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Is the world on the verge of a pandemic? There are three reasons to think so. Two flu viruses are active, and a virus that bears a resemblance to SARS has cropped up in the Middle East. Each has devastating potential, but many early warnings of past pandemics have failed to materialize.
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New types of tuberculosis are emerging around the world that take years and thousands of dollars to cure. Patients fighting this disease are often isolated from their communities and suffer devastating drug side effects, such as permanent hearing loss and dizziness.
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The World Health Organization says lab tests have confirmed the infections in a 2-year-old girl and a 42-year-old woman with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus. Both patients are close contacts of someone who traveled to Jordan recently.
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All told, the fatality rate for confirmed infections with the virus has been more than 50 percent. But the true fatality rate won't be clear until the fuller extent of cases, some probably much milder, becomes known.
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A handful of polio infections in Kenya and Somalia could set back efforts to wipe out the virus worldwide, health workers warned Wednesday. The last time there was polio in this region, the virus spread throughout the Horn of Africa into the Middle East and eventually into Indonesia.
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A low-sodium diet may cause more health problems than a medium-sodium diet, a new report found. But some health advocates say focusing on the potential risks of a low-sodium diet distracts from the more important conversation about how to get Americans to start consuming less salt.
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SARS burst on the scene in 2003 after one man infected travelers staying on the same floor of a Hong Kong hotel. Now that a new virus with similarities to SARS has spread from person to person, public health officials are urging hospitals to be on guard.
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A new virus that causes severe pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure has infected more people. Since the virus first appeared in March 2012, it has infected 24 people, including 17 deaths.
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The World Health Organization released a six-year plan to wipe out the remaining pockets of polio and ensure the virus doesn't come back. With fewer than 20 polio cases so far this year, the world is closer than ever before to eradicating polio.
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Concerns about the flu have intensified as the cases and fatalities mount. Transmission of the virus between birds and humans appears to happen fairly easily. It's unclear whether it can spread from one person to another.