►2003 - How to avoid dangerous diseases during pregnancy. - Smallpox - American Baby - "If you're pregnant, you're at a greater risk for serious side effects from the smallpox vaccine and shouldn't receive it. Also if you're breastfeeding, you should avoid getting it; the vaccine could be passed on to the baby.The vaccine would only be advisable for pregnant or nursing women as a method of treatment if they were exposed to the smallpox virus. Other people who should not get the vaccine include those who suffer from eczema or other allergic rashes (even if it's mild or was just a childhood condition) and those with weakened immunity (e.g., due to treatment for cancer or being HIV-positive)."

►December 24, 2003 - Lawmaker Refutes Report on Polio Vaccine - www.thisdayonline.com

►December 24, 2003 - Polio Vaccine Controversy Resolved - This Day (Lagos) via www.allafrica.com

►December 23, 2003 - Heeding Court Order, Pentagon Halts Anthrax Shots - Reuters via http://wireservice.wired.com

►December 24, 2003 - Results of AP-Ipsos Poll on the Flu - AP via News day

Comment:  Although the percentage getting the flu vaccine (or not) and getting the flu (or not) was reported, the "crosstab" showing how many of those vaccinated (or not) who got the flu (or not) was not reported.  Why not?  In other words, we don't know if those getting the flu had been vaccinated or not, and if those who were vaccinated got the flu.

Here is what we know:

Here is what we don't know, but should know (in red), where x is the number:

►December 21, 2003 - Mercury is rising - Power plant emissions are fouling area's waters - The Standard Times via www.southcoasttoday.com

►December 26, 2003 - Scientists Begin Measuring Pollution in Human Bodies - www.newsmax.com - "Davis Baltz shops for organic food and otherwise tries to live as healthy as he can. So he was shocked to learn that the pollutants collecting inside his body sounded much like a Superfund cleanup site: pesticides, flame retardants and other nasty, man-made chemicals turned up in a recent test...''What that told me is that no matter what I tried to do, the plumes of chemicals that we are passing in and out of everyday give us exposure,' said Baltz, who works for Commonweal, an environmental group in Bolinas."

►December 24, 2003 - Bush Pollution Changes Blocked - AP via www.cbsnews.com

►December 23, 2003 - Nursing Homes Cautious During Flu Season - AP via Newsday

►December 23, 2003 - Flu cases increase in Ohio - Health expert says `widespread' outbreak only indicates early season, not epidemic - Akron Beacon Journal

►December 23, 2003 - Shipment of 100,000 flu shots delayed - AP via Ledger-Enquirer

►December 23, 2003 - Flu rate up after death of toddler - Michigan's infection level now widespread - Detroit Free Press

►December 23, 2003 - Ark. Flu Cases Dip; Officials Still Wary - AP via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

►December 23, 2003 - Flu probably has peaked -  But Colorado official says second, weaker wave likely to strike - Rocky Mountain News

►December 24, 2003 - New understanding of why brain cells die after stroke will lead to development of new treatments - University of Toronto via www.eurekalert.org

►December 24, 2003 - Study Beijing's SARS response, experts suggest - AP via Sun-Sentinel

►December 23, 2003 - West Nile cases decrease in Ohio - Rainy summer keeps deaths, illnesses down - Akron Beacon Journal

►December 23, 2003 - Singapore SARS researchers get largest donation from local bank - www.cqnews.net

►October 2003 - Effectiveness of drug therapies to treat or prevent respiratory syncytial virus infection-related morbidity - journal article (Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy)

►2003 - Antiplatelet Antibodies in Chronic Adult Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura: Assays and Epitopes - journal article (Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology)

►2003 - Alloimmune Thrombocytopenias - journal article (Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology)

►December 2003 - Detection and characterization of human rotavirus among children with diarrhoea in Botswana - journal article (Tropical Medicine & International Health)

►December 23, 2003 - Mad Cow Scare Follows Sick Animal Ruling - Reuters Health via Yahoo!

►December 23, 2003 - Mad Cow Quotes - AP via Yahoo!

►December 26, 2003 - Officials: U.S. Mad Cow Case Confirmed - www.newsmax.com

►December 24, 2003 - Mold in Schools Raises Fears of Illness: Unusually Wet Spring, Summer Fed an Ongoing Problem in Several Suburbs - Washington Post

►December 24, 2003 - Mad Cow: Where Did It Come From? - HealthDayNews via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

►December 23, 2004 - Taming SARS: What Worked, What Didn't -  Quarantines, certain drugs helped to contain 1st outbreak of the disease - HealthDayNews via http://drkoop.com

►December 24, 2003 - Explosion in STDs Caused by “Safe Sex” Message - www.newsmax.com

►December 24, 2003 - Newly Approved Therapy Successfully Targets Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma - University Of Michigan Health System via ScienceDaily

►December 24, 2003 - 'Mad cow' mechanism may be integral to storing memory - Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research via www.eurekalert.org - "Scientists have discovered a new process for how memories might be stored, a finding that could help explain one of the least-understood activities of the brain. What's more, the key player in this process is a protein that acts just like a prion – a class of proteins that includes the deadly agents involved in neurodegenerative conditions such as mad cow disease...The study, published as two papers in the Dec. 26 issue of the journal Cell, suggests that this protein does its good work while in a prion state, contradicting a widely held belief that a protein that has prion activity is toxic or at least doesn't function properly."

►December 24, 2003 - An Aetna InteliHealth/Harvard Medical School Look At The News -- Fallout From Mad Cow Case - From consumers to beef producers, Americans braced for the fallout from the apparent discovery of mad cow disease in the United States even as federal officials insisted the food supply was safe. - AP via www.intelihealth.com

►December 22, 2003 - Asthma in British children 'double EU average' - www.ananova.com

►December 24, 2003 - U.S. Atkins craze could suffer from mad cow scare - Reuters

►December 24, 2003 - Treatment for SARS developed - CanWest News Service via www.canada.com

►December 24, 2003 - Calgary Hospital Tackles Legionnaires Germ, Herald Reports - Bloomberg

►December 24, 2003 - Air Products Makes Strategic Investment in Sterilox Technologies - PRNewswire/First Call/ via Yahoo!

►December 24, 2003 - French doctors face manslaughter charges - The Guardian, UK - "Six top staff, including two surgeons, at one of Paris's leading public hospitals are facing manslaughter charges over the death of a patient who contracted gangrene after undergoing surgery...The case, in which, coincidentally, the deceased had been the hospital's chemist overseeing internal hygiene, has come amid a mounting crisis in France's public health system. Hailed in Britain as a model for the NHS, the French service has been criticised at home for poor hygiene after reports that 10,000 patients a year died from infections contracted in the country's 1,500 state medical institutions."

►December 21, 2003 - Tort reform proponents, foes ready for battle in coming session (requires registration) -  The Post and Courier - "A typical day for Lily includes basic physical therapy, learning to hold her head up, grasp and follow objects with her eyes. She doesn't walk, talk or speak, and her parents don't know that she ever will. They say her 10 or so epileptic seizures every day just make her cry...Lily was left severely mentally handicapped at birth...In a lawsuit they filed... they were able to win a sizable settlement...'It lets us pay for Lily's extensive treatment and a lot of the little things that have helped make life a little easier for us,' said Tony Zionkowski."

►December 22, 2003 - Bastyr U. carves niche in alternative health care - The Seattle Times

►December 23, 2003 - Alternative Medicine and Your Child - www.kidshealth.org via Yahoo!

►December 24, 2003 - Exercise Can Keep Kids Healthy - Researachers find link between health and exercise, body fat - HealthDay Reporter via http://drkoop.com

►December 24, 2003 - Elderly Whites Healthier Than Hispanics - Elderly Hispanics in California Report Worse Health Care Than White Counterparts - AP via www.abcnews.go.com

►December 26, 2003 - R.I. Hospital to Resume Stomach Procedure - AP via The Herald-Sun

*Note:  Starting December 10, 2003 news will be posted in the "daily news" pages based on when it was posted on this website, not by publication date.