Japan confirms more dengue infections: officials

An outbreak of dengue fever in Japan -- the first since World War II -- could have affected up to 20 people, media reported Monday, as officials confirmed three more cases. The new cases, who are in their teens or 20s, are all believed to have visited Tokyo's Yoyogi Park, one of the major green lungs of the metropolis, which is popular with residents and tourists alike. The park, one of the largest open spaces in central Tokyo, is believed to be the source of the mosquito-borne disease. None of those found to have contracted dengue is in a life-threatening condition, officials have said.

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Dozens arrested at Made in America music festival in Los Angeles

(Reuters) - Seven people were arrested on Sunday at the Made in America music festival in downtown Los Angeles, following an opening day that left more than two dozen people in handcuffs, police said. During Sunday's show at Grand Park there were four felony arrests, including one for battery and the rest for possession of narcotics, besides three misdemeanor arrests, including one charge of public drunkenness, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Another 23 people were given alcohol citations, an LAPD police spokeswoman said. So far about 27,000 tickets have been scanned for Sunday's full day of events, including top-billed stars John Mayer and Kanye West later in the evening.

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Judge temporarily blocks law that could close all Louisiana abortion clinics

By Jonathan Kaminsky NEW ORLEANS La. (Reuters) - A federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked a Louisiana law that advocates say would likely have closed of all five abortion clinics in the state. The measure, signed into law by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal in June and due to take effect Sept. 1, would require doctors who perform abortions to have patient admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their practice. "Plaintiffs will be allowed to operate lawfully while continuing their efforts to obtain privileges," Federal Judge John deGravelles wrote in the decision. Abortion rights activists applauded the decision, the latest in a string of rulings against similar measures, saying it would give abortion doctors more time to seek the hospital privileges.

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Made to measure

Irish IndependentMade to measure - health, fitness and nutrition...Irish IndependentMade to measure - health, fitness and nutrition... Karl Henry. Published 31/08/2014 | 02:30. 0 Comments; Share. Karl Henry. Quinoa is a fantastic source of protein. peppers2peaches.ie deliver amazing fruit baskets. The children have gone back to school ...

Swedish hospital investigating possible case of Ebola: media

A hospital in the Swedish capital is investigating a possible case of Ebola, Swedish media reported on Sunday. A man who recently traveled to a "risk area" for the virus was taken to Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm suffering from a fever and is being treated in an isolation unit, the reports said. More than 1,500 people have died in an Ebola outbreak in West Africa since March. "The virus isn't airborne and can only be spread between people through direct contact with blood and other body fluids," daily Svenska Dagbladet wrote, quoting a statement by the Stockholm County Council.



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New test fast-tracks diagnosis for malaria

A new invention can cheaply and accurately diagnose malaria infection in just a few minutes using only a droplet of blood, researchers reported Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine. The tool could replace the laborious, error-prone method by which a lab technician looks for malaria parasites in blood through a microscope, they said. While that method is considered the gold standard in malaria diagnostics today, it depends on the technician's skill in interpreting the image, the quality of the microscope and lab chemicals and even on the thickness of the blood smear on the slide itself. The touted replacement is an "inexpensive" desk-top mini-lab that, according to its inventors, can detect fewer than 10 malaria parasites per microlitre of blood, using a sample of less than 10 microlitres -- equivalent to a small drop from a finger prick.

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Sweden discovers suspected case of Ebola: official

A suspected case of the Ebola virus has been discovered in the Swedish capital Stockholm, a local official told AFP on Sunday. Aake Oertsqvist, a specialist in infection control responsible for the Stockholm area, was quoted as saying the risk of an Ebola outbreak in Sweden was "very low".

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Gene clues to glaucoma risk

Scientists on Sunday said they had identified six genetic variants linked to glaucoma, a discovery that should help earlier diagnosis and better treatment for this often-debilitating eye disease. The flaws came to light in a minute trawl through the genome of tens of thousands of people in more than half a dozen countries, comparing the DNA of those with glaucoma against those who were otherwise healthy. Glaucoma -- the leading cause of irreversible eye disease in the world -- is caused by damage to the optical nerve, usually by a buildup of fluid pressure in the eyeball. Further work on exactly how faulty genes cause glaucoma could also lead to better treatments, the scientists said.

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Is a lack of fitness the reason behind Everton's slow start?

MetroIs a lack of fitness the reason behind Everton's slow start?MetroThere were far more problems than just fitness against Jose Mourinho's men, but the failure to properly close players down led to at least four of the goals. Even the usually reliable defensive shield of Gareth Barry and James McCarthy looked shaky.

Four members of suburban Chicago family found shot to death

Four members of one family were found shot to death at their home in a Chicago suburb, police said on Sunday. Local media said the victims were an elderly couple and their two severely disabled adult children. Police said they were investigating the incident in Elmhurst, about 18 miles west of Chicago, but there was no threat or danger to others. The bodies were discovered Saturday evening after Elmhurst police went to the home for a "well being check," police said in a statement, identifying the four dead as Francis and Joan Stack, both 82, Francis Stack Jr., 48, and Mary Stack, 57, Elmhurst.



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Heart drug launch could be 'most exciting ever', says Novartis

The expected launch of Novartis's new heart failure drug next year promises to be the company's most exciting ever and profit margins on the medicine will be good, its head of pharmaceuticals said on Sunday. The Swiss drugmaker impressed doctors at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona at the weekend by unveiling strikingly good clinical trial results for the drug, known as LCZ696, in a keenly awaited clinical trial. Investigators working on the study and the company itself believe it has potential to replace drugs that have been central to treating heart failure for a quarter of century, opening up a multibillion-dollar sales opportunity. "It will be possibly the most exciting launch the company has ever had," David Epstein told an investor meeting.

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Study raises concerns over Servier, Amgen heart drug

A major clinical study has raised concerns about a drug from private French company Servier that helps lower the heart rate and which was licensed to U.S. Ivabradine is not currently approved in the United States but it is sold in Europe for treating stable angina, or chest pain due to obstruction of heart arteries, and for heart failure, when the heart fails to pump blood effectively. The increase in the combined risk of cardiovascular death and heart attack in this patient group was small but statistically significant, with 7.6 percent of them suffering an adverse event against 6.5 percent of those on placebo. A commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine, where the results were also published, said more research was needed to understand the finding and in the meantime doctors should "exercise caution" in using the drug in severe angina patients.



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Widow of Nigeria's sixth Ebola victim also has virus

The widow of a doctor who died from Ebola in Nigeria's oil city of Port Harcourt has also tested positive for the virus, the state government said on Sunday. Rivers State health commissioner Sampson Parker said test results showed the woman had the disease, which claimed the life of her husband, Ike Enemuo, on August 22. Enemuo fell ill and died after treating an official from the ECOWAS regional bloc who travelled to Port Harcourt after having contact with a Liberian man who brought the virus into Nigeria.

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Parents of British boy in Spain face extradition

MADRID (AP) — A critically-ill 5-year-old boy driven to Spain by his parents against doctors' advice is receiving medical treatment for a brain tumor in a Spanish hospital as his parents await extradition to Britain, police said Sunday.

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Celebration in Liberia slum as Ebola quarantine lifted

By James Harding Giahyue and Saliou Samb MONROVIA/CONAKRY (Reuters) - Crowds sang and danced in the streets of a seaside neighbourhood in Liberia on Saturday as the government lifted quarantine measures designed to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. Faced with the worst Ebola outbreak in history, West African governments have struggled to find an effective response. More than 1,550 people have died from the hemorrhagic fever since it was first detected in the forests of Guinea in March. Residents of the impoverished seaside district of West Point in Monrovia were forcibly cut off from the rest of the capital in mid-August after a crowd attacked an Ebola centre there, allowing the sick to flee.



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Sporting legend to judge inspirational fitness competition

Yahoo Eurosport UK (blog)Sporting legend to judge inspirational fitness competitionYahoo Eurosport UK (blog)When the opportunity to prove your fitness to Olympic champion and sporting legend Victoria Pendleton arrives, you simply take it – well, that's what these five women did. A nationwide search by Women's Health magazine for 'The Body 2014' was not ...

WHO: Senegal Ebola case 'a top priority emergency'

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The World Health Organization says it is treating Senegal's first confirmed Ebola case "as a top priority emergency."



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Early data suggest Sanofi, Regeneron drug may halve heart risk

By Ben Hirschler BARCELONA (Reuters) - An experimental cholesterol-lowering drug from Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals roughly halved the number of heart attacks and strokes in a clinical trial, researchers reported on Sunday. The injectable drug, alirocumab, is from a new class of medicines, which are also being developed by Amgen and Pfizer. They lower "bad" LDL cholesterol in a new way and are widely expected to reap multibillion-dollar sales. Sanofi and Regeneron said in July that nine big studies showed consistent LDL reductions with alirocumab, but details from four of these trials have only now been unveiled at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Barcelona.



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Clockwork heart pacemaker does away with batteries

By Ben Hirschler BARCELONA (Reuters) - Swiss engineers, famous for making the world's finest watches, are turning their hands to cardiology with a prototype battery-less pacemaker based on a self-winding wristwatch. Current pacemakers, which help the heart beat more regularly, offer a lifeline for many patients with cardiac problems but the need for battery power is a limiting factor, since replacing them requires a surgical intervention. Adrian Zurbuchen of the University of Bern's cardiovascular engineering group aims to get around the problem with his device, using automatic clockwork first developed for pocket watches by Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Perrelet in 1777. In the same way that an automatic watch winds itself when it moves on the wrist, the clockwork pacemaker generates electrical current using the movement of heart muscle.



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Obama family attends long-time aide's wedding to TV journalist

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters on Saturday attended the wedding of their long-time friend and food guru Sam Kass to media personality Alex Wagner at a farm outside New York City, the White House said. Kass is officially Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy and executive director of Let's Move, Michelle Obama's child health initiative that seeks to combat childhood obesity. He has a been a friend of and cook for the Obama family since the 2000s, when he began preparing food for the family in their Chicago home. Wagner is the host of "Now with Alex Wagner," a liberal-leaning show in the cable channel MSNBC.

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Health workers strike at Sierra Leone Ebola hospital

Health workers have gone on strike at a major state-run Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone, over pay and poor working conditions, hospital staff told Reuters on Saturday. Sierra Leone's government is struggling to cope with the worst Ebola outbreak in history, that has killed more than 1,550 people across West Africa, with the rate of infection still rising. "The workers decided to stop working because we have not been paid our allowances and we lack some tools," said Ishmael Mehemoh, chief supervisor at the clinic in the city of Kenema, in the country's east. Clothing to protect health workers being infected is inadequate and there is only one broken stretcher which is used to carry both patients and corpses, Mehemoh added.



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California governor lauds passage of 'historic' sick leave bill

By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A measure to grant California workers mandatory sick leave that passed the state legislature early on Saturday appeared poised to become law after Governor Jerry Brown lauded it as a historic achievement. The bill would require employers to provide at least three days of annual paid sick leave to workers, who would accrue the time off at a rate of one hour per 30 hours worked. If Brown signs the measure into law, California will join Connecticut as the only states mandating paid sick leave, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Business groups have mostly opposed efforts to impose mandatory paid sick leave, saying that they could force businesses to pare back work forces and raise prices.

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Celebration in Liberia slum as Ebola quarantine lifted

By James Harding Giahyue and Saliou Samb MONROVIA/CONAKRY (Reuters) - Crowds sang and danced in the streets of a seaside neighborhood in Liberia on Saturday as the government lifted quarantine measures designed to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. Faced with the worst Ebola outbreak in history, West African governments have struggled to find an effective response. More than 1,550 people have died from the hemorrhagic fever since it was first detected in the forests of Guinea in March. Residents of the impoverished seaside district of West Point in Monrovia were forcibly cut off from the rest of the capital in mid-August after a crowd attacked an Ebola center there, allowing the sick to flee.



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Ebola takes big toll on already poor health care

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — When the dreaded Ebola virus began infecting people in the Sierra Leone town of Kenema, Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan and his team were on the front lines. After stepping out of his protective suit following hours on a sweltering ward, he would jump on the phone to coordinate with the Ministry of Health, to deal with personnel issues and tend to hospital business.

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England manager Roy Hodgson lectures Luke Shaw over fitness issues

The IndependentEngland manager Roy Hodgson lectures Luke Shaw over fitness issuesThe IndependentVan Gaal comments on Shaw fitness. “That doesn't mean to say he can't be fitter and if Louis thinks that he can get him fitter then I'm sure he will certainly have our approval. But I think when he [Van Gaal] talks to [Mauricio] Pochettino then ...

Liberia's international airport battles to contain Ebola

With the last rays of sunlight speckling the departures area at Liberia's international airport, passengers queue patiently to go through medical screening designed to show up the Ebola virus. Roberts International Airport, a former United States Air Force base built 55 kilometres (35 miles) outside of the capital Monrovia during World War II, is at the front line of a new battle -- to halt the spread of the most deadly outbreak of the tropical fever in history. "We put so many processes in place that... focus on the safety of the airline, safety of the crew, safety of the passengers, and most importantly to boost the confidence of those who use our airport," says Binyah Kessely, director of the board at the Liberia Airport Authority. Kessely's job -- once simply to ensure the smooth running of the airport -- is now to help contain an epidemic that has killed more than 1,500 people across west Africa this year.

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WFP says it needs $70 mln to feed 1.3 mln people in Ebola quarantine

The World Food Programme needs to raise $70 million to feed 1.3 million people at risk from shortages in Ebola-quarantined areas in West Africa, with the agency's resources already stretched by several major humanitarian crises, its regional director said. WFP's West Africa Director Denise Brown said the organisation was currently providing food for around 150,000 people in Ebola-striken nations but needed to rapidly scale that up as the worst ever epidemic of the virus advanced. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have pledged to impose a 'cordon sanitaire' on the most affected communities in their joint border region, restricting travel to and from the areas and limiting their access to food supplies. "We've agreed this morning...that we need to extend that because WHO is already talking about 6-9 months before this is contained." Brown said the WFP would look from donations from major donors like the United States, the European Union, the World Bank and Japan, as well as from non-traditional benefactors such as Arab states.

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Boston Scientific nerve device no help in heart failure study

By Ben Hirschler BARCELONA (Reuters) - A Boston Scientific device that stimulates the vagus nerve – a superhighway connecting the brain to the rest of the body - failed to help patients with heart failure in a mid-stage clinical trial. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), which involves delivering mild electrical pulses to the nerve in the neck, is already used to treat epilepsy and depression - and researchers have been looking to expand its use to other conditions. Heart failure is a serious, progressive disease in which the heart fails to pump blood properly. Patients enrolled in the study had a VNS device implanted in their neck, near the right vagus nerve.



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WFP says it needs $70 million to feed 1.3 million people in Ebola quarantine

The World Food Programme needs to raise $70 million to feed 1.3 million people at risk from shortages in Ebola-quarantined areas in West Africa, with the agency's resources already stretched by several major humanitarian crises, its regional director said. WFP's West Africa Director Denise Brown said the organization was currently providing food for around 150,000 people in Ebola-striken nations but needed to rapidly scale that up as the worst ever epidemic of the virus advanced. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have pledged to impose a 'cordon sanitaire' on the most affected communities in their joint border region, restricting travel to and from the areas and limiting their access to food supplies. "We've agreed this morning...that we need to extend that because WHO is already talking about 6-9 months before this is contained." Brown said the WFP would look from donations from major donors like the United States, the European Union, the World Bank and Japan, as well as from non-traditional benefactors such as Arab states.

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Liberia adds new Ebola centers as tries to contain virus outbreak

By Misha Hussain DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Liberia is building five new Ebola treatment centers each with capacity for 100 beds as it struggles to contain the spread of world’s biggest outbreak of the deadly disease, government and health officials said on Saturday. The hemorrhagic fever has killed more than 1,500 people and infected over 3,000 in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal since March and there is currently no widely available vaccine or cure but early treatment can save lives. World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman Francis Kasolo said Liberia was the worst hit country in west Africa, with nearly 700 deaths among about 1,500 cases, and increasing the number of beds in coming weeks would ease the pressure in the country's congested hospitals. "The idea is to create five different treatment centers that can accommodate up to 100 beds each.

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Morocco keeps flying to Ebola-hit states in 'solidarity'

Morocco, the last country to maintain regular scheduled flights to Ebola-hit nations after Air France halted departures, is carrying on through "solidarity", an airline official has said. In a bid to stop the spread of the virus that has killed more than 1,500 people across West Africa, many African governments have sought to ring-fence Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. This week, after Air France announced it would stop flying to Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was "absolutely vital" that airlines resume flights because bans were hindering the emergency response. The French carrier's move followed a similar decision by British Airways which said it was stopping its flights to Freetown and Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, until next year.

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New Novartis heart failure drug cuts risk by a fifth

By Ben Hirschler BARCELONA (Reuters) - A new heart failure drug from Novartis cut the risk of both cardiovascular death and hospitalization by a fifth in a keenly awaited study, boosting hopes for a product that is seen as a multibillion-dollar seller. There has been little progress for more than a decade in treating chronic heart failure, in which the heart fails to pump enough blood around the body, so there is excitement about the new medicine among both doctors and investors. ESC officials flagged the PARADIGM-HF trial as one of the highlights of the five-day event in Barcelona, reflecting the pressing need to find better treatments than the current line-up of old generic medicines. “Everything has been pretty stalled in heart failure,” said Keith Fox, a cardiologist at the University of Edinburgh who also chairs the ESC's congress program committee.



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Liberia reopens slum barricaded due to Ebola

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Crowds are cheering and celebrating in the streets after Liberian authorities reopened a slum where tens of thousands of people were barricaded amid the country's Ebola outbreak.



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Experimental Ebola drug ZMapp cures 100 percent of lab monkeys

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) - The experimental Ebola drug ZMapp cured all 18 of the lab monkeys infected with the deadly virus, including those suffering the fever and hemorrhaging characteristic of the disease and just hours from death, scientists reported on Friday. No other experimental Ebola therapy has ever shown success in primates when given that long after infection; ZMapp, produced by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, has never been scientifically tested in people, and the current study was the first in primates. The success is therefore a "monumental achievement," virologist Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch wrote in a commentary on the paper, published online in Nature.

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Sierra Leone dismisses health minister over handling of Ebola

FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma dismissed his Health Minister Miatta Kargbo on Friday over her handling of the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 400 people in the West African country. A presidency statement said that Kargbo was removed "to create a conducive environment for efficient and effective handling of the Ebola outbreak". She will be replaced by her deputy Dr Abubakarr Fofanah, the statement said.

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Ebola outbreak reaches Senegal, riots break out in Guinea

By Diadie Ba and Saliou Samb DAKAR/CONAKRY (Reuters) - The West African state of Senegal became the fifth country to be hit by the world's worst Ebola outbreak on Friday, while riots broke out in neighbouring Guinea's remote southeast where infection rates are rising fast. In the latest sign that the outbreak of the virus, which has already killed at least 1,550 people, is spinning out of control, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that Ebola cases rose last week at the fastest pace since the epidemic began in West Africa in March. The epidemic has defied efforts by governments to control it, prompting the leading charity fighting the outbreak, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), to call for the U.N. Security Council to take charge of efforts to stop it. Including the fatalities, more than 3,000 have been infected since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea in March and quickly spread across the border to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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Ghana to serve as UN base for supplies bound for Ebola countries

The United Nations will use Ghana as a base for supplies bound for countries stricken by an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 1,550 people in West Africa, the Ghanaian presidency said in a statement on Friday. UN chief Ban Ki-moon had a telephone conversation on Friday evening with Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, who agreed to let international agencies use Ghana's capital Accra as a base for air lifting supplies and personnel to affected countries, the statement said. The statement said the UN and local authorities would work closely to put in place appropriate screening and prevention measures to avoid any adverse effects on Ghana as a result of the international operations.

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California to shift mentally ill inmates out of solitary confinement

California will move mentally ill prisoners from solitary confinement to special isolation units as part of a series of new policies outlined by corrections officials Friday to improve treatment for inmates with psychiatric illnesses. In 2013, about 28 percent of California's overcrowded prison population was diagnosed with some sort of mental illness, according to state and federal statistics. Complying with the federal order to amend how it deals with these inmates, the state earlier this month outlined changes to curb the use of force after video footage showed mentally ill prisoners screaming as guards doused them in pepper spray. Corrections officials are "focused on ensuring a strong collaborative environment between mental health and custody staff ... to ensure mental health input is fully considered in programming and housing decisions," Friday's filing said.



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Idaho attorney for boys in polygamous sect says he fears for them

By Laura Zuckerman SALMON Idaho (Reuters) - A court-appointed attorney for boys removed from the Idaho home of a follower of imprisoned polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs said on Friday he feared for the well-being of six of the children released to their parents' custody. Nathan Jessop, a follower of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was charged with misdemeanor child injury offenses after police raided the home on the outskirts of Pocatello last month and took away the eight teenagers. Their parents had agreed to the arrangement but, earlier this month after Jessop was charged, they traveled to Idaho from such states as Arizona and Kansas to reclaim custody of children they had not seen for years, authorities said. Bradley Willis, an attorney appointed by an Idaho court to represent the boys, was opposed to the state’s handoff of the six boys.



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Ghana to serve as UN base for supplies bound for Ebola countries

The United Nations will use Ghana as a base for supplies bound for countries stricken by an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 1,550 people in West Africa, the Ghanaian presidency said in a statement on Friday. UN chief Ban Ki-moon had a telephone conversation on Friday evening with Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, who agreed to let international agencies use Ghana's capital Accra as a base for air lifting supplies and personnel to affected countries, the statement said. The statement said the UN and local authorities would work closely to put in place appropriate screening and prevention measures to avoid any adverse effects on Ghana as a result of the international operations. The UN will also help review and strengthen Ghana's Ebola preparedness as steps are taken to prevent the virus from spreading to that country, according to the statement.



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U.S. judge strikes down some abortion restrictions in Texas

AUSTIN Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. judge struck down parts of a law seen as restricting abortions in Texas, saying in a decision on Friday that a provision requiring clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers was unconstitutional. "The act's ambulatory-surgical center requirement places an unconstitutional undue burden on women throughout Texas and must be enjoined," U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel said in his decision. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Sandra Maler)



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Porn productions suspended after performer tests positive for HIV

By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A porn industry trade group has placed a moratorium on U.S. The suspension, which began on Thursday, marks at least the third consecutive summer that porn productions have been shut down because of performers who tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease. The online notice posted by the Los Angeles-based Free Speech Coalition did not identify the latest performer in question and said results from a confirmatory HIV test had yet to be completed. Under the group's own health screening procedures, a moratorium is deemed to be warranted if any performer who tests positive has worked with anyone else from two weeks prior to his or her last negative HIV test to the date the positive result came back.



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Better education on breast reconstruction may be needed after cancer

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – When it comes to deciding to have breast reconstruction after surgery for breast cancer, most women are generally satisfied with the decision-making process, a new study suggests. “Our findings generally were good news - women who wanted reconstruction got it, those who didn’t were generally satisfied with the decision process,” said Dr. Monica Morrow, the study’s lead author from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. For example, some women who didn’t undergo breast reconstruction said they worried that the implants would interfere with cancer screenings later on, or that they feared the implants. “Our study points to specific topics doctors can address with patients - safety of implants, lack of interference with cancer detection by reconstruction that are of concern to patients,” Morrow wrote in an email.



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Ebola Survivor 'Walked Through the Valley of Death'

Dr. Philip Ireland Will Go Back to Treating Patients

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African-Americans may be getting inferior breastfeeding advice

By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Mothers who give birth in areas with higher concentrations of African-Americans are less likely to get breastfeeding support on maternity wards than mothers in other communities, a new study shows. The study of 2,727 American hospitals and birth centers sought to uncover the reasons for the racial disparities. “What this study suggests is that hospital practices, not just women’s choices, beliefs or values, contribute to the observed racial disparities in infant feeding,” sociologist Elizabeth Armstrong told Reuters Health in an email.



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Senegal confirms Ebola case as outbreak hits 5th WAfrican country

The Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 1,500 people across West Africa spread to a fifth country in the region on Friday with the first confirmed case of the deadly virus in Senegal. The case marks the first time a new country has been hit by the outbreak since July and comes a day after the World Health Organization warned the number of infections is increasing rapidly. Senegal's health ministry said the patient is a young Guinean man who was immediately quarantined at a Dakar hospital, where he is in a "satisfactory condition". The man is believed to have been infected in Guinea's capital Conakry, and may have travelled to Senegal before Dakar closed its land border with Guinea on August 21.

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Ebola Outbreak: Dr. Besser's Look at Life Inside the Hot Zone

Dr. Richard Besser reports on the growing outbreak from Monrovia, Liberia.



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Sierra Leone dismisses health minister over handling of Ebola

FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma dismissed his Health Minister Miatta Kargbo on Friday over her handling of the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 400 people in the West African country. A presidency statement said that Kargbo was removed "to create a conducive environment for efficient and effective handling of the Ebola outbreak". She will be replaced by her deputy Dr Abubakarr Fofanah, the statement said. (Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Alison Williams)



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Colombia arrests suspected drug trafficker for major Mexico cartel

Colombian authorities have arrested a Costa Rican man accused of trafficking shipments of cocaine to the United States on behalf of Mexico's infamous Sinaloa cartel. Oscar Antonio Berrocal, 52, was detained late on Thursday after arriving in the Colombian capital Bogota on a flight from Ecuador, where he lives. "Berrocal, known to authorities under the aliases Charlie, the Chef, Finquero and Rolex, is required by U.S. "In Colombia there is a valid order for his arrest and extradition." Authorities said Berrocal is accused of coordinating the shipment of large quantities of cocaine to the United States for the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world's largest drug trafficking organizations, often via smuggling networks in Central America.



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Prototype Ebola drug clears early test hurdle

A prototype drug that has been urgently given to a handful of patients with Ebola has cleared an important test hurdle, showing that it cured lab monkeys with the disease, scientists said Friday. Normally, experimental drugs are tested first on animals and then on progressively larger groups of humans to ensure they are safe and effective. Reporting online in the British journal Nature, researchers at the Public Health Agency of Canada said 18 rhesus macaque monkeys given high doses of Ebola virus fully recovered after being given ZMapp, even when it was administered five days after infection. The 21 animals had been given the so-called Kikwit strain of Ebola, named after a location in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country where the haemorrhagic fever was discovered in 1976.

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Kraft issues voluntary recall of some American Singles cheese product

By Anjali Athavaley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kraft Foods Group Inc said on Friday it is voluntarily recalling 7,691 cases of some varieties of its Kraft American Singles as a precautionary measure after a supplier failed to store an ingredient correctly. The Northfield, Illinois-based company said the recall affects four varieties of Kraft American Singles Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product. A supplier did not store an ingredient in accordance with Kraft's temperature standards. Kraft said it has had no consumer illness complaints for the product associated with the recall.

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Kraft issues voluntary recall of some American Singles cheese product

By Anjali Athavaley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kraft Foods Group Inc said on Friday it is voluntarily recalling 7,691 cases of some varieties of its Kraft American Singles as a precautionary measure after a supplier failed to store an ingredient correctly. The Northfield, Illinois-based company said the recall affects four varieties of Kraft American Singles Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product. A supplier did not store an ingredient in accordance with Kraft's temperature standards. Kraft said it has had no consumer illness complaints for the product associated with the recall.



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Fears of addiction keep cancer patients from getting pain relief

By Randi Belisomo NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Fears of opioid abuse and addiction might be keeping patients with advanced cancer from getting enough pain medicine, researchers say. “At the end of life, we should feel comfortable providing whatever necessary to control pain,” said Joel Hyatt, assistant regional director at Kaiser Permanente. Concerns about overdose and addiction, he told Reuters Health, should not prevent terminally ill patients from obtaining relief. Pain undertreatment is estimated to affect half of cancer patients, according to a recent report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.



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Ebola Survivor ‘Walked Through the Valley of Death’

Dr. Philip Ireland remembers the moment he realized he had Ebola.



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ALS Association backs down on 'Ice Bucket' trademark attempt

In the wake of criticism over its attempt to trademark the words "ice bucket challenge," the ALS Association said it is withdrawing its applications from the U.S. Following a blog post by a Virginia trademark attorney that was critical of the trademark application and a report by Internet tech news site Techdirt that said ALS did not originate the ice bucket challenge, criticism of the trademark move grew on Twitter and other social media sites.



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Experimental Ebola drug heals all monkeys in study

An experimental Ebola drug healed all 18 monkeys infected with the deadly virus in a study, boosting hopes that the treatment might help fight the outbreak raging through West Africa — once more of it can be made.



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Obesity on the Nile

Yes, there is obesity in Egypt; although the situation is far worse in other Middle Eastern countries that have undergone more dramatic cultural transitions in recent years. But that's not really my subject today anyway. Rather, I am invoking the well-known observation that the Nile -- or, rather, "denial" -- is not just a river in Egypt.Denial...

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Ebola Outbreak Spreads: Senegal Reports 1st Case

The Ebola outbreak is expected to reach 20,000 in six months.



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Russian minister to take off from after forced stop in Bratislava

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's plane will leave Bratislava airport shortly after making a brief stop there when Poland refused to allow the flight into its airspace, the Slovak Interior Ministry said on Friday. Poland said it had denied entry to the flight earlier on Friday because it had changed its status to military from civilian, and that it would grant permission once it was re-coded. Shoigu had attended a ceremony marking an anti-Nazi uprising in Slovakia earlier on Friday. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka; edited by Ralph Boulton)



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Want To Be Invited Into You? A Pre-Labor Day Meditation

Labor Day is one of those highlighted high points of the year. The end of summer, the beginning of school, shorter days with slight weather changes branded with BBQs and celebrations and sometimes, leftover fireworks from the Fourth Of July. Mostly, this time of the year is a liminal space between here and there, then and now and you and me....



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U.N. urges U.S. to stop police brutality after Missouri shooting

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. racism watchdog urged the United States on Friday to halt the excessive use of force by police after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman touched off riots in Ferguson, Missouri. Minorities, particularly African Americans, are victims of disparities, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) said after examining the U.S. "Racial and ethnic discrimination remains a serious and persistent problem in all areas of life from de facto school segregation, access to health care and housing," Noureddine Amir, CERD committee vice chairman, told a news briefing.

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New test may predict worker hearing loss

By Madeline Kennedy NEW YORK (Reuters) - Not everyone exposed to high noise levels at work experiences hearing loss as a result, and a new study suggests a simple test can predict which workers will be affected. Researchers caution that low accuracy in predicting who would not suffer hearing loss means the test shouldn’t be used to select employees to work under high noise conditions. In the study, the test did do a better job of predicting which workers would experience hearing loss than traditional risk factors like how long workers were exposed to noise and how often they wore hearing protection.



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No respite for South Sudan: cholera down but malaria, parasitic disease up: MSF

By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - South Sudan's cholera crisis is waning but humanitarian workers are now battling increased cases of malaria and the parasitic disease kala azar, with children most affected. At least 10,000 people have been killed since the fighting erupted in late 2013, pitting President Salva Kiir's government forces against supporters of Riek Machar, his former deputy and longtime political rival. While a cholera outbreak appears to be under control, other diseases are plaguing South Sudan's hungry, displaced people. The latest emergency operations are focusing on malaria and kala azar, a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of a sandfly which is usually fatal without treatment.



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More than a dozen injured in bus crash at Chicago's O'Hare airport

A shuttle bus crash on Friday at O'Hare International Airport injured at least 13 people, four of them seriously, Chicago fire officials said. The bus hit a concrete median at about 6:30 a.m. on a road leading to terminals at O'Hare, the country's second busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic, said Fire Chief Juan Hernandez.



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More than a dozen injured in bus crash at Chicago's O'Hare airport

A shuttle bus crash on Friday at O'Hare International Airport injured at least 13 people, four of them seriously, Chicago fire officials said. The bus hit a concrete median at about 6:30 a.m. on a road leading to terminals at O'Hare, the country's second busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic, said Fire Chief Juan Hernandez.



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Germany's Bayer to launch three new Xarelto trials

Germany's Bayer unveiled plans to launch three new studies to expand the uses of its anti-clotting drug Xarelto, one of its top five new medicines. Xarelto, which competes with the Eliquis pill developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer in stroke prevention, reached sales of $1.7 billion in the 12 months to June. Bayer said on Friday that a Phase III trial involving about 7,000 patients would examine whether Xarelto can help prevent the recurrence of strokes in patients who have suffered strokes of undetermined cause. "We really have just as many strokes due to undetermined causes as to atrial fibrillation," Frank Misselwitz, head of the Therapeutic Area Cardiovascular and Coagulation at Bayer HealthCare, told Reuters.



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Missionaries who were exposed to Ebola released from U.S. quarantine

WINSTON-SALEM N.C. (Reuters) - Missionaries who were quarantined in North Carolina to ensure they were not infected with Ebola while working in Liberia have been released without showing signs of the virus, a local government spokesman said on Friday. Health officials in Charlotte required the temporary quarantine as a precaution after three missionaries with Christian organization SIM USA returned to the United States on Aug. 10 amid the worst outbreak on record of the deadly virus. The group included two doctors who cared for Ebola patients and missionary David Writebol, whose wife Nancy was one of two American relief workers who contracted the disease that has killed more than 1,500 people in West Africa. The missionaries' 21-day health monitoring periods ended at different times depending on when each person had last been in contact with Ebola patients.



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Ebola Arrives in Senegal as Outbreak Accelerates

Senegal confirms its 1st case of Ebola, underscoring W Africa outbreak is not under control



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Medical charity MSF wants U.N. to take lead on Ebola epidemic

By Marine Pennetier PARIS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council must lead efforts to stop the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, a senior official from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Friday, warning the current response risked aggravating the crisis. Mego Terzian, head of the medical charity's French arm, said the epidemic was getting worse each day and neither MSF, the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the governments of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea had the means to contain it. "I am extremely pessimistic if there is not a substantial international mobilisation," Terzian told Reuters in an interview in Paris. MSF is the leading private charity battling Ebola, with about 2,000 staff in the four countries - Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria - previously affected.



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No respite for South Sudan: cholera down but malaria, parasitic disease up - MSF

By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - South Sudan's cholera crisis is waning but humanitarian workers are now battling increased cases of malaria and the parasitic disease kala azar, with children most affected. At least 10,000 people have been killed since the fighting erupted in late 2013, pitting President Salva Kiir's government forces against supporters of Riek Machar, his former deputy and longtime political rival. While a cholera outbreak appears to be under control, other diseases are plaguing South Sudan's hungry, displaced people. The latest emergency operations are focusing on malaria and kala azar, a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of a sandfly which is usually fatal without treatment.



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People Need People

Today is an example of a bad day with depression. I have shut the door, turned the lights off, closed the curtains and isolated myself from everyone. I have had numerous hours of sleep today because I cannot face the world, not even my family. This happens all the time. I lay here thinking horrible things, and it wasn't until I picked my phone...

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Ebola outbreak reaches Senegal, riots break out in Guinea

By Stephanie Nebehay and Tim Cocks GENEVA/LAGOS (Reuters) - The West African state of Senegal became the fifth country to be touched by the world's worst Ebola outbreak on Friday, while riots broke out in neighboring Guinea where infection rates are rising fast. At least 1,550 people have died of Ebola and more than 3,000 have been infected since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea in March, and quickly spread across the border to Liberia and Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization warned on Thursday the actual number of cases could be up to four times higher and said that a total of 20,000 people could be infected before the outbreak ends. In the Guinean city of Nevermore, riots broke out on Thursday night over rumors that health workers had infected people with the Ebola virus, a Red Cross official and residents said.

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Medical charity MSF wants U.N. to take lead on Ebola epidemic

By Marine Pennetier PARIS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council must lead efforts to stop the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, a senior official from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Friday, warning the current response risked aggravating the crisis. Mego Terzian, head of the medical charity's French arm, said the epidemic was getting worse each day and neither MSF, the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the governments of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea had the means to contain it. ...

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Guinean security forces break up riot in Ebola-racked south

Riots broke out in Guinea's second-largest city Nzerekore over rumours that health workers had infected people with the deadly Ebola virus, a Red Cross official and residents said on Friday. A crowd of young men, some armed with clubs and knives, set up barricades across the southern city on Thursday and threatened to attack the hospital before security forces moved in to restore order. Gunshots were fired and several people were injured, said Youssouf Traore, president of the Guinean Red Cross. "People revolted and resorted to violence, prompting soldiers to intervene." Local Red Cross workers had to flee to the military camp with their medical equipment.

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Guinean student is first case of Ebola confirmed in Senegal

Senegal, a major hub for the business and aid community in West Africa, became the region's fifth country to confirm a case of Ebola on Friday after a student arrived from neighboring Guinea carrying the disease. Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told a news conference the young man had turned up for treatment at a hospital in the Senegalese capital Dakar on Tuesday but concealed that he had had close contact with victims in his home country. "The results of tests carried out by the Pasteur Institute in Dakar were positive (for Ebola)," the minister said. The worst ever outbreak of the deadly virus, first detected in the jungles of southeast Guinea in March, has killed more than 1,550 people.



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Train Your Brain to Thrive From 9 to 5

The majority of employers throughout the world are "strongly committed to creating a workplace culture of health" and are investing in programs to achieve these goals, according to Buck Consultants at Xerox, describing their newly released survey, "Working Well: A Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies." That's...

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First case of Ebola confirmed in Senegal: health minister

DAKAR (Reuters) - The first case of Ebola has been confirmed in Senegal, a major hub for the business and aid community in West Africa, Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told a news conference on Friday. The minister said the case was a Guinean national who had arrived from the neighbouring West African country, where the deadly virus was first detected in March.



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McDonald's says 12 Russian branches temporarily closed

McDonald's said on Friday that a total of 12 of its branches in Russia had been temporarily closed over the state food safety regulator's allegations of sanitary violations.

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BioCryst expects to begin Ebola study in weeks

(Reuters) - BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc said it expects to initiate a study within weeks to test its antiviral in primates for use in Ebola, as it was awarded an additional $2.4 million in U.S. government funding. Birmingham, Alabama-based BioCryst's stock was up about 5 percent at $13.86 in trading before the bell on Friday. The biotechnology company received $4.1 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases earlier this month to advance development of an intramuscular formulation of its drug, BCX4430. ...



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Drug charges dropped against man over Seymour Hoffman's death: New York Times

(Reuters) - The Manhattan district attorney has dropped drug-selling charges against a jazz musician and friend of late film star Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died of an accidental drug overdose in February, the New York Times newspaper reported. Montreal-born Robert Aaron Vineberg, 58, was arrested after police traced what they believed to have been the source of the heroin suspected of killing the Oscar-winning actor. Vineberg was charged with intent to sell heroin. The district attorney said in an Aug. 14 letter that two police officers who first interrogated Vineberg after his arrest had not read him his Miranda rights -- which include the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney -- , rendering his statements to them unusable in court, the newspaper said.

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Gene studies of Ebola in Sierra Leone show virus is mutating fast

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters)- Genetic studies of some of the earliest Ebola cases in Sierra Leone reveal more than 300 genetic changes in the virus as it leapt from person to person, changes that could blunt the effectiveness of diagnostic tests and experimental treatments now in development, researchers said on Thursday. It's mutating," said Pardis Sabeti of Harvard University and the Broad Institute, who led the massive study of samples from 78 people in Sierra Leone, all of whose infections could be traced to a faith healer whose claims of a cure attracted Ebola patients from Guinea, where the virus first took hold. The findings, published in Science, suggest the virus is mutating quickly and in ways that could affect current diagnostics and future vaccines and treatments, such as GlaxoSmithKline's Ebola vaccine, which was just fast-tracked to begin clinical trials, or the antibody drug ZMapp, being developed by California biotech Mapp Biopharmaceutical. The findings come as the World Health Organization said that the epidemic could infect more than 20,000 people and spread to more countries.



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Guinean security forces break up riot in Ebola-racked south

Riots broke out in Guinea's second-largest city Nzerekore over rumors that health workers had infected people with the deadly Ebola virus, a Red Cross official and residents said on Friday. A crowd of young men, some armed with clubs and pistols, set up barricades across the southern city on Thursday and threatened to attack the hospital before security forces moved in to restore order. Gunshots were fired by the rioters and several people were injured, said Youssouf Traore, president of the Guinean Red Cross. "People revolted and resorted to violence, prompting soldiers to intervene." Local Red Cross workers had to flee to the military camp with their medical equipment.

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Ebola virus sequences may aid hunt for treatments

Scientists tracking the spread of Ebola across West Africa released Thursday 99 sequenced genomes of the deadly and highly contagious hemorrhagic virus in the hopes the data may accelerate diagnosis and treatment. More than 1,552 people have been killed and 3,000 infected in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization's latest toll. Never before has there been an Ebola outbreak so large, nor has the virus -- which was first detected in 1976 -- ever infected people in West Africa until now. "We've uncovered more than 300 genetic clues about what sets this outbreak apart from previous outbreaks," said Stephen Gire, a research scientist in the Sabeti lab at the Broad Institute and Harvard University.

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US to Test Ebola Vaccine in Humans Amid Growing Outbreak in West Africa

Virus Has Sickened 3,069, Killed 1,552

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What Ebola Survivors Reveal About the Virus, ZMapp

Survivors May Shed Light on Ebola's Weakness

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Hand sanitizer may spare travelers illness abroad: survey

By Shereen Lehman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In a French survey of travelers to countries where diarrheal illnesses are common, the people who used hand sanitizer while abroad were half as likely to have their trips spoiled by a bout with Montezuma’s revenge. “Use of hand sanitizer is highly acceptable by travelers and is associated with a reduction in the incidence of travelers’ diarrhea and/or vomiting,” the authors write in their report published in Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. Traveler’s diarrhea is experienced by 20-50 percent of international travelers who visit developing tropical areas, according to the study authors. The CDC advises travelers that carrying small containers of alcohol-based hand sanitizers may make it easier for them to clean their hands before eating (http://1.usa.gov/1g4A2EV).



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World Food Programme boosts operations to Ebola-hit W.Africa

The World Food Programme is planning to boost its emergency aid in the west of Africa, saying the region faces a "tsunami" of need caused by the Ebola outbreak. This is like a tsunami that is already at its peak," said Denise Brown, the WFP's regional director for west Africa. Speaking in Dakar after returning from Liberia and Sierra Leone -- the countries most seriously affected by the outbreak -- she said there was a "need to scale up" to ensure that air access, materials, body bags, and food were reaching those most in need. She said the WFP has "never responded in this scale to this kind of crisis" before, with the added complication that many areas -- such as the vast West Point slum in Liberia's capital Monrovia -- are quarantined, cutting off access to food.

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Shades of Pigpen: We travel with our own germs

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sorry, clean freaks. No matter how well you scrub your home, it's covered in bacteria from your own body. And if you pack up and move, new research shows, you'll rapidly transfer your unique microbial fingerprint to the doorknobs, countertops and floors in your new house, too.

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Ebola Outbreak in Sierra Leone Tied to Healer's Funeral

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White House says technology policy aide Park to take new role

The White House announced on Thursday that Todd Park, a technology and innovation policy adviser to President Barack Obama, is relocating to California to advise the president on technology from there. Park, who had built a reputation as a successful information technology entrepreneur, was thrust into the public spotlight during the disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act in the fall of 2013. While not in charge of the technology behind the flawed web portal that crashed when thousands of Americans tried to sign up for health insurance, he was one of several administration officials summoned to Congress to explain the breakdown. Park's focus in California will be on recruiting skilled technology experts into government roles, the White House said.

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Gene studies of Ebola in Sierra Leone show virus is mutating fast

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Genetic studies of some of the earliest Ebola cases in Sierra Leone reveal more than 300 genetic changes in the virus as it leapt from person to person, changes that could blunt the effectiveness of diagnostic tests and experimental treatments now in development, researchers said on Thursday. "We found the virus is doing what viruses do. ...



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With high blood pressure, light to moderate drinking may protect heart

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Drinking alcohol has been tied in the past to a higher risk of high blood pressure, but in a new analysis of past studies, researchers found that a drink or two a day seemed to protect even those with hypertension from heart disease and death. People with high blood pressure who have never been drinkers shouldn’t start now based on the evidence from studies like these, said senior author Qi-Qiang He of the School of Public Health/Global Health Institute at Wuhan University in China. The new meta-analysis combines the data from nine previous studies involving a total of nearly 400,000 people with high blood pressure. In all of the studies, alcohol consumption, including wine, beer and spirits, was recorded, as were cases of heart disease, stroke, heart failure and death from any cause.



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Ebola vaccine trials to start in US next week

The first human trials of an Ebola vaccine will start next week in the United States to see if it is safe in people before it can be made available, scientists said Thursday. There is no vaccine on the market against Ebola, and global attempts to get one ready are being fast-tracked as West Africa struggles with an accelerating outbreak of the hemorrhagic virus. The first US phase 1 trial has enrolled three volunteers so far, and begins next week at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. It involves a product made by Glaxo Smith Kline and US government scientists, and is being referred to as the NIAID/GSK Ebola vaccine candidate.

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Scientists dig into Ebola's deadly DNA for clues

WASHINGTON (AP) — A single funeral caused many.

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U.S. infant vaccination rates high, timeliness a concern: CDC

Immunization rates exceeded 90 percent for some vaccines, and fewer than 1 percent of infants received no vaccinations at all, the CDC said. Concerns remain, however, that children are not always getting their shots on time. One in 12 children was late receiving a first dose of the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), leaving them particularly vulnerable to measles, the CDC said. Most cases have been in patients who were either not vaccinated or did not know whether they had received the vaccine, the CDC said.



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Apple invites media to September 9 event; new iPhones anticipated

Apple Inc invited media to a "special event" in its hometown of Cupertino, California, on Sept. 9, when the iPhone maker is expected to unveil the latest versions of its best-selling smartphones. Apple's typically cryptic invitation read: "Wish we could say more." It came on a simple black-and-white background dominated by the company's familiar corporate logo. Apple was expected to unveil larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens for iPhones, a move thought to be driven in part by the success of larger devices by rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Tech blog Re/code also reported Apple may introduce its long-awaited smartwatch. Apple uses its September events to showcase its most important products.

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Britain advises against all but essential travel to Ebola-hit nations

Britain warned its citizens on Thursday to avoid all but essential travel to west African countries hit by the world's worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. The escalation in the travel advice issued by the foreign office in regards to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia came after a British volunteer nurse working in west Africa became the first British citizen to contract the disease. On Aug. 5, British Airways announced it was suspending flights to Sierra Leone and Liberia until Aug. 31. So far 3,069 cases have been reported in the outbreak but the World Health Organisation says the actual number could already be two to four times higher.



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Calorie goals, support may help limit pregnancy weight gain

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters) - Compared to obese expectant mothers without special care, those given individualized calorie goals and weekly group meetings gained less weight during pregnancy and had fewer oversized newborns in a new study. “Women who gain too much weight during pregnancy may retain some of that extra weight and enter their next pregnancy at a higher weight than their prior pregnancy, which can increase their risk for pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, babies that are too big and cesarean section,” Vesco, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, told Reuters Health by email.



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What We Can Learn From Ebola Survivors

The Ebola outbreak spreading through West Africa has a 53 percent fatality rate, meaning 47 percent of people survive the gruesome infection. And experts say those people could hold clues to the virus's weakness.



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Brain-Eating Amoeba Found in Louisiana Water Supply

The rare amoeba can cause a deadly form of meningitis.



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A Look Inside a Slum Cut Off by the Ebola Outbreak

Quarantined West Point residents are desperate for food amid the Ebola outbreak.



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Fatal heroin overdoses on the rise in New York City

The number of deaths from drug overdoses in New York City has steadily risen since 2010, in part because of an apparent resurgence in heroin use, according to data released on Thursday by the city's health department. Heroin overdoses killed 420 people in the city in 2013, the highest number in a decade, the health department said. The illegal drug was the most common substance involved in overdose deaths, involved in 54 percent of all incidents last year. The surge in heroin use gained attention in February, when actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his New York City apartment on Feb. 2 with a needle in his arm.



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The Disease More Prevalent In Women Than Breast Cancer

With October practically around the corner, more and more public figures, companies and everyday people are supporting or encouraging others to support breast cancer research. While it is extremely vital to fund foundations that are dedicated to fighting one of the most common illnesses affecting women, I'm afraid that another illness even more...

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IMF says Ebola having 'acute' impact on West African economies

The worst ever outbreak of the Ebola disease is likely to lead to "sharply" lower growth in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and raise financing needs in all three West African countries, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday. "The Ebola outbreak is having an acute macroeconomic and social impact on three already fragile countries in West Africa," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters.

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