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February 13, 2013 Contaminated and counterfeit drugs can be more profitable than illegal ones, and they're spreading. This problem is killing people around the world, including in the U.S., and hampering efforts to control diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS.

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February 13, 2013 Images of holey foods, like Swiss cheese, aerated chocolate and lotus pods, are freaking out people on the Internet. Urban Dictionary has even coined a term for it: trypophobia. These photographs may make your skin crawl and stomach churn, but here's why you shouldn't panic.

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February 13, 2013 Until now, a new SARS-like virus showed little signs of being contagious. Only 10 cases have been reported, and all appeared to originate in the Middle East. Health officials now say a British resident likely caught the virus from a family member in the U.K., indicating that the virus can spread between people.

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February 13, 2013 New labels will define serving sizes clearly and state that each serving contains 0.6 ounces of alcohol. The changes come as part of a deal to settle the Federal Trade Commission's claim that Four Loko maker Phusion Projects engaged in deceptive advertising.

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February 13, 2013 Firstborn children are more likely to have higher blood pressure and be more resistant to insulin, researchers in New Zealand say. But despite those worrisome signs, there's no hard evidence linking birth order to diabetes or heart disease risk in adulthood.

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February 12, 2013 Diclofenac — sold under the brand names Voltaren, Cambia, Cataflam and Zipsor — raises the risk of a heart attack by about 40 percent. But that hasn't prevented the drug from becoming the world's most popular painkiller in its class. Now researchers are calling on the World Health Organization to remove it from a list of so-called "essential medicines."

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February 12, 2013 A study of more than 85,000 women in Norway found that those who started taking a folic acid supplement four weeks before getting pregnant were about 40 percent less likely to have a child who developed the disorder. Mothers had to continue taking the supplement during the first eight weeks of pregnancy to get the full benefit.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

February 12, 2013 KHNIn some cases, "observation" may be no more than a billing designation that allows hospitals to move patients out of crowded emergency departments. Hospitals also may use them to avoid potential insurance reimbursement problems.

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February 12, 2013 The world is close to wiping out polio, as the number of new cases is at an all-time low. But recent violence against polio vaccinators threatens to reverse this progress. Recently, gunmen killed nine polio vaccinators in Nigeria, mirroring attacks in Pakistan in December.

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February 11, 2013 When researchers asked hospitals how much a total hip replacement would cost a 62-year-old woman paying cash, a surprising number couldn't or wouldn't say. Health care could learn something from the car industry about working with consumers, critics say.

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February 11, 2013 The rate at which American women are having babies fell again in 2011, continuing a decline that's been under way for years. Births to teenagers hit another low, while births to older women rose slightly.

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February 11, 2013 Whether fighting about texting or curfew, the key to resolving parent-child disputes is by helping them understand why they're angry in the first place. It usually turns out to be another stress like trouble at school or fear of embarrassment.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

February 11, 2013 An attention researcher wanted to find out how radiologists would fare in a version of the famous Invisible Gorilla study. He found that 83 percent of the radiologists failed to spot an image of a gorilla on slides they were told to inspect for cancer. It's just one example of how, when people are asked to perform a challenging task, their attention can narrow and blocks things out.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist