European Medicines Agency recommends 2 swine flu vaccines be licensed

LONDON — The European Union’s drug regulator recommended Friday that two swine flu vaccines be licensed in the 27-nation bloc to ensure their availability before the start of the normal flu season.

Justice Ginsburg, battling pancreatic cancer, falls ill at work and is hospitalized overnight

WASHINGTON — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 76-year-old Supreme Court justice who underwent pancreatic cancer surgery earlier this year, fell ill at work after a treatment for anemia and was hospitalized overnight.

Scientists working on how to improve AIDS vaccine that showed some success in huge trial

Scientists and government leaders have already started mapping out how to try to improve the world’s first successful AIDS vaccine, which protected one in three people from getting HIV in a large study in Thailand.

Army’s AIDS vaccine work only 1 example of broad military medical research program

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon runs a massive medical research program, studying a broad range of problems from cancer to malaria to sleep disorders.

Army’s AIDS vaccine work only one example of broad military medical research program

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon runs a massive medical research program, studying a broad range of problems from cancer to malaria to sleep disorders.

Notable dates in the AIDS epidemic

Key dates in the AIDS epidemic:

—June 5, 1981: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports five gay men in Los Angeles are suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with failing immune systems.

UN asks for $1.5 billion to fight swine flu, but experts wonder whether it’s worth it

LONDON — United Nations health officials claim in a new report they need nearly $1.5 billion to prevent the swine flu epidemic from spiraling into a global catastrophe.

A world first: AIDS vaccine cuts the risk of HIV infection by 31 percent in large Thai study

BANGKOK — For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.

Groups want evaluation of care after vets at VA facility in California suffer vision loss

SAN FRANCISCO — A Veterans Administration probe that found eight veterans suffered potentially preventable vision loss while under the care of optometrists at a Northern California VA facility is prompting medical groups to call for a state investigation.

African leaders ally to eliminate some 1 million annual malaria deaths by 2015

UNITED NATIONS — African states launched an campaign on Wednesday to stop malaria from killing an estimated 1 million people on their continent each year.

Calls for Calif. health care probe after veterans at Palo Alto VA facility lose eyesight

SAN FRANCISCO — Three medical groups are asking California to investigate the cases of eight veterans who they say suffered preventable vision loss at a Veterans Administration hospital.

Medical examiner: High blood pressure killed obese 13-year-old player who collapsed on field

ST. LOUIS — A medical examiner has ruled that an obese 13-year-old suburban St. Louis football player who collapsed during practice in August died of high blood pressure.

College basketball coaches urge quick action on health care reform

WASHINGTON — NCAA basketball coaches who are sometimes rivals on the court came united to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to push for quick approval of health care reform.

WHO urges nations to set tighter radon controls in homes to reduce lung cancer risks

GENEVA — The World Health Organization on Tuesday drastically reduced the amount of radon from natural sources that countries should allow to accumulate in buildings, given the fatal lung cancer it can cause.

Study: Heart patients who get the flu are more likely to have a heart attack

LONDON — Heart patients who catch the flu may have more to worry about than just a fever or the sniffles: the virus could also spark a heart attack, new research shows.

HEALTHBEAT: In Duke dorms, researchers try to detect flu, other viruses before symptoms appear

WASHINGTON — Coughed on by somebody with the flu? Duke University researchers are developing a test to determine — with a mere drop of blood — who will get sick before the sniffling and fever set in. And they’re turning to hundreds of dorm-dwelling freshmen this fall to see if it works.

WHO: Pandemic flu vaccine output will be ’substantially less’ than previous maximum prediction

GENEVA — Global production of swine flu vaccines will be “substantially less” than the previous maximum forecast of 94 million doses a week, the World Health Organization said Friday.

AP IMPACT: Review shows gov’t rarely intervenes as Calif. mercury mines pollute water, fish

NEW IDRIA, Calif. — Abandoned mercury mines throughout central California’s rugged coastal mountains are polluting the state’s major waterways, rendering fish unsafe to eat and risking the health of at least 100,000 impoverished people.

Canadian Aboriginals get body bags after asking government for swine flu help

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Health officials ordered an investigation Thursday into why the Canadian government sent body bags to an Aboriginal reserve in Manitoba after community leaders requested assistance to deal with an expected outbreak of swine flu.

Obama: US will share 10 percent of swine flu vaccines with other nations

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the United States will share 10 percent of its swine flu vaccine supply with other nations to help fight the deadly virus’ global spread.

SAfrican health industry sees reform coming, wants to influence shape of governing party plan

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s governing party is looking to phase in government-administered universal health care within the next five years, and unlike the raging battle in the United States most here believe the plan will pass.

Manager: Burt Reynolds released from Florida rehab center after treatment for painkiller abuse

MIAMI — Burt Reynolds has been released from a drug rehabilitation center where he was being treated for an addiction to painkillers, his manager said Wednesday.

Experts propose hefty sales tax to sweetened beverages; health reformers not buying it

ATLANTA — In a bid to ramp up the public health battle against obesity, a group of nutrition and economics experts are pushing for a tax of 1 cent on every of ounce of sodas and other sweetened beverages.

Expecting to get a swine flu vaccine at the office? Limits on first doses could prevent that

TRENTON, N.J. — Plan on getting your swine flu shot at work? Don’t count on it.

Spokesman: Burt Reynolds checks himself into Fla. rehab because of painkiller addiction

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Actor Burt Reynolds has checked himself into a rehab facility in West Palm Beach to be treated for an addiction to painkillers. Reynolds’ manager Erik Kritzer said in a statement Wednesday that the “Smokey and the Bandit” star was struggling after a recent back surgery and “realized that he was in the prison of prescription pain pills.”

Parents warn that disabled kids face rationing, but advocates say services would improve

WASHINGTON — A group of parents who oppose President Barack Obama’s plan for revamping health care said Tuesday it would lead to rationing for children with life-threatening disabilities. National advocates for the disabled immediately rejected the claim that echoed this summer’s dispute over “death panels.”

Federal officials issue guidelines to help small businesses weather swine flu

WASHINGTON — Federal officials said Monday small business owners should be prepared to operate with fewer employees this fall as swine flu spreads across the country.

5 scientists honored for life-saving leukemia treatment, research in creating stem cells

NEW YORK — Five scientists have won prestigious research awards for developing a life-saving leukemia treatment and for advances in “reprogramming” DNA, which led to a new kind of stem cell.

Novel flu drug proves effective; Tamiflu saves lives, not just shortens illness, studies show

SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers delivered a double dose of good news Sunday in the fight against flu: successful tests of what could become the first new flu medicine in a decade, and the strongest evidence yet that such drugs save lives, not just shorten illness.

Federal judge declares mistrial in first trial over whether Merck’s Fosamax destroys jaw bone

TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge declared a mistrial Friday in the first trial over whether Merck & Co.’s former blockbuster osteoporosis drug, Fosamax, causes painful jaw bone destruction.