WASHINGTON — While some health officials laud the Prevention and Public Health Fund as the nation’s best chance of funneling resources into chronic-disease prevention, it is not clear that the fund can survive deficit-reduction efforts unless it can quickly prove a return on investment.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the flu virus that killed 50 million people worldwide in 1918 “circulated silently” at least four months before the 1918 influenza reached pandemic levels in the fall.

A model created by NIH researchers challenges some commonly held diet beliefs, including that eating 3,500 fewer calories, or burning them through exercise, always results in a pound of weight loss.

WASHINGTON — Veterans have difficulty understanding the procedures through which they appeal VA decisions on their benefits, and time-saving measures put in place by VA have done little to improve the review process, according to a recent government report.

WASHINGTON — The partnership between VA and U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has gotten veterans nationwide involved in adaptive sports as a further step in rehabilitation and to better re-enter society after a grievous physical injury.

The war against overuse of antibiotics and the resulting resistant infections is constantly being fought at the VA.

With responsibility for treating diabetes in more than a million veterans in its primary-care population, VA is at the leading edge of care for the metabolic disease.

SILVER SPRING, MD — VA is not immune to the effects of drug shortages, and even small problems in the drug pipeline can have serious effects on the department’s ability to get the right pharmaceutical to the right patient, VA officials said at a recent public hearing.

WASHINGTON — Unemployment among veterans is higher than the civilian sector, as servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have a difficult time finding a place in the work force. This has legislators attempting to understand the root causes of the problem and VA putting resources behind innovative ideas on how to solve it.

WASHINGTON — Gulf War veterans continue to demonstrate blood brain flow abnormalities even 20 years after the war and, in some cases, have gotten worse, according to researchers at the University of Texas. This comes when funding for Gulf War illnesses is in danger of shrinking, as Congress looks to cut the federal budget.