TUESDAY, Jan. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Due to slower spending on prescription drugs, health-care spending in the United States grew at the lowest rate in a decade in 2007, a new federal report found.

Health care continued to take up a greater share of the economy in 2007, as spending on hospitals, doctors and other services increased 6.1 percent to $2.2 trillion.

A Vietnamese girl has tested positive for bird flu, health officials said Tuesday, in the first reported human case of the deadly virus in the Southeast Asian country since early last year.

Spending on health care slowed slightly in 2007 as consumers turned more to generic drugs instead of brand-names to fill their medicine cabinets, the government reported Monday.

National health spending grew in 2007 at the lowest rate in nine years, mainly because prescription drug spending increased at the slowest pace since 1963.

Hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc. said Monday it and Texas Health Resources are in the process of settling a lawsuit against Triad Denton Hospital over a Texas facility.

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Health-care spending in the U.S. grew the least since 1998, driven by the slowest rise in retail drug purchases in more than four decades.

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Steve Jobs ’s efforts to reassure Apple Inc. ’s followers about his health left some investors with more questions than answers.