In an effort to contain widespread outbreaks of whooping cough, or pertussis, the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Wednesday to recommend that women receive a dose of the Tdap (Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis) vaccine every time they are pregnant.  The new guideline replaces a June 2011 recommendation that pregnant women get a one-time Tdap immunization if they had not previously received the vaccine.

"Every time you're pregnant, you should be vaccinated against whooping cough -- not just to protect yourself, but to protect...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that a 24th person had died of fungal meningitis after receiving contaminated steroid injections.  The latest victim had received an injection to treat back pain in Indiana, according to reports.

In all, the CDC said it had confirmed cases of fungal infection in 317 people, and meningitis in 54. All but two of the meningitis cases were sickened by infection with Exserohilum rostratum-- a type of fungus that has been detected in unopened vials of steroids recovered from the New England Compounding Center, the Framingham,...

The American Academy of Pediatrics wades into the organic food confusion with a paper out Monday to try to guide doctors in their discussions with families about what to eat.

It turns out, no surprise, to be an on-the-one-hand this, on-the-other-hand that discussion, with the first point of advice to pediatricians being to encourage patients and their families to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains and low- or non-fat dairy products.

The paper in the journal Pediatrics, a composite of studies on organically and conventionally produced food, suggests that doctors...

Think bullying doesn't hurt? A new study suggests otherwise, finding that a youth aged 10 to 17 who reports that he or she has been victimized by peers in the past year is nearly 2 1/2 times likelier to have suicidal thoughts than an adolescent who reports no recent victimization.

If you add the experience of sexual assault or parental maltreatment to peer victimization, a child's likelihood of pondering suicide is 3.4 times and 4.4 times as high, respectively, as that of a child with no such recent history.

Those findings were presented online first Monday in the Archives of Pediatric and...

Laryngitis might once have been the worst injury a cheerleader faced. But cheerleading has become a full-on competitive sport of its own, with injuries to match.

The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday issued a policy statement to try to ensure that participants – 3.6 million kids ages 6 and older -- get the same care as quarterbacks and pitchers.

“Cheerleading has become extremely competitive in the past few years, incorporating more complex skills than ever before,” said Cynthia LaBella, a pediatric sports medicine specialist and member of the academy’s council on...

Abortion rights were back in the news Friday, even as President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stepped up their efforts to win the women’s vote.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who is facing a tough race to retain his seat in Congress, told reporters Thursday that he was opposed to abortion under any circumstances — and that thanks to medical progress, “you can’t find one instance” when it might be necessary to perform an abortion to protect a woman’s health.

“There’s no such exception as life of the mother,” Walsh...

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has determined that the freezing and thawing of egg cells is now a proven method for preserving a woman's ability to have children, removing the technique's "experimental" label in a report released this week.

The report, which is a review of a large number of studies analyzing the success of the procedure and its risks, finds that egg freezing and thawing before fertilization works just as well as the fresh eggs commonly used in in vitro fertilization.

What's more, a review of more than 900 births from frozen eggs found no increased risk of birth...

As a role model, Santa’s got some health issues. He’s overweight, and he zooms around the world in terrible weather and drops down soot-filled chimneys. But worst of all in the mind of anti-smoking crusader Pamela McColl is that “stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth.”

“I just really don’t think Santa should be smoking in the 21stcentury,” McColl said by telephone. And she did something about it – published a version of the beloved poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” with the smoking references – including illustrations –...

The number of deaths linked to a rare fungal meningitis outbreak rose to 20 on Thursday as health officials announced new evidence tying the illnesses to tainted steroid medication.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, scientists have confirmed the presence of a fungus known as Exserohilum rostratum in unopened vials of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate that were packaged by New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

The vials belonged to one of three lots of medicine that NECC had produced. The company has since...

In June, a formerly healthy 60-year-old man was admitted to a hospital in Jidda, Saudi Arabia.  He had been sick with a fever, cough and shortness of breath for several days; in the week that followed he developed severe pneumonia and renal failure.  He died 11 days after his admission to the hospital.

In a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers revealed more about the man’s illness, which was caused by a previously unknown coronavirus called HCoV-EMC. 

Researchers isolated the virus from mucus the patient coughed up and they sequenced its genome,...