Ishant, Bhuvi, Jadeja to appear for fitness Test on Feb 7

ABP NewsIshant, Bhuvi, Jadeja to appear for fitness Test on Feb 7ABP NewsWith the cricket's biggest tournament set to begin in a couple of weeks time, the team management has made it clear that Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja will have to appear for a fitness test on February 7. And, only after the ...

Scientist considered father of birth control pill dies

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Carl Djerassi, the chemist widely considered the father of the birth control pill, has died.



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Suspected Ebola patient in California tests negative for virus

Hours after a suspected Ebola patient in Sacramento was found to be free of the virus, a second person hospitalized in California's capital was reported by public health officials on Friday to be undergoing evaluation and testing for the disease. The second patient was admitted to Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center on Wednesday, a day before the earlier patient came to light, and like the previous case is considered to be at low risk of having contracted the deadly virus, the hospital said in a statement. There was no immediate word on whether the two cases were linked or whether the second patient had traveled recently in West Africa, the epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record, as had the first. The previous patient was transferred to the University of California-Davis Medical Center from another hospital in Sacramento on Thursday after exhibiting unspecified Ebola-like symptoms, health officials said.



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Soccer-Huddersfield player stable after airlift drama

(Adds player staying in hospital overnight) LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Tommy Smith, a footballer for second-tier English club Huddersfield Town, had to be taken to hospital by helicopter after suffering a head injury in their game against Leeds United on Saturday. "We are pleased to report Tommy has been sitting up and talking to members of Huddersfield Town's staff who have visited him on Saturday evening," the website reported. Straight after the game, officials were still so concerned about his condition that they organised an air ambulance helicopter to land on Huddersfield's John Smith's Stadium pitch to fly Smith to hospital in nearby Leeds.



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'Zombie Cat' at Center of Pet Custody Battle

The so-called "zombie cat" that seemingly came back to life after being buried is now at the center of a custody dispute between his original owner and the Tampa Bay Humane Society, according to the Humane Society. The cat, named Bart, made headlines after his owners reportedly found him hit by a car and buried him. According to the Tampa Bay Humane Center in Tampa, Florida, the cat with nine lives had fairly severe injuries including a broken jaw, facial lacerations and a damaged eye that had to be removed. "Therefore, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay does not intend to return Bart to the Hutson family.

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Chile's Bachelet takes on conservatives with plan to ease abortion ban

By Anthony Esposito SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, unveiled plans on Saturday to ease a complete ban on abortions in the socially conservative South American country. In a televised address, leftist Bachelet said she was sending Congress a draft bill that would permit abortion when a mother's life is at risk, a fetus will not survive the pregnancy, or in the case of rape. The outright ban on terminations was put in place during the final days of Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship. A number of attempts since then to legalize abortion have been blocked by right-wing legislators.

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Withings Activité watch review: finally, a fitness tracker that doesn't look ...

Telegraph.co.ukWithings Activité watch review: finally, a fitness tracker that doesn't look ...Telegraph.co.ukAt £320, this is a far more considered purchase than a rubber fitness tracker for around a quarter of the cost. But if you have a fitness tracker and know you enjoy using it, but would crave a bit of discretion, then this could be for you ...

Soccer-Player airlifted to hospital after injury in English game

Tommy Smith, a footballer for second-tier English club Huddersfield Town, had to be taken to hospital by helicopter after suffering a head injury in their game against Leeds. Smith, a 22-year-old defender, had to be taken off the pitch on a stretcher late in the Championship game after a collision with his own goalkeeper Joe Murphy. Straight after the game, an air ambulance helicopter landed on Huddersfield's John Smith's Stadium pitch to fly Smith to Leeds General Infirmary.



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British health worker being tested for Ebola after needle injury

A British military healthcare worker was flown back to England from Sierra Leone on Saturday following a needle-stick injury sustained while treating a person with Ebola, the Public Health England (PHE) service said on Saturday. The patient, who has not been named, has been taken for testing to the Royal Free Hospital in London. "They are likely to have been exposed to the Ebola virus but, at this time, have not been diagnosed with Ebola and do not have symptoms," PHE said in a statement. The Royal Free, Britain's main centre for Ebola cases, also successfully treated British aid worker William Pooley who contracted the virus in West Africa last year.



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New York Measles Case Could Have Exposed Thousands of Travelers

ABC News' Ron Claiborne reports the morning's top stories.



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British health worker being tested for Ebola after needle injury

A British military healthcare worker was flown back to England from Sierra Leone on Saturday following a needle-stick injury sustained while treating a person with Ebola, the Public Health England (PHE) service said on Saturday. The patient, who has not been named, has been taken for testing to the Royal Free Hospital in London. "They are likely to have been exposed to the Ebola virus but, at this time, have not been diagnosed with Ebola and do not have symptoms," PHE said in a statement. The Royal Free, Britain's main center for Ebola cases, also successfully treated British aid worker William Pooley who contracted the virus in West Africa last year.

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GMO mosquito plan sparks outcry in Florida

A British company's plan to unleash hordes of genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida to reduce the threat of dengue fever and other diseases has sparked an outcry from fearful residents. The company, Oxitec, said it wants to try the technique there in order to reduce the non-native Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in south Florida and beyond. "They are more than just a nuisance as they can spread serious diseases such as dengue fever and chikungunya," Oxitec said on its website. The process involves inserting a gene into lab-grown, male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

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Africa looks to extend new disaster insurance to Ebola-like epidemics

By Daniel Flynn DAKAR (Reuters) - African countries want to extend a new catastrophe insurance fund, which made its first payout of $25 million this month, to include protection against epidemics in the wake of the devastating Ebola outbreak. The African Risk Capacity (ARC) agency, a specialised body of the African Union, launched a scheme last year to insure against natural disasters. It is an effort to break Africa's reliance on foreign aid and address the impact of climate change by using innovative financial techniques. The ARC paid $25 million in its first year of operations to Senegal, Mauritania and Niger to mitigate the effects of a severe drought in the arid Sahel region south of the Sahara -- well above the $8 million in premiums paid by those countries.

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Liberia delays school reopening by two weeks as Ebola cases fall

Liberia said on Friday it would delay reopening schools for two weeks in order to better prepare safety measures against the Ebola virus, which has killed more than 3,650 people in the country but now appears to be receding. A ministry statement said it wanted to "raise awareness about safety protocols, logistics and training requirements", adding: "Actual teaching will begin on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015." Some Liberian opposition parties and members of parliament had called for the reopening date to be moved to March 2, concerned that the Ebola epidemic is not yet fully under control. Liberia and its neighbours Sierra Leone and Guinea have been hardest hit in the worst outbreak of the viral haemorrhagic fever on record. The number of Ebola infections and deaths has fallen sharply in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the past few weeks, with just 20 deaths recorded in Liberia in the 21 days to Jan. 25, according to the World Health Organisation, raising hopes that the disease is gradually being brought under control.

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Second patient hospitalized in California undergoes Ebola testing

Hours after a suspected Ebola patient in Sacramento, California, was found to be free of the virus, a second person hospitalized in the city was reported by public health officials on Friday to be undergoing testing for the deadly disease. The second patient was admitted to Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center on Wednesday and, like the previous case, is considered to be at low risk of having contracted the virus, the hospital said in a statement.



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Crash victim thanks donors whose blood saved his life

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Brandon Levine exchanged handshakes and hugs with nearly two dozen of his blood brothers and sisters, people he had never met but knew had saved his life.

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Drive to repeal medical device tax no slam dunk in Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — It flew through the Republican-run House in 2012, and a year later 79 of the Democratic-led Senate's 100 members embraced it. With Republicans now controlling both chambers of Congress, the chances for repealing the 2.3 percent tax on medical devices are better than ever.

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Four of the oddest new fitness trends

Telegraph.co.ukFour of the oddest new fitness trendsTelegraph.co.ukAccording to an American College of Sports Medicine survey of fitness trends, the popularity of Zumba, Pilates and indoor cycling is waning, while body weight moves, such as those practised by freerunners, are finding their way on to our weekly ...

5 Ways to Be Happier Today

Brrr, its cold outside! These cold, grey winter days can send even the most positive people into a downward funk. Now that winter is truly upon us, what can you do to keep your spirits up? Here are five ways to be happier TODAY:1. Start a gratitude list or journal. Concentrating on what you are thankful for in your life is a sure-fire way...

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Do You Have Metabol-Envy?

Yesterday, I sat with a friend, and she said if she could have one wish it would be to be able to eat whatever she wanted and not gain weight. I clarified, "You mean instead of your family being healthy or world peace?" She said, "Well one wish or thing I could change about myself." I think I believe that last part. The truth is, I hear all...



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Heat Up Your Intimacy by Cooking Together

There is no escaping it -- Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and those chalky candy hearts staring at you in the drug store are proof of it. In this world of mass-produced love, it can often be hard to find that feeling of authentic romance. This year, instead of packing yourself into an overstuffed restaurant filled with irritated...

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More measles cases found in California

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More measles cases have been found in California, health officials said Friday.



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More than 100 cases of measles now confirmed in U.S

By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than 100 people in the United States have been confirmed as infected with measles including 91 in California, most of them linked to an outbreak that began at Disneyland in December, public health officials said on Friday. The California Department of Public Health said at least 58 of the cases of the highly infectious disease in the state have been epidemiologically linked to the Disneyland cluster. No deaths have been reported in connection with the outbreak, which public health officials suspect began when an infected person from outside the United States visited Disneyland in Anaheim between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20. The White House on Friday urged parents to heed the advice of public health officials and scientists in getting their children vaccinated.



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Julius Kieser takes on extreme fitness challenge to transform the way he looks

Daily MailJulius Kieser takes on extreme fitness challenge to transform the way he looksDaily MailAlthough he used to be a personal trainer, and still writes books on fitness, he works mainly as a shadow writer, which sees him spending most of his day sitting at a desk. 'I used to be in denial about how sloppy I had become,' he admits. 'Once I ...

Spain uses stem cell therapy to treat damaged hearts

A Spanish hospital has successfully used stem cells culled from healthy donors to treat seven heart attack victims, in what officials said was a world first. Madrid's Gregorio Maranon hospital plans to treat 55 patients in all with the technique in a clinical trial, the regional Madrid government which runs the hospital said in a statement. "Seven patients have already been operated on and they have progressed very well despite having suffered serious damage to their heart tissue," it added. It is the first time that allogeneic cells -- stem cells that come from another person -- have been used to repair damage to a heart caused by a heart attack, the statement added.

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Ohio postpones all 2015 executions as it secures new drugs

By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio will postpone all six executions scheduled for 2015 because it needs more time to prepare for a new execution procedure and to secure a new supply of execution drugs, the state's prison department said on Friday. Earlier this month, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction halted use of the two-drug lethal injection combination of the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone after the protracted death of an inmate last year. The state prison system wants to add a drug, thiopental sodium, previously used for lethal injections from 1999 to 2011, and pentobarbital as the two drugs permitted for lethal injections in the future. Ohio and other states with the death penalty are seeking new execution drug formulations after some pharmaceutical companies stopped supplying products because they no longer wanted to be associated with capital punishment.



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Pivotal time for trans people as rigid notion of gender challenged

By Maria Caspani NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For Kate Bornstein, the American author and pioneer gender activist, this is a pivotal time in history for transgender people as the rigid concept of two sexes is challenged by a growing number of individuals who don't conform to either. "That's very different from their parents or even their older siblings," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview. "In the early 1990s, there might be one 'trans' student in six or seven colleges and now the audience is filled with female to male...or really cool gender queer (people)," Bornstein, who does not identify as male or female, says in a new film about her life. In the United States and beyond, a growing movement views gender as a complex, mainly psychological phenomenon in which a person's external anatomy is no longer the defining factor.



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Second California patient tests negative for Ebola hours after first

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A second hospital patient in Sacramento, California, tested negative for the Ebola virus on Friday, the hospital reported, hours after the first was found to be free of the deadly disease at a nearby medical center. Both individuals were said to have been at low-risk of contracting Ebola before their test results came back. Public health officials have not said whether the two cases were linked in any way. The Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center said its patient, admitted on Wednesday, would now be discharged. ...



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Chimerix to stop participation in clinical studies of Ebola drug

(Reuters) - Drug developer Chimerix Inc said it would stop participation in clinical studies of its Ebola drug, brincidofovir, citing a significant decrease in the number new cases for the virus in Liberia. The decision was announced after the company's discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Brincidofovir was given to the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan, who later succumbed to the infection.



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U.S. congressman from Mississippi has inoperable brain tumor: spokesman

(Reuters) - U.S. Representative Alan Nunnelee of Mississippi, who was diagnosed with brain cancer last year, has been told by doctors he has a new tumor and it is inoperable, a spokesman for the Republican congressman said on Friday. Nunnelee, who was elected to his third term in November, suffered a stroke while in surgery to remove a tumor in June. "After seven months of bravely fighting brain cancer and a stroke, Congressman Alan Nunnelee was informed last Friday that a new tumor has developed and no further medical treatment is possible," Morgan Baldwin, a longtime Nunnelee consultant, said in a statement.



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Ex-Super Bowl champ Leonard Marshall to teach about concussions

Two-time Super Bowl champion Leonard Marshall is teaming up with the lawyer who first sued the NFL over concussions to form an educational road show on how to avoid and treat head injuries in sports. The target audience for the Brain Unity Trust is players, coaches and organizations, said Marshall, who suffers from CTE-related illnesses, perhaps from concussions during his 12 seasons as a defensive lineman in the National Football League in the 1980s and '90s. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain often found in athletes who suffered repetitive brain trauma.

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Father of Psych Ward Stabbing Victim Says Mental Patients Treated Like 'Prisoners'

The father of man stabbed to death by his roommate in a southern California hospital psych ward won $3 million in punitive damages this week against the hospital where his son died. "Mentally challenged individuals have just as many rights as other people," Joseph Camacho, 79, told ABC News. His son, Dean Camacho, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was attacked at Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley, California, by his roommate, Jerry Romansky in 2011, according to court documents. Though rooms throughout the hospital were equipped with emergency buzzers, they had been disabled in the mental health wing, according to Joseph Camacho's lawyer, John Marcin.

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Three U.S. House Republicans to seek Obamacare replacement

Three top U.S. Republican lawmakers, including Representative Paul Ryan, will lead an effort to craft new health reforms that could replace Obamacare, party officials said on Friday. House leadership said Ryan, the former Republican vice presidential nominee, would join Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and Education and the Workforce Committee John Kline as part of a new healthcare working group. The Republican-controlled House, which has voted numerous times to overturn the healthcare law, is expected to do so again next week. Republicans have failed in the past to reach consensus on legislation to replace Obamacare and analysts say that stubborn differences within the party persist.

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Father of Psych Ward Stabbing Victim Says Mental Patients Treated Like 'Prisoners'

Dean Camacho was found stabbed to death by his psych ward roommate.



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Heavy kids can have celiac disease, too

By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) – Overweight children are just as likely as thin children to have celiac disease, a new study confirms. It's a common misconception - even among many doctors - that celiac disease is limited to people who are underweight. “Being overweight certainly does not exclude the diagnosis, as this paper shows,” said Dr. Peter Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, who was not involved in the new study. Between 0.5 percent and 1 percent of people living in the developed world are thought to have celiac disease, in which gluten in food triggers a damaging immune response in the small intestines.



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Obama hails 'boundless' promise of precision medicine

President Barack Obama on Friday unveiled plans to plow $215 million into "precision medicine" research, a field he said provided "boundless" promise for the treatment of diseases like cancer and diabetes. The bulk of the money, $200 million, would go to the National Institutes of Health and its affiliate the National Cancer Institute.

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FDA approves Shire's Vyvanse for binge-eating disorder

By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Shire Plc's stimulant Vyvanse to treat binge-eating disorder, the first product to be approved for the condition. Vyvanse, which is currently approved to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, generated sales of more than $1 billion in the first nine months of last year. Dr. Flemming Ornskov, the company's chief executive officer, said in an interview that Shire's goal is to generate overall sales of $10 billion by 2020. Of that, he expects $200 million to $300 million to come from Vyvanse for binge-eating.



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Second patient hospitalized in California undergoes Ebola testing

Hours after a suspected Ebola patient in Sacramento, California, was found to be free of the virus, a second person hospitalized in the city was reported by public health officials on Friday to be undergoing testing for the deadly disease. The second patient was admitted to Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center on Wednesday and, like the previous case, is considered to be at low risk of having contracted the virus, the hospital said in a statement.



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Modern Medicine, Mired at the Line of Scrimmage

Modern medicine has some things in common with football -- or maybe I just have the Super Bowl on the brain. Both, it seems to me, tend to foster our occasionally-overinflated hopes, leaving us at times to contend with a relatively, well, deflated reality.Both are team sports, advancing courtesy of collective effort. And by and large, progress...

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White House urges parents to heed advice urging childhood vaccines

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With U.S. measles cases on the rise, the White House on Friday urged parents to heed the advice of public health officials and scientists in getting their children vaccinated. "People should evaluate this for themselves with a bias toward good science and toward the advice of our public health professionals," President Barack Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. Asked whether people should be getting vaccinated, Earnest said: "That's what the science indicates." "The science on this is really clear," Earnest added. The measles outbreak has renewed a debate over the so-called anti-vaccination movement in which fears about potential side effects of vaccines, fueled by now-debunked research suggesting a link to autism, have led a small minority of parents to refuse to allow their children to be inoculated.



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Flu Hospitalizations of Elderly Hit Record High, CDC Says

Elderly flu patients hit hardest in 9 years.



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Computer tracks eye movements to detect concussions

By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) – A new piece of technology that tracks eye movements after a head injury might be able to detect concussions and determine their severity, researchers say. The new technology is essentially like a doctor moving a finger in front of a person’s eyes after a hit to the head - except now it's automated, said Dr. Uzma Samadani of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.



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Athletes' biological clocks affect their performance

By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) – A week before the Super Bowl, a new study suggests that players' performances may depend at least in part on how the game's timing aligns with their body clocks. “The reason why we did this study is that all the existing literature talking about circadian rhythm in sports performance came to the same conclusion: that athletes give their best performance in the evening,” said Roland Brandstaetter, the study’s senior author from the University of Birmingham in the UK. As reported in the journal Current Biology, Brandstaetter and colleagues studied the performance of 121 athletes who competed in competitions. When the researchers separated the athletes into three groups based on their internal clocks, they found that those who naturally get up early reached peak performance in the early afternoon.



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Thanks to Community Outreach, Obamacare Is Working for Diverse Groups

We are well into the second open enrollment period, and the numbers are telling: nearly 7.3 million people have enrolled in coverage in the federal health insurance marketplace. Ten million people have gained coverage since the first open enrollment period, including hundreds of thousands of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific...



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Woman convicted of endangering children in her decrepit NYC home

A woman who was raising three children in a decrepit New York City house that lacked some exterior walls and a part of the roof was convicted on Friday on charges of endangering the children's welfare, the local prosecutor's office said. Katherine Vartholomeou, 48, had no running water in her home in the borough of Queens, and powered lights and other devices by running extension cords from a neighboring house, according to the Queens district attorney's account. The police had entered with a search warrant while investigating Dimitrios Vlahakis, Vartholomeou's 24-year-old son, for a string of burglaries. The home's structure had previously been damaged in a fire, and police feared another fire might be imminent as they found extension cords, lights and refuse in combustible proximity.



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Michael Jackson's family denied new trial in negligence case

A California state appeals court on Friday denied Michael Jackson's family its latest attempt to reverse a jury's decision that cleared concert promoter AEG Live of negligence in the singer's death. The three-judge panel ruled that Jackson's mother and children did not have standing for a new trial after their attorneys argued last week that AEG Live was liable for Jackson's treatment, and that jury instructions were confusing and not wide enough in scope. A Los Angeles jury in 2013 cleared privately held AEG Live, the organizer of Jackson's ill-fated 50 "This Is It" comeback concerts in London, of negligently hiring cardiologist Conrad Murray as Jackson's personal physician. The child star turned King of Pop, who set the world dancing but whose musical genius was overshadowed by a bizarre lifestyle and sex scandals, died in 2009 at age 50 in Los Angeles from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic.

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Measles Outbreak has Spread to 14 States, 84 Cases this Month

Arizona health officials??? concerned virus could spread during Super Bowl.



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White House: Science indicates parents should vaccinate kids

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid the measles outbreak stemming from California, the White House is telling parents that science indicates they should vaccinate their children.

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Study suggests limiting alcohol intake in middle age

Drinking more than two alcoholic beverages per day in middle age could increase the risk of stroke more than the well-known culprits of having high blood pressure or diabetes, according to a new study. "We now have a clearer picture about these risk factors, how they change with age and how the influence of drinking alcohol shifts as we get older," says Pavla Kadlecová, M.Sc., a statistician at St. Anne's University Hospital's International Clinical Research Center in the Czech Republic. In the study, 11,644 middle-aged Swedish twins were followed for 43 years and the research team set out to compare if a person's level of drinking made a difference concerning stroke risk. Having more than two drinks per day was considered "heavy drinking" by the researchers while drinking less than half a drink daily was considered "light drinking," and middle age was considered to be the 50s and 60s.

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Gates Foundation awards $50 million to Stanford vaccine discovery

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said on Friday it had awarded Stanford University a $50 million grant to accelerate vaccine development efforts for the world's most deadly diseases, including AIDS and malaria. The $50 million grant over 10 years will go toward establishing the Stanford Human Systems Immunology Center on the school's California campus, the foundation and university said in a statement. The center will focus research on how the immune system can be harnessed to develop vaccines for the world's most deadly infectious diseases, the university said. Stanford said cost and the amount of time needed for research have been obstacles in developing new vaccinations.

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Everything You Want to Know About the Measles

Measles was eliminated by vaccines years ago but is making a comeback.



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Sun Pharmaceutical wins U.S. approval to buy Ranbaxy

India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has won U.S. approval to buy Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd on condition that it sell its interest in a generic antibacterial medicine, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Friday. Sun Pharmaceutical said in April that it had agreed to buy the Indian generic drugmaker from its current owner, Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Co, for $3.2 billion. Ranbaxy has been involved in a wrangle with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has barred a range of its medicines from the United States after finding that some of the company's plants did not meet U.S. standards. The FTC, whose job is to ensure that anti-monopoly laws are enforced, did not weigh in on the safety issue but said it would allow the transaction if Ranbaxy sold its interests in generic minocycline tablets and capsules to generic maker Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which is also based in India.

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Canada says husband of woman diagnosed with avian flu also infected

The husband of a woman who tested positive for the H7N9 avian flu virus earlier this week was also infected, likely from a common source during their visit to China, Canadian federal and provincial governments confirmed on Friday. The couple, residents of British Columbia, exhibited symptoms one day apart and likely did not infect each other, Canada's chief public health officer and British Columbia's deputy provincial health officer said in a joint statement. The H7N9 virus has not been detected in birds in Canada. The virus first infected three people in China in March 2013.



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All Your Measles Questions Answered

ABC News' Dr. Richard Besser dispels the myths and gives the facts about the resurging measles virus.



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Two Different Paths to Obesity and What They Have in Common

The naturally thin often have a hard time understanding the struggles of the very many who battle with overweight and obesity. Why is losing weight -- and especially keeping it off -- so very hard? What is it that drives us to obesity, and what can we do about it? And why has obesity spread like an epidemic in the last few decades?A new article...

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Pivotal time for trans people as rigid notion of gender challenged

By Maria Caspani NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For Kate Bornstein, the American author and pioneer gender activist, this is a pivotal time in history for transgender people as the rigid concept of two sexes is challenged by a growing number of individuals who don't conform to either. "That's very different from their parents or even their older siblings," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview. "In the early 1990s, there might be one 'trans' student in six or seven colleges and now the audience is filled with female to male...or really cool gender queer (people)," Bornstein, who does not identify as male or female, says in a new film about her life. In the United States and beyond, a growing movement views gender as a complex, mainly psychological phenomenon in which a person's external anatomy is no longer the defining factor.



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Suspected Ebola patient in California tests negative for virus

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A hospital patient in Sacramento, California, who was suspected of contracting Ebola has tested negative for infection with the deadly virus, a hospital spokeswoman said on Friday. The negative test result was disclosed a day after the individual was admitted to the University of California-Davis Medical Center after traveling in West Africa, epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record, and exhibiting possible symptoms of the disease. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)



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Flu hospitalizations of elderly hit record high, CDC says

NEW YORK (AP) — Some new evidence this is a particularly bad flu season: Flu-related hospitalizations of the elderly are the highest since the government started tracking that statistic nine years ago.



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Innovative gynocological tool gets FDA approval

Ladies, the next time you visit the gynecologist those dreaded cervical forceps could be replaced by an entirely new device that's newly approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It's called a suction cervical retractor and while the name may make you want to cross your legs, it is said to be gentler and more efficient. Traditionally, doctors use cervical tenaculum forceps to clamp open or stabilize the cervix and Dr. David Turok, who consulted Bioceptive on their new device, points out that the cervical suction retractor bypasses tissue penetration.

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Three months on, fruitless CEO search overshadows Sanofi

Barring a last-minute breakthrough, drugs firm Sanofi's Chairman Serge Weinberg may have to acknowledge in his results presentation next week that the hunt for a new chief executive is not going well. The manner of Chris Viehbacher's shock dismissal three months ago, and the surprisingly small pay-off he won last week, have cast a long shadow over the process. Paris-schooled Olivier Bohuon, chief executive of British medical devices maker Smith & Nephew, told staff in November he had no plans to leave, and in the same month, former Wyeth boss Bernard Poussot joined the board of Sanofi's rival Roche. Weinberg, who will be 64 on Feb. 10 and does not have a pharmaceuticals background besides his five years on the board, is running Sanofi himself while board member Jean-Rene Fourtou conducts a search -- one which began well before Viehbacher was fired.

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Some doctors won't see patients with anti-vaccine views

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With California gripped by a measles outbreak, Dr. Charles Goodman posted a clear notice in his waiting room and on Facebook: His practice will no longer see children whose parents won't get them vaccinated.

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Ex-supermodel Waris Dirie says FGM can end in her lifetime - TRFN

By Emma Batha LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Supermodel turned campaigner against female genital mutilation Waris Dirie said on Thursday she was optimistic that FGM could be eradicated in her lifetime, branding the tradition "a cruel and perfidious war on little girls." "FGM breaches all human rights and has no place in any 21st century society," said Dirie, who underwent FGM in Somalia when she was 5 years old and whose sister bled to death after being cut. Dirie said her Desert Flower Foundation aimed to save 1 million girls across Africa from the "barbaric" ritual in the next few years through a sponsorship project which provides food, kerosene and school fees to families who pledge not to cut their daughters. GROWING MOMENTUM AGAINST FGM Speaking after receiving a human rights award at the House of Lords in London, Dirie welcomed the growing global momentum to stamp out FGM, a procedure which can cause lifelong physical and psychological problems.

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March meeting to plan rebuilding of Ebola-hit states

By Edmund Blair NAIROBI (Reuters) - Governments and international organisations plan to meet in March to work out how to rebuild three West African nations whose economies have been shattered by Ebola, a U.N. envoy said on Thursday. The number of newly detected cases of Ebola virus infection has been dropping sharply in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia in recent weeks. The World Bank in January projected they would lose $1.6 billion in income this year, over 12 percent of their combined economic output. "The plans at the moment are for a conference to look at the needs of reconstruction organised by the countries themselves, by the United Nations, by the African Union and by the European Union," said David Nabarro, the U.N. special envoy on Ebola.

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Gas truck blast rocks Mexico hospital; two dead, 66 injured

By Lizbeth Diaz and Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A gas truck explosion decimated large parts of a maternity hospital on the western edge of Mexico City on Thursday, killing one woman and a child and leaving dozens injured, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said. The head of national emergency services earlier said that seven people had died, but the death toll was revised down by Mancera, who said there had been confusion around the number.

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California lawmaker aims to raise smoking age to 21

A California lawmaker introduced legislation on Thursday that aims to raise the legal smoking age to 21 from 18, his office said in a statement, just over a week after a similar move by Washington state's top lawyer. The bill also comes a day after California's top health official said electronic cigarettes are threatening to unravel the state's decades-long effort to reduce tobacco use. Democratic State Senator Ed Hernandez of West Covina, who chairs the chamber's health committee, brought the bill in hopes of keeping more teens from starting smoking. Some 21,300 children begin smoking in the state every year, Kimberly Amazeen of the American Lung Association in California said in the statement, adding that about 40,000 Californians die every year from the effects of smoking.



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Suspected Ebola patient admitted to California hospital

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A patient suspected of contracting Ebola after traveling in West Africa and exhibiting symptoms of the disease was admitted on Thursday to a special isolation hospital unit in Sacramento and was being tested for infection, officials said. The patient was considered at a relatively low risk of infection. Although recently in an area where Ebola transmission is widespread, the person had no known contact with anyone who has had the disease, said Laura McCasland, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento County Public Health Department. McCasland said she did not know precisely where or when the patient had traveled in West Africa, the epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record, or why the individual was there or for how long.



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Valeant to buy Dendreon's prostate cancer vaccine Provenge

(Reuters) - Bankrupt drugmaker Dendreon Corp has reached a stalking-horse deal with Canada's Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc to sell the worldwide rights to its cancer vaccine, Provenge, and certain assets for $296 million. The deal is subject to higher and better bids and extended the bid deadline to Feb. 10 for interested parties to participate in an auction, Dendreon said on Thursday. A stalking-horse bidder often helps draw others to an auction by setting a floor price, but they also require the bankrupt company to commit to paying break-up and other fees if the stalking horse is outbid. Seattle-based Dendreon filed for bankruptcy protection in November, after sales of Provenge fell short of expectations and left the company deep in debt.



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Babies found alive in rubble after truck blast rips through Mexico hospital

By Lizbeth Diaz and Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A gas truck explosion ripped through a maternity hospital on the western edge of Mexico City on Thursday, killing one woman and two children and injuring dozens, authorities said, with several babies found alive in the rubble. A nurse and a child died after the blast, which destroyed around 70 percent of the hospital, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said. Speaking on national television, Mexico City's health minister said another child had died and more than 70 people were injured. We brought her in yesterday," said Monserrat Garduno, a 32-year-old nurse.

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Obama budget seeks boost for military, domestic programs

By Jeff Mason PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will call for a 7 percent rise in U.S. domestic and military spending in his budget that would end caps known as "sequestration," the White House said on Thursday, setting up a new conflict with Republicans in Congress. The fiscal 2016 budget, which the administration plans to unveil on Monday, would fund a host of programs that Republicans are unlikely to support. It is the latest salvo by the Democratic president lobbed at a Congress controlled by the opposition party, and follows a defiant State of the Union address last week that critics said betrayed an unwillingness to seek compromise. Obama maintained that tone during remarks to congressional Democrats in Philadelphia, promising not to remain on the sidelines during the last two years of his presidency and urging lawmakers to be unapologetic about backing progressive policies.

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Thai vigilantes take up fight against human trafficking

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BAN BANG YAI, Thailand (Reuters) - Bullet-proof vest, shotgun, sunglasses: Kompat Sompaorat could be mistaken for a member of a SWAT team. He actually belongs to a motley group of Thai civilians who, frustrated by their government's lacklustre response to human trafficking, have taken up arms to patrol one of Asia's busiest smuggling routes. For three months now, scores of volunteers have patrolled the estuaries and jungles of Phang Nga province, a popular tourist destination in southern Thailand a short drive from the famous resort island of Phuket. We can't touch them," said Kompat, as the volunteers arrive at an abandoned smuggling camp near the village of Ban Bang Yai strewn with children's shoes, women's camisoles and trash.



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Suspected Ebola patient admitted to California hospital

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A patient suspected of being infected with Ebola was admitted on Thursday to a special isolation unit of a University of California hospital in Sacramento and was being tested for infection, hospital and public health officials said. The patient was transferred on Thursday morning to UC Davis Medical Center from Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, the state capital, with symptoms consistent with Ebola infection, and was later listed in good condition, the medical center said in statements. Sacramento County Public Health Department spokeswoman Laura McCasland was quoted as telling the Sacramento Bee newspaper: "The patient is considered low-risk and more information is being gathered." Hospital spokeswoman Dorsey Griffith said the patient was being tested but she did not know whether the individual had traveled recently in West Africa, the epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record.



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Obama budget seeks boost for military, domestic programs

By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will call for a 7 percent rise in U.S. domestic and military spending in his budget that would end caps known as 'sequestration,' the White House said on Thursday, setting up a new source of conflict with Republicans in Congress. Obama intends to announce his budget plans during a meeting with congressional Democrats in Philadelphia later in the day. The fiscal 2016 budget, which the administration plans to unveil on Monday, would fund a host of programs that Republicans are unlikely to support. It is the latest salvo by the Democratic president lobbed at a Congress controlled by the opposition party, and follows a defiant State of the Union address last week that critics said betrayed an unwillingness to seek compromise.



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CDC urges measles vaccinations amid Disneyland outbreak

By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans on Thursday to get vaccinated for measles amid an outbreak that began at Disneyland in December, saying that 2014 saw the highest number of cases in two decades. So far more than 90 people have been diagnosed with measles in California and elsewhere, most of them linked to an outbreak that public health officials suspect began when an infected person from outside the United States visited Disneyland in Anaheim between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20. On Wednesday, a high school in Palm Desert, California, barred dozens of non-vaccinated students from school over concerns that a classmate may have contracted the highly contagious disease.



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League says reported concussions drop 25 percent

The National Football League said on Thursday the number of reported concussions dropped 25 percent during regular season games in 2014 compared to the previous campaign. There were 111 concussions reported in 2014, down from the 148 during the 2013 season and down nearly 36 percent from the 173 in 2012, the NFL said during its annual pre-Super Bowl health and safety news conference. "Players are changing the way they're tackling," said Jeff Miller, the NFL senior vice president of health and safety policy. "They're changing the way they play the game." According to the NFL's data, 52 concussions were caused by helmet-to-helmet hits in 2014, which is 28 percent below last season and 43 percent lower than in 2012.

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California eases prison crowding after years of trying

It is not yet clear whether the inmate count of 113,463 released Thursday, about 300 below the cap set by a panel of three federal judges, represents a permanent thinning of the prison population or is just a temporary reprieve for the state, which for years fought orders to bring the numbers down. "It's an important milestone," said Michael Bien, a lead attorney in lawsuits aimed at forcing the state to reduce crowding that have gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. "But it doesn't mean everything is fixed." The administration of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown did not immediately comment on the population change, which was released as part of the state's regular weekly inmate count released Thursday. Bien said the biggest factor in the population reduction was the implementation of a new law passed by voters last year that reclassified some crimes as misdemeanors that had previously been felonies.



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Study supports Roche's disputed blockbuster flu drug Tamiflu

By Kate Kelland LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A major analysis of one of the world's most fiercely disputed medicines, Roche's Tamiflu, has found it cuts flu symptoms by a day and can help some patients avoid hospital treatment and complications. Published in The Lancet on Friday, the pooled analysis included data from all previously published and unpublished trials of Tamiflu, which has been the subject of intense scientific debate for years. The drug, known generically as oseltamivir, is an anti-viral which was stockpiled and widely used by governments during the 2009/2010 H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic. It is approved by regulators worldwide and is on the World Health Organization's "essential medicines" list.

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Lessons From Chronic Pain

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey." -- Kenji MiyazawaFor six years now, I have struggled with chronic pain due to a musculoskeletal and neuropathic condition. Shortly after graduating from college, while working out on the elliptical machine, I felt an unforgettable sharp pain shoot down the left side of my body. My life...

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New York couple sentenced to prison after woman held in apartment

By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York couple who faced life imprisonment on charges of holding a paralyzed woman captive for over a year received sentences on Thursday of more than a decade in prison in a plea deal with prosecutors. Maureen Murray, now 61, was discovered by police in 2012 with broken bones and severe malnourishment, huddled on the floor of a bare apartment room in the city's Queens borough, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Murray had been lured in 2011 by her former neighbor Mae Washington, 65, to rent an apartment together in order to save money. Washington and Donovan faced 11 charges including kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.



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FDA approves Bristol-Myers' HIV drug

(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the sale of Evotaz, a once-daily combination pill to treat HIV made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, the company said on Thursday. The new drug combines Reyataz, also known as atazanavir, a Bristol-Myers' protease inhibitor, with cobicistat, a boosting agent produced by Gilead Sciences Inc. The FDA approval is for use of Evotaz in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults. (Reporting By Deena Beasley. Editing by Andre Grenon)



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U.S. military pay reforms could save $12 billion yearly: panel

By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressionally appointed panel on U.S. military compensation recommended overhauling retirement and healthcare benefits on Thursday to improve services offered to troops and families while cutting costs by up to $12.6 billion annually. The nine-member panel, including former military leaders and lawmakers, recommended the Pentagon broaden its retirement benefits to provide 401(K)-style savings plans for most service members while retaining a slimmed-down version of its current 20-year retirement plan. It also recommended reforming the health system for military families and younger retirees, replacing much of the current Tricare system with commercial insurance that would improve access to care. The report's release drew a muted response, with President Barack Obama and other senior leaders thanking the panel and promising to study its findings.



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Some doctors won't see patients with anti-vaccine views

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With California gripped by a measles outbreak, Dr. Charles Goodman posted a clear notice on his door and on Facebook: His practice will no longer see children whose parents won't get them vaccinated.

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Factbox: How Ebola started and spreads

(Reuters) - West Africa has grappled with the worst Ebola outbreak on record that has killed at least 8,810 people since March 2014. The following are some facts about the outbreak: Ebola had killed 8,810 people out of 22,092 cases as of Jan. 25, 2015, with the vast majority of deaths and cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the United Nations' World Health Organization. Health officials declared Nigeria and Senegal Ebola-free in October.



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Poll finds gaping chasm in views between U.S. public, scientists

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American scientists and the general public hold vastly different views on key scientific issues including the role of people in causing climate change, the safety of genetically modified food, and evolution, a poll released on Thursday showed. Eighty-seven percent of scientists questioned by the Pew Research Center said human activity was the main cause of global climate change, compared with 50 percent of the public. The issue has become increasing divisive, with some leading conservatives expressing doubt that human activity like the burning of fossils fuels that release greenhouse gases is driving a global warming trend. There was an even bigger chasm over genetically modified foods, with 88 percent of the scientists saying they were safe to eat, compared with 37 percent of the public.

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Medical marijuana advocates concerned by Illinois licensing delay

By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - Advocates for medical marijuana in Illinois are concerned that delays in issuing distribution licenses, exacerbated by a change in governors, is keeping the drug from patients who need it. Former Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, who supported medical marijuana, left office in January without issuing licenses for growth and distribution, leaving it to his successor, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. For patients that means no hope of getting the drug until at least June even if the Rauner administration issues licenses in the next month, said Chris Lindsey, legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit. The law requires plants to be grown in Illinois, which takes 4-1/2 months in the best of circumstances.



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4 Not-So-Secret Secrets to Nail Down Your Unhealthy Eating and Unhealthy Lifestyle Habits Once and for All

The thing that stumps most of us about creating great health and energy is we don't get that creating healthy eating and healthy lifestyle habits is really more about shifting our thoughts, shifting our mindset, than it is about the perfect recipe. The pursuit of the next best diet, the next best healthy eating program, and even the next best...

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This Simple Equation Reveals How Habits Shape Your Health, Happiness and Wealth

In 1936, a man named Kurt Lewin wrote a simple equation that changed the way we think about habits and human behavior.The equation makes the following statement: Behavior is a function of the Person in their Environment. [1]Known today as Lewin's Equation, this tiny expression contains most of what you need to know about building good habits,...

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Withdrawal method linked to condom, pregnancy perceptions

By Shereen Lehman (Reuters Health) – Up to 17 percent of young adults in the U.S. may be using “withdrawal” to prevent pregnancy, although not necessarily relying just on that method, a new study finds. In the sample population of 15-24 year olds, men and women who feared condoms would interfere with pleasure and women who said they would be “pleased” by an unplanned pregnancy were two to four times more likely than others to have used withdrawal. “The condom and pleasure variable didn't surprise me, it's intuitive, it makes sense, but I think the strength of its association surprised me,” said study coauthor Jenny Higgins, a public health researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She added that scientists don't often ask about pleasure in research on contraception and condoms but when they do, they learn a lot more about who is using certain methods and why.



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Super Bowl alert after measles outbreak warning in Arizona

Health authorities in Arizona are on alert after warning 1,000 people may have been exposed to a measles outbreak as the US state prepares to host this weekend's Super Bowl. Arizona's Department of Health recommended that any unvaccinated child or adult who had been in contact with infected people to spend 21 days in isolation at home to curb the risk of spreading the virus. Anyone deemed at risk of infection has been offered doses of immune globulin, which would not prevent them from getting measles but can can reduce symptoms if administered within six days, authorities said. Complications from measles can include blindness, hearing loss, pneumonia and death.

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Litchi fruit suspected in mystery illness in India

Investigators say more research is needed to uncover the cause of the illness, which leads to seizures, altered mental state and death in more than a third of cases. In the meantime, doctors who encounter sick children should takes steps to rapidly correct low blood sugar, which can make the disease more likely to be fatal, said the report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreaks have coincided with the month-long litchi harvesting season in and around the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar state since 1995, said the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In 2013, some 133 children were admitted to local hospitals with seizures and neurological symptoms.

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U.S. insurance regulators aim to improve consumer cybersecurity protections

(Reuters) - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has created a cybersecurity task force to increase protection of consumer information collected by insurers and held by state insurance departments as well as to monitor the cyber insurance market. The NAIC is the group through which state insurance regulators coordinate regulatory oversight for areas including health, life, property and other types of insurance. Cybersecurity has become a bigger issue for insurers this year amid several high profile hacking incidents at retailers such as Home Depot, Sony Corp and at one of the nation's largest hospital chains, Community Health Systems Inc. The hospital incident was blamed on a cyber attack from China and the healthcare sector, including its insurers, was put on watch by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year against attacks.



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Abbott CEO losing no sleep over stronger dollar

Abbott Laboratories' chief executive officer is not worried about the stronger dollar, telling analysts on Thursday his company will better withstand its painful effects than rivals due to its European factories and growing sales of nutritional products, medical diagnostics and medical optics. "We are just not vulnerable to the euro and a lot of companies are," Miles White told analysts on a conference call.



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After heart attacks, most don’t get enough statins

By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - In the U.S., less than a third of older heart “event” patients being discharged from the hospital get the recommended high-intensity statins, according to a new study that looked at prescriptions filled. National guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association say the majority of patients should be on a high-dose statin following a serious heart disease-related event like heart attack or bypass surgery. “It appears that there’s tremendous reticence in prescription of statin therapy,” said lead author Dr. Robert S. Rosenson of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “This is very disappointing.” The authors studied a random sample of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 to 74 who filled a statin prescription after having a heart attack or bypass surgery between 2007 and 2009.



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Ex-supermodel Waris Dirie says FGM can end in her lifetime

By Emma Batha LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Supermodel turned campaigner against female genital mutilation Waris Dirie said on Thursday she was optimistic that FGM could be eradicated in her lifetime, branding the tradition "a cruel and perfidious war on little girls." "FGM breaches all human rights and has no place in any 21st century society," said Dirie, who underwent FGM in Somalia when she was 5 years old and whose sister bled to death after being cut. Dirie said her Desert Flower Foundation aimed to save 1 million girls across Africa from the "barbaric" ritual in the next few years through a sponsorship project which provides food, kerosene and school fees to families who pledge not to cut their daughters. GROWING MOMENTUM AGAINST FGM Speaking after receiving a human rights award at the House of Lords in London, Dirie welcomed the growing global momentum to stamp out FGM, a procedure which can cause lifelong physical and psychological problems.

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Wife of flogged Saudi blogger says his health is worsening

By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - The wife of a Saudi rights activist, sentenced last year to 1,000 lashes for criticizing the Kingdom's clerics in his blog, said on Thursday her husband's health had worsened after the first round of flogging and that he could not survive the full punishment. Raif Badawi, 31, a blogger and founder of the "Free Saudi Liberals" website, received 50 lashes on Jan 9. "Raif's health condition is bad and it's getting worse and worse," said Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, who lives with her three children in Canada after being offered refuge. Badawi was arrested in June 2012 for offences including insulting Islam, cyber crime and disobeying his father, which is a crime in Saudi Arabia.

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Suspected Ebola patient admitted to California hospital

A patient suspected of being infected with Ebola was admitted on Thursday to the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento, the hospital said in a statement. The statement provided no further immediate information about the patient, except to say that the individual was transferred on Thursday morning from Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento to UC Davis Medical Center with "symptoms consistent with Ebola infection." It said UC Davis has been designated by the California Department of Public Health as a priority hospital equipped to treat confirmed Ebola patients.



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Time for an Energy Audit

Time For An Energy AuditTennessee Valley is one of the more beautiful, family friendly hiking areas in the Bay Area. It draws a crowd, especially on Christmas Day when the weather is gorgeous and people are looking to get out. It's where I found myself this past Christmas, doing a little solo communing and reflection. I had other options. My...

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New fund eases expenses for organ donors

By Randi Belisomo (Reuters Health) – When Sigrid Fry-Revere decided to donate a kidney to a friend in 2010, she thought she knew what to expect. “I didn’t know how she was going to pay her bills,” said her sister, Faye Herald, whose research led her to Fry-Revere’s fund.



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Should ‘High T’ determine eligibility for women’s sports?

By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) – According to controversial new regulations, female athletes with as much testosterone in their blood as some men are not allowed to compete in women’s sporting events. In 2011 and 2012, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented new rules barring a female from competing in the women’s category if her blood testosterone level is above 10 nanomoles of testosterone per liter (nmol/L). Women usually have less than three nmol/L, according to Dr. Peter Sonksen of Kings College London. Men tend to have 10 to 30 nmol/L. But 2.5 percent of women have hyperandrogenism, meaning more testosterone in their blood than the reference range for females, usually due to genetics, Sonksen told Reuters Health by email.



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March meeting to plan rebuilding of Ebola-hit states

By Edmund Blair NAIROBI (Reuters) - Governments and international organizations plan to meet in March to work out how to rebuild three West African nations whose economies have been shattered by Ebola, a U.N. envoy said on Thursday. The number of newly detected cases of Ebola virus infection has been dropping sharply in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia in recent weeks. The World Bank in January projected they would lose $1.6 billion in income this year, over 12 percent of their combined economic output. "The plans at the moment are for a conference to look at the needs of reconstruction organized by the countries themselves, by the United Nations, by the African Union and by the European Union," said David Nabarro, the U.N. special envoy on Ebola.

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Oh, Baby! Welcome to the Mother of All Sports Controversies

Richard Sherman is the latest dealing with being a soon-to-be dad.



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'Humans of New York' blog raises over $1 million for Brooklyn school

The popular photo blog "Humans of New York" said it had raised more than $1 million by Thursday to pay for college trips and tuition for middle-school students in one of the city's most crime-ridden neighborhoods. The fundraising idea was triggered by a viral response to the blog, http://ift.tt/wwTpuj, after it posted the photo of a student at Mott Hall Bridges Academy in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, who called the school principal the most influential person in his life. The student was identified only as Vidal, age 13, and he was shown in a photograph by blog founder Brandon Stanton with a pursed smile and wooly black hoodie, accompanied by a quote about his principal, Nadia Lopez. "And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter." The blog, on which Stanton posts pictures, quotes and short stories about people he meets in New York City, has nearly 12 million Facebook followers.



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Black breast-feeding gatherings battle troubling health gaps

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Once a month, baby-toting young women gather in a YMCA conference room to share tips, talk about and demonstrate breast-feeding — an age-old yet sometimes shunned practice in their community.

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Red Cross steps up aid to Syria under local truces: senior official

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Syrian authorities and insurgents have allowed the Red Cross to deliver growing amounts of aid under local ceasefires since August, in a possible harbinger of reconciliation in the civil war, an ICRC official said on Thursday. Boris Michel, outgoing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Syria, also told Reuters in an interview it had made five visits to four government-run prisons last year, the first since May 2012. "If you want to de-escalate the conflict, you have to start from the local level and build local truces, arrangements, just to stabilize the situation because people are exhausted after four years of conflict and the human cost of it is huge." The ICRC has 300 staff in Syria, including 51 expatriates against 35 a year ago. We convinced authorities to provide more access to victims so there is more delivery of humanitarian assistance on a needs-based approach, therefore crossing lines across Syria," he said.



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FDA expands use of Imbruvica to treat rare form of blood cancer

(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it cleared an expanded use of Imbruvica to treat Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM), a rare form of blood cancer for which no specific pharmaceutical therapy exists. The regulator's decision, which comes in over two months ahead of its review date, represents a fourth indication for the drug, sold by Johnson & Johnson and Pharmacyclics Inc. A type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, WM was first discovered more than 70 years ago. It usually worsens slowly over time and causes abnormal blood cells, known as B lymphocytes (B-cells), to grow within the bone marrow, lymph nodes, liver, and spleen. Although WM occurs only in up to 1,500 patients in the United States each year, the approval highlights the strength of the Imbruvica franchise, Roth Capital Partner's Joseph Pantginis wrote in a note.



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Jim Parsons set for celestial role in Broadway comedy 'Act of God'

Four-time Emmy winner Jim Parsons, best known as the nerdy scientist Sheldon Cooper in the TV comedy "The Big Bang Theory" will be ascending to new heights when he plays God on Broadway this spring, the show's producer said on Thursday. Parsons, 41, will star in the limited run of "An Act of God," scheduled to open on May 28 at Studio 54. The play is based on "The Last Testament: A Memoir by God," dubbed the ultimate celebrity autobiography, as told to David Javerbaum, the Emmy-winning former executive producer and head writer of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." "I chose Jim to play me because I relish the irony of telling the real story of the six days of creation through the star of 'The Big Bang Theory.' Plus, he's funny," a press agent quoted God as saying in a statement.

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Are You Giving Your Body Its Best Shot at a Long, Healthy Life?

Think of your health like a savings account. Are you saving for a rainy day? There's so much we can do right now to contribute to our future wellbeing and longevity. Ask yourself these questions to get on track for a long, happy, healthy life.How healthy are you now? Whatever your age or health, now is the time to get a thorough and accurate...

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6 Ways We Can Use Taste and Smell to Optimize Our Nutrition

Let's be honest. Rarely a day passes when we are not bombarded with information on how we can improve our health. This usually takes shape in the form of new "fat free" foods, diet fads, and the latest fitness trends. Perhaps that eight-muscled meat snake housed in our pie hole and our discerning schnoz are far less exciting, but these...

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Young adults say they see e-cigs as safe, fun technology

By Janice Neumann (Reuters Health) - Many young adults are enthusiastically “vaping” e-cigarettes, drawn by the nifty technology, tasty flavors and their own physical sense that the devices are doing them no harm, according to new research. The authors of the small study, which focused on young adults in New York City, say this segment of the vaping population needs more education on the possible health effects of e-cigarettes, including the potential for becoming addicted to nicotine. A ban on flavors and on marketing tactics that are already prohibited for tobacco could help slow the uptake of e-cigarettes as well, the researchers conclude in the journal Tobacco Control. “I think my main concern is not so much that this product is going to end up being more toxic than cigarettes - because cigarettes are so toxic you almost can’t come up with a product that is worse - but young adults are still in a stage where they are initiating nicotine use,” Dr. Pamela Ling, one of the study’s two authors, told Reuters Health.



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WHO: Ebola response shifts to ending epidemic

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says officials are now focused on ending the biggest-ever Ebola outbreak rather than just slowing the virus' spread.



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Weekly Ebola cases below 100, WHO says endgame begins

The number of new confirmed Ebola cases totalled 99 in the week to Jan. 25, the lowest tally since June 2014, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, signalling the tide might have turned against the epidemic. "The response to the EVD (Ebola virus disease) epidemic has now moved to a second phase, as the focus shifts from slowing transmission to ending the epidemic," the WHO said. "To achieve this goal as quickly as possible, efforts have moved from rapidly building infrastructure to ensuring that capacity for case finding, case management, safe burials, and community engagement is used as effectively as possible." The outbreak has killed 8,810 people out of 22,092 cases, almost all of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Cases and deaths have fallen rapidly in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the past few weeks, with 20 deaths recorded in Liberia in the 21 days to Jan. 25 -- less than one a day.

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