Today's Globe: Charlestown heroin, SCHIP veto, cholesterol drop, stem cells in muscular dystrophy, vaccine recall

Shannon Lundin of Charlestown said that when she was on
heroin, she didn't have time for her daughter, Laneigh.
(Globe Staff / Yoon S. Byun)

At first, there were only whispers. Mourners would gather in Charlestown's churches for funerals of the young, nodding solemnly - and knowingly - when told the family had a history of heart problems. In truth, it was another death by heroin. Starting in 2003, as the drug seeped across the neighborhood, it caused dozens of overdoses, devastating hundreds of families. But amid a massive effort that began in 2004, drug overdoses in Charlestown have plummeted by two-thirds this year compared with 2003.

President Bush vetoed legislation yesterday that would have expanded government-provided health insurance for children, his second slap-down of a bipartisan effort in Congress to dramatically increase funding for the popular program.

Americans may be too fat, but at least their cholesterol is low. For the first time in nearly 50 years, the average cholesterol level for US adults is in the ideal range, the government reported yesterday.

Scientists eased symptoms of muscular dystrophy in mice by injecting modified stem cells from human patients, a preliminary result that raises hopes for treating patients with tissue from their own bodies.

More than a million doses of a common vaccine given to babies as young as 2 months were being recalled yesterday because of contamination risks, but the top US health official said it was not a health threat.