Health News

Tobacco use kills at least 5 million people every year, a figure that could rise if countries don't take stronger measures to combat smoking, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. Read More

The Food and Drug Administration still hasn't restructured its staff to better monitor drug safety, more than three years after experts recommended key changes in the wake of the Vioxx scandal. Read More

A handful of pets have been sickened with swine flu in recent weeks, but here are doctors' orders: Wash your hands and don't panic. Read More

British researchers say there is little evidence Tamiflu stops complications in healthy people who catch the flu, though public health officials contend the swine flu drug reduces flu hospitalizations and deaths. Read More

The United States ranks near the bottom in life expectancy among wealthy nations despite spending more than double per person on health care than the industrialized world's average, an economic group said Tuesday. Read More

Colon cancer deaths could drop dramatically in the next decade because of better screening and treatment, according to an optimistic new prediction by top researchers. Read More

Talk about unnecessary misery: One in five Medicare patients winds up back in the hospital within a month _ even worse, one in four patients with heart failure. Read More

Pet frogs are being blamed for a national salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 48 people. Read More

Federal health regulators are investigating reports of dangerous radiation levels at two more California hospitals, following earlier unsafe medical scans at a Los Angeles facility. Read More

South Africa announced ambitious new plans Tuesday for earlier and expanded treatment for HIV-positive babies and pregnant women, a change that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the nation hardest hit by the virus that causes AIDS. Read More

Swine flu infections continue to wane, just as vaccine is becoming plentiful enough that some communities are allowing everyone to get it, not just those in priority groups. Read More

Doctors and hospitals should stop using a device from Steris Corp. to sterilize surgical tools after reports of malfunction, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Read More

Two Brazilian officials accompanying President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on a trip to Germany have been diagnosed with swine flu. Read More

Pharmaceutical executives laid out plans Friday to prevent the misuse of prescription painkillers, under pressure from regulators trying to stop hundreds of fatal overdoses each year. Read More

It was a story meant to captivate the United Nations: A dozen Cuban children with heart defects were forced to endure unnecessary surgery because the U.S. embargo blocked them from receiving American-made catheters. Read More

The European Medicines Agency warns that young children given GlaxoSmithKline's swine flu shot may get a fever after their second dose. Read More

Health officials are warning the public about fake e-mails inviting people to sign up for swine flu vaccine registrations. Read More

The new U.S. Surgeon General on Thursday called for stepped-up efforts in increasing the number of minority physicians. Read More

When pregnant Cambodian women suffer morning sickness, they often reach for an unlikely source of relief: a wad of chewing tobacco. Read More

Hospitals are giving faster care to lots more heart attack patients, a speed-up sure to be saving lives. Read More