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Tamiflu-resistant swine flu cluster reported in NC - 11/20/2009
Four North Carolina patients at a single hospital tested positive for a type of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu, health officials said Friday. The cases reported at Duke University Medical Center over six weeks make up the biggest cluster seen so far in the U.S. Tamiflu _ made by Switzerland's Roche Group _ is one of

White House at odds with bishops over abortion - 11/20/2009
The White House is on a collision course with Catholic bishops in an intractable dispute over abortion that could blow up the fragile political coalition behind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. A top Obama administration official is praising the new Senate health bill's attempt to find a compromise on abortion coverage _

Guidelines for cancer screening differ by group - 11/20/2009
Several doctors groups and advocacy groups set guidelines for cancer screening, and they update that advice periodically as new information emerges. Sometimes they agree, sometimes they don't. Last year, a number of groups got together and issued consensus guidelines for colon cancer. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a governm

Senate Dems moving ahead on crucial health vote - 11/20/2009
With no margin for rebellion, Senate Democrats pushed toward a crucial weekend test vote on their sweeping health care bill Friday, and wavering moderates appeared to be falling in line on President Barack Obama's signature issue. One of three uncommitted centrists, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, announced he'd vote with his party's lea

Military experiment seeks to predict PTSD - 11/20/2009
Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images. Smiling kids embracing a soldier. A dog sniffing blood oozing from a corpse. Movie star Cameron Diaz posing sideways in a midriff top. Troops cowerin

Tamiflu-resistant swine flu cluster reported in NC - 11/20/2009
Health officials say four people in North Carolina have tested positive for a type of swine flu that's resistant to the drug Tamiflu. It's the first cluster of that many cases seen in the U.S. Health officials said Friday the four cases were reported at Duke University Medical Center in Durham over the past six weeks.

Correction: Plavix story - 11/20/2009
In a Nov. 17 story about drug interactions between heartburn medications and the blood thinner Plavix, The Associated Press misidentified Johnson & Johnson's Mylanta as part of the H-2 blocker drug family. Mylanta is an antacid.

Cost of child vaccines fall, more kids saved - 11/20/2009
Babies squirmed and wailed as needles plunged into their chubby thighs at a public health clinic on the outskirts of Hanoi on Friday. Like little ones everywhere, the reaction to the sting was never pretty. Starting next year an extra 6.3 million children worldwide will have the chance to feel that pinch and get vaccinated against som

Report: 20-somethings can go 2 years between Paps - 11/20/2009
First mammograms. Now _ in an apparent coincidence _ Pap smears. New guidelines by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say most women in their 20s can have a Pap smear every two years instead of annually to catch slow-growing cervical cancer. The change comes amid a separate debate over when regular mamm

AP IMPACT: Gripes about swine flu vaccine abound - 11/20/2009
When the nation's swine flu vaccination program began in early October, health officials predicted it was going to be "messy." They were right. The program has been plagued with problems and information gaps: _Health officials have been terrible at predicting when and how much vaccine would be available. Only abou

China to punish those concealing swine flu info - 11/20/2009
China's health ministry said it will punish officials who underreport cases of swine flu after a doctor famous for exposing the extent of the 2003 SARS epidemic said he believes the true number of swine flu deaths is being covered up. China's official count of swine flu cases is nearly 70,000 reported illnesses and 53 deaths, although

US survey shows southern counties most obese - 11/19/2009
The first county-by-county survey of obesity reflects past studies that show the rate of obesity is highest in the Southeast and Appalachia. High rates of obesity and diabetes were reported in more than 80 percent of counties in the Appalachian region that includes Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to the new research from the U.S

FDA panel backs safety, benefits of Spiriva - 11/19/2009
Federal health experts on Thursday brushed off lingering safety questions about a popular inhaler drug and suggested it carry bolder benefit claims. The Food and Drug Administration's panel of lung specialists voted 11-1 in favor of new labeling about the benefits of Boehringer Ingelheim's Spiriva Handihaler, which is approved to trea

Experts say radical measures won't stop swine flu - 11/19/2009
Health experts say extraordinary measures against swine flu _ most notably quarantines imposed by China, where entire planeloads of passengers were isolated if one traveler had symptoms _ have failed to contain the disease. Despite initially declaring success, Beijing now acknowledges its swine flu outbreak is much larger than officia

Task force doctor stands by mammogram advice - 11/19/2009
A member of the independent panel whose new mammogram recommendations have led to confusion defended the task force's report, saying Thursday that it was based on the most up-to-date, accurate information available. Dr. Timothy Wilt, a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, stuck by its recommendation that most women don't

1.5M per day getting swine flu vaccine in China - 11/19/2009
China's health minister said Wednesday his country is vaccinating 1.5 million people a day against swine flu, part of a mammoth effort to reach nearly 7 percent of inhabitants of the world's most populous country by year's end. Chen Zhu told The Associated Press that more than 15 million Chinese have been immunized so far.

FDA panel backs Pfizer's enhanced vaccine for kids - 11/18/2009
Federal health experts said Wednesday an updated version of Pfizer's best-selling anti-infection vaccine is safe and effective for infants and toddlers, despite company studies that failed to meet certain goals. The Food and Drug Administration's panel of vaccine experts voted 10-1 in favor of Pfizer's Prevnar 13 to protect against pn

Michelle Obama visits Va. school, tours garden - 11/18/2009
First Lady Michelle Obama received a few gardening tips from students Wednesday as she toured a Virginia elementary school's vegetable garden. Mrs. Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited Hollin Meadows Elementary to promote the Obama administration's Healthier U.S. Schools initiative. Students showed the first

Study: CT scans rule out heart attacks faster - 11/18/2009
A CT scan _ a kind of super X-ray _ provides a faster, cheaper way to diagnose a heart attack when someone goes to the emergency room with chest pains, a new study suggests. About 6 million people each year go to hospitals with chest pain, but only a small fraction are truly having a heart attack. CT scans are increasingly used to dia

Ex-Kiss drummer: Breast cancer not just for women - 11/18/2009
Lying in bed one night in 2007, Peter Criss felt something strange: a small lump on his left breast. "I thought, `It's a nodule, I'm a guy, I don't think it's anything more than that,'" he said. "The more I messed with it, the bigger it got and the more it hurt, and that started really scaring me." The f