Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

West Nile Virus Approaches, Proving Hurricanes Aren't the Only Danger to Houstonians This Time of Year

It is completely official. The Centers for Disease Control announced this week that 2012 was a terrible year for West Nile Virus - actually the worst ever - and warns that it may happen again. Clearly Houston is a prime stomping ground for the disease. We have swampland, mosquitoes and livestock (w ... More >>

Report: Texas Ranks Near the Bottom in Tobacco Settlement Spending

Texas is only spending 2.4 percent of the tobacco settlement money it collects on tobacco prevention campaigns, placing the state near the bottom of the Centers for Disease Control's recommended state-spending list, according to a December report. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' report states t ... More >>

Auteur Goes Amateur

Barry Levinson's The Bay aspires to YouTube.

Centers for Disease Control Confirms Fungal Meningitis in Texas

Between the flu, West Nile, and potentially toxic oysters, we already planned on hunkering down in our bomb shelter for the next ten or so years, but now we've got one more pathogen to worry about: The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed the first case of fungal meningitis in Texas. Of course ... More >>

Pradaxa Patients Can't Stop the Bleeding

There's only one really bad thing about the anti-clotting pill Pradaxa. You can't fall or get cut while taking it because once you start bleeding, there's almost no way to stop it. There's no reversal agent, no antidote.

The Choking Game: Texas Survey Says Lots of Kids Still Playing

​Sixteen percent of Sam Houston State University students responding to a survey about "The Choking Game" reported to having played the dumb-ass, potentially fatal game. The Crime Victims' Institute study states that, of the 827 students who completed the survey, males were more likely than f ... More >>

World AIDS Day: Artists Who Have Contributed to the Cause

​Today is World AIDS Day. The theme this year is "Getting to Zero," focusing on zero AIDS related deaths. In hopes of achieving this goal, there has been many a celebrity to endorse AIDS awareness and various charities around the world. Quite a few musicians have used their celebrity status ... More >>

A New Law to Fight the Cantaloupes of Death

That cantaloupe is POISON!​Sure, today may be World Rabies Day, but that's not the only deadly disease you need to worry about in this dangerous time of ours: In case you haven't heard, now even cantaloupe can kill you. A bacteria called listeria contaminated cantaloupes in Colorado (say that ... More >>

FDA Needs Money to Fight Cantaloupes of Death

That cantaloupe is POISON!​In case you haven't heard, now even cantaloupe can kill you. A bacteria called listeria contaminated cantaloupes in Colorado (say that three times fast), turning the delicious melons into orange orbs of death. The CDC says 13 people have died as a result of what is n ... More >>

Contagion

Steven Soderbergh turns the star-studded Hollywood disaster flick on its head.

What to Feed That Flu

IslesPunkFan​With the temperature climbing steadily toward the hellish heat of Houston summer, I could've sworn I'd escaped the flu season unscathed. If only I was so lucky. I got sick, making it hard to taste anything. And as someone who loves food, this was especially unfortunate. I knew ... More >>

Creepy Crawlies: Medical Conference Looks into Morgellons Disease

Comin' to getcha.​If you're one of the thousands of people, mostly from Texas, who believe weird, freaky fibers are wiggling out from under their skin, then you may want to check out the fourth annual medical conference on Morgellons Disease in Austin April 2. Our sister paper in Dallas wrot ... More >>

Whole Foods Market Putting Salad Bars in Schools

freddy​According to a 2009 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 1 percent of adolescents ate as many servings of fruit and vegetables as recommended by the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It sounds shocking, but then again, I'm fairly certain I could stand to ea ... More >>

Texas Lousy at Reporting Food Poisoning, Study Says

You'll never know what gets you in Texas​If you live in Texas and eat food, you will probably die, or at least become violently ill. That's what we're taking away from a study that gives the Lone Star state an "F" in reporting outbreaks of foodborne illness. The Center for Science in th ... More >>

Texas Lousy at Reporting Food Poisoning, Study Says

You'll never know what gets you in TexasBetween tainted peanuts and fatal spinach, we feel like there have been a lot of Texas food scares lately. But it's the stuff we don't hear about that gave Texas a failing grade in a new study of how states report icky food outbreaks. If you live in Texas an ... More >>

What's So Damn Controversial About Cleaner, Safer Food?

​The plant was filthy and infested with vermin, with holes as large as 2 ½ feet in the ceilings leaking water and runoff from the air conditioner units onto the finished product stored below. Records posted on the web by attorney Bill Marler show that executives at Peanut Corporation of Ameri ... More >>

Texas Pathetic In Fighting Kids Smoking, Report Says

The kidz and their tobacco​Texas is set to get $1.8 billion this year from the huge tobacco-litigation settlement of a decade ago, but it will spend just 0.6 percent of that on preventing kids from smoking, a report from a coalition of health groups said today. The state spends $11.4 million ... More >>

Who Knew There Are So Many Songs About Rabies?

Centers for Disease Control Library​Monday night, as the crickets sang sweet songs into the early fall air, Rocks Off hung a wreath made of rubber bats on our door, and wrapped up copies of Old Yeller and Cujo to surprise our young daughter with when she awoke the next morning. Ahhh, is there ... More >>

Texas Is Not Obese!! Go Ahead, Eat That Cheese Enchilada!!

Illustration via Centers for Disease Control & Prevention​We are celebrating tonight in Texas. Everyone around us -- except New Mexico, and who counts New Mexico? -- is fatter than a heifer convention, while we here in the Lone Star State are svelte, health-conscious model types. In fact, you ... More >>

Dressing Right and Standing Tall?

Rice Graduate Among Those Affected By Haitian Hotel Collapse

​The tragedy in Haiti is hitting home pretty hard for some Rice people.Alumna Diane (Berry) Caves, class of 2000, was in Port-Au-Prince, at the Hotel Montana, which was heavily damaged. She has not been heard from since.Caves was in Haiti on an assignment for the Centers for Disease Control and Pr ... More >>

Asian Lust, Roofers and Weight Control

Obama's Screwing Texas Out Of Swine Flu Vaccine!!!! Or Maybe Not

​Is Obama trying to kill Texans as revenge for not voting for him?Quite possibly, if you believe a list of swine-flu vaccine information getting e-mailed around. (And yeah, we're calling it swine flu, you H1N1 snobs.)What's being e-mailed is a list of vaccine doses shipped, broken down by state. C ... More >>

Marriage and...what else? Illegal Immigration...again!

Cure For Swine Flu Is Here!!!

Photo by Margaret DowningWell, maybe the cure for swine flu is here.Note to self: The BBQ fund-raisers at Stafford's Calvary Church are probably not worth the drive. On the other hand, someone definitely should tell the Centers for Disease Control about this.

Songs To Fight Swine Flu By

Working overtime to give natural selection the finger, a former member of the Texas medical Association's Committee on Infectious Diseases has issued a press release telling people how to wash their hands.        "I'm not just talking about running your hands under the ... More >>

Swine Flu FAQs: The Answers You Need...And The Answers You Deserve

Unlike in 1918, when the flu really bitch-slapped humanity, leading medical experts have the ability to immediately update us with information on how to stay safe, and how to separate myth from fact. For example: By now, unless you're a vapid hotel-fortune heiress who answers the cell phone during s ... More >>

Fighting Cancer

Who says Texas isn't battling cigs?

How Could Anyone Criticize Texas' Anti-Smoking Campaign?

Here’s yet another list that Texas finds itself at the bottom of: the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ report of how states have been spending (or not spending) the money they’ve been receiving from the landmark 1998 multi-billion dollar settlement with Big Tobacco. Texas comes in at 46, s ... More >>

No Germ Lab for You

Texans Get Dissed

Aggies Dissed, Miss Out On Getting A Dangerous New Lab

There's a Morning-After Drug to Prevent HIV Infection

The treatment is called post-exposure prophylaxis. So why do so few medical groups in Houston know about it?

Fighting for Air: Drowning and the Heimlich Maneuver

Most doctors say the Heimlich maneuver should not be used to save drowning victims. So why does UH professor John Hunsucker continue to teach it to lifeguards?

Steven Hotze and William Rea, Sitting in a Tree…

Penal Violations

Texas prisons say they can’t allow condoms because they don’t allow sex. So they don’t need condoms. They just need $12 million a year to treat all the HIV-positive prisoners.

Monkey Business

Primates -- destined for laboratory research -- are being brought into a compound in Houston so carefully and quietly that no one knows they're here

Brotherly Love

Author J.L. King exposes men On the Down Low

Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

All Duct Up

From leftist camps and corporate security to semi-panic and port patrols, Houstonians tackle terrorism threats. Sort of.

Med Check

Texas can't decide whether to pay for drug-resistance tests that could prolong the lives of those with HIV. For John Termine, it's already too late.

Buyers' Remorse

The Cohns say their builder ripped them off with a poorly built home that became infested with mold. They've joined other Texas homeowners who want a lemon law passed just for houses.

Keep On Shuckin'

Live dangerously with the Double Dumbass Combo at Gilhooley's Raw Bar

Drug Resistant

Harris County jailers are in no hurry to hand out meds to inmates with AIDS. Inmates claim this and other lockup practices endanger their lives.

Going to the Dogs

Advocates are working to unleash a plan for a public park where pooches can play

Letters

From the week of February 03, 2000

Dealing with Adversity

Immune to Reason

Hundreds of thousands of Texas children, including 250,000 newborn babies, are routinely vaccinated against hepatits B each year. Why? Good question.

"A Flaky Deal"

To snare a federal grant, the city of Houston overstated the extent of lead poisoning among children in poor neighborhoods. But now that it's got the money, the city can't figure out how to help those who need it most

Homeboy

Stephen Fairfield's restless spiritual journey brought him to the Fifth Ward, where he found true deliverance while helping to rebuild the neighborhoods