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Since the rollout the rotavirus vaccine for infants in 2006, the spillover benefits to children and adults who weren't immunized have been enormous. Hospitalizations due to the stomach virus have dramatically declined in those populations, too.

Back in 1979, about two-thirds of boys out West got circumcised in the hospital soon after they were born. By 2010, only 40 percent were. Nationwide, rates of circumcision have dropped about 10 percent over the past 30 years.

People with poor oral health are more likely to have an oral infection with human papillomavirus. Even after the researchers factored in risks from smoking and oral sex, poor oral hygiene appeared to be an important factor.

Dermatologists say it's a lot easier to manage the skin cancer risk to young people from indoor tanning than it is to ban the sun. But the indoor tanning industry says doctors should be more focused on skin cancer in older folks.

Fewer than 30,000 cases of the tick-borne illness are reported each year. But the CDC says surveys of labs that test for the disease, six years of insurance claims and other surveillance methods suggest that the number of infections is actually 10 times higher.

The proposed studies would essentially create a recipe for a more contagious bird flu. Some scientists worry these viruses could escape the lab and possibly kill millions. But others think the information gleaned from the experiments is critical for keeping H7N9 from becoming a global threat.

Federal officials say obesity rates among low-income preschoolers are declining in 19 states and U.S. territories. Rates are flat in 20 more states. The findings are cause for optimism, the officials say.

The Food and Drug Administration recently announced a plan to try and prevent American food companies from importing contaminated produce from abroad. The case of the poisoned pomegranates from Turkey shows that our safety systems for imported food, however helpful, are not foolproof.

When an outbreak of pneumonia sickened 83 Georgia Tech students last fall, campus officials blanketed the campus with information about how to stop the infection's spread. Despite the barrage of information, many students surveyed a month later said they never got the word.

Acting altruistically rather than selfishly is what makes quarantines successful in stopping disease outbreaks. But an analysis by scientists at MIT finds that commuting patterns also could play a big role in how infectious diseases spread.