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Obesity Epidemic In America Shows Signs of Plateauing

The obesity epidemic that has been spreading for more than a quarter-century in the United States has leveled off among women and may have hit a plateau for men, as well, federal health officials reported yesterday.

Globally, Deaths From Measles Drop Sharply

Worldwide deaths from measles have fallen by two-thirds since 2000, the result of stepped-up immunization efforts and the distribution of vitamin A capsules in developing countries, a partnership of five health organizations said yesterday.

Read more : 30.11.2007 12:00:00

New Rooms Afford Privacy in Stressful Times

They call them "frequent fliers" at Children's Hospital: families with children so sick they've spent weeks, even months, at the medical center. They've come for complicated treatments: chemo for cancer, heart surgery, kidney transplants. The list goes on.

Read more : 30.11.2007 12:00:00

Experts 'Fail' Risk Analysis for Boston Bioterror Lab

An expert panel of the nation's premier science advisory organization yesterday gave a failing grade to a federal risk analysis used to justify construction of a controversial high-security bioterror laboratory in inner-city Boston.

Read more : 30.11.2007 12:00:00

FDA Is Urged To Toughen Rules on Salt

A consumer group prodded the Food and Drug Administration yesterday to regulate salt as a food additive, arguing that excessive salt consumption by Americans may be responsible for more than 100,000 deaths a year.

Read more : 30.11.2007 12:00:00

Diversity Tests Health Care in 3 Md. Counties

The increasing diversity of three of Maryland's largest counties is exacerbating already serious health disparities within communities, according to a new report.

Estimate of AIDS Cases In U.S. Rises

New government estimates of the number of Americans who become infected with the AIDS virus each year are 50 percent higher than previous calculations suggested, sources said yesterday.

FDA Considers Easing Curbs on Drug Makers

The Food and Drug Administration is considering allowing pharmaceutical makers to provide doctors with medical journal studies of unapproved uses for drugs, a move critics say would undermine long-standing restrictions on marketing medicines for "off-label" purposes.

Event Blends Music, Screening

As dozens of teenagers swayed and shimmied to the throb of a go-go band on a District dance floor yesterday, a handful crammed onto benches nearby, silent and fidgeting as they waited to be tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

'A Soldier's Officer'

In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in...