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If you were reading me in January, you might remember how shocked I was by a claim (one of many false claims) that President Barack Obama made in his state of the union speech. I wrote, “If The President Can Credit Michelle Obama With Lowering Childhood Obesity, Then He can Get Away With Anything.”

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (CDC) is reporting that the mosquito borne illness, Chikungunya Fever, has the potential to be imported to the southern United States, areas with temperate climates and large mosquito vectors. Chikungunya Fever is a viral disease, a mosquito-borne pathogen, similar to Dengue Fever. The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, the same type of mosquitoes that transmit the Dengue Fever Virus. Chikungunya Fever is endemic to Asia, Africa and the Indian Subcontinent. A large outbreak was reported in 2006-2007 in India, and several other countries in southeast Asia....

WASHINGTON (CBS / AP) — Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer asked the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday to initiate a formal investigation into what has caused polio-like paralysis in about 20 children in California over the past 18 months. Boxer said “we need answers” in her letter to CDC Director Thomas Frieden. In particular, she wants the agency to look into whether the illness can be traced to a virus or environmental factors. She also wants to know whether the agency is aware of similar reports of paralysis nationwide...

People aged 18 to 64 represent 61 percent of all flu hospitalizations this flu season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This age group accounted for only about 35 percent of flu-related hospitalizations the last three seasons, officials said at a CDC news conference. "We think one of the reasons flu is hitting younger adults hard is that such a low proportion get a flu shot, even those with underlying conditions like asthma, COPD, and diabetes," said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden at the news conference. "The bottom line is, influenza can make anyone very sick,...

Just a few weeks ago, 11-month-old Shaista was pulling herself up, giggling as she took her first wobbly steps with the helping hand of her teenage mother. Then the polio virus struck and Shaista was no longer able to stand, her legs buckling beneath her weight. Today, her mother cries a lot and wonders what will become of her daughter in Pakistan’s male-dominated society, where a woman’s value is often measured by the quality of her husband. […] Fresh cases of polio—traced through genetic sequencing to the Pakistani strain of the disease—are showing up in countries that were previously polio-free,...

For the third year in a row, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is poised to deliver a bold, no-holds-barred, anti-tobacco message to the American public. Starting Monday, the agency will launch the 2014 phase of "Tips From Former Smokers" (Tips), an ambitious annual TV, radio and print campaign. As was the case during its first two incarnations, the upcoming Tips campaign, which will last nine weeks, will feature real people speaking in frank and often frightening terms about the high price paid for a lifetime of exposure to cigarettes. "Over 20 million Americans have died because of...

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 9, 2014 (C-FAM.org) - Lawyers for U.S. government agencies have failed in an initial attempt to force a watchdog group to remove leaked documents from the group’s website. The documents describe studies showing complications of a long-lasting contraceptive heavily backed by the agencies and the Gates Foundation for use by African women. The U.S. agencies are accused of attempting to conceal their knowledge of studies showing women using the injectable contraceptive Depo Provera are at higher risk of getting HIV/AIDS. Allowing The Rebecca Project to publish the information means “this issue of Depo Provera’s harm now has...

At least 38 million U.S. adults drink too much, and most of them are not alcoholics, according to a new “Vital Signs” report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “For every one person who is alcoholic there are about six who are problem drinkers, drinking enough to adversely affect their lives, their health, their work situation or family situation,” CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said. Three-quarters of Americans who drink too much are considered “binge drinkers.” This includes men who consume more than four alcoholic drinks in one setting and women who consume more than three. But...

Dr. Diane Harper was a leading expert responsible for the Phase II and Phase III safety and effectiveness studies which secured the approval of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines, Gardasil™ and Cervarix™. Dr. Harper also authored many of the published, scholarly papers about the vaccines. She is now the latest in a long string of experts who are pressing the red alert button on the devastating consequences and irrelevancy of these vaccines. Dr. Harper made her surprising confession at the 4th International Converence on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia. Her speech, which was originally intended to promote...

Wilmington, Del., has a big problem: Large groups of black people are going crazy. And this collective “mental illness” is causing record levels of crime and gun violence in this mostly black town of 70,000. That is the official diagnosis of the city council, which, by unanimous agreement earlier this month, asked the Centers for Disease Control to investigate a wave of psychological mayhem that has turned this historic and once-charming city into an unrecognizable husk of its former self. Chief diagnostician of this crisis in public health is city council member Hanifa G.N. Shabazz: “There is a well known...

Obama — propelled by the Newtown school shootings — urged Congress in January to provide $10 million to finance fresh academic investigations into the impacts of firearms on the collective health of Americans. "NIH has been supporting research on violence and its implications for health for many years. The violence resulting from firearms was included" in past studies, The CDC this year asked the Institute of Medicine to convene a committee to identify the most pressing research questions on gun violence.

WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows approximately 62 percent of gay men who know they have HIV/AIDS continue to engage in sexual relations without using a prophylactic, a behavior that can spread AIDS. The report, which was released on the Friday after Thanksgiving, analyzed data gathered in 2011. According to the report, the percentage of men with HIV/AIDS having sex with other men without a condom had increased from 55 percent in 2005, to 57 percent in 2008, to 62 percent today. CDC spokesperson Nikky Mayes told LifeSiteNews.com...

A high-ranking official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared in an interview with PBS that the age of antibiotics has come to an end. 'For a long time, there have been newspaper stories and covers of magazines that talked about "The end of antibiotics, question mark?"' said Dr Arjun Srinivasan. 'Well, now I would say you can change the title to "The end of antibiotics, period.”' The associate director of the CDC sat down with Frontline over the summer for a lengthy interview about the growing problem of antibacterial resistance. Srinivasan, who is also featured in...

Fast Facts Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (referred to here as MSM) are more severely affected by HIV than any other group in the United States. Among all MSM, black/African American MSM bear the greatest disproportionate burden of HIV. From 2008 to 2010, HIV infections among young black/African American MSM increased 20%. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM))a represent approximately 2% of the United States population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV. In 2010, young MSM (aged 13-24 years) accounted for 72% of new HIV infections among...

Scientists discover ‘deadliest substance known to man’ By News.com.auOctober 15, 2013 | 1:34pm Scientists have discovered a new type of botox they believe is the “deadliest substance known to man” and have withheld the DNA sequence because an antidote is not known. It is the first time the scientific community has made such a move to withhold such information but security concerns have dictated that they do so. New Scientist reports that just 2 billionths of a gram, or inhaling 13 billionths of a gram, of the protein botulinum produced by the soil bacterium Clostridium botulinum will kill an adult.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Southern California doctors and health officials will be on the lookout for Muslim pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia with flu-like symptoms in the wake of a reported outbreak of a SARS-like virus in the Middle East, according to a report. L.A. County Department of Public Health Director Dr. Jonathan Fielding told the Los Angeles Times severe coughs or other similar symptoms could signal the arrival of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, to the Southland. While MERS-CoV has so far only been reported in the Mideast and Europe, doctors and emergency departments will be...

The federal government shutdown could be hazardous to the health of all Americans, according to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. The Centers for Disease Control, which Harkin calls the world’s premiere public health agency, is closed. Less than two weeks ago, Harkin says the CDC identified frozen berries from the nation of Turkey as the cause of hundreds of people in several states being sickened by hepatitis-A. “The CDC detective epidemiological team went out, they recalled all this food and they stopped it before it spread any further,” Harkin says. “That team is at home now. They’re not working. What if...

In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, President Obama issued a list of Executive Orders. Notably among them, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was given $10 million to research gun violence. Here are some key findings from the CDC report, “Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence,” released in June: 1. Armed citizens are less likely to be injured by an attacker: 2. Defensive uses of guns are common: 3. Mass shootings and accidental firearm deaths account for a small fraction of gun-related deaths, and both are declining 4. “Interventions” (i.e, gun control) such as...

In the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released on Friday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that only about 2 percent of the U.S. population are men who have sex with men. The CDC made the assertion in a new report indicating that 80 percent of all new HIV infections in 2010 were of men and that 78 percent of those were among men who have sex with men (MSM). “MSM represent approximately 2 percent of the U.S. population,” said the MMWR. …

ATLANTA, GA, September 18, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warns that not only are new gonorrhea infections at epidemic levels in the US, but the sexually transmitted disease is becoming untreatable because "Neisseria gonorrhoeae," the bacteria that causes the disease, has become resistant to the antibiotics used for treatment. In their report the CDC has, for the first time, prioritized bacteria in their report into one of three categories: urgent, serious, and concerning. Along with gonorrhea, two other antibiotic resistant bacteria, Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which includes...