Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

When times get tough, teeth just aren't on the top of the "take care of this now" list. And that's nothing to smile about. About half of Americans lack dental insurance, and 77% of those have postponed seeing a dentist because of the cost -- a choice that can have serious long-term consequences.

Tallying up the flu's effect on our economy is enough to make you sick. Influenza was responsible for 100 million lost work days in 2010, according to a Walgreens study. That's $7 billion in lost wages, and $10 billion in lost productivity. Inspired to get vaccinated this year? We'll point you to the best deal.

Japan's health ministry says it's continuing its suspension of pediatric vaccines made by Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis, despite finding no connection between the vaccines and the deaths of four children. Both drugmakers are cooperating with the government and expect to be cleared.

Diabetes is a growing global scourge, but for Big Pharma it's more of a lifesaver -- and many drugmakers are cranking up their research efforts. After all, many existing drugs will soon be losing their patents, and diabetes could be a $55 billion market by 2019.

The 1998 study linking the MMR vaccine to autism has been utterly debunked. So 13 years later, how many lives have been lost and how much money has been wasted treating the preventable illnesses that fear-mongering led to? Here are some answers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat recalled alfalfa sprouts and a sprout mix from Tiny Greens Organic Farm in Illinois after the products were linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 89 people in 15 states and Washington, D.C. The alfalfa sprouts and...

Reports that a tick-borne disease called human granulocytic anaplasmosis has claimed 18 lives in China's central Henan province is raising concerns. Already found in the U.S., could anaplasmosis become another fairly widespread scourge?

Diabetics who undergo weight-loss surgery have been found to need fewer medications and have lower health-care costs. Around 75 percent of obese patients with Type 2 diabetes were able to stop insulin and other blood-sugar controlling drugs within six months of bariatric surgery, according to a...

Scientists say NDM-1, a new superbug from India that makes bacteria resistant to antibiotics, could spread around the world, aided in part by medical tourism. Meanwhile, MRSA infections, which are antibiotic resistant, have fallen in the U.S.

Drug-resistant bacteria has become a pressing public health problem, exacting a rising human and financial toll. GlaxoSmithKline announced that it has found a compound that could help attack such 'superbugs'.