Thousands of ducks were recently culled on some farms in the central Netherlands, while more than 1,500 were destroyed in the southwestern state of Karnataka in India as authorities are struggling to contain avian flu.

Dutch officials culled 190,000 ducks last Saturday, after the highly pathogenic H5N8 virus was detected and inspectors confirmed the existence of a highly infectious strain of bird flu at a farm in Biddinghuizen, roughly 43 miles west of Amsterdam.

Possibly offering a new method to track health and fitness, Northwestern University researchers have developed a skin patch that can test sweat droplets during exercise and relay results to their the user's smartphone.

Led by John Rogers of Northwestern University's Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics, the researchers said they created the first of its kind skin patch because sweat contain biochemical components that can provide information about physiological health.

Low-income Americans who rely on subsidized health care services under the federal government's Affordable Care Act (ACA) are now worried due to potential Medicaid cutbacks.

Medicaid allowed people like Freida Lockaby, an unemployed 56-year-old woman from Manchester, Kentucky, to get health care under the state-federal insurance program for free. It allowed her to get free treatment for a thyroid as well as eye disorders. She called the program a "godsend" to her.

Fewer people are dying young from preventable causes of death in the United States but heart disease remains at the top of the list of most probable killers, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said.

The federal agency named heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases like asthma, and accidents, as the five leading causes of death among U.S. people under age 80 in 2014.

Nearly 66 per cent of deaths in the country were caused by the aforementioned diseases or conditions. The federal agency also noted that several of those deaths were preventable.