Health, Public Health | featured news

The House of Representatives on Friday widened its investigation into the deadly meningitis outbreak to include the role health regulators played in monitoring the pharmacy that produced steroid treatments suspected of causing the crisis.

The number of people infected with a rare type of meningitis tied to contaminated steroid injections has climbed to 105, federal health officials said Monday.

As authorities continue to focus on a potentially contaminated steroid as the source of a widening outbreak of fungal meningitis, some patient-safety advocates are calling for greater restrictions on the type of injection involved.

An outbreak of a rare form of meningitis is likely to grow after sickening 26 people in five states, including four who died, health officials warned... All received steroid injections used mostly for back pain that have been traced back to a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. The pharmacy issued a recall last week and has shut down operations.

New York City's Board of Health voted Thursday to ban the sale of sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces in restaurants and other venues, in a move meant to combat obesity and encourage residents to live healthier lifestyles.

One of New York City's most ambitious efforts to prod residents to live healthier appears poised to pass as a health panel takes up a plan to cut down sales of big sodas and other sugary soft drinks.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it would not ban the use of bisphenol A, also known as BPA, in food packaging but said it would continue research on the health effects of the widely used chemical.

Saying 'removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health' in the U.S., a Food and Drug Administration panel is essentially recommending that the FDA consider banning menthol, used in about 30% of cigarettes.