Vaccines: In California, "Personal Belief Exemptions" Have Tripled in Decade

Vaccines: "Personal belief exemptions" allowing California parents to avoid immunizing their children have tripled in the past decade, and in Santa Cruz county, nearly 17 percent of incoming kindergartners are covered by them, Jocelyn Wiener reports for the CHCF Center for Health Reporting/Santa Cruz Sentinel

Bird Flu/H5N1: Remember bird flu? It's quietly re-emerging in Asia, where one strain of the H5N1 virus appears resistant to existing vaccines, Scott Hensley reports for NPR's Shots Blog.  

Health Workforce: A looming doctor shortage, particularly for primary care physicians, could spell serious trouble for American health care as the U.S. population ages, Ellen Kleinerman reports for the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.

Medicare: In Alaska, a new clinic hopes to survive financially by only serving the Medicare patients many doctors now shun because of low government reimbursements, Rosemary Shinohara reports for the Anchorage Daily Sun.

Women's Health: The widely reported risks of long-term hormone replacement therapy have lead to millions of women stopping the drugs that can ease menopause symptoms. But researchers have linked stopping HRT to a higher risk of bone fractures in older women, Megan Brooks reports for Reuters Health.  

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