Articles by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

Daniel Williams decided he’d listen to his girlfriend and his 8-year-old son and finally quit smoking, with the help of a new prescription drug called Chantix.He started taking the medication, and a couple of nights later, as he was driving his pickup truck on a country road in Louisiana, Williams suddenly swerved left.His girlfriend, Melinda Lofton, who was with him, later told him that his eyes had rolled back in his head and that it had seemed as if he was frozen at the wheel, accelerati Read more

Two major government health agencies that have traditionally operated as self-contained bureaucratic fiefdoms announced a joint venture Thursday that promises to improve prescription drug safety for all Americans, while potentially reducing wasteful spending on medications.The Food and Drug Administration and Medicare agreed on rules for using information from Medicare’s giant claims databases to create a computerized early-warning network for problems with medications and medical devices that com Read more

washington – The Federal Aviation Administration today banned pilots and air traffic controllers from using a popular new anti-smoking drug after a medical safety group warned that the medication had apparently contributed to auto accidents and other mishaps that posed risks to both users and others. Read more

washington – Although Democrats are still tangled in a fractious presidential primary, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would probably beat presumptive GOP nominee John McCain if the election were held now, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released today. Read more

If John McCain becomes president, Americans would be steered toward buying individual health insurance policies, and job-related coverage eventually could decline. Read more

Some people marry for love, some for companionship, and others for status or money. Read more

The Senate unanimously passed landmark legislation today that would outlaw discrimination by health insurance companies and employers because a person’s genes raise their risk of breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease or any ailment that has a hereditary component. Read more

A contaminated blood thinner from China suspected in dozens of U.S. deaths has become a worldwide public health problem, with 10 other countries detecting the often-toxic ingredient, federal investigators said Monday. Read more

Although President Bush has repeatedly called for helping consumers make better decisions about healthcare, his administration is appealing a groundbreaking court ruling that would have permitted disclosure of Medicare billing records so patients could compare individual doctors’ expertise and efficiency. Read more