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2 Million more U.S. Chickens to be Destroyed Due to Flu

One of the largest U.S. egg producers has said it will destroy 2 million egg-laying hens in the central state of Minnesota due to a deadly bird flu virus.

The development at the Minnesota chicken farm brings the total of affected birds to 35 million in 15 states, with Minnesota and Iowa poultry flocks hit the hardest.

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Drug Combo Helps People with Common Cystic Fibrosis

A combination of two drugs has shown promise toward improving the health of people with the most common form of the incurable lung disease known as cystic fibrosis, researchers said Sunday.

Patients treated with two medications -- lumacaftor and ivacaftor -- saw "significant" gains in their ability to breathe and fewer lung infections than those taking a placebo, according to the results of two international clinical trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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30 Minutes of Exercise is Key to Health in Old Age

Elderly men who do 30 minutes of physical activity six days a week are likely to have a 40-percent lower risk of death compared to couch-potato counterparts, researchers said Friday.

For men in this age group, just a small amount of regular exercise -- regardless of intensity -- is as beneficial as giving up smoking, they said.

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Taiwan Imposes New Restrictions on Japan Food Imports

Taiwan Friday imposed new restrictions on food imported from Japan after hundreds of products were recalled over fake labels that disguised they came from areas affected by the country's 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Taiwan banned Japanese food imports from five areas near Fukushima in March 2011 a few weeks after a devastating quake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown at a power plant and radioactive particles were detected in some imports.

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Out on a Limb: Octopus Inspires Medical Robotics

Scientists in Italy said Thursday they had devised a prototype arm inspired by the octopus that may one day lead to minimally-invasive robotic surgery.

Like the octopus' limb, the slender remote-controlled gadget can extend and bend and be either soft or rigid, the goal being to enable surgery in the abdomen and other cramped parts of the body.

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Study: Vitamin B3 May Help Prevent Certain Skin Cancers

For the first time, a large study suggests that a vitamin might modestly lower the risk of the most common types of skin cancer in people with a history of these relatively harmless yet troublesome growths.

In a study in Australia, people who took a specific type of vitamin B3 for a year had a 23 percent lower rate of new skin cancers compared to others who took dummy pills. In absolute terms, it meant that vitamin takers developed fewer than two of these cancers on average versus roughly 2.5 cancers for the others.

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Immune Approach is New Tool against Multiple Myeloma Cancer

A new kind of immune therapy has shown promise against the third most common blood cancer, multiple myeloma, researchers said Wednesday.

The drug, elotuzumab, is a monoclonal antibody -- a type of immune cell -- made by Bristol Myers-Squibb, and was granted a breakthrough therapy designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year.

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Study: Hand Grip is Telltale of Heart's Health

Testing people's hand strength could be a simple, low-cost way to screen them for the risk of heart attack or stroke, The Lancet reported on Thursday.

Canadian-led researchers carried out a large-scale probe into evidence that a firm hand grip is a rough yet reliable indicator of good health.

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Dominican Govt Offers Maids, other Workers Health Insurance

The Dominican government says it will provide health insurance to some 50,000 maids and other informal workers in an unprecedented step for the Caribbean country.

Officials said Tuesday that workers including maids, gardeners and housekeepers can sign up to receive benefits for themselves and their dependents starting Saturday.

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Mexico Says Vaccine not to Blame for Baby Deaths

Mexican health authorities on Tuesday said a bacteria was responsible for the deaths last weekend of two babies and for sickening 29 others -- not a vaccine as initially feared.

The children became sick after getting shots against Hepatitis B in the indigenous town of Simojovel, southern Chiapas state.

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