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Health Officials have debunked the belief among many people that Oklahoma’s first two cases of West Nile virus for the year was related to bites from mosquitoes that thrive in floodwater. The state has witnessed massive floodwaters over the past month, but the mosquitoes that start rapidly multiplying because of extra moisture do not carry the disease, said the health officials.

In a major breakthrough, vessels have been identified that directly connect the brain with the immune system. The finding could help in further research and in finding treatment for neurological diseases.

Study’s lead researcher Dr. Jonathan Kipnis of the University of Virginia's Center for Brain Immunology and Glia said when the discovery of vessels was made they were completely surprised. It is so because as per textbooks these vessels do not exist.

The new study published in journal Nature has come up with a model of the lymphatic system that includes brain. The study researchers affirmed that the lymphatic system is not part of the immune system.

On Friday, Utah Health officials announced that meals prepared at a soup kitchen were found to be having staph bacteria. Last week, the meals have caused food poisoning to more than 50 people living at a Salt Lake City homeless shelter.

The department officials have carried out research. As per this, the bacteria can be found on skin and it might have introduced to food when prepared with hands not covered with gloves and not heated or cooled properly.

Nicholas Rupp, a spokesman for the health department, said that for now, they do not have complete information on what was served to homeless people on Sunday and also, how the food was cooked. Rupp said that staph bacteria should not be mixed with drug-resistant staph bacteria found in hospital. The latter one is quite dangerous.

Though many must be claiming of benefits of eating placenta after the baby is born, a new research has not found any evidence supporting the claim.

Psychiatrist Dr. Crystal Clark started the research on the topic after pregnant and postpartum women her practice started to ask about it. Clark and her colleagues wanted to know about the risks and benefits.

In order to know the same, they assessed four human and six animal studies on placenta consumption. “Women should know that no matter what they see on TV or even what some of the claims are …currently we have no evidence based on animal or human data that is consistent with these [beneficial] claims”, affirmed Clark.

A private laboratory in Miami has linked a strain of listeria to the Blue Bell Creameries plant in Alabama. Kappa Laboratories of Miami tested half-gallon of Blue Bell Cookies 'N Cream sent by wife of 75-year-old husband Brent McRae after he fell ill with meningitis. He was admitted to a South Florida hospital in April.

The container tested positive for listeria. A product code on the bottom of the carton indicated it was manufactured in Alabama. The report from that laboratory was shared by Marlerwith the Associated Press.

As soon as the company's ice cream was linked to 10 listeria illnesses in four states, and three deaths in Kansas, Blue Bell issued a national recall. Listeria contaminated products have been found at the company's Texas and Oklahoma plants.

A nine-way kidney swap, considered to be the longest kidney transplant chain, was performed in San Francisco on Friday.

The doctors from California Pacific Medical Center and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) performed 18 surgeries with nine donors and nine recipients between the two hospitals in 36 hours.

Two kidneys were sent from California Pacific to UCSF via a special organ transport service and two kidneys were sent from UCSF to California Pacific for a total of four, 3-mile trips On Friday. Two trips were made Thursday.

Noel Sanchez, spokesman for Donor Network West, said everything went as planned and their team is just getting to transport the very last one.