LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The head of Michigan’s health agency said Monday, April 25, there was an eight-month gap between when he was made aware of an investigation into a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in the Flint area in January 2015 and when the issue rose to his level again around the time the city’s lead-tainted … Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Jamaica defended its decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana. Iran said it seized 620 tons of different types of drugs last year and is helping protect the world from “the evils of addiction.” Cuba opposed the legalization of drugs or declaring them harmless. The first U.N. General Assembly special … Continue reading
OAK LAWN, Ill. (AP) — It happens every day to the most vulnerable infants in hospital intensive care units: fragile babies born way too soon are poked, prodded and jabbed as part of medical care meant to help them survive — and it can be heart-wrenching to watch. Heel sticks for blood tests, inserting IV … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — They work for the government and even their closest relatives have no idea what they do. It’s not because they’re spies or nuclear scientists, but because their jobs are so arcane: trying to reinvent Medicare to improve it, and maybe save taxpayers money. In a sprawling, nondescript office park near Baltimore, some … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Transplants of insulin-producing pancreas cells are a long hoped-for treatment for diabetes — and a new study shows they can protect the most seriously ill patients from a life-threatening complication of the disease, an important step toward U.S. approval. These transplants are used in some countries but in the U.S. they’re available … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Government health officials will team up with minor league baseball as part of a new $36 million campaign to discourage rural teenagers from using chewing tobacco. Baseball stadiums will feature the campaign’s central message this summer — “smokeless doesn’t mean harmless” — via advertising and promotions with players. Ads will also run … Continue reading
TORONTO (AP) — Canada on Thursday, April 14, introduced a new assisted suicide law that will apply only to citizens and residents, meaning Americans won’t be able to travel to Canada to die. Canadian government officials said a person would have to be eligible for health services in Canada to take advantage of the law, … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — The more researchers learn about the Zika virus, the scarier it appears, federal health officials say, as they urge more money for mosquito control and development of vaccines and treatments. Scientists increasingly believe the Zika virus sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean causes devastating defects in fetal brains if women become … Continue reading
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A nurse volunteering at the free lead-testing clinic at a Flint school sensed immediately that the boy was nervous about being poked in the finger. Veronica Robinson explained to 7-year-old Zyontae that it would feel like a mosquito bite. Robinson, a University of Michigan-Flint nursing lecturer, worked alongside student Mat Rowden, … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal money left over from the largely successful fight against Ebola will now go to combating the growing threat of the Zika virus, the Obama administration announced Wednesday, April 6. Most of the $589 million would be devoted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research on the virus and … Continue reading
GENEVA (AP) — Excessive weight, obesity, aging and population growth drove a nearly four-fold increase in worldwide cases of diabetes over the last quarter-century, affecting 422 million people in 2014, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday, April 6. In a new report on diabetes, the U.N. health agency called for stepped-up measures to reduce risk … Continue reading
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky are suing the state of Indiana over its recently signed law that bans abortions sought because of genetic abnormalities, calling the law unconstitutional. The federal lawsuit filed Thursday, April 7, also challenges a provision that mandates an aborted fetus be … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — Don’t call the Jewish Museum exhibition on Isaac Mizrahi’s work a retrospective. Those, the 54-year-old designer said, are for dead people. This journey through several elegant rooms on Fifth Avenue is more like a mid-career survey. “I was very, very reticent and a little bit, kind of, shocked,” he said Monday, … Continue reading
Sharon Johnson calls herself an addict, although she’s been sober for three years now. She started by smoking pot and eventually moved to crack cocaine. Her daughter has tried heroin and “I believe I’m going to pull her out of the gutter someday,” Johnson laments. Johnson has seen firsthand the ravages of drug abuse reflected … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Big companies are pushing back against proposed federal rules they say would require their medical plans to cover gender transition and other services under the nondiscrimination mandate of President Barack Obama’s health care law. Civil rights advocates representing transgender people say the regulation, now being finalized by the Health and Human Services … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 