Health

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s health care tab hit $3.5 trillion last year, or $10,739 per person, the government reported Thursday. But behind those staggering figures was some fairly good news:

The rate of growth slowed for the second year in a row, according to economic experts at the federal Health and Human Services department.

Health care spending increased by 3.9 percent in 2017, following a 4.8 percent increase in 2016.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The second-largest Ebola outbreak in history has spread to a major city in eastern Congo, as health experts worry whether the stock of an experimental vaccine will stand up to the demands of an epidemic with no end in sight.

Butembo, with more than 1 million residents, is now reporting cases of the deadly hemorrhagic fever. That complicates Ebola containment work already challenged by rebel attacks elsewhere that have made tracking the virus almost impossible in some isolated villages.

5 Dec 2018; AFP: Global emissions of carbon dioxide mainly from fossil fuel burning will rise 2.7 percent in 2018, scientists said Wednesday, signalling a world "completely off course" in the fight against climate change.

Last year, CO2 pollution increased by 1.6 percent after a three-year hiatus that raised hopes manmade greenhouse gas emissions had finally peaked despite an expanding world economy.

NEW YORK (AP) — More U.S. beef is being recalled because it may be contaminated with salmonella.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says a unit of Brazil’s JBS is now recalling a total of more than 12 million pounds of raw beef that was shipped around the country. JBS Tolleson in Arizona already recalled about 7 million pounds of beef in October.

KANPUR:  As many as 63 schools have declined to hold the health department’s vaccination programme against measles and rubella in the wake of recent news of deterioration of the students’ condition behind administering the injection. They were even sent to hospitals for proper treatment. The parents looked disturbed with teary eyes at their respective wards' worsening condition.

Was it fear or reaction is still unclear? doubted several parents.

29 Nov 2018; AFP: China's science ministry has ordered that people involved in the controversial baby gene-editing experiment halt their activities, a government official told state media Thursday.

The ministry "firmly opposes the baby gene-editing incident and has already demanded that the relevant organisation suspend the scientific activities of relevant personnel," a ministry official said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

29 Nov 2018; AFP: Life expectancy in the United States dropped yet again as drug overdose deaths continued to climb -- taking more than 70,000 lives in 2017, a record high -- and suicides rose, a US government report said Thursday.

The drug overdose rate rose 9.6 percent compared to 2016, while suicides climbed 3.7 percent, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak is now the second largest in history, behind the devastating West Africa outbreak that killed thousands a few years ago, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Peter Salama, called it a “sad toll” as Congo’s health ministry announced the number of cases has reached 426. That includes 379 confirmed cases and 47 probable ones. So far this outbreak, declared on Aug. 1, has 198 confirmed deaths, with another 47 probable ones, Congo’s health ministry said.

HONG KONG (AP) — A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.

If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers have developed a DNA vaccine that successfully held off Alzheimer's disease in animal tests. The vaccine, if proven safe and effective in human trials, could reduce dementia cases by half.