abstinence-based strategy for curbing the spread of HIV, saying the country's fast-growing epidemic could be entering a dangerous new phase....
Alarming weight gain seen in kids on psych drugs
CHICAGO (AP) -- Children on widely used psychiatric drugs can quickly gain an alarming amount of weight; many pack on nearly 20 pounds and become obese within just 11 weeks, a study found....
Correction: FDA drug label story
WASHINGTON AP) (AP) -- In an Oct. 21 story about drug labels, The Associated Press erroneously described the Novartis drug Zometa. Zometa was approved in 2001 to treat excessive calcium levels, not to treat a form of osteoporosis in cancer patients. Also, the drug was approved only in a 4 milligram dose, not in both 4 milligram and 8 milligram doses. A corrected version of the story appears below....
Preventing preemies: New rules limit induced labor
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Labor is becoming less of a late-night surprise, but some hospitals are starting to tighten the rules for elective deliveries - because some babies are being delivered too early....
Debate over swine flu shots in Germany
BERLIN (AP) -- A debate over two different swine flu vaccines overshadowed Germany's launch of a public inoculation program against the pandemic on Monday....
GAO: FDA fails to follow up on unproven drugs
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration has allowed drugs for cancer and other diseases to stay on the market even when follow-up studies showed they didn't extend patients' lives, say congressional investigators....
Video: H1N1's Potentially Deadly Combination
Children are among those hit hard in the H1N1 outbreak. And now, health officials are keeping an eye on a potentially deadly complication. Karen Brown shows us how scary it can be when a child comes down with H1N1 and encephalitis.
Video: Military Base Violence Trend
A deadly rampage at Ft. Hood has sparked concerns about soldiers harming their own. As Armen Keteyian reports, there have been several similar incidences at U.S. military bases.
Video: Protests Against Healthcare Bill
Thousands of protesters arrived outside Capitol Hill to try to stop the passing of a healthcare reform bill. Chip Reid reports.
Video: A Capitol Rumble
According to estimates, thousands protested at the Capitol against the House Democrats health care bill.
Video: Obama: "This Is No Small Endorsement"
President Obama thanked the AARP and AMA for their support of a House healthcare reform bill during a surprise visit to the White House Briefing Room.
Video: Integrating An Ounce Of Prevention
Dr. Jon LaPook investigated Duke Integrative Medicine's non-traditional approach to preventing health issues before they happen. Duke believes this is the future of healthcare.
Experts Say H1N1 Outrunning Vaccine
Washington Post: Even for High-Risk Groups, Vaccinations May Not be Widely Available Until December or January
Video: Obesity an H1N1 Risk Factor
Harry Smith spoke to Dr. Holly Phillips about how morbidly obese people may be in particular danger when contracting H1N1.
Video: Crusade against Bullying
Jaylen Arnold, 9, has Tourette's Syndrome. When he started to get bullied at school, he didn't fight or run away. As Kelly Cobiella reports, Jaylen launched a Web site and its worked wonders.
