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Last year there were just over 200 cases of polio in remote parts of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, a new $5.5 billion plan aims to eliminate the disease for good by 2018.
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Critics argue that wind turbine syndrome is a fictional malady perpetuated by people angered by the turbines in their communities. Now experts are weighing in on whether it could be real.
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In early 2012, experiments that made H5N1 bird flu more contagious caused an uproar. People feared that mutant viruses could escape the lab and kill people. To prevent a repeat, the government has unveiled a policy describing how scientists should study dangerous pathogens and toxins.
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The latest nutrition guidelines from the World Health Organization are urging people to amp up their potassium intake. It can cut the risk of high blood pressure — which may, in turn, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.
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Drug-resistant tuberculosis is on the rise worldwide, but identifying the disease has been difficult and time-consuming. Touted as a "game changer" in the fight against TB, a new tool cuts diagnostic times from weeks to hours and doesn't require a lab.
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Public health expert Derek Yach surprised nutrition advocates when he joined PepsiCo six years ago. He got the company to cut salt, sugar and fat from some popular products like chips and soda. But critics say he did more harm than good.
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Scientists recently sparked controversy when they made dangerous new forms of bird flu. The National Institutes of Health is about to put in place a new system for reviewing this kind of work in the future.
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Global deaths from malaria have dropped sharply in the past decade, thanks in part to powerful drugs called artemisinins. But on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, doctors are starting to see cracks in artemisinin's armor. The medicine is working more slowly, and sometimes not at all.
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The preservative thimerosal keeps vaccines from going bad in places where there is no refrigeration. Anti-vaccine activists say it should be banned because it contains mercury, but public health officials insist it's safe.
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The latest cases represent the oldest known so far. They push the SARS-like virus's timeline back three months from the first reported case involving a 60-year-old man who died in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, last June.