health - "report"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it has lifted its warning on tomatoes amid an ongoing outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul in which more than 1,200 people have reported getting sick.

Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee lead the nation when it comes to obesity, a new government survey reported.

More than 11,000 West Virginia Medicaid beneficiaries have enrolled in the new 'enhanced' benefits program, Mountain health Choices, which requires residents to sign personal responsibility pledges stating that they will take steps to improve their health, the Charleston Gazette reports.

Lawmakers, state officials and experts on Tuesday at a House Ways and Means health Subcommittee hearing discussed the roles of the federal government and states in efforts to expand access to health insurance, CQ HealthBeat reports.

Over the last 10 years, the Dallas area has experienced 'a tenfold increase in the number' of health clinics that are treating the 'growing numbers of people without health insurance, especially [undocumented] immigrants who are fearful to use government-affiliated clinics or hospitals,' the Dallas Morning News reports.

An increasing number of men who have sex with men in Chicago are finding sex partners on the Internet, helping to fuel a rise is syphilis cases among the group, according to a report recently released by the Chicago Department of health, the Chicago Tribune reports.

A 10.6% reduction to Medicare physician fees will be delayed for 18 months because legislation (HR 6331) became law on Tuesday after both chambers of Congress voted to override President Bush's veto of the bill earlier in the day, the Wall Street Journal reports (Wilde Mathews, Wall Street Journal, 7/16). The reduction in fees took effect on July 1, but CMS delayed processing of claims.

Louisiana's $29.9 billion fiscal year 2009 budget, which Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed into law on Monday, could result in cuts to state health programs for low-income, elderly and uninsured state residents, state Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said on Monday, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. The budget allocates $6.

HIV/AIDS advocates are calling on the Canadian government to implement needle-exchange programs in the country's federal prisons to prevent the spread of HIV, the Winnipeg Free Press reports. According to Correctional Service Canada, 1.6% of federal inmates, or about 218 people, were known to be HIV-positive in 2006. The HIV prevalence in Canada's general population is about 0.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States fails on most measures of health care quality, with Americans waiting longer to see doctors and more likely to die of preventable or treatable illnesses than people in other industrialized countries, a report released on Thursday said.