Health News

(NEW YORK) -- Women are stocking up on birth control and asking for long-term contraception methods following President Donald Trump being elected to a second term last week, doctors say.Searches for "birth control" and "Plan B" doubled between Nov. 2 and the two days after the election, with a notable spike the day after the election, Google Search data shows.Doctors told ABC News that patients are worried that access to […]

(ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.) -- Residents of St. Petersburg -- on Florida's central-west coast -- were temporarily left without clean drinking water after a water main break occurred during Hurricane Milton.City officials said the break caused them to shut off potable water services at 12 a.m. ET on Thursday until repairs could be made."Residents and businesses should prepare for this temporary shutdown, which is expected to last until the necessary repairs […]

(NEW YORK) -- Infant mortality rates remained relatively unchanged from 2022 to 2023, but racial and ethnic disparities still persist, new provisional federal data released early Thursday finds.The U.S. provisional infant mortality rate in 2023 was 5.61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, unchanged from the 2022 rate, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).The report also found that […]

(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the first over-the-counter combination COVID-19 and flu test outside of emergency use on Monday evening.This means the Healgen Rapid Check COVID-19/Flu A&B Antigen Test is available without a prescription. The FDA said the test is for those who are experiencing respiratory symptoms.While there are other over-the-counter combination tests currently available, this is the first to be marketed to consumers using the […]

The election of former President Donald Trump to a second term has put a spotlight on what his return to the White House may look like, particularly when it comes to women's health.Online searches for topics related to women's health have spiked since the Nov. 5 election, particularly when it comes to birth control, Google data shows.Searches for IUDs, birth control pills, and Plan B are trending higher than they have since June 2022, when […]

Jason Marz/Getty Images (ATLANTA) -- The Georgia state Supreme Court reinstated the state's six-week abortion ban on Monday after a lower court allowed abortions to resume in the state.The ruling goes into effect at 5 p.m. ET and will remain in place while the court hears the state's appeal, which was filed by Christopher Carr, the state's Republican attorney general.Justice John J. Ellington dissented in part, arguing against the ban […]

(NEW YORK) -- A new study is highlighting a dramatic rise in caffeine-related emergency room visits among kids.The study, released Monday by Epic Research, found the number of caffeine-related ER visits for middle school-aged children nearly doubled from 2017 to 2023, rising from 3.1 per 100,000 visits in 2017 to 6.5 per 100,000 visits in 2023.For high school-aged children, the rate nearly doubled, rising from 7.5 per 100,000 visits in […]

(NEW YORK) -- Dr. Lisa Newman, the chief of the section of breast surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, sat down with ABC News to discuss breast cancer prevention, early screenings and diagnosis discrepancies.A new American Cancer Society report, released in October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, finds that breast cancer mortality rates overall have dropped by 44% since 1989, averting about 517,900 breast cancer deaths. However, not […]

(WASHINGTON) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is updating its recommendations for testing, treatment and protection for workers who may be exposed to animals infected with bird flu.The update comes after the agency found evidence of dairy workers with positive antibodies, suggesting more bird flu infections that previously reported, according to a new report released Thursday afternoon.Serologic testing, which looks at antibodies in the blood, found that […]