British hospitals are under attack from a variety of pests, according to reports obtained under U. K. 's Freedom of Information Act. From January 2006 to March 2008, almost 20,000 incidents of infestations were reported by the National Health System. They included sightings of rats, mice, fleas, bedbugs, ants and cockroaches.

For the first time, Britain has allowed an oral antibiotic used to treat chlamydia to be sold without prescription, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said on Wednesday. People over 16 will be able to buy the azithromycin pill Clamelle, manufactured by Icelandic drugmaker Actavis, after testing positive for the infection. The drug will also be made available over-the-counter (OTC) for their sexual partners. The new regulation will come into effect later this year.

A California Department of Public Health report released Monday said 127 UCLA Medical Center workers went through the medical files of celebrities from January 2004 to June 2006. Despite a crackdown in April the report said three hospital staff members continued to look at the records of an unidentified celebrity, the report said. State regulators blamed UCLA management of UCLA for not implementing proper measures to stop the practice and keep medical records confidential.

In a first of its kind move, the Los Angeles city council on Tuesday approved a one-year ban on new fast-food outlets in a low-income neighborhood with a high incidence of obesity and diabetes. The moratorium aims to attract restaurants in the 32-square mile area of South Los Angeles to offer healthier food choices. The ban covers the 500,000 people living in the area, residents of which are mainly Latinos and African-Americans.

A 15-year-old boy doing a paving job here Friday after accidentally being buried by hot asphalt that suddenly unloaded from a truck. Co-workers failed to dig the boy's body out of the heated asphalt and burned their hands in the process. Firefighters who came to the scene on Quarry Road took 14 minutes to recover the dead boy.