Richard Besser

ABC News has hired a top government doctor as part of an expansion of its medical coverage. Dr. Richard Besser, who was acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when the swine flu epidemic began earlier this year, will join the network as senior health and medical editor. ABC also promoted its longtime health commentator, Dr. Timothy Johnson, to chief medical editor. Johnson is a regular on "Good Morning America," "Nightline" and "20/20." "Over 30 years, Dr. Tim... Read Full Story

President Barack Obama on Friday appointed Dr. Thomas Frieden as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, turning to New York City's health commissioner to deal with the swine flu outbreak and other major health issues. Frieden has served as commissioner for the past seven years, where he led a campaign to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, boosted the number of New Yorkers getting HIV tests and helped to distribute millions of free condoms. In a statement announcing... Read Full Story

ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday named Dr. Thomas Frieden, who made New York the first city in the nation to ban smoking in restaurants, as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frieden, 48, New York's top health official since January 2002, also made the city the nation's first to eliminate trans-fats from restaurants. He will take over an organization that in recent weeks has been central to global efforts to understand and combat the... Read Full Story

Cancel plans for that "swine flu party": a top US health official says deliberately trying to get infected with the A(H1N1) flu virus as protection against a future more virulent strain is a bad idea. Having "swine flu party" is "a big mistake," said Richard Besser, the acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "This is a new, emerging infection, and we're learning more about it each day," Besser said. "But how an individual person will be impacted by the... Read Full Story

Jaipur, Nov 18 (PTI) Two more persons, one of them a woman, succumbed to the swine flu in Rajasthan today, taking the number of fatalities from H1NI virus across the state to 28.... read full » Read Full Story

According to D D Chandakkar, deputy health officer of the PMC, Kabir Jalindar Bhise, a resident of village Bawda in Indapur taluka, died at the Noble Hospital.... read full » Read Full Story

Mitchell Weiner, the assistant principal at IS 238 in Jamaica Estates, Queens, has died of complications from the H1N1 virus, popularly known as the dreaded swine flu. Reports the New York Post: (Weiner) first fell ill more than a week ago, but didn't seek help at the hospital until his symptoms became severe early Wednesday morning. Since that time, he had been in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator. Just hours before his death, his wife, Bonnie, said there were hopeful signs... Read Full Story

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control has confirmed that a woman from the city of Mission is the province's latest swine flu fatality. The centre has declined to identify the victim of the H1N1 virus,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Read Full Story

Vadodara, Aug 23 (IANS) A 48-year-old man died of Influenza A(H1N1) in this Gujarat city Sunday, becoming the sixth victim of swine flu in the state, officials said. Hasmukh Hingu, a resident of Bharuch town in southern Gujarat, was admitted to the government-run SSG Hospital here Thursday with a ‘respiratory distress syndrome’ and had been put [...]... read full... Read Full Story

Pune/Bangalore/Rajkot, Aug 24 (PTI) A toddler and two middle-aged persons have succumbed to swine flu in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat, pushing the pandemic toll to 72 even as schools and colleges in Pune, shut due to the spurt in the infection, reopened Monday after nearly two weeks.... read full » Read Full Story