Health News

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. Read More

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. Read More

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. Read More

The World Health Organization's flu chief said the swine flu virus has now become the predominant flu strain worldwide. Read More

A doctors group is under fire for accepting funding from the Coca-Cola Co. for educational materials on soft drink consumption. The American Academy of Family Physicians says Coke will have no influence over its message, but critics say the arrangement will water down information about soda's harmful effects on health. Read More

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. Read More

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that pigs in a commercial herd in Indiana have tested positive for swine flu, making it the first time the virus has been found in such hogs. Read More

A 13-year-old Iowa cat has been infected with swine flu, veterinary and federal officials said Wednesday in what is believed to be the first case of the H1N1 virus in a feline in the United States. Read More

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. Read More

Men may protect more than their hearts if they keep cholesterol in line: Their chances of getting aggressive prostate cancer may be lower, new research suggests. Read More

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. Read More

Russia and Slovakia tightened their borders with Ukraine on Tuesday as the World Health Organization began investigating a suspected swine flu outbreak. Read More

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. Read More

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. Read More

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. Read More

Researchers who poured over 30 years of national data say that nearly half of all American children -- and 90 percent of black youngsters -- will receive food stamps sometime during their childhood. And current economic woes, according to the scientists, could push those numbers even higher. Read More

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. Read More

A single dose of the swine flu vaccine works well for almost all pregnant women, but young children will still need two doses for best results, federal health officials said Monday. Read More

Independent health advisers begin monitoring safety of the swine flu vaccine on Monday, an extra step the government promised in this year's unprecedented program to watch for possible side effects. Read More

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. Read More