According to the US Agriculture Department (USDA) Saturday, there have been outbreaks of E. coli-related illnesses in Maine and New York, which could be related to the food and agriculture giant Cargill’s recall of 8,500-lbs (3,855 kg) of ground beef.

The USDA said the meat was produced on 11th June and shipped to eight BJ’s Wholesale locations up and down the East Coast, earlier this summer.

A year after the global alarm over the new H1N1 strain, health experts in Geneva began to examine the controversial response to the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has formed a panel of 29 external experts after being accused of causing an international reaction to the H1N1 influenza strain that seems overblown and possibly tainted by the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry.

WHO acknowledged it did a poor job of communicating the uncertainties about the H1N1 virus, causing confusion among the public.

Think before you apply for a job at Eastern Pennsylvania Hospital. In a recent development, the hospital authorities say that it plans to stop hiring new employees who are smokers. St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network hopes that the move should improve the health of its 7,000 employees and thereby reduce the health costs. It may also be noted that the hospital is the second largest employer in the region.

Knowing no boundaries or borders; cancer is a disease that affects everyone worldwide, with over 12 million people diagnosed with cancer each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

There are more deaths due to cancer than AIDS, malaria, or TB combined, however, the good news is that two out of five cancers are preventable.

Even though a hearing by the Council of Europe’s health committee questioned the World Health Organization’s (WHO) links to pharmaceutical firms and its handling of the swine flu pandemic last year, the United Nations health agency’s flu expert strongly denied any improper influences by the pharmaceutical industry.

The agency’s declaration of a H1N1 flu virus pandemic last June saw countries ordering millions of vaccine doses to fight the virus, which ultimately proved relatively mild.

The UK Faculty of Public Health, including leading doctors are urging ministers to impose a complete ban on using man-made fats to be found in thousands of foodstuffs like biscuits, prepared meals, including margarine, as they can damage health.

They are demanding artificial trans fatty acids or trans fats to be eradicated from the British diet, a move the faculty representing 3,300 doctors and public health specialists in the NHS, local government and medical research claim can reduce people’s risk of heart attack or a stroke.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the emergence of drug resistant strains of malaria, including defying its advice on crucial new medication is threatening the progress in fighting the mosquito-borne parasitic disease.

In its report, the UN health agency also pinpoints mosquitoes resistant to insecticide as being another ‘major threat’ to attempts for drastically cutting and ultimately eradicating the disease.

The discovery of a mutation of the pandemic H1N1 virus in Norway and some other countries is being assessed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for its significance to public health significance.

WHO was informed by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health of the H1N1 virus mutation detected in two patients, one of who died, while the other is severely ill.

According to the UN agency, apart from Norway, countries like Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine and the United States also detected the mutation sometime in early April.