Epidemiology News

Seniors who take certain medications like antidepressants and sleeping pills that have a sedating effect are at greater risk of falling, say researchers, suggesting that doctors need to take more care in prescribing such drugs.

While nearly every young adult who contracts H1N1 flu sheds the virus without major complications, a handful have gotten seriously ill or died - shocking their friends and families.

Madison County has received its first report of a death caused by the H1N1 virus, commonly referred to as swine flu.

"I am optimistic that we are on the downswing of our second wave," said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has released its most recent weekly report on the impact of influenza-like illness in Kansas.

The good news is that a new report shows the percentage of American adults with high LDL cholesterol, the "bad" kind that clogs arteries, decreased by about one-third between 1999 and 2006.

Centrifugal devices with ultrafiltration membrane can solve common problems researchers face when working with proteins.

Now that students in elementary and middle schools are getting the swine flu shots, the first shipments of the vaccine are arriving at University of Hawaii clinics, the state Department of Health said.

Most people know that healthy cholesterol levels can help protect your heart. But new research suggests another potential benefit: a lower risk of developing some types of cancer.

More than half the Hawaii health care providers who ordered the H1N1 vaccine have not received a single dose yet, over a month after the vaccinations began arriving in the islands, state health officials said.

Environmentalists have spent the last few years declaring that Fort Chipewyan, a town of about 900 located near Alberta's Athabasca oilsands, is an example of how industrialism can run amok and poison innocents.

About 4,000 Americans - rather than about 1,200 - have died of swine flu since the disease emerged in April, according to new figures being calculated by epidemiologists for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

Long-term use of cholesterol-lowering statins appears to reduce the incidence of gallstones and the need for surgery to prevent the excruciating pain they cause, a new study indicates.

Published: Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 10:54 p.m. Swine flu is still rampant across Florida, but signs show the virus might be easing up, and the worst of it may even be over.

NBC's "Biggest Loser" health and motivational expert, Bob Harper came close to packing the former Middle School's auditorium Saturday night.

A Douglas County health official hopes the H1N1 flu is easing off in the Omaha area after hitting a peak in October.

State health officials encourage vulnerable groups to be inoculated for H1N1 as medicine becomes available By Helen Altonn POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Nov 06, 2009 About 75,000 children and at least 10,000 staff and faculty members have been vaccinated in this year's seasonal flu school clinics, and state health officials hope to see the turnout ...

In 2002 and 2003, screening guidelines for the cervical cancer-detecting Pap test were changed significantly, yet fewer than one-third of U.S. primary care physicians follow those guidelines, according to a recent study.

Men with lower cholesterol are less likely than those with higher levels to develop high-grade prostate cancer - an aggressive form of the disease with a poorer prognosis, according to results of a Johns Hopkins collaborative study.

Some parents hoping to protect their children from H1N1, or swine flu, are frustrated over a lack in the vaccine in Collin County .