Child mortality worldwide has fallen 41 percent since 1990, the result of myriad improvements in nutrition, access to vaccines and antibiotics, cleaner deliveries, better care of infants immediately after birth, and the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets," according to "the findings of a report released Wednesday by three United Nations agencies and the World Bank," the Washington Post reports (Brown, 9/12).

American children with food allergies should be receiving better care, including diagnostic testing and attention to severe allergic reaction symptoms, according to a study conducted by researchers at Northwestern Medicine.

Having type 2 diabetes appears to give post-menopausal women a 27% higher risk of developing breast cancer, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Cancer this week.

“When I get up from the chair 10 times more bacterial cells than human ones stand up with me” says Dr Bruce Birren, who participates in creating one of the most accurate maps of microbes that live in and on us.