An outbreak of whooping cough cases in Kansas this year has resulted in the death of one child and the infection of 54 people statewide, health officials said Wednesday.

So far this year, whooping cough cases have soared more than tenfold in Kansas compared to 2003, killing one young child and infecting people in 54 Kansas counties, health officials said Wednesday

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, over 500,000 babies were born prematurely in the United States last year.

In 2004, 12.5 percent of all babies were born premature, according to hospital and emergency care records

C-section deliveries in the United States is slowly becoming a more popular procedure. For decades, C-sections were done in only a small fraction of births.

According to The National Center for Health Statistics, Caesarean sections yeilded 29 percent of all births in 2004, up from 27 percent in 2003 and nearly 21 percent in 1996

Investigators question the risk of sleep assisting medications for senior citizens.

Dr. Usoa Busto, from the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, and colleagues found more adverse effects with sedative hypnotics than with a placebo. Sedative use greatly increased the odds of thinking difficulties and daytime fatigue

In light of the Vioxx scandal, researchers are questioning the way that medical treatments and products are being tested.

Failure to identify medical safety problems could be prevented if medical researchers changed the way they evaluate new medicines, medical devices and other treatments, according to a new paper in the journal Health Affairs