British scientists are conducting tests to determine where a parrot infected with bird flu contracted the disease. It has been established the parrot had the H5 strain of bird flu, but it's unclear where it became contaminated.

The H5 strain is different from the deadly H5N1 strain that has claimed more than 60 lives and millions of birds and livestock since December 2003. The bird came from South America, and was held with 216 birds from Taiwan

New anaylsis finds a diabetes pill, on its way toward federal approval, doubles the risks of deaths, heart attacks and strokes. Muraglitazar, to be sold under the name Pargluva for treatment of Type 2 diabetes, was endorsed by a Food and Drug Administration panel last month.

Researchers with the Cleveland Clinic analyzed the data on the drug, developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck & Co., which the FDA made public before the panel vote

A newly formed coalition of the state's major health and children's advocacy groups has initiated a campaign to pass a $1.50 increase in the state's cigarette tax on the November 2006 ballot.

Funds from the Tobacco Tax, Disease Prevention and Children's Health Insurance Act will be used to strengthen and expand existing tobacco prevention efforts, disease prevention, treatment and research programs such as those for heart disease and stroke, cancer and lung disease, and would also provide funding so that every child in California can receive affordable health care insurance

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK, issued a decree for commercial poultry keepers to register their flocks as part of an initiative, backed by the industry, to raise surveillance of the avian influenza virus.

DEFRA already has a detailed contingency plan in the event of an outbreak but this new move, announced today by the Prime Minister and the president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU), will further reinforce protection against any future outbreak of the disease

A newly formed coalition of the state's major health and children's advocacy groups has initiated a campaign to pass a $1.50 increase in the state's cigarette tax on the November 2006 ballot.

Funds from the Tobacco Tax, Disease Prevention and Children's Health Insurance Act will be used to strengthen and expand existing tobacco prevention efforts, disease prevention, treatment and research programs such as those for heart disease and stroke, cancer and lung disease, and would also provide funding so that every child in California can receive affordable health care insurance