The Food and Drug Administration warned the medical community on Friday regarding heparin after learning that some of the facilities still had supplies of the contaminated blood thinner.

A large number of hospitals, medical societies and pharmaceutical organizations were warned despite a recall by the California Department of Health and the FDA's own recall monitoring. Baxter International Inc., the largest supplier of heparin, also showed gaps in the recall response

The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled 5-2 that local governments and state universities in Michigan are barred from offering health insurance to the partners of gay workers.

The ban would affect gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers from 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan that earlier covered at least 375 gay couples

Nearly all babies born to HIV positive mothers can be free from the deadly disease if appropriate treatment is given to a woman in her pregnancy, a new study shows.

Nearly 99 percent of babies were born uninfected if recommended interventions were followed during pregnancy, University College London said in a study

From Tuesday until Friday, 30 percent of clinics in Germany will remain close as a sign of protest by physicians over the federal government's healthcare policies. Their main concern is the lack of younger medical doctors.

The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians had earlier warned that one in five German doctor is due for retirement. Andreas Koehler, KBV director, said by 2012 more than 34,000 medics will retire. Germany has around 100,000 registered physicians

About 4,000 members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) in different hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area will hold a strike lasting from one to 10 days starting on March 21. The job walkout will protest unsafe patient care policies, contract disputes and the closure of three community hospitals. The CNA is also demanding better medical benefits and pension.

Eight facilities of Sutter Health, an organization of not-for-profit hospitals and health care providers in Northern California, are to be affected by the strike. According to Bay City News, the clinics slated to close are; St. Luke's Hospital and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, San Leandro Hospital, Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Delta in Antioch and Sutter Solano in Vallejo