MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico began shutting down all non-essential work and services on Thursday to slow the spread of a new flu strain as officials urged increased worldwide precautions against an imminent pandemic.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - When millions of people started dying around the world in 1918, doctors and scientists hadn’t a clue what was happening. As the epidemic spread, people blamed it on everything from tiny plants to old dusty books.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new virus that has killed as many as 177 people and spread globally is a mongrel that appears to have mixed with another hybrid virus containing swine, bird and human bits, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. schools with vending machines that sell candy and soda to students could soon find the government requiring healthier options to combat childhood obesity under a bill introduced on Thursday by two senators.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Electronic health records need a nudge from the government if the technology is to become widespread, the nation’s new health information technology czar said on Thursday.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A new swine flu virus that has killed 149 people in Mexico was found further around the world on Tuesday and the specter of a pandemic began to hit air travel.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Tuesday the current outbreak of swine flu could lead to only a mild pandemic but warned the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed tens of millions, started that way.

LONDON/ZURICH (Reuters) - Drugmakers said on Sunday they could supply millions of doses of medicine and were ready to work on a vaccine against a new type of swine flu that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the United States.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hundreds of thousands of deaths every year in the US could be prevented by tackling just a few risk factors, according to a new study out today in the journal PLoS Medicine.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Over-the-counter pain relievers such as Tylenol and Advil will carry new, bolder warnings about the risk of liver damage or stomach bleeding, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday.