Health beat.

• Position: Flu vaccines; career change; study of ethnicity thru mouth bacteria

"Vaccination is the single best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family from getting the flu," says Jeffrey Kahn, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas. "Infants younger than six months and those with some preexisting conditions can't get the vaccination themselves, so having others in the household get vaccinated makes a big difference." Kahn, also a pediatrician at Children's Medical Center, recommends washing hands with warm water for least 15 seconds to kill germs, which can be found on hotspots such as doorknobs, keyboards, cell phones, and in handshakes.

With strong job growth and above-average salary potential, nurse practitioner, civil engineer, health educator, and accountant are among 20 top jobs for 2015, as determined by Schools.com in its analysis of smart moves for career changers. The featured careers all meet specific criteria for job growth, salary potential, and educational requirements, and were selected using a matching system that emphasized the personality traits and skills of aspiring professionals. Americans between 18-46 change jobs, on average, at least 10 times during that period in their lives.

The bacteria in the human mouth--particularly those nestled under the gums---are as powerful as a fingerprint at identifying a person's ethnicity, research at Ohio State University, Columbus, shows. Scientists identified a total of almost 400 species of microbes in the mouths of 100 study participants belonging to four ethnic affiliations: non-Hispanic blacks, whites, Chinese, and Latinos. Researchers found that each ethnic group is represented by a "signature" of shared microbial communities. "This is the first time it has been shown that ethnicity is a huge component in determining what you carry in your mouth," notes Purnima Kumar, associate professor of periodontology.

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