THURSDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Some parents' refusal to vaccinate children seems to be behind the highest rate of measles cases reported since 1996, federal officials said Thursday.

Between Jan. 1 and July 31 of this year, 131 measles cases have been reported in the United States, many of them among children whose parents have philosophical or religious objections to the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 15 patients, including four children 15 months or younger, were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

THURSDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- In the past 17 years, there has been an overall decrease in risky sexual behaviors among U.S. teens, a new government study shows.

The rates of having sexual intercourse or multiple sex partners have been dropping, while the use of condoms has been increasing, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

MONDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) -- The number of Americans admitted to hospitals for heart failure has jumped in recent years, and the trend almost certainly will continue, government experts report.

"Our study covers more than two decades, from 1979 to 2004, and the number of hospitalizations almost tripled during that time," said Dr. Jing Fang, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lead author of the report in the Aug. 5 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

(HealthDay News) -- The number of people sickened in the ongoing salmonella outbreak has now surpassed 1,000, and while certain types of tomatoes remain the suspected cause, U.S. health officials on Wednesday added hot peppers and cilantro as potential suspects.

"We continue to get new reported cases every day," Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the division of foodborne, bacterial and mycotic diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a late afternoon teleconference. "This is the largest foodborne outbreak in the United States."

By Serena Gordon
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) -- A sweeping government study of childhood cancers has found numerous differences in cancer types depending on a child's age, sex, race and where he or she lives in the United States.

White children had the highest incidence of all cancers, the researchers found, and youngsters in the Northeast were diagnosed with cancer more often than children in other parts of the country.

WEDNESDAY, May 28 (HealthDay News) -- Premature births of single babies in the United States have been on the rise in recent years, and a new report finds that Caesarean sections account for nearly all of the increase.

THURSDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) -- There was an unusually large number of severe coxsackievirus infections in infants in the United States in 2007, leading to the deaths of at least five babies, federal officials reported Thursday.

The five deaths mark the first time such an infection turned out to be fatal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Associated Press reported. Coxsackievirus B1 (CVB1) is a form of enterovirus, which usually causes mild disease but can cause severe illness in newborns.