Boston is creating a vaccination map by listing the names of residents who already had flu shots. To facilitate the task, the city is tapping technology by using a method usually tried for disaster monitoring.

All residents who get inoculated with flu vaccine will receive a bracelet with an ID code that contains data of the person and the shot, which will be logged in a handheld device.

A new scheme under trial in the United Kingdom will permit better monitoring of the health of Britons with chronic ailments using a standard mobile phone.

The cellular phone would need a special software which patients with asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure may use to key in details of their condition and treatment such as blood sugar levels and insulin shots taken.

To battle the growing public perception that McDonald's offerings are not healthy, the fast food chain is tapping more mothers as its frontline warriors under the firm's Quality Correspondents program.

McDonald's launched the program in 2007 and recently tapped five mothers in the Washington region to be part of the program. The five are among the thousands who responded to a TV ad seeking volunteers to help explain the nutritional value of McDonald meals to the public.

The Chinese government has initiated wide-ranging reforms to its battered dairy industry to improve safety by overhauling everything from cow breeding to milk sales.

The National Development and Reform Commission said this major shake up is needed to restore consumer confidence in the country's dairy industry, after the melamine contaminated milk killed four infants and sickened over 54,000 babies, leading to the widest recall of Chinese milk and food products containing Chinese milk across the globe.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened one of its first three overseas offices in China on Wednesday as part of the two countries' cooperation in the field of food and drug regulation.

U.S. and Chinese officials inaugurated the FDA office in Beijing.