At two Capitol Hill hearings yesterday, legislators highlighted the need for greater transparency in nursing-home operations and called for a government probe into the quality of care given at facilities owned by private-equity firms.
Researchers in Oregon reported yesterday that they had created the world's first fully formed, cloned monkey embryos and harvested batches of stem cells from them -- a feat that, if replicated in people, could allow production of replacement tissues or organs with no risk of rejection.
Seventeen students at two Anne Arundel County elementary schools have come down with pneumonia in recent months, and health officials are tracking the cases of 25 others to determine whether they, too, have the respiratory illness.
A dozen hospitals in Montgomery County, Frederick and Northern Virginia will declare themselves "tobacco-free health zones" starting tomorrow, a pointed and sweeping move that will apply to employees, patients and visitors alike.
China, South Africa and India host the world's five dirtiest utility companies in terms of global warming pollution, according to the first-ever worldwide database of power plants' carbon dioxide emissions, while a single Southern Co. plant in Juliette, Ga., emits more annually than Brazil's enti...
WASHINGTON -- The government slapped a prominent, though confusing, warning on the popular diabetes drug Avandia on Wednesday _ telling patients that it may, or may not, increasethe risk of heart attacks.
The Agriculture Department in 2004 gave the green light to using carbon monoxide gas to keep older cuts of meat looking red and fresh, even though scientists at the two companies promoting the technology had questioned the validity of their own safety tests, congressional investigators revealed y...
The parents of more than 2,300 Prince George's County students who failed to get needed vaccinations could face fines of $50 a day and up to 10 days in jail if their children do not meet the state's immunization requirements, county officials said yesterday.
Employers frustrated with mounting health-care costs for their workers have tried dangling a carrot to discourage bad habits such as smoking as well as behaviors that can lead to obesity, uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure. Now some employers are beginning to brandish a stick, docking p...
Soldiers who have served in Iraq are suffering substantially greater mental distress several months after leaving the combat zone than when they first return home -- with one out of five active-duty Army soldiers and more than 40 percent of Army reservists needing treatment, according to a study ...
The annual open-enrollment season for federal employees and retirees begins today, and that means it's homework time for workers interested in holding down their health insurance costs.
-- The rate at which infants die in the United States has dropped substantially over the past half-century, but broad disparities remain among racial groups, and the country stacks up poorly next to other industrialized nations.
