More than four million new HIV infections could be prevented in Eastern and Southern Africa by 2025 if male circumcision rates were increased to 80%.
South Africa is considering rolling out use of a vaginal gel which can protect women against HIV before it is officially licensed by drug regulators.
It might have been better for the environment to have done nothing about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico except to keep the oil out at sea.
An international collaboration by major research bodies wants to take the fruits of the genetic revolution to a continent it has largely bypassed.
Nurses are as good as doctors at monitoring treatment for Aids patients, and shifting this role to them could help ease a shortage of health workers.
Babies born just one or two weeks before their 40-week gestation due date are more likely to develop learning difficulties such as autism or dyslexia.
Genetic differences have a limited role in causing breast cancer and work independently of lifestyle factors such as weight, diet and breastfeeding.
Governments around the world could save huge health costs and avert millions of early deaths if they introduced laws to cut salt levels in food.
An effort to develop a vaccine triggered by human sweat was among 78 science projects backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Weight-loss surgery should only be used in the most severely obese of children, and then only with extreme caution due to the risks.