US proposes regulating face, hand transplants

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota FILE - These undated file photos provided Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011 by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital show chimpanzee attack victim Charla Nash after the attack, left, and post-face transplant surgery, right. The U.S. government wants to start regulating face and hand transplants just as kidneys, hearts and other organs are now. That means establishing waiting lists, a system to allocate body parts and donor testing to prevent deadly infections. Officials...

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Chilean doctors separate conjoined twins

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota In this image taken from a video released by Luis Calvo Mackenna hospital, Roberto Paredes, right, kisses his daughter Maria Jose, one of two conjoined twins after she was separated from her sister Maria Paz at the Luis Calvo Mackenna hospital in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. The 10-months-old twins were joined at the chest, stomach and pelvis. (AP Photo/Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital) In this image taken from a video released by Luis Calvo...

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Panel urges lower cutoff for child lead poisoning

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota In this Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006 photo, contractors Luis Benitez, foreground, and Jose Diaz, background, clean up lead paint in a contaminated building in Providence, R.I. A federal panel recommended Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 that the threshold for lead poisoning in children should be lowered. If adopted by government officials, hundreds of thousands of additional U.S. children could be classified as having lead poisoning. Recent research persuaded panel...

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Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota FILE In this June 19, 2006 file photo Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking speaks at an international gathering of scientists on the origins of the universe at Beijing's Great Hall of the People in China. British scientist Stephen Hawking has decoded some of the most puzzling mysteries of the universe but he has left one mystery for others to explain: How he managed to survive so long with such a crippling disease. The physicist and cosmologist was diagnosed...

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Survey: 1 in 4 women attacked by intimate partner

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota ATLANTA (AP) — It's a startling number: 1 in 4 women surveyed by the government say they were violently attacked by their husbands or boyfriends.Experts in domestic violence don't find it too surprising, although some aspects of the survey may have led to higher numbers than are sometimes reported.Even so, a government official who oversaw the research called the results "astounding.""It's the first time we've had this kind of estimate" on the prevalence...

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Survey: Teen marijuana use rises, alcohol use down

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota LANSING, Michigan (AP) — More U.S. teens are using marijuana and see it as less of a risk, while their alcohol use has dipped to historic lows, according to an annual national survey of drug use released Wednesday.The findings are based on an annual survey of 47,000 teens conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.One of every 15 high school seniors reported smoking marijuana on a daily or near daily basis, the...

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Obama admin: 2.5M young adults gain coverage

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2011, file photo, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius participates in an roundtable discussion on health information technology and job creation at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland. The Obama administration says the number of young adults going without medical coverage has shrunk by 2.5 million since the new health care law took effect. A new analysis to be released Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, finds...

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Palm-sized baby among the world's smallest

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota 14-week-old Melinda Star Guido holds her mother's little finger while lying in an incubator at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. At birth, Melinda Star Guido tipped the scales at only 9 1/2 ounces, a tad less than the weight of two iPhone 4S. Melinda is believed to be the second smallest baby to survive in the United States and the third smallest in the world. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) 14-week-old Melinda...

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2 more dead birds in HK test positive for H5N1

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities say two more dead birds have tested positive for a dangerous strain of bird flu, adding to health worries in the city.Agriculture officials said Friday that two black-headed gulls found separately about a week ago in rural areas had H5N1 avian influenza. The birds are common visitors in winter.Last month, a Chinese bus driver who tested positive for H5N1 died in a city bordering Hong Kong. Also, workers in Hong...

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Smoggy Beijing to reveal more pollution data

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011 file photo, Tan Liang carries a PM2.5 detector while walking towards a garbage-burning facility located near his apartment to check levels of fine particles in the air in Beijing, China. A bureau in charge of monitoring China's frequently smog-choked capital will release more detailed reports, state media said Friday, Jan. 6, 2012, following a public outcry over the hazards of fine particle pollution. (AP Photo/Andy...

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More US women having twins; rate at 1 in 30 babies

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota ATLANTA (AP) — The number of twins born in the U.S. soared over the last three decades, mostly the result of test-tube babies and women waiting to have children until their 30s, when the chances of twins increase.In 2009, 1 in every 30 babies born in the U.S. was a twin, an astounding increase over the 1 in 53 rate in 1980, according to a government report issued Wednesday."When people say it seems like you see more twins nowadays, they're right,"...

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New England Journal: 200 years of medical history

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AT WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4, 2012 AT 5 P.M. EST - This illustration made available by the New England Journal of Medicine shows a diagram of a human heart in the article "Cases of Organic Diseases of the Heart and Lungs" by John C. Warren in the April 1, 1812, Issue of the journal. Unhappy with today's health care? Think of what it was like to be sick 200 years ago. No stethoscopes, antibiotics, X-rays or vaccines. Bloodletting was a...

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Your home's age important for child lead exposure

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006 file photo, contractors clean up lead paint at a contaminated building in Providence, R.I. The risk of lead-based paint from older homes is back in the news, as the U.S. government considers tightening the definition of lead poisoning in babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Lower levels than previously thought may harm their developing brains. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki, File) FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006...

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Full ban on driver calls could be tough to enforce

AppId is over the quotaAppId is over the quota FILE - In a Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, Dan Johnson uses a hands-free device to talk on a cellphone while driving, in San Diego. The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday, Dec. 13, that texting, emailing or chatting while driving is simply too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States. But if lawmakers follow the advice of the federal board, police officers could be faced with decoding whether someone is using their...

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