At least 59 overdoses were prevented in the first three weeks that two overdose prevention centers have been open in New York City, the city's health department said Tuesday.

During that time, there were more than 2,000 visits to the centers that are operated by OnPoint NYC and are the first publicly recognized overdose prevention sites to open in the United States. The city first

COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death for Americans and has shortened life expectancy by nearly two years, a drop not seen since World War II, a new government report shows.

Life expectancy dropped from 78.8 in 2010 to 77 in 2020 as the age-adjusted death rate increased 17%, going from 715 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019 to 835 deaths per 100,000 in 2020, researchers from th...

The COVID-19 death toll in the United States reached 800,000 on Monday, and one expert believes it will likely hit 1 million at some point in 2022.

The 800,156 confirmed deaths in the nearly two years since the first known U.S. victims of the coronavirus were confirmed in February 2020 is more than any other nation in the world, and a larger number than the population of Boston, Washingto...

Booster doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine set recipients up to effectively withstand the ravages of both the Delta and Omicron variants, a group of new studies suggest.

Boosted folks are 90% less likely to die from a Delta infection than people relying solely on the initial two-dose vaccination, Israeli data show.

That protection will be critically important during the next coup...

In a sign that the expansion of Medicaid has really worked, new research finds that death rates have declined in states that expanded the public health insurance program.

Medicaid expansion began in 2014 as part of the Affordable Care Act (also known as "Obamacare") and has provided health coverage for an additional 12 million Americans. Expansion is optional, and nearly one-quarter of st...

The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 5 million on Monday, and the more than 740,000 lives lost in the United States is the most of any nation, Johns Hopkins University data show.

"This is a defining moment in our lifetime," Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health, told the Associated Press. "What do we have to do to protect ...

Coronavirus cases have plunged by 60% since mid-September's Delta-driven peak, U.S. health officials said earlier this week. But with winter on the way, they warned that Americans still need to protect themselves and others against COVID-19.

"We are now heading in the right direction ... but with cases still high, we must remain vigilant heading into the colder, drier winter months," Dr. ...

The number of Americans who are dying from Parkinson's disease has jumped by 63% in the past two decades, new research shows.

The fresh analysis also revealed that men face double the risk of dying from the progressive and incurable disease than women. A notably higher death rate was also seen among white people, as compared with peers of other racial/ethnic backgrounds.

"The messa...

The number of U.S. meatpacking workers who were infected during the COVID-19 pandemic is nearly three times higher than previously thought, a U.S. House report shows.

It said at least 59,000 workers caught the disease and 269 died as the pandemic raged through the industry last year, and added that companies could have done more to protect their employees, the Associated Press re...

Younger patients with advanced colon cancer don't live longer than older patients, but it's unclear why, researchers say.

The authors of the new study said they were surprised by the findings, which come as colon cancer rates are on the rise among young Americans.

"As a group, younger patients are more physically active and have higher performance status and are better able to perfo...

The Pfizer and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines reduce the risk of death from the Delta variant by 90%, a new U.K. study finds.

The Delta variant is now the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States, the United Kingdom and many other countries.

The study collected data from 5.4 million people in Scotland between April 1 and Sept. 27, 2021, is the first country-wide asses...

U.S. cancer patients in poor and rural areas are more likely to die by suicide than those in affluent, urban areas, a new study finds.

"People who have received a cancer diagnosis are faced with a number of challenges, such as accessing reliable and affordable care, that can add to existing anxiety or depression associated with their illness," said lead author Ryan Suk. "But those who liv...

Colin Powell, the first Black person to become Secretary of State, and a statesman who helped shape U.S. foreign policy for decades, died Monday of complications from COVID-19. He was 84.

"General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from COVID-19," the Powell family wrote in a Facebook

Adult staff in schools are more likely than students to suffer sudden cardiac arrest, but automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are often used and improve the chances of survival, a new study finds.

AEDs are portable devices that deliver an electric shock to try and restart the heart. If appropriate action isn't taken immediately, cardiac arrest is often fatal.

"Most research on ...

It is an excruciating statistic: One in every four COVID-19 deaths in the United States leaves a child without a parent or other caregiver, researchers report.

The analysis of data shows that from April 2020 to July 2021, more than 120,000 children under the age of 18 lost a primary caregiver (a parent or grandparent who provided housing, basic needs and care), and about 22,000 lost a sec...

The rate at which homicide is taking the lives of Americans jumped by 30% over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic -- the largest year-to-year increase ever, new federal government figures show.

The rate jumped from 6 homicides per 100,000 people in 2019 to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2020, according to provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center...

Child abuse and neglect can do significant and long-lasting damage, according to a six-decade review of British data.

The analysis of records dating to the late 1950s found that children who experienced physical or sexual abuse were more likely to die early as adults.

"Our work shows the long-lasting consequences that specific types of child abuse and neglect can have. The findings ...

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has hit minority groups in the United States hard, with significantly more deaths among Black and Hispanic Americans compared with white and Asian Americans, a new study finds.

According to the report, these disparities highlight the need to address ongoing inequities influencing health and longevity in the United States.

What's more, "focusing on CO...

The United States has now surpassed 700,000 coronavirus deaths, as the highly contagious Delta variant continues to hold the country in its grip.

America continues to have more COVID-19 deaths than any other the country in the world, followed by Brazil with more than 597,000 deaths, and India with more than 448,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins