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Honeybee colonies in the United States are projected to decline by up to 70% in 2025, entomologists at Washington State University said Tuesday. The university said in a news release that in the past decade, honeybee colony losses have averaged 40% to 50% annually. But this year, a combination of nutrition deficiencies, mite infestations, viral diseases and possible pesticide exposure during the previous pollinating season led to higher losses, the release said. The implications could be huge. About 35% of the world’s food depends on pollinators, according to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. (Lavietes, 3/26)

US flu indicators declined for the sixth week in a row, but levels remain elevated nationally, and activity is expected to continue for the next several weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest weekly update. Nationally, the percentage of outpatient visits for flulike illness, at 3.3%, remains above the national baseline for the seventeenth consecutive week, but five areas of the country are now below their regional baselines. (Schnirring, 3/28)

Bird flu wasn’t on Tim Hanson’s mind when he fed his cats specialty pet food containing raw chicken. “You go to the pet shop and it was the premium raw food,” he said. “It was finely ground to a consistency that I thought was beneficial to my cats.” But in early February, one of his cats, Kira, developed a fever and stopped eating. A test ordered by a veterinarian came back positive for bird flu. Within days, Kira’s condition had deteriorated — she became lethargic and had trouble breathing. After several trips to the vet and emergency room in Portland, Oregon, where Hanson lives, he made the painful decision to put Kira down.  (Bendix, 3/30)

Need another reason to prioritize your sleep? Not spending enough time in the two deep stages of sleep — slow-wave and rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep — may hasten the deterioration of parts of the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a new study found. (LaMotte, 3/31)

Sleep specialists have long warned of the hazards of bringing smartphones into the bedroom. Now, research has confirmed just how damaging that habit can be. The new study, which surveyed more than 45,000 university students in Norway, found that late-night screen was associated with a significant reduction in sleep quality and duration. (Fleur Afshar, 3/31)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Readers Shop For Nutritional Information And Weigh Radiation And Cancer Risks 

�鶹Ů�� Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (3/31)

From 2009 to 2019, avoidable mortality increased by an average of 33 deaths per 100,000 people across the United States, according to an article published in JAMA last week. In the same decade that avoidable deaths increased in the United States, they dropped by an average of nearly 23 deaths per 100,000 across all other countries in the study. Among countries in the European Union, there was an average decrease of 25 avoidable deaths per 100,000 people from 2009 to 2019. (McMahan, 3/31)

A government-sponsored junk food ban in schools across Mexico took effect on Saturday, officials said, as the country tries to tackle one of the world’s worst obesity and diabetes epidemics. The health guidelines, first published last fall, take a direct shot at salty and sweet processed products that have become a staple for generations of Mexican schoolchildren, such as sugary fruit drinks, packaged chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, chili-flavored peanuts. (3/29)