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The Zika virus is likely to spread across nearly all of the Americas, the World Health Organization has warned. The infection, which causes symptoms including mild fever, conjunctivitis and headache, has already been found in 21 countries in the Caribbean, North and South America. It has been linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains and some countries have advised women not to get pregnant. No treatment or vaccine is available. The virus was first detected in 1947 in monkeys in Africa. There have since been small, short-lived outbreaks in people on the continent, parts of Asia and...

LONDON -- A British man has been ordered by a court to give police 24 hours' notice if he plans to have sex with a female. The unusual "interim sexual risk order" will be in effect until a further hearing is held in four months. A longer restriction may be sought at that point. Sexual risk orders are used in cases where a person has not been convicted of a sex crime but is judged by police as posing a potential threat to the public. The order was sought by North Yorkshire Police and issued by York Magistrates' Court. It...

My wife suffered a stroke and I am requesting prayers

Transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the Olympics and other international events without undergoing sex reassignment surgery, according to new guidelines adopted by the IOC. International Olympic Committee medical officials told The Associated Press on Sunday they changed the policy to adapt to current scientific, social and legal attitudes on transgender issues. ...

As we hit yet another anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on January 22, 1973, it might be good time to look back even farther, to 70 years ago when George Orwell wrote a trenchant essay on how language is misused and manipulated to, as he said, defend the indefensible. Calling his work “Politics and the English Language,” he probably could not anticipate how truly his words could be applied today. By now, arguments from both sides of the abortion debate are familiar, but there’s one aspect rarely discussed: the way the pro-abortion side...

DES MOINES, Iowa: Officials announced Saturday evening the 2016 RAGBRAI route stops for cyclists. The course is a southern Iowa route that will lead cyclists through 420 miles of terrain. RAGBRAI officials said they expect more than 10,000 riders. RAGBRAI begins July 23 and ends July 30. STOPS 1. Glenwood 2. Shenandoah 3. Creston 4. Leon 5. Centerville 6. Ottumwas 7. Washington 8. Muscatine

Black Death, a mid-fourteenth century plague, killed 30 to 50 per cent of the European population in just five years. The pandemic was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria with millions dying from the disease in two major outbreaks. Thousands of years before it wreaked havoc in the second wave of deaths, the bacteria may have been passed around as a harmless microbe. ... Being distinct from all modern forms of plague, the scientists believe they have identified an extinct form of the disease, according to their study reported yesterday in the online journal eLife. ... Marseille was a big...

What until recently was a seemingly routine public health problem for countries that are home to a certain type of mosquito has morphed into a potentially culture-shaping phenomenon in which the populations of several nations have been asked to delay procreation. The World Health Organization says at least 20 countries or territories in the region, including Barbados and Bolivia, Guadeloupe and Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Panama, have registered transmission of the virus. Although the Zika virus has been documented since the 1940s, it began its assault on Latin America in the past several months. The hardest-hit country has been Brazil,...

Winter storm Jonas is brewing on the East Coast and is projected to start dumping snow and freezing rain on Friday night. So you should run to the store and buy bread and milk, right? Wrong. Bread and milk expire pretty quickly and require refrigeration. They're also pretty light on the nutrients and won't keep you satiated and supplemented as you ride out the weather. The trick is to buy foods that don't won't expire quickly or need to be refrigerated. They should be easy to prepare, easy to eat, high in protein, and provide enough variety to keep you...

Waukesha - The sight of a terrified little girl about to have an MRI scan gave Doug Dietz a different perspective on his work as an industrial designer at GE Healthcare - and led to a project that has turned imaging departments at 27 children's hospitals into small theme parks. The idea that eventually emerged from a mix of brainstorming and research - with some persistence thrown in - was to transform a frightening medical test into a voyage on a spaceship, a visit to a pirate island and other adventures. Imaging departments became elaborate sets. Technicians became amateur actors...

CDC estimates the number of gastroschisis cases between 1995 to 2012 has increased, most prevalently among young, non-Hispanic black mothers, who saw a 263 percent increase in cases during that time period. While young maternal age has long been associated with the condition, researchers don’t know the cause of the increase in cases among all the ages and ethnicities they reviewed. "It concerns us that we don't know why more babies are being born with this serious birth defect," Coleen Boyle, Ph.D., director of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said in a news release. "Public health...

Prochoice author Alexander Sanger, who is a descendant of Margaret Sanger, concedes in his book: “Legal abortion has led to a situation where there is little community pressure for the man to marry the woman and he often disappears, leaving the woman to make the decision on her own. At this point community pressure can have a decisive influence on her decision. Unmarried childbearing may not be acceptable where she lives, and she is forced to have an abortion, even if it is her last chance to have children.” Alexander Sanger Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom in the 21st Century (New...

Thirty-five restaurants across China, including a popular Beijing hot pot chain, have been found illegally using opium poppies as seasoning, one of the more unusual practices bedeviling the country's food regulators. Five restaurants are being prosecuted while 30 others, ranging from Shanghai dumpling joints to noodle shops in southwestern Chongqing, are under investigation, said the China Food and Drug Administration. Cases of cooks sprinkling ground poppy powder, which contains low amounts of opiates like morphine and codeine, in soup and seafood are not new in China, though it is unclear whether they can effectively hook a customer or deliver a...

To assess how often older patients get unnecessary screenings, researchers reviewed survey data collected in 2012 for almost 150,000 people 65 and older. Some older patients may receive screening for breast or prostate cancer even though the tests aren't recommended because they aren't expected to live long enough to benefit from treatment, a U.S. study suggests. Screening isn't advised for patients with a life expectancy of less than 10 years because even if tests find cancer, it probably won't grow fast enough to kill them before something else like heart disease or diabetes does. ... About 51 percent of these...

Refugees have brought the potentially fatal and highly-contagious bacterial infection diphtheria into Denmark and authorities are warning hospitals there could be an outbreak. Two Libyan refugees were found to have the infection, the Danish State Serum Institute (SSI) said on Tuesday. Diphtheria - spread through coughs and sneezes, or contact with someone with the infection or their belongings - has not been seen in the country since 1998. 'The infection [diphtheria] can be very dangerous if one isn’t vaccinated against it,' Kurt Fuursted, spokesperson for the SSI told Danish newspaper Metroxpress. 'There is no doubt that infectious diseases are coming...

Experts warn that we should be prepared for more dengue in the US and around the world. ‘Hawaii is a piece of a much bigger phenomenon that’s happening globally,’ says Dr. Peter Hotez at Baylor College of Medicine. It’s peak tourism season in Hawaii, and the state’s Department of Health has issued a warning for visitors and residents: dengue fever is spreading on the Big Island. More than 150 people on Hawaii Island have been infected with the mosquito-borne virus.

A man from the San Francisco Bay Area who may have been the world's oldest living person, and whose lifetime stretched over three centuries, died Monday at the age of 117. Even though the family of Andrew Hatch never formally registered him with the Guinness Book of World Records, friends of Hatch and the mayor of Oakland believe he could have been the oldest person in the country — and possibly the world. The oldest living man on record died Tuesday in Japan at the age of 112. The oldest woman in the United States on record is Brooklyn's Susannah...

FULL TITLE: Washington state lawmaker shocks high school pupils by asking them about their virginity during Planned Parenthood meeting A state lawmaker has shocked high school pupils in Washington after asking them about their virginity during a Planned Parenthood meeting. Republican Mary Dye from Pomeroy, in rural southeastern Washington meet with six students from the Pullman area teen council chapter of Planned Parenthood. They had been visiting Dye's office with Rachel Todd, a worker from Planned Parenthood, so the politician could give them a deeper understanding of laws and advocacy. But the teenagers were left stunned when Dye asked if...

Insects like crickets, mealworms, ants and caterpillars are being touted as one of the hottest culinary trends. Should these crawly critters be part of your diet? Nutrition Facts Many insects contain a plentiful dose of protein, plus some healthy carbs and fat. Two tablespoons of cricket flour (available online and in some health food stores) contains 55 calories and more than 7 grams of protein; it also contains vitamin B12 and minerals like iron and zinc. The Hype While insect consumption is more common in some countries, it’s a relatively new phenomenon in the U.S. But here in the States,...

PYONGYANG, North Korea,- North Korea announced food scientists have achieved a major scientific breakthrough: a "suave" liquor that "causes no hangover." The state-run Pyongyang Times said in an English-language report that scientists with the Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory altered the recipe for the ginseng-based Koryo liquor to eliminate the morning-after hangover effects of consuming alcohol. The report said researchers found the hangover was eliminated by "using the boiled and scorched glutinous rice instead of sugar" to cover the bitter taste of the ginseng. "Koryo Liquor, which is made of six-year-old Kaesong Koryo insam, known as being highest in medicinal effect, and...