Public/Global Health

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nine of the 10 U.S. regions are experiencing "elevated" flu activity.

Two major drugmakers are reporting shortages of flu treatments and vaccines amid an onslaught of illness throughout the country, according to Reuters.

Sanofi SA said Thursday that four of its six formulations of seasonal flu vaccine Fluzone are sold out. And Roche Holding AG, the firm behind Tamiflu, reported a shortage of the drug's liquid form late Wednesday.

Tamiflu helps treat the flu in vulnerable populations like children. 

Lawmakers offer information on flu shots, tips to stay healthy. 

Mayor Thomas Menino (D) declared a public health emergency for Boston on Wednesday in response to a growing flu outbreak.

The common winter illness has killed 18 people in Massachusetts and sickened 700 in Boston this season — 10 times the number of cases that hit the city last season.

Officials warned that flu season arrived nearly five weeks early and hit the Eastern United States particularly hard. 

Docs feel pinch of early flu season, push for vaccinations

Suicidal teens plagued by improper treatment strategies

California regulator scolds Anthem, praises UnitedHealth on rates

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria is one of the chief threats to human health and the world is mostly unprepared to cope with its rise, the World Economic Forum (WEF) charged in a report out Tuesday. 

The forum, best known for its annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, painted a dark picture in which the overuse of antibiotics renders most basic medications useless in the face of mutant superbugs.

The report blamed world nations for overconfidence in future scientific discoveries to provide for  victims of bacterial spread. 

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) will probe sports-related concussions among young people as concerns mount that the injuries cause mental distress later in life.

The IOM, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences, will study concussions among people of elementary-school age through young adulthood over the next six months.

The study will incorporate related federal research. It is expected to come out in late 2013. 

The United States could save billions of dollars on maternity and newborn care if the number of medically unnecessary cesarean sections dropped, according to new research.

A study out Monday from Truven Health Analytics found that C-sections cost 50 percent more than vaginal births, with private insurers paying an average of $27,866 for a C-section in 2010 compared with $18,329 for a natural delivery.

Medicaid paid significantly less for each procedure, though the cost disparity lingered with $13,590 for a C-section and $9,131 for a natural delivery.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced a bipartisan bill Friday before senators left for Christmas break that would establish a commission to develop a national strategy for reducing child abuse fatalities.

The Protect Our Kids Act would create a special task force dedicated to reducing child abuse and neglect in America.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday finalized a set of long-planned rules that put limits on emissions of harmful air pollutants from industrial boilers and incinerators.

Known as boiler MACT rules, the standards impose the first-ever limits on emissions for mercury, acid gases and fine particulate matter, or soot, for boilers and incinerators. 

The agency said the rules would affect about 1 percent of the nation's boilers. It added the rules would yield public health benefits, preventing 8,100 premature deaths and 5,100 heart attacks per year beginning in 2015.

Republicans and industry had fought the rules, saying they represented regulatory overreach and would impose burdensome economic costs. That pressure led to several revisions to bake in more flexibility for industry.