Month: July 2014

Diet Doc's medical weight loss programs encourage safe and fast weight loss while also promoting healthy food choices for lasting dietary change.

The United States is concerned about being barred from attending the Aug. 7 trial in China of British investigator Peter Humphrey and his American wife Yu Yingzeng after the couple were arrested last year following work they did for British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC. "We are concerned that consular officers will not be allowed to attend Ms. Yu's trial in August 2014 despite the fact that under the 1982 bilateral consular convention between our two countries consular officials are permitted to attend such trials," U.S. Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said on Friday. The relevant officials at China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. embassy's comment draws more attention to the trial of Humphrey and Yu, which will held behind closed doors with consular officials and family barred, two family friends with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than half of privately insured women are getting free birth control under President Barack Obama's health law, a major coverage shift that's likely to advance.

An infection of deadly anthrax has been identified in beef in eastern Hungary and five people are being monitored in hospital for suspected symptoms of the disease, the health authority ANTSZ said on Friday. It said the disease was identified in frozen beef after two cattle were illegally slaughtered in a farm in Tiszafured, a town about 160 km east of Budapest. The ANTSZ said the five people hospitalized had probably contracted the disease during illegal slaughtering. The authority said anthrax, if identified in time, can be cured effectively with antibiotics.

By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) – West African countries and international health organizations adopted a fresh strategy on Thursday to fight the world's deadliest Ebola epidemic, which has killed hundreds of people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. At a two-day meeting in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, officials committed to better surveillance to detect cases of the virus, enhance cross-border collaboration, better engagement with local communities and closer cooperation with the U.N. World Health Organization and other partners. The decisions involve governments, the United Nations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aid agencies and the private sector. "The governments are required to mobilise relevant sectors, community, religious and political leaders to improve awareness, psycho-social support and understanding of the Ebola situation," Francis Kasolo, WHO Africa director for disease prevention and control, told a news conference.

California-based poultry giant Foster Farms will recall some of the contaminated chicken linked to a massive salmonella outbreak that has stretched on for 16 months and sickened hundreds of consumers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Foster Farms announced late Thursday. The chicken products being recalled were produced by Foster Farms at its three plants in central California, all of which public health investigators have connected to the outbreak that started in March of 2013. The salmonella strains connected to the outbreak have been identified in nearly 600 cases in 27 states and Puerto Rico. Foster Farms, in issuing the first recall since the outbreak started, said it was doing so "in the fullest interest of food safety".

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California chicken producer has issued its first recall since being linked to an outbreak of an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella that has been making people sick for more than a year, company and federal food officials said Thursday night.