The Waterbury community is mourning the loss of a middle school teacher who family said died of the flu. Waterbury Public Schools officials confirmed Harley Gaafar died late Tuesday afternoon and said they were “devastated” by her passing. Gaafar taught ESL at West Side Middle School and was well-liked by her students, district officials said. There will be social workers…

A young child in Connecticut has died from the flu, according to the state Department of Health. Nine people, including a child between a year old and 5 years, old, died of flu-related illnesses during the week from Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, according to the state Department of Health report. This is the first pediatric flu death in Connecticut…

Two Maine schools were closed on Monday after significant numbers of students and staff contracted the flu. Edna Libby Elementary School in Standish and Sanford Christian Academy in Sanford had staff in classrooms cleaning instead of students learning. “It’s unusual, for me, it’s the first time I had to do it,” said Paul Penna, superintendent of MSAD 6, which...

Two schools in Maine have closed due to outbreaks of the flu among staff and students.

Health officials confirmed the first flu-related pediatric death of the season in Massachusetts on Thursday. The state Department of Public Health said the child was a teenager who lived in Worcester County and tested positive for influenza B. “I feel immense sorrow for the family of this child. This is a tragic reminder of how serious the flu can be…

Health officials confirmed the first flu-related pediatric death of the season in Massachusetts on Thursday.

An influx of patients reporting flu-like symptoms is overcrowding emergency rooms in Boston and across the region, forcing doctors to issue a plea to the public. Doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital said its emergency department has been inundated with patients potentially infected with the flu, which often leads to longer wait times and sometimes forces doctors to treat...

The U.S. winter flu season is off to its earliest start in more than 15 years. An early barrage of illness in the South has begun to spread more broadly, and there’s a decent chance flu season could peak much earlier than normal, health officials say. The last flu season to rev up this early was in 2003-2004 — a…

Hanley Ramirez and Mookie Betts are out of the Boston lineup Friday because of a flu bug that has hit the Red Sox hard in this first week of the season.

Ten people at an Oklahoma care facility for people with intellectual disabilities were hospitalized after they were apparently accidentally injected with what’s believed to be insulin rather than flu shots, authorities said. Emergency responders were called Wednesday afternoon to the Jacquelyn House in Bartlesville, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Tulsa, on a report of an unresponsive person and...

Facebook is now going to start reminding you when to get a medical checkup. The company is rolling out a tool to remind its users in the U.S., based on demographic factors such as age and gender, to get a screening or health test. The company is making this move, according to Freddy Abnousi, a cardiologist who runs Facebook’s health...

As vaping-related illnesses continue to rise, health officials are warning that vape users could be more susceptible to the flu.

The director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention says early indicators show it could be a tough flu season in the state and beyond. The flu season lasts from October to May, and typically peaks in the winter months. Maine CDC director Nirav Shah says the severity of flu season in Australia could indicate the U.S. is...

Worried about your kid at college? Nurse Barb Dehn has an emergency kit for your child which will put your mind at ease.

Fairfax County health officials said they don’t yet have a cause of the respiratory illness that sicked more than 60 residents at a Northern Virginia senior living community.

The acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection resigned Tuesday amid an uproar over the discovery of migrant children being held in pitiful conditions at one of the agency’s stations in Texas. Acting Commissioner John Sanders’ departure deepened the sense of crisis and added to the rapid turnover inside the agencies responsible for enforcing President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration...

The acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection resigned Tuesday amid an uproar over the discovery of migrant children being held in pitiful conditions at one of the agency’s stations in Texas. Acting Commissioner John Sanders’ departure deepened the sense of crisis and added to the rapid turnover inside the agencies responsible for enforcing President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration...

One new flu-associated death has been reported in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Health.

Massachusetts health officials say a teenager has died from an influenza-related illness. The Department of Public Health said the teenage boy, a resident of Middlesex County, has been confirmed as the fourth flu-associated pediatric death of the flu season. A 4-year-old girl from Lowell, a 4-year-old girl from Framingham and a 12-year-old boy from Milford succumbed to the illness in...

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen insisted Wednesday the crisis at the southern border is not manufactured, as she faced questions from Democrats for the first time since they took control of the House. “We face a crisis_a real, serious, and sustained crisis at our borders,” she said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. “Make no mistake: this chain of...