Estimates of deaths caused by the swine flu have grown to nearly 4,000 since April, roughly quadrupling previous estimates. But that doesn’t mean swine flu suddenly has worsened. Instead, the federal numbers made public Thursday reflect a long-awaited better attempt to quantify the new flu’s true toll. Most cases still don’t require a doctor’s care. Swine flu has sickened about 22 million Americans since April and killed about 540 children. And it’s still early in the season. “I am expecting…

Eleven-year-old Michelle Herrera didn’t understand what all the hype was about — getting an H1N1 vaccination. She said it wasn’t a big deal. Two squirts of the nasal spray vaccine up her nose and she was done. “It felt okay,” said Herrera, a Stell Middle School student, adding that she wasn’t at all nervous about getting the vaccine. Herrera was one of hundreds of Brownsville Independent School District students, accompanied by parents, who showed up Wednesday for free H1N1 flu…

The auditorium at Kofa High School was packed to the rafters Thursday night by hundreds of people who wanted to hear what Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had to say about health care, and the current situation in Afghanistan. After a brief opening statement, members of the audience were eager to field questions and get some answers. “I love to listen. This is my favorite. I would rather be at town hall meetings than at anything else,” McCain said. “Listen to…

Former President George W. Bush will deliver a speech on Thursday marking the launch of the “George W. Bush Institute as a forum for study and advocacy in four main areas: education, global health, human freedom and economic growth,” the New York Times writes. During a speech at Southern Methodist University, “Mr. Bush will announce the appointment of the first five of two dozen scholars to be affiliated with the institute, which has already scheduled a half-dozen conferences for next…

Cigarette smoking rose slightly for the first time in almost 15 years, dashing health officials’ hopes that the U.S. smoking rate had moved permanently below 20 percent. A little under 21 percent of U.S. adults said they smoked, according to a 2008 national survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up slightly from the year before, when just 19.8 percent said they were smokers. It also is the first increase in adult smoking since 1994, experts…

11-13-2009 – Hispanics accounted for more than half of the 95 swine flu-related deaths in Texas in the first six months of the H1N1 pandemic, an analysis by the state health department found. Hispanics predominate in the state’s southernmost counties, where 28 percent of the H1N1 deaths happened through Oct. 17. The area “clearly is the hot spot” for the state’s H1N1 deaths, said Dr. Joseph McCormick, regional dean of The University of Texas School of Public Health in Brownsville….

Natalie Marino’s long wait for a swine flu shot is over. The 48-year-old USAA employee takes immune system-suppressing medicines for a chronic medical condition, putting her squarely in one of the high-risk priority groups for the vaccine. “I’ve been waiting,” she said after getting the shot Thursday. After calling area pharmacies and clinics for weeks, she heard from her mother that Texas MedClinics was offering a few hundred doses to the public at two of its nine San Antonio locations…

U.S. health officials say the largest U.S. outbreak of mumps in three years is occurring in New York and New Jersey. About 180 cases were identified in those two states from the time an investigation began in August through the end of October. Another 15 cases tied to the same outbreak have been reported in Canada. Three people have been hospitalized but no deaths were reported. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak was first reported…

ROME—Nearly 200 million children in poor countries have stunted growth because of insufficient nutrition, according to a new report published by UNICEF Wednesday before a three-day international summit on the problem of world hunger. The head of a U.N. food agency called on the world to join him in a day of fasting ahead of the summit to highlight the plight of 1 billion hungry people. Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, said he hoped the fast…

The concentrations are tiny, but variety is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD Associated Press EDITOR’S NOTE —The nation’s drinking water supplies are not as pristine as might be expected — traces of pharmaceuticals are all too common, an Associated Press investigation finds. A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at…