Mystery skin disease Morgellons has no clear cause, CDC study says

A strange disease in which sufferers say they find fibers, fuzz and other debris sprouting from sores on their skin is not contagious and has no clear cause, the largest-ever study of the condition called Morgellons has found. Government health officials on Wednesday r …

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Calif. cuts whooping cough deaths to zero

For the first time in two decades, no one in California died from whooping cough last year, a public health victory that followed the deaths of 10 babies in 2010. The state also cut the total number of whooping cough cases by two-thirds, from a high of nearly 9,000 in 2010 to les …

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Despite mild flu season, don't skip shots, experts say

It’s been a remarkably mild flu season so far this year, with far fewer reports of the fever, coughing, aches and pains that usually make winter so miserable. Of the laboratory samples sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the second week of J …

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Delivery room rap: New dad freestyles to the fetal monitor

Some new dads can get nervous helping a woman in labor, but not Charles McDaniel. The expectant father had been through the drill with four previous babies, so when the fetal monitor started acting up during his wife’s delivery of their fifth child on Dec.

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'Miracle' baby born from single frozen sperm

Everyone knows it takes just one sperm and one egg to make a baby, but nature usually provides extra, just to be sure. In the case of 9-month-old Kenley Schiraldi of Campbell, Ohio, however, there was no back-up for the biology, requiring instead what scientists -- and her  …

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FDA fines Red Cross nearly $9.6 million for blood safety lapses

Federal health officials have fined the American Red Cross nearly $9.6 million for sloppy and unsafe blood management practices, the second multi-million-dollar penalty levied against the agency in the last two years. The new Food and Drug Administration fine follows inspections …

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Keep baby's sex secret to prevent gender-based abortions, doc says

By MyHealthNewsDaily Doctors should not tell pregnant women the sex of their baby until 30 weeks into a pregnancy, one physician is arguing, taking a stance that is sure to be controversial. By not revealing a fetus' sex, doctors could prevent abortions related to the sex of the  …

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Fewer kids die by drowning, study finds

By Linda ThrasybuleMyHealthNewsDaily contributor The rate of children hospitalized yearly due to drowning-related incidents has dropped by half since the early 1990s, a new report finds. The biggest drop occurred in the southern U.S., where drowning-related incidents fell from se …

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Woman loses arm to flesh-eating bacteria from bath salts

A New Orleans woman’s experiment with the illicit drugs dubbed “bath salts” cost her her arm -- and nearly her life -- after she was ravaged by flesh-eating bacteria that invaded an injection site.  The 34-year-old woman showed up at a Louisiana h …

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Allergic to cold? Gene detectives find new clues

The first time the hives hit Joan Crawford, a 76-year-old administrator from Ringwood, N.J., she was heading to a party in New York City with her husband. "I remember we were walking west for about three blocks and it was very cold and the wind was hitting my face," she say …

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E. coli- tainted venison kabobs sicken Minn. students

A Minnesota high school science project that involved hunting and butchering deer -- including one road-kill capture -- and turning the meat into venison kabobs backfired when 29 students were sickened with a rare kind of E.

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Homicide no longer a top cause of death in U.S.

For the first time in 45 years, homicide dropped out of the top 15 causes of death in the United States in 2010, according to a new government analysis of mortality trends. Crime rates have been falling for decades, fueled by a range of social, demographic and law enfor …

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Loved one's death sends heart attack risk soaring

The loss of a loved one can literally turn heartache into heartbreak, a new study shows. Researchers found the risk of a heart attack jumped to 21 times higher than normal in the day following the death of a close relative or friend, according to the study publishe …

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Donating your body to science? Nobody wants a chubby corpse

It’s a rare day when Richard Drake turns down a dead body, but last week, he had no choice. At 6-foot-1 and 350 pounds, the deceased in question was simply too big for the Cleveland Clinic Body Donation Program, which provides specimens for anatomy classes at the Lerner Co …

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19 sickened by ground beef from Maine grocery chain

Nineteen people in seven states have been diagnosed with salmonella infections after reportedly eating ground beef from a chain of Maine-based supermarkets, government health officials said. The illnesses have all been traced to Hannaford, a Scarborough grocery chain th …

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Virginia first-grader dies from allergic reaction at school

The death of a 7-year-old Virginia girl from an apparent allergic reaction is raising new questions about how schools and parents handle potentially life-threatening conditions. Ammaria Johnson, a first-grader at Hopkins Elementary School in Chesterfield County, near Richmond, d …

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Does your body fight to stay fat? Maybe, research suggests

It’s the first week of January and many of us are gearing up to start our home versions of “The Biggest Loser.” We’ve got it all planned out: the low calorie meals, the hours pounding the treadmill. But even if we succeed in slimming down to the size …

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Trial herpes vaccine misses mark for protection in young women

An experimental herpes vaccine protected young women against only one of the two types of the sexually transmitted virus, dashing hopes for widespread use of the treatment, researchers reported in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. For reasons that aren …

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Peanuts in green beans? Food mix-ups spark odd recalls

A man expecting to find only green beans in a can of Winn-Dixie Brand Italian Green Beans was surprised this week to find a whole, in-shell peanut mixed in with the vegetables. The discovery sparked a flurry of activity at the Florida-based grocery chain, which quickly issued a  …

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Maker of tainted wipes gets FDA nod toward reopening

Federal health officials have given a green light for a first step toward reopening for a Wisconsin business shut down after making and distributing contaminated medical wipes blamed for illnesses and deaths nationwide. Food and Drug Administration officials on Wednesday said th …

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Chicken jerky treats sicken 353 dogs, owners report

Reports of illnesses in dogs given chicken jerky treats have spiked dramatically following a new government warning about pet snacks made in China. The federal Food and Drug Administration has logged at least 353 reports this year of illnesses tied to imported chicken jerky prod …

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Tiny listeria survivor comes home for Christmas

Three months after she was born, Kendall Paciorek is finally home, just in time for Christmas. The premature girl from Fishers, Ind., is one of the tiniest victims of last summer’s deadly listeria outbreak in cantaloupe, which sickened 146 people, including 30 who died. Ke …

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Lingering shortage of ADHD drugs unravels lives

After nearly 10 months, the nationwide shortage of ADHD drugs has taken a toll on Kate Skinn. The 32-year-old Ohio woman had to take a medical leave from college because she can’t focus on her reading.

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Walk 3 mph or faster to outpace the Grim Reaper, scientists say

Seniors who walk briskly may be able to delay death, essentially outrunning the Grim Reaper, a new study suggests. Australian researchers with a wry sense of humor say they have calculated the average walking speed of the specter of death -- and it’s about 2 miles per …

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FDA cracks down on DIY sperm donor in Calif.

A California man is vowing to continue his do-it-yourself sperm donor operation, despite efforts of federal health officials to crack down on the free service. Trent C.

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JoNel Aleccia is an award-winning national health reporter at msnbc.com.

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