Bird Flu

Is there a Bird Flu outbreak? And what to do?

Rough Flu Season Ahead

It's already bad in some places and it looks like it will get worse.

Health officials on Monday said suspected flu cases have jumped in five Southern states, and the primary strain circulating tends to make people sicker than other types. It is particularly hard on the elderly.

Meningitis Outbreak Continues

U.S health officials are still investigating an outbreak of a rare fungal meningitis that so far has killed at least 14 people and sickened more than 170 over the past two weeks. Investigators suspect the outbreak was caused by a batch of contaminated steroid injections given to more than 13000 people across the country to relieve chronic back or joint pain. The shots, produced by a small Massachusetts drug company known as a "compounding pharmacy" have all been recalled, and the firm's operations halted. But the outbreak has focused renewed attention on the expanding role of such pharmacies in the U.S. and other countries, and prompted calls for stricter regulation.

Tornado Activity Hits OK, KS, IA

Saturday, twisters hit the middle part of the country.  The storms and warnings lasted for hours on end.

The states of Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa appear to be some of the hardest hit.

The video above films twisters in close proximity.

The video opens up of multi-vortex tornado crossing I-70 east of Salina. Various shots of the tornado up close as it moves in the field within a quarter mile of the chasers with amazing backlighting and flying debris. Shots of tornado roping out east of Manchester.

Video includes a couple shots of the Langley wedge tornado showing violent motions and horizontal vorticies

13 Dead in Listeria Outbreak

The CDC says that at east 72 people have been sickened and 13 have died as a result of eating cantaloupes tainted with listeria bacteria, making it the deadliest outbreak of food-borne illness in the U.S. in a decade.

State officials say they are investigating three more deaths -- one each in New Mexico, Kansas, and Wyoming -- that may also be connected to the contaminated Colorado cantaloupes.

The new numbers mean that the death toll has outpaced the number of deaths tied to an outbreak of salmonella in peanut products nearly three years ago. Nine people died in that outbreak.

Listeriosis, the illness caused by listeria bacteria, typically strikes vulnerable people, like the elderly, pregnant women, and those with weakened immune systems.

Infection from listeria bacteria starts in the stomach and intestines where it may cause diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms. If it spreads beyond the gut, listeriosis causes flu-like symptoms and worse.