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Today President Obama declared H1N1 swine flu a national public health emergency. I was a little alarmed when I saw the headlines announcing this development today. There haven't been any significant changes in the status of the virus or the pandemic, so why is it a national emergency now? It turns out this declaration is really to help health care officials deal with the pandemic more easily rather than a result of any changes in the situation. In declaring a national emergency, President Obama gave the chief of the US Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, power to bypass federal laws in regards to how health care sites operate. Emergency rooms may be able to operate clinics away from hospitals (such as in schools and parking lots) to help prevent the spread of the virus to people who need to seek treatment for other problems. It also changes how hospitals can handle financial matters - requiring less paperwork so they can see patients more quickly and allowing federal reimbu

A school nurse who suspected in May something was physically wrong with 10-year-old Charleeni Ferreira asked her parents for her medical records and told them to take the girl to a doctor, a law enforcement official said yesterday.

HE DECLARED war on Turkey Twizzlers and tried to enlist the nation's dinner ladies in a campaign to introduce school children to healthy food.

The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University school of Medicine (BUSM) has announced that a deceased former college football player who died at age 42 was already suffering from the degenerative brain disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). This is the first time an advanced case of CTE has been discovered in a college football player that did not play professionally. It is also the first case diagnosed in a wide receiver.

Reports say that an Australian primary school has banned mixed-sex consensual hugging, giving reason: it sets a 'bad example' to younger students. Largs

(University of Pennsylvania school of Medicine) A study using gene therapy safely improved vision in five children and seven adults with Leber's congenital amaurosis. The greatest improvements occurred in the children, all of whom are now able to navigate a low-light obstacle course.