Study: New flu inefficient in attacking people
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With swine flu continuing to spread around the world, researchers say they have found the reason it is - so far - more a series of local blazes than a wide-raging wildfire. The new virus, H1N1, has a protein on its surface that is not very efficient at binding with receptors in people's respiratory tracts, researchers at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology report in Friday's edition of the journal Science....

Advocates are back with real health care stories
CHICAGO (AP) -- When carpenter Greg Douglas crashed his pickup truck, his toolbox hit him and smashed his ribs and collarbone. After a month in the hospital, the medical bills hit him even harder, totaling $165,000....

Federal probe finds problems with chelation study
A federal investigation has found that heart attack survivors enrolled in a study of a controversial alternative medicine treatment were not told enough about potential dangers from the drug being tested, including death....

Scrub tech may have exposed thousands to hepatitis
DENVER (AP) -- A former surgery technician may have exposed thousands of Colorado patients to hepatitis C when she swapped her own dirty syringes for ones filled with a powerful narcotic, federal authorities said Thursday....

World health officials tackle swine flu challenges
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) -- Swine flu is running wild in the Southern Hemisphere and is spreading rapidly through Europe, with Britain projected to reach 100,000 daily cases by the end of August. The virus is even showing signs of rebounding in Mexico....

Fawcett's death spotlights a rare cancer
ATLANTA (AP) -- In a perverse twist of medical fate, Farrah Fawcett has become the poster girl for anal cancer, a rare disease often linked to a sexually transmitted virus....

Jackson's hospital is known for 'raising the dead'
When Michael Jackson went into cardiac arrest, rescuers took him to a place known for bringing the dead back to life. A world-renowned surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center has pioneered a way to revive people that most doctors would have long written off, including a woman whose heart had stopped for 2 1/2 hours....

Obesity rates rising, Mississippi's still fattest
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers....

Few survive cardiac arrest, even with hospital CPR
You don't have to be Michael Jackson to have this problem: The odds of surviving cardiac arrest after getting CPR in a hospital are slim and have not improved in more than a decade, a big Medicare study concludes....

CDC: Private health care coverage at 50-year-low
ATLANTA (AP) -- The percentage of Americans with private health insurance has hit its lowest mark in 50 years, according to two new government reports....