Health News

Drug companies would no longer be able to mine pharmacy records to track which doctors are prescribing their medications, under a proposal unveiled Thursday by two Senate Democrats. Read More

Swine flu has sickened about 50 million Americans, and killed about 10,000, according to new estimates released by federal health officials on Thursday. Read More

New results from a landmark women's health study raise the exciting possibility that bone-building drugs such as Fosamax and Actonel may help prevent breast cancer. Read More

Federal health advisers are recommending the use of an experimental Gilead Sciences drug to treat a form of lung infection. Read More

Is Mozart good for babies? Read More

Swine flu is far less dangerous than originally feared, British officials said Thursday _ about 100 times less lethal than the 1918 Spanish flu. Read More

The Dutch government said Thursday it will vaccinate all goats and sheep in the country against Q fever and kill many pregnant goats to rein in an outbreak that has caused the deaths of six people in 2009. Read More

Health officials in Vietnam are reporting what appears to be the largest cluster yet of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu cases _ seven people who traveled together on a long train ride. Read More

President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday the government is spending almost $600 million for community health centers and for a push to transfer medical records to electronic formats. Read More

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

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