A new study shows chicken pox is slowly being eliminated as more and more children - some 90 percent in the U.S. - are receiving a preventive vaccine

The Bird flu has spread west to a sixth region in Russia, triggering the slaughter of hundreds more birds.

The disease has reached the Chelyabinsk region of the Ural mountains which separate Asia from Europe

The fifth suspected victim in the same underpopulated area of Idaho, died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a rare brain-wasting disease that typically afflicts only one in a million people.

"Is what is happening in Idaho an anomaly, a statistical fluke? That is possible," said Ermias Belay, a top CJD expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta who is helping advise officials in Idaho. "But once it exceeds 1.5 or 2 per million, you start asking questions

A study released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta finds asthma affects one in six U.S. high school students, with one-third of those having an attack in the previous year.

More than 13,000 students in 2003 were involved in the survey

The West Nile Virus has spread to at least 35 victims in South Dakota, according to state health officials.

15 new cases have been reported recently as the season hits its peak over the next two weeks