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Why 64.8 percent of Americans didn't get a flu shot

As the country's flu outbreak becomes an epidemic, odds are that you've had a few sheepish feelings about not doing something you probably should have: Gotten a flu shot. As of this November, the majority of American adults 64.8 percent, to be exact had not received a flu immunization. This wasn't a surprise to researchers: Flu is a disease with one of the lowest vaccination rates.

 

Flu reaches epidemic level in U.S.: CDC says

Flu Epidemic

Influenza has officially reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with 7.3 percent of deaths last week caused by pneumonia and the flu, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. That is just above the epidemic threshold of 7.2 percent. Nine of the 10 U.S. regions had "elevated" flu activity, confirming that seasonal flu has spread across the country and reached high levels several weeks before the usual time of late January or February. The other region, the Southwest and California, had "normal" flu activity last week.

 

CDC: Flu in 47 states, but may be waning in areas

Flu activity remains high across the United States, but there are signs this year's bad season may be waning in some areas, government health officials said Friday.

 

2012 was worst year for whooping cough since 1955

Whooping Cough

Health officials say 2012 was the nation's worst year for whooping cough in nearly six decades....

 

Early flu season could be severe, experts warn

Flu Season

Flu season in the United States is having its earliest start in nearly a decade and health officials say this season could be a bad one. Although flu is always unpredictable, the early nature of the cases and the predominant type circulating this year could make this a severe flu season, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Flu season could be a bad one, CDC says

Flu Season

This year’s flu season has kicked in early this year, with activity up significantly across the nation, particularly in the south and southeast, federal health officials say. The U.S. has logged baseline levels of flu, the earliest that has happened in nearly a decade.

 

Most young people with HIV don't know they're infected

HIV

More than half of all teens and young adults infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, are unaware that they're infected.

 

FDA took 684 days to warn plant tied to meningitis

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took 684 days to issue a warning letter after uncovering serious issues at the pharmacy at the center of the deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak, newly released documents showed.

 

Disease detectives curbed spread of meningitis

Meningitis Outbreak

It was just an e-mail about a single case of illness, but a gut instinct developed through years of disease detective work made Dr. Marion Kainer sense a bigger danger. Kainer, the director of health care-associated infections for the Tennessee Department of Health, started investigating the day she got that e-mail and hasn't stopped since. She camped out in her office for three weeks, leading a team of state workers as they traced the source of what would become a national outbreak of fungal meningitis.

 

Multivitamins fail to prevent heart problems

Multivitamins

Dashing the hopes of those who hope to pop a pill to prevent heart disease, doctors announced Monday that daily multivitamins don't stave off cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks, stroke or death.

 

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