The United States pledged an additional $320 million to the global bird flu fight, warning on Saturday that complacency in fighting the virus could lead to a deadly pandemic.

Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, announced the additional $320 million Saturday at the opening of a conference in Egypt on bird flu attended by ministers of 60 nations.

The St. Louis County Health Department is conducting voluntary HIV testing to 1,300 students of a Missouri high school after an infected person told officials 50 students have been exposed to the AIDS virus.

Normandy School District spokesman Doug Hochstedler said Thursday six testing stations were put up at the Normandy High School's gym to conduct the confidential mouth swab tests with only representatives from the health department present with the students.

Six students from Rice University in Houston are creating a beer than contains more of the red wine's healthy ingredients that help reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

The research team's leader, junior Taylor Stevenson, said they are using genetic engineering to create a beer with a higher resveratrol content.

A survey of almost 700 internists and rheumatologists made by the National Institutes of Health showed that 50 percent of American doctors regularly prescribe placebo to patients.

Similar surveys made in Denmark, Israel, the United Kingdom, Sweden and New Zealand showed identical results.

A panel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proposes to expand the coverage of compulsory pneumococcal vaccination to include adult smokers.

The CDC had already recommended mandatory vaccination for children, the elderly and those with chronic ailments and weak immune systems to protect them against a bacterium that causes pneumonia.