Health

To heal America’s ills, outgoing surgeon general offers ‘parting prescription’: more community | CNN As US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy nears the end of his second term as the nation’s doctor, a final diagnosis of his patient suggests that a great deficiency of connectivity has led to a poor prognosis for America’s overall health and well-being. Deidre McPhillips CNN

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Flu emergency room visits now "very high" nationwide, CDC says Several Western states are seeing rates worse than last year's peak of flu season. CBS News

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Some of the highest levels of influenza are now in Western states, several of which have already topped the peaks recorded during the worst of last winter's flu season.

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Bird flu warning over new virus risk: "significant public health concern" Public health officials have warned that new mutations of bird flu with human flu could have dangerous consequences. Newsweek

Combined infection with bird flu and human flu could lead to mutations of new viruses that could have dangerous public health consequences, agencies have warned.

This is following the news that mutations of bird flu have occurred within a Louisiana patient and a teenager from Canada who both suffered with severe symptoms, potentially raising the risk of serious human infection among others.