“Diseases and conditions” on The Daily Caller

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Drug addicts as young as a month old. Mothers who calm their children by blowing opium smoke in their faces. Whole communities hooked on heroin with few opportunities for treatment. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two popular grocery items are being pulled off the shelves — SpaghettiOs that weren’t adequately heated during processing, and Marie Callender frozen dinners that pose a salmonella risk. (more)

CHICAGO (AP) — It’s way too soon to declare success, but an experimental drug for lung cancer patients with a certain gene showed extraordinary promise in early testing, doctors reported at a cancer conference on Saturday. (more)

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Gary Coleman once said he wanted people to think of him as something more than the chubby-cheeked child star from television show “Diff’rent Strokes,” that he wanted to escape the legacy of character Arnold Jackson, whose “Whatchu talkin’ ’bout?” became a catch phrase of the 1970s and ’80s. (more)

GENEVA (AP) — Cell phone users worried about getting brain cancer aren’t off the hook yet. (more)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury in Las Vegas ordered two drug companies to pay a combined $500 million in punitive damages in the first of hundreds of civil cases stemming from a hepatitis C outbreak two years ago. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal investigators are looking at a farm in Yuma, Ariz., as a possible source of a widespread E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce, according to the distributor. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Corey Haim had traces of several prescription and over-the-counter drugs in his system when he died two months ago, but that’s not what killed him, the Los Angeles County coroner concluded. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — The big white pill was brought to her in an earthenware chalice. She’d already held hands with her two therapists and expressed her wishes for what it would help her do. (more)

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian health officials are reporting the first swine flu-related death in the West African country. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just as millions head to tanning beds to prepare for spring break, the Food and Drug Administration will be debating how to toughen warnings that those sunlamps pose a cancer risk. (more)

CHICAGO (AP) — An influential advisory panel says school-aged youngsters and teens should be screened for obesity and sent to intensive behavior treatment if they need to lose weight — a move that could transform how doctors deal with overweight children. (more)

LITHONIA, Ga. (AP) — Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson says he will run for re-election even though he is still being treated for hepatitis C. (more)

DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit woman who claimed in a video posted online that she infected more than 500 people with HIV has admitted it was a hoax, police said Friday. (more)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — British Columbia’s top court on Friday rejected an attempt by the Canadian government to close North America’s first safe injection site for drug users. (more)

ATLANTA (AP) — A new government estimate says swine flu has sickened about 55 million Americans and killed about 11,160. (more)

PLUM ISLAND, N.Y. (AP) — A human body has washed ashore on suburban New York’s tiny Plum Island, where the U.S. government has an aging lab for studying dangerous animal diseases. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers should not use certain beef dog treats distributed by Merrick Pet Care because the pet food might be contaminated with salmonella, health authorities warned on Thursday. (more)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — In a story Jan. 11 about Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its hepatitis C drug, The Associated Press misstated when the company will seek regulatory approval for the drug. Approval will be requested in the second half of 2010, not 2009. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Dexter” star Michael C. Hall says he was diagnosed with cancer and is on the road to the successful completion of treatment. In a statement Wednesday, Hall said he was fortunate to be diagnosed with a “treatable and curable condition,” Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and thanked his doctors and nurses for their expertise. (more)