Mayor Karen Weaver was responding to a letter sent on Friday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that said the city had failed to demonstrate it had an “adequate number of qualified personnel” to ensure safe drinking water. “To the claims about qualified personnel, Mayor Weaver looks forward to working with the EPA and the state and federal governments to build the additional capacity needed for Flint to comply with all state and federal rules for safe drinking water,” Kristin Moore, a city spokeswoman, said in an email.

(Reuters) – Drug developer Zafgen Inc said on Thursday that its drug to treat obesity in diabetic patients met the main goal of reducing body weight. Patients given 1.8 mg and 1.2 mg doses of the drug, beloranib, experienced 12.7 and 13.5 percent reduction in body weight, respectively. The results were from trials conducted before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked Zafgen to halt all tests on the drug in December after a second patient died from an artery blockage in the lung during a trial.

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Elderly patients hospitalized for cancer surgery are more likely to have complications afterward compared to the middle-aged, particularly when they have several other health problems, a U.S. study suggests. Overall, almost one in 10 adults age 55 and older had at least one post-operative issue like delirium, dehydration, falls, fractures, pressure ulcers or unusual weight loss, the study of nearly 1 million cancer surgery patients found. “With the population aging, it’s becoming increasingly important to consider not only the survival benefits of cancer surgery but the impact on functionality, vitality and quality of life,” said lead study author Dr. Hung-Jui Tan, a researcher in urologic oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nearly one million children across eastern and southern Africa are suffering from “severe acute malnutrition” after two years of drought and the strongest El Nino in 50 years, UNICEF said Wednesday. Children in the region face food and water shortages, with rising prices worsening the situation as families are forced to skip meals and sell belongings. “Severe acute malnutrition” is defined as extreme hunger, causing a very low weight-for-height ratio, visible wasting or fluid retention.