Time to break out the subway condoms! The Health Department reported yesterday that "more than a fourth of adult New Yorkers are infected with Herpes Simplex Virus-2, the virus that causes genital herpes." For contrast, the national average for genital herpes infection is 19%. The virus has no cure, lasts forever, and those infected are more susceptible to the HIV virus. The Health Department also finds "among New Yorkers, the rate is higher among women......

Is Luna Lounge the latest casualty of the Department of Health? Eater reports that the venue "was shuttered on Friday and has yet to re-open." Recently another Williamsburg fixture, Sound Fix, was forced to close its doors after being harassed by the DoH -- they told us the irony of being "shut down for not having a food permit - and WE DON'T SELL FOOD! Ice is considered food in the health dept's eyes, I......

Manhattan may be more expensive to live in, but, hey, apparently Manhattan residents are less fat and more in shape than folks in other boroughs. The other week, the city's Health Department released a survey that showed New Yorkers were gaining weight at a rate nearly three times that of other Americans, packing on a total of 10 million pounds between 2002 and 2004, becoming more obese and more diagnosed with diabetes. The Times explains......

Earlier this week, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new plan to put health information of millions of New Yorkers online. He touted the initiative, "By bringing this health technology to New Yorkers, we are building a national model for a health care system that works... In Washington, they talk about how our health care system should be reformed; here in New York City, we are actually doing it." Using $60 million of city, state, and federal......

The New York Sun is reporting that the operator of the midtown Japanese restaurant Naniwa has been arrested for trying to bribe a city health inspector in order to avoid a summons. Kazuo Mitsuya allegedly tried to slip the inspector $200 to make the restaurant’s violations just go away. Presumably offended by the low sum offered, the inspector got on the horn with the Department of Investigations, who sent in an undercover officer posing as......

As health-code inspections in bars and restaurants continue apace in the wake of The Great Rat Rodeo of Aught Seven, strange, unheard of violations are coming to light: a bartender at Red Hook’s Moonshine bar was recently cited for “having bare-hand contact with one slice of ready-to-eat lime while placing on top of beer bottle for patron in bar.” In other words, every time you see your bartender poke a wedge of lime into your......