Public/Global Health

Health officials suspect the outbreak, which has killed eight, was caused by steroid injections tainted by fungus.

Birth rates for U.S. teen mothers have hit their lowest point since the 1940s, the government reported Wednesday.

President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius marked Breast Cancer Awareness Month on Monday by touting healthcare reform and its benefits for women.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for U.S. women, and the healthcare law mandates that most insurance plans cover mammograms for free.

Noting this, Sebelius credited the Affordable Care Act with bringing on "a new day for women's health and the fight against breast cancer." 

Report's authors recommend government action to promote physical activity and healthier school lunches. 

New York City is moving ahead with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on large sodas.

Bloomberg said on Twitter that the city's health board approved his plan Thursday morning. He called it "the single biggest step any gov't has taken to curb obesity."

The highly controversial policy would ban sodas larger than 16 ounces at restaurants, movie theaters and other establishments inspected by the local health department.

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday that Congress had a "moral obligation" to increase the amount of money available for 9/11 first-responders after the federal government moved to cover 58 types of cancer to the list of medical conditions that would be covered under the Zadroga Act.

The Zadroga legislation, named for NYPD Detective James Zadroga, who died in 2006 after exposure to toxic chemicals at the World Trade Center, set aside $2.775 billion to cover the medical costs of those who aided in the recovery effort. But the bill had originally excluded cancers that resulted from exposure at the site; the reversal to cover cancer-related medical costs will likely mean the fund is drained before all first-responders' expenses have been covered.

"We have young men and women in their 30s and 40s, in the peak of their life, coming down with these rare forms of blood cancers, rare diseases and a rare disease that maybe one out of 100,000 people get and three people working together would get it, working together at Ground Zero," said King to CNN. "This was wrong."

House Republicans want more details on efforts to reform Head Start, the much-debated preschool program for poor children. 

A third visitor to Yosemite National Park has died after contracting hantavirus, a rodent-borne lung disease, according to reports.

The most recent fatality occurred in West Virginia. The individual had visited the California park in "recent months," according to local public health officials.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that the 10,000 people who stayed in Yosemite Valley between June and August could be at risk. 

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The National Football League (NFL) is donating $30 million to federal brain-injury research on the eve of its new season — the largest gift in the league's history.

The money will benefit the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in its effort to understand head trauma experienced by athletes and members of the military.

"We are grateful for the NFL's generosity," said Dr. Stephanie James, acting executive director and CEO of the Foundation for the NIH, in a statement. "The research to be funded by this donation will accelerate scientific discovery that will benefit athletes and the general public alike."

Nearly one in three Americans has high blood pressure and more than half of those cases are "out of control," according to federal health officials.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that high blood pressure contributes to nearly 1,000 deaths per day by increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Sixty-seven million Americans have high blood pressure, and of these, 36 million cases are uncontrolled, according to the report. Another 16 million Americans take medication from the condition but still struggle, the report found.