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Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
FDA clears first blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease
U.S. regulators have approved the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, potentially making it easier to find and treat patients with the mind-robbing disease that affects nearly 7 million Americans. The test made by Fujirebio Diagnostics Inc., a unit of Japan’s H.U. Group Holdings Inc., was cleared for...
As Rite Aid collapses, customers and other pharmacies bear the impact
It takes Kathy Younkins just a few minutes to walk to her neighborhood Rite Aid. The 67-year-old has picked up her prescriptions at the company’s Harrison location since the 2000s. But now the Philadelphia-based pharmacy empire is crumbling. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month, blaming “the...
‘Dilbert’ cartoon creator says he has same prostate cancer as Joe Biden
The creator of the Dilbert comic strip, which was canceled by most newspapers two years ago over the creator’s racist comments, said Monday that he has been diagnosed with the same aggressive prostate cancer as former President Joe Biden. “I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has,” Scott Adams...
RFK Jr. pledged not to upend the vaccine system, but big changes are underway
WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clinched the political support needed to become the nation’s top health official by pledging to work within the decades-old federal system for approval and use of vaccines. Yet his regulators are promising big changes that cloud the outlook for what shots might even be...
UPMC doc on Biden: ‘It’s impossible to screen your way out of advanced prostate cancer’
More than half of Joe Biden’s peers also likely have prostate cancer. They may not know it because they’re not showing symptoms and doctors generally stop screening for it at age 69. “We don’t often actively look for it at this age,” said Dr. Quoc-Dien Trinh, chair of the Urology...
DeSantis signs a bill making Florida the 2nd state to ban fluoride from its water system
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure Thursday prohibiting local governments from adding fluoride to their water systems, making it the second state in the country after Utah to implement a statewide ban on the mineral. DeSantis signed the bill at a public event...
EPA announces rollback for some Biden-era limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water 
The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it plans to weaken limits on some “forever chemicals” in drinking water that were finalized last year, while maintaining standards for two common ones. The Biden administration set the first federal drinking water limits for PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, finding they...
U.S. overdose deaths fell 27% last year, the largest 1-year decline ever seen
There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline ever recorded. An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023....
What to expect at RFK Jr.’s first Senate hearing as health secretary
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy wanted an assurance from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before he would vote to put him in charge of the nation’s $1.7 trillion health department. Kennedy’s history of promoting conspiracy theories or misspeaking about vaccines alarmed Cassidy, he said during a confirmation hearing earlier this...
FDA and RFK Jr. aim to remove ingestible fluoride products used to protect kids’ teeth
WASHINGTON — U.S. health regulators announced plans Tuesday to phase out ingestible fluoride supplements sometimes used to strengthen children’s teeth, opening a new front in Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort against a mainstay of dental care. The Food and Drug Administration said it will conduct a scientific review...
UnitedHealth Group CEO steps down; suspends 2025 outlook on higher-than-expected medical costs
UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty is stepping down for personal reasons and the nation’s largest health insurer suspended its full-year financial outlook due to higher-than-expected medical costs. UnitedHealth cut its 2025 forecast last month following its first quarterly earnings miss in more than a decade. Shares of UnitedHealth, which have plummeted...
Trump signs executive order setting 30-day deadline for drugmakers to lower prescription drug costs
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday signed a sweeping executive order setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to lower the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. or face new limits over what the government will pay. The order calls on the health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy...
At least 10 people sickened in U.S. listeria outbreak linked to prepared foods
SAN FERNANDO, Calif. — At least 10 people in the U.S. have been sickened in a listeria outbreak linked to ready-to-eat food products, and a producer is voluntarily recalling several products, federal officials said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Saturday that federal, state and local officials are investigating...
Zepbound beats Wegovy for weight loss in first head-to-head trial of blockbuster drugs
People taking Eli Lilly’s obesity drug, Zepbound, lost nearly 50% more weight than those using rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy in the first head-to-head study of the blockbuster medications. Clinical trial participants who took tirzepatide, the drug sold as Zepbound, lost an average of 50 pounds over 72 weeks, while those...
Experts call Kennedy’s plan to find autism’s cause unrealistic
WASHINGTON — For many experts, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s promise for “pulling back the curtain” to find autism’s causes in a few months is jarring — and unrealistic. That’s because it appears to ignore decades of science linking about 200 genes that play a role — and...
U.S. infant mortality dropped in 2024. Experts partly credit RSV shots
NEW YORK — The nation’s infant mortality rate dropped last year after two years of hovering at a late-pandemic plateau. Some experts think one reason for the drop could be a vaccination campaign against RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, which is a common cause of cold-like symptoms that can be...
Cancer before age 50 is increasing. A new study looks at which types
Cancer before age 50 is rare, but increasing, in the United States and researchers want to know why. A new government study provides the most complete picture yet of early-onset cancers, finding that the largest increases are in breast, colorectal, kidney and uterine cancers. Scientists from the National Cancer Institute...
Donald Trump taps wellness influencer close to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for surgeon general 
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is tapping Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer with close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as his nominee for surgeon general after withdrawing his initial pick for the influential health post. Trump said in a social media post Wednesday...
A community rallied to share flu shot experiences. Then the government stopped the study
WASHINGTON — Some Denver parents got texts during this winter’s brutal flu season with videos sharing why people in their neighborhoods chose flu shots for their kids, an unusual study about trust and vaccines in a historically Black community. But no one will know how it worked out: The Trump...
CDC reports 216 child deaths this flu season, the most in 15 years
NEW YORK — More U.S. children have died this flu season than at any time since the swine flu pandemic 15 years ago, according to a federal report released Friday. The 216 pediatric deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eclipse the 207 reported last year. It’s...
Tarentum natives donate $3 million to Allegheny Health Network
Joe and Kathy Guyaux were without health insurance when their first child was born in 1972 at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison. “I paid $15 a month with no interest. I’ll always remember that,” said Joe Guyaux, a Tarentum native who now lives in Fox Chapel. “We know what it...
How bugs and beet juice could play roles in the race to replace artificial dyes in food
ST. LOUIS — As pressure grows to get artificial colors out of the U.S. food supply, the shift may well start at Abby Tampow’s laboratory desk. On an April afternoon, the scientist hovered over tiny dishes of red dye, each a slightly different ruby hue. Her task? To match the...
Texas measles outbreak nears 650 cases, but fewer than 10 actively infectious
DALLAS — Texas public health officials on Friday reported an additional 22 measles cases in the ongoing outbreak, for a total of 646 outbreak cases. The state’s Department of State Health Services estimates 1% of the total cases — or fewer than 10 cases — are actively infectious. The department...
Whooping cough cases rising again in the U.S.
Whooping cough cases are rising, and doctors are bracing for yet another tough year. There have been 8,485 cases reported in 2025, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s twice as many cases as this time last year, based on the CDC’s final...
RFK Jr. plans to phase out 8 artificial dyes from U.S. food supply
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials said they plan to phase out eight petroleum-based artificial colors from the nation’s food supply, triggering an overhaul of scores of brightly hued products on American store shelves. Details of the plan are expected to be announced Tuesday afternoon by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy...


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