Free Republic

A white man confronted a black female swimmer at a ritzy California hotel’s pool on Monday, questioning whether she bathed before taking a dip, according to video of the incident. The man insisted he was perfectly within his rights to ask such an intrusive question at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena, footage posted Wednesday by the woman, Texas resident Carle Wheeler, showed.

The teenagers tucked their hands into their sweatshirt pockets as they shuffled to form a circle. Some gazed at the asphalt, trying to avoid the game they had been drafted to play. “It’s like hot potato/musical chairs, but with a penis,” said the girl leading the group. The kids gathered on a spring morning in South Los Angeles were about to get a hands-on lesson in sex education. Many health experts say that public health problems are best tackled outside the doctor’s office — that fixing the culture that perpetuates them is more effective than changing a single patient’s behavior....

Halsey Taylor is one of the leading manufacturers of drinking fountains today. Company founder Halsey W. Taylor invented the non-squirting drinking fountain. In 1896, Taylor's father died from typhoid fever. This illness is principally spread through contaminated drinking water. Several years later, while working as a plant superintendent for the Packard Motor Car Company, Taylor realized numerous workers were becoming sick with dysentery. He believed contaminated drinking water was the chief reason for the spreading illness. Taylor determined to develop a drinking fountain that was sanitary and would not contribute to the spreading of various illnesses. By 1912, he had...

What kind of sex educators would tell kids with AIDS they don't have to disclose their health status to a sexual partner? Planned Parenthood, that's who! International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has an information campaign they've put out for kids with HIV called "Healthy, Happy and Hot" that begins: Young people living with HIV may feel that sex is just not an option, but don’t worry — many young people living with HIV live healthy, fun, happy and sexually fulfilling lives. You can too, if you want to! Things get easier (and sex can get even better) as you become...

A third person who experienced severe bleeding after using synthetic marijuana has died in Illinois, health officials confirmed. There are now 107 people in central Illinois and the Chicago area who experienced severe bleeding after using the synthetic pot, often called spice, K2 or fake weed, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. “Each day we’ve seen the number of cases rise,” said director of the IDPH Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D. "Synthetic cannabinoids are unsafe. They are not regulated and people don’t know what chemicals may be in them, like rat poison. While efforts are underway to get...

Parents are being warned to look out for signs of scarlet fever in their children, with more cases of the illness reported this year than since 1982, health officials said. The highly contagious infection mainly affects young children and is not usually serious if treated.

As civilization “grows more maudlin and hysterical” it tends “to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes,” argued H.L. Mencken. He added that “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” It’s hard to argue with those points, especially in light of the latest court battle over California’s zany public-health laws. Last week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle ruled that Starbucks and other coffee retailers are in hot water because they don’t slap labels on coffee...

Thousands of pounds of human waste, close to 14,000 hypodermic needles cleaned out from Santa Ana River homeless encampments Orange County Public Works released eye-popping figures Thursday, March 8, on the total amount of debris, needles and hazardous waste removed when crews cleaned up the area along the Santa Ana River Trail once populated by the encampments of homeless people. Here’s what was collected between Jan. 22 and March 3 from a more than two-mile stretch of bike trail roughly from I-5 in Orange to Ball Road in Anaheim, according to OC Public Works spokesman Shannon Widor: 404 tons of...

As scores lay injured in Florida hospitals after the Orlando shooting, potential donors inundated blood banks, offering what they could. For some, however, the hourslong wait ended in disappointment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has strict guidelines about who can donate blood; among those restricted are people who have had certain diseases, those who have traveled to certain countries and men who have slept with men, or as the FDA refers to them, MSM, within the past year.

(CNN)Health officials in Salt Lake County, Utah, are warning residents that an estimated 2,000 of them could have been exposed to hepatitis A at a local 7-Eleven convenience store. People who visited the location in West Jordan between December 26 and January 3 could be at risk if they used a restroom in the store or consumed certain food items, according to the Salt Lake County Health Department. "The possible hepatitis A exposure occurred when an infected employee worked while ill and potentially handled certain items in the store," the department said on Sunday. The case is believed to be...

In case you haven’t noticed, Silicon Valley is obsessed with health, or at least the appearance of health. You can see evidence of it just about everywhere, including internet-connected juicers and new medical “breakthroughs,” but rarely is a new trend as obviously flawed as “raw water.” Raw water is untreated, unfiltered water pulled from Earth and bottled for consumption by people willing to pay absurd prices for it. The best part? It’s probably going to make them all sick anyway. Unlike other healthy eating trends, like consuming only raw fruits and vegetables or insisting upon antibiotic-free “clean” cuts of meat,...

More than 600 Hepatitis A cases have been reported in Southeast Michigan as the outbreak continues to ravage the communities. Public health officials are continuing to see these numbers elevate, and warn that it will continue to worsen as we approach the holidays. According to Voice News, more than 80 percent of those who have contracted the highly contagious liver disease have required hospitalization. Another 20 people have died after becoming infected with the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that symptoms can be mild or severe depending on the health of the person who contracts the...

Sexually transmitted diseases are getting worse in the United States, increasing for the third year, with 2016 reaching an all-time high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and data analysis by Backgroundchecks.org, here are the ten most sexually diseased states in America:

Antibiotic resistance will end modern medicine and push us into a "post-antibiotic apocalypse", England's chief medical officer has warned. Dame Sally Davies has issued a call to action urging global leaders to address the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics. Professor Davies warns antibiotic resistance can jeopardise everyday medical procedures and make them "risky" - including caesarean sections, cancer treatments and hip replacements. She also says without drugs to treat infections, transplant medicine would be a "thing of the past". Professor Davies told Sky News: "The post-antibiotic apocalypse is that when you get an infection, we cannot guarantee it will...

A Metro Detroit mother is facing jail time because of her beliefs when it comes to vaccinations and her kid. Bredow, a mother of two, has one week to get her son vaccinated and if she does not comply with the order of an Oakland County judge, she will be thrown in jail. According to court documents. the child’s father wants their son vaccinated. Rebecca makes it clear where she stands on the issue.

But imagine what you thought may have been an eyelash turns out to actually be a worm wriggling around. This was the reality for a teenager in Mexico. The unnamed 17-year-old boy began to feel increasingly intolerable pain in his right eye. His vision also quickly declined, to the point where he could only see hand motions. After three weeks of dealing with the pain, he decided it was time to seek out a doctor, according to his case published in The New England Journal of Medicine. An eye examination revealed a flatworm, that was 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) long...

Hepatitis A Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus. Mild cases can last a few weeks while severe cases can last several months. Los Angeles County is experiencing an outbreak of hepatitis A. The majority of cases are occurring in individuals who are homeless and/or use illicit drugs. Outbreaks of hepatitis A in persons who are homeless and/or use illicit drugs are also occurring in San Diego and Santa Cruz counties.

Fleas in two Arizona counties tested positive for the Bubonic plague — the same disease that killed millions of people in the 14th century throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe, public health officials say. Navajo County public health officials announced Friday that fleas collected near the town of Taylor tested positive for Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the Bubonic plague, the Associated Press reports. The announcement came one week after Coconino County officials first discovered fleas in the area found to be carrying the plague. KNXV reports that Coconino County officials first discovered the plague-infested fleas in the Red Lake...

Hospitals across the UK have been hit by a drug-resistant Japanese fungus which has so far infected more than 200 patients. The potentially deadly superbug has spread to at least 55 hospitals and is particularly dangerous for anyone with a weakened immune system. Most worryingly, the fungus is resistant to the most commonly prescribed fungicidal drug, fluconazole, and the species has the ability to rapidly evolve to develop resistance. 'Candida auris' - which was first identified in the ear of a patient in Japan - is able to live both on the skin and inside the body. "Large" outbreaks have...

TAYLOR, Ariz. (3TV/CBS5) — Health officials are urging people to take precautions after a second Arizona county in two weeks confirmed that fleas in the area have tested positive for plague. The announcement by Navajo County Public Health officials on Friday comes one week after Coconino County officials found prairie dogs in the area to be carrying fleas with the plague -- the infectious disease infamous for killing millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages. The fleas in Navajo County were found near the town of Taylor. Health officials have notified the residents whose property will be treated. The area...