Alva Review-Courier -

WASHINGTON (AP) — The descriptions are haunting. Some victims felt fine in the morning and were dead by night. Faces turned blue as patients coughed up blood. Stacked bodies outnumbered coffins. A century after one of history's most catastrophic d...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like a friendly Pied Piper, the violinist keeps up a toe-tapping beat as dancers weave through busy hospital hallways and into the chemotherapy unit, patients looking up in surprised delight. Upstairs, a cellist plays an Irish f...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A better mammogram? Increasingly women are asked if they want a 3-D mammogram instead of the regular X-ray — and now U.S. health officials are starting a huge study to tell if the newer, sometimes pricier choice really improves scr...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists are expanding the genetic code of life, using man-made DNA to create a semi-synthetic strain of bacteria — and new research shows those altered microbes actually worked to produce proteins unlike those found in nat...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A first attempt at gene therapy for a disease that leaves babies unable to move, swallow and, eventually, breathe has extended the tots' lives, and some began to roll over, sit and stand on their own, researchers reported W...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists are altering a powerful gene-editing technology in hopes of one day fighting diseases without making permanent changes to people's DNA. The trick: Edit RNA instead, the messenger that carries a gene's instructions. "If yo...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 26 million people around the world die each year with serious suffering in part because of a huge gap in pain relief: The U.S. may be awash in opioid painkillers, but they're rare or unavailable in dozens of poor c...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The phone calls come — from fellow scientists and desperate strangers — with a single question for the alcohol chief at the National Institutes of Health: Where can my loved one find good care to get sober? Tuesday, the gover...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's flu shot time, and health officials are bracing for a potentially miserable fall and winter. The clues: The Southern Hemisphere, especially Australia, was hit hard over the past few months with a flu strain that's notorious f...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mosquitoes harbor gut bacteria just like people do — and the bugs inside the bugs may hold a key to fighting malaria. Today, bed nets and insecticides are the chief means of preventing malaria, which sickens about 200 million peo...

WASHINGTON (AP) — There must be an answer. Whatever is harming U.S. diplomats in Havana, it's eluded the doctors, scientists and intelligence analysts scouring for answers. Investigators have chased many theories, including a sonic attack, e...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare cards are getting a makeover to fight identity theft. No more Social Security numbers plastered on the card. Next April, Medicare will begin mailing every beneficiary a new card with a unique new number to identify them. "...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Getting checked for cervical cancer isn't one-size-fits-all: Millions of women may soon have to decide between a routine Pap or a newer test that detects if they have a cancer-causing virus. Draft national guidelines released T...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Patients emerging from cancer surgery want to know, "Did you get it all?" Now scientists are developing a pen-like probe to help surgeons better tell when it's safe to stop cutting or if stray tumor cells still lurk. The device is h...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Opening a new era in cancer care, U.S. health officials have approved a breakthrough treatment that genetically engineers patients' own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia. The Food and Drug...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Opening a new era in cancer care, U.S. health officials on Wednesday approved a breakthrough treatment that genetically engineers patients' own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia. The F...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Altering human heredity? In a first, researchers safely repaired a disease-causing gene in human embryos, targeting a heart defect best known for killing young athletes — a big step toward one day preventing a list of inherited dis...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gene editing is getting fresh attention thanks to a successful lab experiment with human embryos. But for all the angst over possibly altering reproduction years from now, this technology already is used by scientists every day i...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seek a good education. Control blood pressure and diabetes. Get off the couch. There are some hints, but no proof yet, that these and other lifestyle changes just might help stave off dementia. A provocative report in the British j...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Does it really take an expensive brain scan to diagnose Alzheimer's? Not everybody needs one but new research suggests that for a surprising number of patients whose memory problems are hard to pin down, PET scans may lead to c...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Colon cancer. Uterine cancer. Pancreatic cancer. Whatever the tumor, the more gene mutations lurking inside, the better chance your immune system has to fight back. That's the premise behind the recent approval of a landmark d...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Zika virus may not seem as big a threat as last summer but don't let your guard down — especially if you're pregnant or trying to be. While cases of the birth defect-causing virus have dropped sharply from last year's peak in...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Are you seeking steps to keep your brain healthy in old age? There are no proven ways to stave off mental decline or dementia, but a new report says there are hints that exercise, controlling blood pressure and some forms of brain t...

WASHINGTON (AP) — An experimental drug is showing promise against an untreatable eye disease that blinds older adults — and intriguingly, it seems to work in patients who carry a particular gene flaw that fuels the damage to their vision. Age...

SEATTLE (AP) — Ken Shefveland's body was swollen with cancer, treatment after treatment failing until doctors gambled on a radical approach: They removed some of his immune cells, engineered them into cancer assassins and unleashed them into his b...