Nobody panic or anything, but the Department of Health says there have been an increase in the number of measles cases in NYC this year, prompting them to send an alert to city doctors. And it's not just happening here: Vermont, Arizona and Utah have also all reported new measles cases this year. So why is it happening, and what can we do to prevent 28 Days Later from coming to be? more ›

As her new album, In Your Dreams, hits stores (with pretty great reviews), Stevie Nicks has canceled a number of appearances in New York this week after coming down with pneumonia and the flu. Nicks was scheduled to perform on the Today Show and Good Day NY today, and also had a much-anticipated concert at Webster Hall tomorrow night. The 62-year-old is following doctor's orders, however, putting a stop to all travel and staying in bed. more ›

Consider your shiny new $104 MetroCard your express pass to... poor health. Yep, it's one more reason to hate the MTA and consider becoming a bike commuter. According to a new British study, public transit riders are six times more likely to suffer from acute respiratory infections. Only take the subway sometimes? Well occasional riders aren't safe either, in fact the study showed they are most at risk. Those who ride public transit everyday may build up an immunity to viruses, making the occasional straphanger the one to get sick more often. more ›

The Department of Investigation began a probe this week into allegations that Sanitation workers purposefully staged a slowdown during the Blizzard clean-up as revenge for department budget cuts. There have already been reports that Sanitation bosses purposefully targeted certain well-heeled neighborhoods, such as Borough Park, to "gin up the p.r. machine," and that Sanitation workers were instructed to use a variety of tactics to stall the clean-up process. And what were some of those tactics? Getting plastered, or calling in "sick." more ›

A CBS News producer happened to be on a flight to Laguardia from Atlanta when an 86-year-old fell ill. Luckily, the plane was apparently chock full of doctors and she was saved by a pair of doctors heading to see the Thanksgiving Day Parade! Neurologist Tom Devlin (who was wearing his scrubs) checked out the lady, who apparently had a seizure, heart attack or stroke, during the Wednesday flight. He said she was “Without a pulse, not breathing, completely comatose in her chair... It was clear this was a potential life and death situation," and consulted with his cardiologist wife, Dr. Carol Gruver who then revived the woman. more ›

Getting sick in cabs, there's really no protocol on how to handle the situation, and in the past it's even led to physical assault. The latest tale of cab sickness has made it to the NY Post, where they report a 6-year-old boy got sick in the back seat of a cab, which he was riding in with his mom Shamie Cuthbert near Lincoln Center on Saturday night. more ›

A 16-year-old hailing from Ontario Canada has been feeling under the weather. Who cares, right? Well you guys, not to cause a panic, but this teenager is none other than Justin Drew Bieber, and this ailment is soclose to ruining tomorrow's concert at Madison Square Garden. more ›

37-year-old John Ray Wilson has multiple sclerosis, and he's found that smoking the leaves of a certain plant helps alleviate his symptoms. So he grew 17 of the plants in the ground on his property. But the government of New Jersey believes that plant is evil and must be driven from the earth, so the Attorney General is trying to send Wilson to prison. For twenty years. The plant, obviously, is marijuana, and America, obviously, is really screwed up. The most serious charge against Wilson is that he was operating a drug production facility, and unfortunately for him, the judge has forbidden his lawyers from making any mention his illness during the trial. more ›

It's common for boring female grownups to dress up as slutty nurses/schoolgirls/nuns or whatever on Halloween, but now pre-teens are mimicking their airhead elders, and there's a whole range of sexually provocative costumes on sale for pre-pubescent girls. The retail chain Party City is well-stocked with everything to make this Halloween a happy one for pedophiles, from a pirate costume for 8-year-olds dubbed the "High Seas Hottie" to a "Devil Grrrl" costume that comes with a red miniskirt, fishnets, a tiny pitchfork, and the sales pitch: "This grrrl devil likes to get things heating up!" It gets creepier... more ›

Summer is here, time for some scaremongering! Newsday delivers the first dose in what is likely a season full of over-the-top warnings. The latest casts a dark shadow on sand, following a study by the Environmental Protection Agency who "found those who dig in the sand have an increased chance of gastrointestinal problems, such as diarrhea, due to fecal matter in the sand." Sand castle builders and those who enjoy getting buried in the sand are at a greater risk (seriously, it says that). Eh, a little gastrointestinal illness isn't a bad trade off for sculpting a sweet sand castle... but don't be fooled, that's not all you'll catch, you can also come down with upper respiratory illnesses, rash, eye ailments, earaches and infected cuts. The paper also injects this floating fact into the article for us locals, "Long Island has several outfall pipes that discharge to water near bathing beaches." Yeah, that's sewage overflow. So enjoy the beach this weekend everyone, and don't forget this year's hottest accessory (pictured). more ›

This afternoon, city officials announced that many more school children may have the swine flu, which has been confirmed in 45 NYC residents (stats from CDC) so far. Beyond St. Francis Prep in Queens where the first cases were reported, Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said that "hundreds of students were ill with symptoms which most likely were swine flu." Children at P.S. 177, a school for autistic children, were being tested (and the school is closed) as were ones at a Catholic school Ascension. From CityRoom:

P.S. 177 is at 56-37 188th Street in Fresh Meadows, in eastern Queens; Ascension is at 220 West 108th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. Several St. Francis students had siblings at P.S. 177, but it was not immediately clear how or whether the Manhattan school was linked to the St. Francis flu outbreak.

CityRoom has details on how two teens— Angelo Monderoy, 18, and Matthew Cooper, 17—now face multiple charges for arson, burglary and animal cruelty for "breaking into a vacant apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and setting a cat on fire" last October. The ASPCA conducted an investigation and, according to the Brooklyn DA's office, "the defendants brought the cat into the apartment, held the cat down and poured charcoal lighter fluid in it. They then set the animal on fire, causing deep wounds and fourth-degree thermal burns." Later, the cat was "found outside crying, unable to move, but still alive"; the cat was taken to a vet and euthanized. The pair face up to 25 years in prison if convicted and Cooper has allegedly broken into the same building before: He and a different cohort were recently "charged with breaking into an apartment and beating the tenant with a cane, while the victim lay in bed, asleep, and then demanding money." Here's more on reporting animal cruelty. more ›

In a world torn by war, with an economy in ruins, it's nice to know we've still got Jeremy Piven's antics to take our minds off things—his abrupt departure from the modestly successful Broadway revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow has outraged the show's producers and cast members.Yesterday Piven's doctor, Carlon Colker, said he ordered Piven to withdraw from the production because of "elevated levels of mercury" in his blood, ostensibly caused by the hard-partying actor's penchant for sushi and Chinese herbs, which can contain heavy metals. more ›

[CASTING UPDATE BELOW] Entourage star Jeremy Piven has gone from calling out sick to simply quitting his current gig on Broadway in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. Mamet tells Variety: "I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he discovered that he had a very high level of mercury. So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer." (Promises, promises.) more ›

According to TMZ, actor Jeremy Piven (Entourage) has missed several recent performances of the Broadway revival of Speed-the-Plow due to an unspecified illness. No one knows what happened! Why, just last Saturday the Grosse Pointe Blank star was angrily stalling the show as audience members straggled in late! Now he'll be missing tonight's performance, too; his rep tells TMZ, "Jeremy has not been feeling well and the doctors have advised him that he should end his run in Speed-the-Plow immediately." But anyone with tickets shouldn't be too upset; the star of this revival is really Raúl Esparza, and the show will go on just fine with him and Elisabeth Moss. The show's publicist confirmed the illness but had no further details, adding only that (for now) the production is still scheduled to run through February 22nd. more ›

Raffaello Follieri, the disgraced Italian investor and ex-boyfriend of actress Anne Hathaway, has agreed to pay back $3.6 million he scammed from investors by boasting of inside connections to the Vatican. His victims include two Catholic priests, one of whom gave Follieri $110,000 from his inheritance to pay nuns supposedly working in Follieri's office. The Post says the priest will get $40,000 back...maybe someday? Follieri is serving a 4 1/2 year prison sentence and is reportedly broke; according to the Daily News he had to sell off two Andy Warhol prints for $21,000 to help pay his legal tab. Of course, Follieri's $13 million worth of fraud seems almost quaint compared to Bernard Madoff's alleged embezzlement, but then again Madoff's shenanigans lack the cachet of Anne Hathaway and priestly vestments. more ›

Lawyers for Raffaello Follieri, the disgraced Italian investor and ex-boyfriend of actress Anne Hathaway, are petitioning a judge to relocate him from his federal jail in Brooklyn because conditions there are so abysmal. In a letter to the judge obtained by the AP, they write: "He is in a windowless dormitory with approximately 120 other men. He says that he cannot eat because the food appears to be spoiled and that the toilet and shower facilities are unspeakably unsanitary. e.g., there is excrement in the shower and rats are roaming freely in the area. He says the stench is intolerable.'' According to lawyers, Follieri has a fever, blood in his urine, intestinal problems and difficulty breathing; he wants to be transferred back to the fancy Manhattan jail where he was held before being sentenced to 4 1/2 years for fraud. more ›

You know, Twittering isn't just good for making sure everyone knows you're watching Mad Men; it's also an effective tool for getting the word out on potential health risks. (You can thank us later, Thursday Style section.) For instance, we know from Sarah Lewitinn's Twitter that you may want to steer clear of a local Mexican franchise: "Got a bean burrito loco from San Loco on Stanton yesterday. It had a weird soapy taste and I got major food poisoning." Reached for comment, the Ultragrrrl elaborated, "I eat at SL all the time as well... but it tasted weird last night and I should've stopped eating. My body is showing signs of the flu but I'm puking so I'm confused." more ›

A Bronx man was arrested after killing his wife's dog. The Post reports Bronx resident Brian McCafferty "staggered home at about 4:45 a.m. after spending most of the night drinking with some friends," which wife Jeanine Tulimero was not happy about. The couple --who were married on September 27--got into a fight and Tulimero left. Then, according to the Daily News, McCafferty "shot the dog once with the air rifle and then used a kitchen knife to fatally stab the animal." When Tulimero came back before 6 a.m., a neighbor heard her yell, "Where's my dog! Where's my dog!" McCafferty, who was treated for a cut to his hand, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, animal cruelty and reckless endangerment. He has been previously arrested for assault (though not an animal). more ›

More on that student prank gone horribly wrong: The Daily News has it that seniors at the Brooklyn School for Global Studies who served their teachers cake laced with laxatives got the idea from watching MTV’s prank-reenactment show High School Stories. Two teachers ended up in the emergency room last week after eating the tainted cake, which was prepared by a straight-A student and her two friends, and ultimately sickened a grand total of two crossing guards, a social worker and three teachers. more ›

Teachers at the Brooklyn School for Global Studies in Boerum Hill were on the receiving end of a student prank that resulted in arrests and hospitalizations last week. When three seniors at the high school offered their teachers some slices of homemade cake, nobody suspected the students, which included a straight-A student, of filling the baked goods with laxatives as a zany end-of-the-year gag. more ›

There is growing speculation that 83-year-old actor Paul Newman is battling lung cancer. According to LA Times blog The Dish Rag, Newman is receiving outpatient treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. Rumors about Newman’s ill health have escalated since last week, when Martha Stewart published the above photo on her website, depicting a frail Newman attending a benefit for his Hole in the Wall Gang summer camp for children with cancer and other serious illnesses. more ›

Passover, which begins tomorrow night, never passes by without a surge in emergency room traffic, according to one area physician. Dr. Tucker Woods, chairman at Long Island College Hospital’s emergency department, tells the Post he sees “an uptick in total patient volume during Passover.” more ›

The California based Westland/Hallmark Meat Company is recalling all its raw and frozen beef products distributed since Feb. 1, 2006 – a total of 143 million pounds of ground beef. The largest beef recall in history was announced after an undercover Humane Society video showed workers kicking sick cows, jabbing them in the eyes and using forklifts to force them to walk to slaughter. (See the video here.) more ›