Today's Health/Science: shorebird squeeze, testing HIV, medicating children, sleep scientist

The populations of nearly all of North America's 55 shorebird species are declining - including most of the 35 that spend time in New England - in large part because of disturbance to their beachfront habitats. Every flap of their wings to evade beach walkers, all-terrain vehicles, or dogs depletes more of the energy they need for long flights, leading to lower reproductive success and even death, specialists said.

As faster, easier HIV screening methods have grown in popularity, AIDS specialists have confronted a trade-off that sometimes leaves them uneasy: In the pursuit of screening as many people as possible, is it acceptable to tell a small number they might have the virus when they really don't?

Some of the drugs children take are essential, but physicians are increasingly putting young children on multiple medications that often are taken for weeks or months - sometimes years - and that's cause for concern.

Dr. Charles Czeisler (left), who heads the sleep medicine divisions at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, wears many hats when it comes to what he calls our "cultural sleep disorder."

Also, do the new asthma inhalers work as well as the old ones and is it true that fortified breakfast cereals have real iron in them?